First Night To Debut Visual Arts Tableau In Park

 Are there enough visual arts in the First Night Chatham celebration?

First Night Chatham, founded in 1991, was conceived as a festival of the visual and performing arts. And yet Marie Williams, the event's original founder, recently began to think that "there are a lot of performing arts and not much visual."

 Williams is not one to let a challenge go unmet. She was intrigued by the idea of adding an art installation of sorts to the New Year’s Eve celebration, and it seemed to her that something could be done in Kate Gould Park. 

"It seemed like the logical place," she said. Nearly a year later, the result will be a visual art tableau, created by a community of volunteers, artists, schools and businesses to re-imagine this year's theme, Celebrate Together. 

 Key to the effort were the student artists at Monomoy High School and Cape Tech. Williams reached out to Monomoy High art teacher Jeremiah Nickerson for ideas. His Intro to Sculpture students, from eighth to twelfth graders, were creating "Tape People" by casting themselves with packing tape. While one student models, another wraps them up with tape, first with the sticky side out and then with it in to form a double layer. The final result is a model of the artist. 

"We tape them up one limb at a time, then carefully cut it off and tape it back together,” Nickerson said. “The people come together sort of like Frankenstein's monster!" 

 He agreed to participate in the project, and the students were instructed to "create sculptures that represent guests who are at a dinner party." And then they really got into it. 

"They've added a variety of colored cellophane and embellished the figures with top hats, coats and other things," Nickerson noted. "It's been a lot of fun watching them figure it out!" 

 Williams also approached Cape Tech art teacher Jenn Reed. The space being used for the tableau in Kate Gould Park includes the first tree on the left, a tree with four big trunks that is 140 inches in diameter. Reed is "always looking for ways to get my students involved in the community," she wrote, and was excited to be asked. 

 She always does a portrait unit with her freshman students. After brainstorming with Williams about what might work, they came up with the idea of the students creating cardboard portraits with 3D features, texture and expression. The portraits would be sealed with ModPodge to hold up outside. 

"They turned out so great," Reed noted recently. Having a multitude of these faces in the trees would be a great addition to the celebration, Williams agreed. Five five-by-eight-foot silver frames, donated by Cape Associates and linked in a semicircle, serve as a backdrop to the tableau. At the rear of each frame are seven strands of fishing wire, each one hung with 13 or 14 CDs, reflecting light as they move.

 In addition to the artwork, the display needed chairs and tables for the party, and Williams turned to the community again, snagging orange folding chairs which were being given away by the Creative Arts Center and borrowing tables from Chatham Perk. 

 Set up of the display will take place on Dec. 29 and 30, and Williams and her small committee will be happy to get some help. 

"Anyone is welcome to come out and help. We need younger bodies," she said with a laugh.

 The display is designed to be interactive. 

"We expect people to walk around and look," she said. A group of movable picture frames, labelled First Night Chatham, will also be on hand for visitors to use to become part of the celebration as they take selfies or group photos.

 "I hope people enjoy it and appreciate the different things you can do with art," Williams said. She was thankful for the community support and grateful for a grant from the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod which helped to cover supplies like paint and electric cords.

 After working on the project for nearly a year, Williams is happy to see it come to fruition. 

"I hope it's a tradition to continue," she said. "This is such a great arts community. And I have a wealth of ideas for the future!" 

 The Visual Art Tableau will be in Kate Gould Park from noon until dusk on Dec. 31 and does not require a First Night button.