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Public arts project officially a go

Selectboard approves contract for ‘From the River, To the River’ project

BRATTLEBORO — The Selectboard has approved the contract with three artists involved in the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Our Town place-making grant.

Artists Andrea Wasserman, Elizabeth Billings, and Evie Lovett will produce the arts installation over the winter and spring, with the project completed by the beginning of July.

On Oct. 6, the board formally selected their project “From the River, To the River” after two rounds of screening.

The federal NEA grant, plus private donations, total $56,000.

In the first round, a volunteer screening committee reduced the pool of applications to 13. A selection committee followed and reviewed the 13 semi-finalist projects before recommending From the River, To the River to the board.

The artistic team designed “From the River, To the River” to reconnect the community to the Connecticut River. The project includes work in two areas of town.

Near the former Archery Building on Depot Street, work includes clearing limited amounts of vegetation to open views of the river, installing granite benches, and hanging a photograph of community members on the building's exterior wall.

At the Transportation Center on Flat Street, the artists will host a video installation and attach to the side of the parking structure a “river wall” of reflective disks to mimic the flow of water.

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