November 9, 2024 • 11 mins
We spoke with Executive Director Matt Conway about Rise Up for Arts and Urban space in Hartford.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. My
guest this morning, director of Field Operations at Frontier Communications,
Joe Fariolo, Executive director of Rise Up Matt Conway, and
Magic Mural curator and choreographer at Rise Up for Arts
Carolyn Payin. Good morning, morning. Tell me about Rise Up Arts.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
So, Rise Up is a not for profit based in
Connecticut and our mission is to empower communities to imagine
new possibilities through public art, education and placemaking. And we've
created over three hundred creative public art projects across the
state from Stanford up to up to Putnam, Connecticut, working
(00:44):
with hundreds of artists thousands of community members to make
this public art or reality here in Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
It's wonderful. So you have magic murals now.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, so, Magic Mural Art Wall is our latest initiati
to kind of take you know, what a lot of
people think of public art, being static painted murals to
a digital form and being able to highlight hundreds of
artists on the Frontier Building in downtown Hartford next week,
being able to project up there and being able to
(01:17):
rotate the artwork out and be able to have digital
art and still are and animated art and really highlighting
the arts and culture scene here in Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
So who is creating the murals? People of all ages?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yeah, So we put an open call out and we've
been getting submissions from students, you know, all the way
up to world class artists who do this for a living.
We have a submission from Australia, even from an artist.
So this is really kind of taken legs beyond our borders,
which I think is really exciting to be able to
(01:52):
bring all this into Hartford.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
So how did you choose which murals you'd like to use?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:58):
We so exciting to get in so many submissions, like
Matt said, from all over the world. We have artists
from France, from China, from Australia, Israel, and then artists
from right here in Connecticut and artists of all ages.
We opened it up to students, so we have art
students as young as six all the way through senior
citizen art students from a program. And really our goal
(02:21):
was to use as much as was submitted as possible,
so everyone who submitted is having at least one of
their pieces part of this. And the true curation process
just came in grouping the arts together into different blocks,
so that you have when you're watching these three minute
blocks of arts scrolling through, there are, like Matt said,
(02:42):
digital video artists, photography, painting, abstract landscapes, photography, just a
little bit of everything. So it will truly feel like
you're getting to kind of wander through a museum, but
the museum is just floating there up in the sky
on the building above you, and you're going to get
to see all sorts of different kinds of art, and
(03:05):
it's very vibrant and colorful. And then in between all
of the different arts, we filmed special for this project,
a really unique dance piece where we have seven professional
dancers who are dressed like little painters and they're swinging
on aerial wires and scooting on scooters with an aerial
(03:26):
camera shot. So these look like these little painters that
are painting these murals and revealing them. So the whole
project then takes on this life where it's not just
presenting visual arts of all kinds, but performing arts.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I know you've mentioned landscapes and what kind of art
we're going to say, but give me just a little
sneak pick, like maybe a lady bug I don't know,
like is there going to be a dolphin or a
picture of children, just something.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
So one of one of the things that we did
put together in a block. Some of the blocks are
what I call a potpourri of different kinds of art.
But but we do have one that focuses on artists
who were inspired by underwater and ocean landscape. So we
have not just you know, a view of the ocean,
but underwater like sea turtles and sea life. So we
(04:15):
have this really fun underwater section that I think that
that there are some really pretty pieces in that. I mean,
the ocean is so inspiring anyway, but there are some
very cool pieces within that. And then I think as
far as my other favorite among the submissions, where there
were so many incredible portraits that were mixed media and collage,
(04:38):
just really depicting faces some you know, some ones where
you have like a mural of Malala, and then you
also just have people painting murals of people in their
lives or photos of people. So I think that that's
really beautiful when you see these like large faces really
inviting you in those are I think among some of
(04:59):
my face as well.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
It must have been very emotional for you to see
all of the pictures that people gave to you, it
must be so beautiful.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah, And you know, one of the I think really
special pieces about this when you talk about emotion and
you know what goes into it. There is going to
be a section in this dedicated to Dow Labossier, who
is a Connecticut Hertford based artists who recently unexpectedly passed
away during the summer.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
So we want this to be emotional.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
And this is such an incredible platform and canvas that
Frontier has given us to be able to highlight.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
The local artists and celebrate their lives.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So Frontier is the community partner. Why did Frontier become
involved with Magic Murals.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Well, a number of different reasons. It's certainly it's consistent
with our corporate focus of connecting our communities and being
a good corporate partner. And we've got a long history
of celebrating the arts ever since our existence was created.
And more importantly, now the building is the center and
Hartford of our Network Operations Center, so we're truly able
(06:08):
to connect the arts to our technology in such a
way that really is kind of poetic for us. And
you know, and more importantly, indicative of what we're doing
now with the fiber build that we've had here in
Connecticut and our ability to connect communities that have typically
been underserved. So the mayor had come to us with
an opportunity and with something to do something with our building.
