Ellen K
Unregistered User
(10/17/02 5:42:05 am)
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"big bad wolf" social action
Thought you might like to know about this new installation, reported
in today's Boston Globe (online, maybe only for 1 day?, at www.boston.com/dailyglobe...ess+.shtml
Excerpt:
"LAWRENCE - Like many fairy tales, Kathleen Bitetti 's story began on a small scale. The Essex Art Center, in Lawrence, invited the artist up from Boston to do a six-month residency and offered her a gallery in which to show her work.
....
Bitetti was connected with Linda DeLucia, the teen dating violence specialist at the Women's Resource Center. ''An amazing networker,'' Bitetti calls her. DeLucia knew just the site for the large installation: Merrimack College. She called her contact there. That was a little like Jack planting his seed for a beanstalk.
The next thing Bitetti knew, she had exhibitions planned for seven sites in Lawrence, North Andover, Andover, Haverhill, and Methuen, and her one small show at the EAC had grown to nine installations about domestic violence, on view throughout this month, which is Domestic Violence Month.
And if the exhibitions weren't enough, Bitetti and DeLucia scheduled seven public panels throughout the month, including a summit for teens and a discussion called ''Public Art as a Catalyst for Social Change.''
''Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?'' breaks down into the different rooms of a house: The bedroom is at the EAC; bathrooms can be viewed at the Lawrence Heritage State Park, in the public restrooms there. ''Living Room'' centers cozily around a fireplace at Nevins Memorial Library in Methuen. ''House,'' the domicile of restraining orders, now measures 16 feet square and can be seen at Merrimack, in North Andover.
The title of the project harks back to fairy tales and the expectations children develop from hearing stories about princesses and their knights in shining armor. As for the big bad wolf, Bitetti asks, '' How do you explain [domestic violence] to the kids? If it's their dad, this is one thing they say: He's morphed into the big bad wolf.''"
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