Thanks to the generosity of donors, starting in 1873, the Library immediately began taking in pieces of art along with manuscripts, ephemera, and books.
The Umbrella Arts Center has set the stage for a bold season of artistic and cultural programs exploring the experience of being Black in America, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Our New England days lose daylight and might even be a bit bleak at times, but it helps to keep our eyes out for warm colors and interesting nature to brighten our days. Reflections of water and ice often glow. The slanting light of winter and patterns of ice are delightfully complex in contrast with the direct light of summer.
Meet local artists Sally Lee and Zachary Mickelson. Lee works in ceramics, painting, sculpture, textiles, and more. Mickelson is a ceramic artist, teacher, and Manager of the booming new Ceramics Studio at The Umbrella Arts Center.
One autumn day in Monument Square, a visitor asked me about Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. “Is that the one in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow?” he wanted to know.
“No, that one is in New York,” I smiled. (I hear that question a lot.) “There’s no headless horseman here.”
“Then who’s that?” he asked, pointing over my shoulder. I spun around to see a figure all in black, strumming a black guitar as he cruised through the roundabout on his bicycle. But the weirdest part was, his head was conspicuously absent.
Concord’s cycling minstrel goes by the name of Slam Dunkle, and he’s irresistibly drawn to novel ideas and opportunities. A couple of years ago, he spotted a broken guitar in a trash barrel, put it back together, and painted it black. Then he painted his beach cruiser bicycle black to match. He found a bargain-priced headless horseman outfit in a costume shop, and voilà, the headless horseman materialized.