Matt had been looking at this building for a while
(06:30):
and we were very super proud to be able to
put it all together and really create an opportunity that
we hope will stand some time and we can bring
other folks in to help support it and whatnot. But
we're excited to do it. We're looking forward to the
unveiling on the thirteenth and it's going to be it'll
be fun.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
How did you make the vision come to life?
Speaker 5 (06:48):
Well, I think the vision was Matt and the vision
was the Mayor. We've got this super big canvas and
the building is designed specifically without windows because it does
have our network operations in it, so it really focused
as well. It's like going to a big drive in
theater with a big screen and you can see it
from eighty four and from Bushnell Park where we're going
to be kicking this thing off, and it really made sense.
(07:11):
So when they came to us and said, can you
help us, And the mayor is like, this is a
part of town that we're trying to reactivate and engage.
You know, we've got the Civic Center right across the
street from us. You know, We've got you know, we're
right really in the middle of it, and it just
made a lot of sense for us to partner with
everybody and pull us together. And especially as important as
it is for the community to be able to celebrate
(07:31):
the artists and bring them together, and to connect our
technology to the arts in such a way that's ever
been done before. This is an absolutely innovative opportunity and
the cutting edge technology that's going to be behind it
to drive it just made all the sense in the
world to really bring it all together and really celebrate
all of it.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
So the image that I'm getting is when I go
to Disney World and at night they put all of
the images on, you're shaking your heads, yes, yes, so,
and then there's a light show on lasers or whatever.
Is it only some hours at night.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, it's gonna be at night.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
And we chose this time frame for daylight after daylight savings,
so we'd you know, really have the most amount of
night time to project it. So we're going to be
starting at six pm.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Every night with the show.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
On next Wednesday, we'll be starting at five point thirty
with some words from the Governor and mayor to really
kick us off, and then yeah, we'll be there for
three nights and really great viewing point is by the
carousel at Bushnell Park, so you have a really good
(08:37):
viewing spot, you know, over there, and Thursday and Friday
night we'll also have some live music and DJs over
in that location for the public to come out and enjoy.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Just watching that is so fantastic. Are you in need
of volunteers or donations?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Always in need of volunteers and donations, you know, this
is something that we're piloting for for three days, but
this type of bringing this type of activation long term
to the state and really helping us catch up in
advance when it comes to public art and how to
use technology for public art. It's really going to uh,
(09:17):
we really need a lot more you know, money for
that long term, and like Joe said, you know there's
other partners that we're you know talking to that can
hopefully help support that, but really looking to the heart
for business community, Uh, to step up and make this
a fixture in our city and for our state.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
So yeah, So Fritzira was excited to partner and be
out front for this, and we also want to be
out front to reaching out to our corporate partners and
neighbors to participate in with this so we can do
something like this on a longer term basis. So I
want to take this opportunity to appeal to our partners
and our neighbors to come in and join us with
(09:54):
Matt and and continue to do something like this that
will allow us to celebrate in power and more importantly,
engage downtown.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Is there a website or a phone number where can
people go to donate or volunteer.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, you can go to rise Up's website theriseupgroup dot org.
We have a donate link right at the top of
the page, and we'll also have more information we'll be
sharing about this, and if folks go on Facebook and
search Magic Mural Art Wall, the Facebook event will pop
right up and they can follow along there.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
I am so excited. Is it going to be the
same thing each day or are you going to mix
it up each day? Because I don't want to miss
it at all.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Right, So I mean it it is playing in a loop,
but I mean it's the kind of thing where art
plays for a couple of seconds and those dance videos scroll.
There are about sixteen of them that we created of
these transitions. So even if you go and see it
one night, you know you're talking, you're enjoying the crowd,
enjoying the DJ you're going to, You're going to miss
(10:54):
little things and there's so many wonderful pieces to catch.
And you mentioned that it is famously or infamously of
building without windows in the Hartford Skyline. Some of the
submissions are art of windows and to me that was
another one of my favorites to see that we're going
to see windows on the building and there are just
(11:15):
so many things to see and it is kind of
like Disney World where you're really getting to see a
magical experience. Magic Mural is a perfect name for this
because it is capturing that eye popping wonder that you
expect with projection mapping.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Wonderful. I'm speaking with Director of Field Operations at Frontier Communications,
Joe Ferriolo, Executive director of Rise Up, Matt Conway, and
Magic Mural Curator. What a great title I'm a magic
mural curator and choreographer from Rise Up for the Arts
Carolyn Paine, thank you so much for being here, for
(11:52):
all the work that you're doing, especially in the Greater
Hertford area.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Thank you appreciate it.
