On Saturday, June 16th, MAPC staff attended Rockland Day to help raise money and support for the town’s creative placemaking project, Sole of Rockland. Sole of Rockland is a fully developed, interactive creative placemaking concept and demonstration that will strengthen and support the REiMAGINE ROCKLAND downtown revitalization effort. MAPC engaged Rockland Day attendees through a community art station in the REiMAGINE ROCKLAND tent. The art station invited visitors to make watercolor paintings of their shoe soles to kickstart conversation about the project.
The project appeals to Rockland’s history as a center of shoe manufacturing while celebrating its flourishing community of artists who are transforming the town’s old factories into art studios and creative businesses. The Town hopes to raise $5,150 by June 30, 2018 to support Sole of Rockland, and has launched a crowd-funding campaign for the project on Patroncity’s website. If the campaign is successful, MassDevelopment will match the funds for a total of $10,300 for the project.
Rockland Day
At Rockland Day, MAPC staff interacted with Rockland residents through a step-by-step painting activity using a technique developed by MAPC’s Artist-in-Residence, Carolyn Lewenberg.
- Step 1: Wet the soles of the shoe with a spray bottle of water
- Step 2: Impress the sole onto watercolor paper
- Step 3: Color the water mark using watercolor paints.
The activity engaged everyone! The end result was a wide array of beautiful, shoe-themed artworks, displayed at the tent on a clothesline.
At the same time, Project team members led a discussion based activity to captured stories and memories of special places and hidden gems of downtown Rockland, through the use of notecards and a custom-designed map. The stories will be used to create a new creative map of downtown Rockland that will allow MAPC to identify sites and locate sidewalk art while incorporating the shoeprints made by Rockland residents from the day’s event into the map.
More about Sole of Rockland
Sole of Rockland is an interactive art project that will strengthen the fledgling Rockland Farmer’s Market and support our REiMAGINE ROCKLAND downtown revitalization effort. Visitors to the 2018 Rockland Farmer’s Market will have a chance to leave their mark in the form of wet footprints colored with watercolor paints. These prints will reappear in an artistic map of downtown Rockland that highlights the places that local residents, workers, and visitors value. The project will culminate in artistic sidewalk paintings at each location and interactive exhibits where visitors can share their own memories of the past, reflections on the present and hopes for the future of Rockland.