WATERVILLE — Red and orange umbrellas — 86 of them — are dangling from a tree in Castonguay Square downtown to help celebrate the visual and performing arts in the city and usher in the opening next week of both a poetry exhibit at Common Street Arts and the musical “Mary Poppins” at the Waterville Opera House.
Public works employees used a truck with a lift Wednesday to strap the small umbrellas to the branches as passers-by watched the operation.
“I think it’s great,” said bicyclist Robert Madore, 54, of Waterville, as he stopped to snap photos. “I had to take pictures to show my daughter. She’d love this. She’ll be 12 in June.”
Castonguay Square is a center for the city’s arts and cultural hot spots downtown and connects the Opera House and Common Street Arts with the historic downtown shopping district and Head of Falls at the Kennebec River, according to Nate Rudy, executive director of Waterville Creates!, which operates Common Street Arts. He said Waterville Creates! is excited about the umbrella installation, which will be followed in May by a collaboration with Inland Hospital to paint and fly kites at the park at Head of Falls, to highlight the park as a recreation spot for families and children.
“Mary Poppins,” directed by Debra Susi, opens Friday, April 8, at the Opera House and runs through April 10; it also will run April 15 to 17. The poetry exhibition also opens April 8 at Common Street Arts, which currently is featuring artwork by local students in kindergarten through grade 12, according to KiKA Nigals, program director for Waterville Creates! She also runs Common Street Arts.
The children’s exhibit, which also is featured in Gallery 93 in The Center, will continue through Friday. Held as part of Youth Art Month, the exhibit drew 450 people to its opening earlier in March, Nigals said.
“It was fantastic,” she said. “We had families come from as far away as Portland. It was a very proud moment for a lot of the kids.”
“Deadline,” The National Poetry Month exhibition at Common Street Arts, will feature a poetry installation by Mexican poet Juan Manuel Portillo, as well as workshops, presentations and poetry readings throughout the month of April. The opening will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 8 and will include a reading of Portillo’s poem in two languages. The opening will coincide with a presentation of “Bla,” Portillo’s new book of poetry.
During the exhibit, to continue through the end of April, people will have an opportunity to read their own poetry, according to Nigals.
Nigals and Tamsen Brooke Warner, assistant executive director at the Opera House, were watching public works employees hang the umbrellas in the tree Wednesday at Castonguay Square.
The women spent last Friday afternoon painting the white umbrellas, using red and orange acrylic latex house paint. Nigals said she ordered 100 small umbrellas online. There are 86 red and orange umbrellas in the tree, and 13 have been placed inside the skywalk connecting The Center with City Hall. One umbrella is white. She and Warner painted them in the dance studio on the third floor of The Center, between “Mary Poppins” rehearsals.
On Wednesday, motorists on Main Street slowed down to look at the umbrellas, and people walking through Castonguay Square stopped to inquire about the activity.
“People have been asking for more public art in Waterville, so we’re starting to deliver that,” Warner said. “We think everyone coming down the street will see it when they’re driving.”
She said theater enthusiasts will find “Mary Poppins” delightful.
“It’s going to be really fun,” she said. “We’ve got a flying company coming next week so they can teach Mary Poppins and Bert to fly.”
Public works employee Tim Greene drove the truck Wednesday as Chris DeMerchant and Jacob Chambers were on the lift, fastening the umbrellas to the tree branches using zip ties. DeMerchant and Chambers placed umbrellas in specific places at the direction of Nigals, who complimented the men on their work. Greene was enjoying the project, which was a switch from typical public works activities.
“I told Chris he’d better not let his wife see him, or he’ll be decorating trees at home,” he said, smiling.
Waterville Creates! works to promote arts and culture in the city, focusing on providing marketing, advertising and program support for its five core partners — the Waterville Opera House, the Maine Film Center, Waterville Main Street, the Waterville Public Library and the Colby College Museum of Art. Overseen by a 14-member board of directors, Waterville Creates! owns and manages The Center building, in addition to Common Street Arts.
Amy Calder — 861-9247
Twitter: @AmyCalder17
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