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. My
guest this morning, director of Field Operations at Frontier Communications,
Joe Fariolo, Executive director of Rise Up Matt Conway, and
Magic Mural curator and choreographer at Rise Up for Arts
Carolyn Payin. Good morning, morning. Tell me about Rise Up Arts.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
So, Rise Up is a not for profit based in
Connecticut and our mission is to empower communities to imagine
new possibilities through public art, education and placemaking. And we've
created over three hundred creative public art projects across the
state from Stanford up to up to Putnam, Connecticut, working
(00:44):
with hundreds of artists thousands of community members to make
this public art or reality here in Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
It's wonderful. So you have magic murals now.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, so, Magic Mural Art Wall is our latest initiati
to kind of take you know, what a lot of
people think of public art, being static painted murals to
a digital form and being able to highlight hundreds of
artists on the Frontier Building in downtown Hartford next week,
being able to project up there and being able to
(01:17):
rotate the artwork out and be able to have digital
art and still are and animated art and really highlighting
the arts and culture scene here in Connecticut.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
So who is creating the murals? People of all ages?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yeah, So we put an open call out and we've
been getting submissions from students, you know, all the way
up to world class artists who do this for a living.
We have a submission from Australia, even from an artist.
So this is really kind of taken legs beyond our borders,
which I think is really exciting to be able to
(01:52):
bring all this into Hartford.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
So how did you choose which murals you'd like to use?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:58):
We so exciting to get in so many submissions, like
Matt said, from all over the world. We have artists
from France, from China, from Australia, Israel, and then artists
from right here in Connecticut and artists of all ages.
We opened it up to students, so we have art
students as young as six all the way through senior
citizen art students from a program. And really our goal
(02:21):
was to use as much as was submitted as possible,
so everyone who submitted is having at least one of
their pieces part of this. And the true curation process
just came in grouping the arts together into different blocks,
so that you have when you're watching these three minute
blocks of arts scrolling through, there are, like Matt said,
(02:42):
digital video artists, photography, painting, abstract landscapes, photography, just a
little bit of everything. So it will truly feel like
you're getting to kind of wander through a museum, but
the museum is just floating there up in the sky
on the building above you, and you're going to get
to see all sorts of different kinds of art, and
(03:05):
it's very vibrant and colorful. And then in between all
of the different arts, we filmed special for this project,
a really unique dance piece where we have seven professional
dancers who are dressed like little painters and they're swinging
on aerial wires and scooting on scooters with an aerial
(03:26):
camera shot. So these look like these little painters that
are painting these murals and revealing them. So the whole
project then takes on this life where it's not just
presenting visual arts of all kinds, but performing arts.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I know you've mentioned landscapes and what kind of art
we're going to say, but give me just a little
sneak pick, like maybe a lady bug I don't know,
like is there going to be a dolphin or a
picture of children, just something.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
So one of one of the things that we did
put together in a block. Some of the blocks are
what I call a potpourri of different kinds of art.
But but we do have one that focuses on artists
who were inspired by underwater and ocean landscape. So we
have not just you know, a view of the ocean,
but underwater like sea turtles and sea life. So we
(04:15):
have this really fun underwater section that I think that
that there are some really pretty pieces in that. I mean,
the ocean is so inspiring anyway, but there are some
very cool pieces within that. And then I think as
far as my other favorite among the submissions, where there
were so many incredible portraits that were mixed media and collage,
(04:38):
just really depicting faces some you know, some ones where
you have like a mural of Malala, and then you
also just have people painting murals of people in their
lives or photos of people. So I think that that's
really beautiful when you see these like large faces really
inviting you in those are I think among some of
(04:59):
my face as well.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
It must have been very emotional for you to see
all of the pictures that people gave to you, it
must be so beautiful.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah, And you know, one of the I think really
special pieces about this when you talk about emotion and
you know what goes into it. There is going to
be a section in this dedicated to Dow Labossier, who
is a Connecticut Hertford based artists who recently unexpectedly passed
away during the summer.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
So we want this to be emotional.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
And this is such an incredible platform and canvas that
Frontier has given us to be able to highlight.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
The local artists and celebrate their lives.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So Frontier is the community partner. Why did Frontier become
involved with Magic Murals.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Well, a number of different reasons. It's certainly it's consistent
with our corporate focus of connecting our communities and being
a good corporate partner. And we've got a long history
of celebrating the arts ever since our existence was created.
And more importantly, now the building is the center and
Hartford of our Network Operations Center, so we're truly able
(06:08):
to connect the arts to our technology in such a
way that really is kind of poetic for us. And
you know, and more importantly, indicative of what we're doing
now with the fiber build that we've had here in
Connecticut and our ability to connect communities that have typically
been underserved. So the mayor had come to us with
an opportunity and with something to do something with our building.
