January 30, 2006
ART OF THE GAME, A TWO YEAR BASEBALL/ART PROJECT ANNOUNCED
PITTSFIELD, MA. At the Skydome Golf Center in
Pittsfield’s Clocktower Building at 11:30 this morning a
special committee gathered to greet the press, artists,
businessmen and friends and formally announce the beginning
of a two year public art project for the City of Pittsfield
and for Berkshire County. For the first time public, private
and city administration groups have come together to create
a long-term Art and History project for the City. The union
of the city’s Artscape Committee, the Berkshire Art
Association, Downtown, Inc., and First Home Plate will
result in the creation of two years of art installations,
demonstrations, games and projects of all types designed to
celebrate Pittsfield’s unique Baseball history.
The new project, ART OF THE GAME (AOTG), will
celebrate the creativity of our region’s artists, citizens
and schools with baseball-themed art, summer art shows, ball
games, and performances. It will transform Pittsfield’s
downtown streets into a baseball playground of sights and
sounds and attract visitors from near and far to experience
our baseball heritage. This will invigorate the City of
Pittsfield’s already growing economy, uniting the region’s
cultural, business, educational and sports communities.
AOTG has started with a committee consisting of some
familiar faces on the Pittsfield art scene, some equally
familiar faces from the world of sports and a few new faces
as well. Co-Chaired by Mary Rentz (President, Berkshire Art
Association) who chaired Sheeptacular Pittsfield two years
ago and Brian Johnson (co-founder FIRST HOME PLATE), the
committee currently consists of Phillip Massery (co-Founder,
FIRST HOME PLATE), John Broderick (Creative Director,
Berkshire Life Insurance), Stuart Chase (Director, The
Berkshire Museum), Sheila Chefetz (Trustee, The Berkshire
Museum) Charles “Chuck” Garivaltis (Pittsfield Parks
Commission), Ann Claffie (Berkshire Visitors Bureau), Tricia
Farley-Bouvier (Pittsfield City Councilor), Carolyn S. Koch
and Albert “Rick” Koch, Ronald B. Latham (Director,
Berkshire Athenaeum), James R. McGrath (Director of
Community Services, Pittsfield Parks Department), Laurie
Mick (Streetscape, Community Development Specialist), Rick
Murphy (COO, Pittsfield Dukes), Heidi Orth (Legacy Banks),
Yvonne Pearson (Director, Downtown, Inc.), Normalyn Powers
(Director, Pittsfield RSVP), Megan Whilden (Director, Office
of Cultural Development), and Jeff Winslow (Owner, Wild
Sage). And not insignificantly Pittsfield’s Mayor, James M.
Ruberto, who is bubbling over with creative ideas for the
project, is serving as Honorary Co-Chair.
“The BAA got involved because we were excited about
helping with a national contest for a permanent monument for
our 1791 history with the sport. Regional artists could be
involved and that led to saying let’s do a followup to
Sheeptacular, but rather than have artists paint an object,
the schools are doing it. This gives an opportunity to
regional artists to create works from scratch with much
greater freedom to create.”
Mary Rentz, President, BAA
There are five major components of this project.
< The current schedule calls for artists to be sought
this winter to create three-dimensional Baseball-themed art
installations, including benches and sculptures and visual
art constructions involving light, sound and other media
which will be created by artists, judged anonymously by a
panel of art experts, and set into their places by the
beginning of Summer 2006 along with new works from the
Streetscape and Artscape committees. The chosen artists will
receive a $1,000 honorarium for their work and the
development plan for AOTG includes purchase prizes in
order to keep some of these works on permanent display in
the city. A Call to Artists will be formally announced this
Friday, February 3 in the media and on the new AOTG
website: www.artgamepittsfield.org.
< The second phase of the plan for AOTG is
“Windows On Baseball,” an ongoing display of two and
three dimensional art and memorabilia focusing on
Pittsfield’s specific baseball history. Again juried, this
exhibit will be visible throughout the city in storefront
windows, restaurants, City Hall, and any other available
spaces. A constantly changing exhibit, with sales encouraged
but not mandatory, the thoroughfare gallery is expected to
attract attention from collectors and visitors alike. The
committee hopes to begin displaying the selected works in
late April. Thirty percent of any sales from this show will
be retained by the committee for future AOTG events,
the balance paid to the artists or owners of the sold works
or art.
“Baseball is an American icon and I just think that when
you think of history and culture and art and baseball the
commonality is Pittsfield. It affects the whole area, all of
Berkshire County has this history, and when you look at all
the people who come here all the year its not just one
interest that brings them here. They cross one another all
the time. Art is in Baseball and baseball is in art. I think
it’s all just one great project, one great passion. And
everyone is just vibrant with it.”
Brian Johnson, Co-Chair, Art Of The Game
< The third phase, ongoing and concurrent with the first
two planned art exhibits, is the school/youth project. The
goal is to place one hundred (100) painted and decorated
three dimensional baseball mitts, approximately thirty
inches by thirty inches, throughout the downtown of
Pittsfield. Mitts and $100 for the purchase of art supplies
will be given to the schools in Pittsfield, and anywhere in
Berkshire County that will participate, with a deadline for
delivery of the completed mitts of mid-May.
The first full exhibit will open on June 17 with a
city-wide party and celebration.
< At the same time the committee will begin to plan for
the national and international search for an artist to
create the permanent “First Home Plate” statue which will
eventually be installed on Park Square in the summer of
2007. Envisioned as a three figure sculpture entitled
“Ball,” “Bat,” and “Glove,” dressed in 1791 garb but
handling contemporary equipment, the sculpture will
permanently memorialize the 1791 town ordinance banning
Baseball from being played within 80 meters of the new town
hall, a measure designed to preserve the new buildings
expensive windows, the first documented mention of the sport
in America.
“The fact is that baseball was developed in the city of
Pittsfield and the fact is we will be talked about all over
the world once we make this fact known. The only place in
the world that can host a monument to the ‘first home plate’
is Pittsfield.”
Phillip Massery, Originator, First Home Plate
< This new committee will also be coordinating and
organizing this summer’s Pittsfield ArtShow, scheduled for
the weekend of July 29-30. Seventy-five juried artists and
fine art artisans will be showcased during the weekend-long
outdoor, tent event. A rain date has been set for the
following weekend, August 5-6.
Art Of The Game is currently actively seeking the
financial support it needs to implement every level of this
project. Legacy Banks Foundation has already stepped
up to the plate as a Diamond Underwriter, pledging
$40,000 in cash support over the two year term of the
project. Other levels of support include the Grand Slam
at $25,000, Pitching Ace at $15,000, Gold Glove
at $8,000, Base Hit at $2,500, Player at
$500 and Fan for all donations under $250. Along with
the Call to Artists, a formal Call for Sponsors will be
issued this Friday as well, although other sponsors have
already been approached at several levels. GreatBigStuff.com
has given a Gold Glove gift with a special ‘at-cost’
arrangement for their glove chairs as part of the Schools
Project. ArtScape and the Berkshire Art Association have
made major monetary gifts to Art Of The Game.
Mayor Ruberto has gone on record in the past referring to
Pittsfield as “Baseball’s Garden of Eden.” Art Of The
Game is about to make that garden grow!
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For additional information contact:
J. Peter Bergman, Director of Press at 413-443-5631.
