Belchertown picks artists for mural project at transfer station

Belchertown  04-10-2023

Belchertown 04-10-2023

By EMILEE KLEIN

Staff Writer

Published: 01-07-2025 3:53 PM

BELCHERTOWN — Three artists will transform the Belchertown Transfer Station’s brown recycling containers into works of art that incorporate opinions from residents in the design and execution of the murals.

A collaboration between the Creative Economy Committee, Department of Public Works and Clapp Memorial Library, the municipal mural project will feature artists Caoin O’Durgy from Somerville, Melissa Pandina from Easthampton and husband-and-wife duo Joshua and Brittany Smith from Belchertown. Each muralist will take their own approach to the theme “reduce, recycle, reuse, and regenerate” while incorporating the community in different steps of the mural-making process.

The murals will be unveiled this spring at a “Trash Gala” complete with sustainability-themed activities.

“Belchertown transfer station is a wonderful place, but it’s not exactly a beautiful place,” Creative Economy Director Maude Haak-Frendscho said. “What a lot of people told us was they valued that space. It’s a community space. It’s a social hub. It’s like going to the grocery store, you see your neighbors and friends.”

The mural project stemmed from the New England Foundation for the Arts’ Make it Public for Municipalities program, Haak-Frendscho said. In collaboration with Municipal Area Planning Council’s Arts and Culture Department, Make it Public trains municipal staff on how to create community art, then provides funding for a public art project.

“Over a year ago, I was sitting in a meeting with Linda Leduc, the DPW director, and she half jokingly talked about those ugly containers,” Haak-Frendscho said. “She was like, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if they were painted?’ I was like, “We happen to be looking for a project!’ It all came together beautifully.”

Haak-Frendscho explained that Leduc wanted the art to explore how the recycling center is one step in a long waste disposal and recycling process. The murals will remind residents of their commitment to sustainability, as well as depict ways everyday items can be reused.

Last summer, the DPW and the Creative Economy Committee conducted a survey to collect residents’ opinions and beliefs on sustainability and recycling. Pandina, the Smiths and O’Durgy were chosen based on how well they included the community feedback in their initial design, their ideas for community outreach and the artist’s style, Haak-Frendscho said.

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“Our hope is that we selected them for variety and range, because Belchertown is big and there’s a lot of different perspectives,” Haak-Frendscho said. “We were really attracted to Caoin’s work because it specifically we thought would speak to young people and Melissa’s work is really representational. And then Joshua Smith’s work, has this graphic design kind of feeling to it.”

O’Durgy, a painter, illustrator, teacher and facilitator at the Good Boy Collective, felt so inspired by the community art aspect of the mural project, he decided to let Belchertown children help with his mural design. Last Saturday, Clapp Memorial Library hosted a community art event where children assembled and decorated paper dolls of animals dressed in clothes. Each doll will make an appearance in O’Durgy’s mural, either gardening, recycling or enjoying Jabish Brook.

“What I really love about what I do is the community engagement aspect,” O’Durgy said. “I love that Belchertown was so committed to that that they had already started the process. There’s a lot of public works project out there that want a community engagement aspect but they are limited in hours, but Belchertown showed that there are people really excited to put that (time) in.”

Joshua and Brittany Smith will pull the curtain back on the mural-making process by documenting each step for social media. Pandina said she plans to conduct a community paint day for the mural depicting people using disposed items to create a community garden. Community paints are a regular part of her artistic process because it allows children and adults to see themselves as artists.

“Community painting makes the community feel like they own the mural. It becomes their art,” Pandina said. “I come and go, but the artworks stays, and the people need to feel like it’s theirs. There’s nothing better than seeing a little kid point to a giant piece of artwork and say, ‘I did that!’”