Matt had been looking at this building for a while
(06:30):
and we were very super proud to be able to
put it all together and really create an opportunity that
we hope will stand some time and we can bring
other folks in to help support it and whatnot. But
we're excited to do it. We're looking forward to the
unveiling on the thirteenth and it's going to be it'll
be fun.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
How did you make the vision come to life?
Speaker 5 (06:48):
Well, I think the vision was Matt and the vision
was the Mayor. We've got this super big canvas and
the building is designed specifically without windows because it does
have our network operations in it, so it really focused
as well. It's like going to a big drive in
theater with a big screen and you can see it
from eighty four and from Bushnell Park where we're going
to be kicking this thing off, and it really made sense.
(07:11):
So when they came to us and said, can you
help us, And the mayor is like, this is a
part of town that we're trying to reactivate and engage.
You know, we've got the Civic Center right across the
street from us. You know, We've got you know, we're
right really in the middle of it, and it just
made a lot of sense for us to partner with
everybody and pull us together. And especially as important as
it is for the community to be able to celebrate
(07:31):
the artists and bring them together, and to connect our
technology to the arts in such a way that's ever
been done before. This is an absolutely innovative opportunity and
the cutting edge technology that's going to be behind it
to drive it just made all the sense in the
world to really bring it all together and really celebrate
all of it.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
So the image that I'm getting is when I go
to Disney World and at night they put all of
the images on, you're shaking your heads, yes, yes, so,
and then there's a light show on lasers or whatever.
Is it only some hours at night.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, it's gonna be at night.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
And we chose this time frame for daylight after daylight savings,
so we'd you know, really have the most amount of
night time to project it. So we're going to be
starting at six pm.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Every night with the show.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
On next Wednesday, we'll be starting at five point thirty
with some words from the Governor and mayor to really
kick us off, and then yeah, we'll be there for
three nights and really great viewing point is by the
carousel at Bushnell Park, so you have a really good
(08:37):
viewing spot, you know, over there, and Thursday and Friday
night we'll also have some live music and DJs over
in that location for the public to come out and enjoy.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Just watching that is so fantastic. Are you in need
of volunteers or donations?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Always in need of volunteers and donations, you know, this
is something that we're piloting for for three days, but
this type of bringing this type of activation long term
to the state and really helping us catch up in
advance when it comes to public art and how to
use technology for public art. It's really going to uh,
(09:17):
we really need a lot more you know, money for
that long term, and like Joe said, you know there's
other partners that we're you know talking to that can
hopefully help support that, but really looking to the heart
for business community, Uh, to step up and make this
a fixture in our city and for our state.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
So yeah, So Fritzira was excited to partner and be
out front for this, and we also want to be
out front to reaching out to our corporate partners and
neighbors to participate in with this so we can do
something like this on a longer term basis. So I
want to take this opportunity to appeal to our partners
and our neighbors to come in and join us with
(09:54):
Matt and and continue to do something like this that
will allow us to celebrate in power and more importantly,
engage downtown.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Is there a website or a phone number where can
people go to donate or volunteer.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, you can go to rise Up's website theriseupgroup dot org.
We have a donate link right at the top of
the page, and we'll also have more information we'll be
sharing about this, and if folks go on Facebook and
search Magic Mural Art Wall, the Facebook event will pop
right up and they can follow along there.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
I am so excited. Is it going to be the
same thing each day or are you going to mix
it up each day? Because I don't want to miss
it at all.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Right, So I mean it it is playing in a loop,
but I mean it's the kind of thing where art
plays for a couple of seconds and those dance videos scroll.
There are about sixteen of them that we created of
these transitions. So even if you go and see it
one night, you know you're talking, you're enjoying the crowd,
enjoying the DJ you're going to, You're going to miss
(10:54):
little things and there's so many wonderful pieces to catch.
And you mentioned that it is famously or infamously of
building without windows in the Hartford Skyline. Some of the
submissions are art of windows and to me that was
another one of my favorites to see that we're going
to see windows on the building and there are just
(11:15):
so many things to see and it is kind of
like Disney World where you're really getting to see a
magical experience. Magic Mural is a perfect name for this
because it is capturing that eye popping wonder that you
expect with projection mapping.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Wonderful. I'm speaking with Director of Field Operations at Frontier Communications,
Joe Ferriolo, Executive director of Rise Up, Matt Conway, and
Magic Mural Curator. What a great title I'm a magic
mural curator and choreographer from Rise Up for the Arts
Carolyn Paine, thank you so much for being here, for
(11:52):
all the work that you're doing, especially in the Greater
Hertford area.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Thank you appreciate it.
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