Visible from Main Street, Project Art displays multiple permanent public artworks by resident artists. Works are visible by car or foot, neighboring other temporary and permanent public works on Main Street as part of the Cummington Cultural District Art Walk.
To learn more about the Cummington Cultural District and other public art sculptures along Main Street:
MISS COMET
2022
mixed media, mosaic installation, made with ceramic shards
82 x 64 x 22″
The mosaic sculpture Miss Comet landed at Project Art in summer of 2022. Designed by Sergei Isupov, the 9′ sculpture was fabricated and completed in collaboration with artist Kadri Pärnamets. Now a permanent installation in front of their studio at Project Art on Main Street in Cummington, MA, the artists engaged with the local community throughout the process.
Miss Comet was proposed for Reflections, a grant funded public art project to create new works reflecting on the land and history of the area. Working in late spring of 2022, the couple received donations, excavated shard piles at nearby pottery studios, and produced fabricated elements to articulate the figure’s features. Throughout the process, unwanted, forgotten, chipped, broken plates and other treasures, including “mudsharked” river shards were left at the sculpture’s base to be incorporated. Donations came with tales of family histories, prior ownership, unfortunate demise or abandonment. Ceramic shards include fragments of work by Michael McCarthy, Paul Scott, Mark Shapiro, Eric Smith, Mara Superior, and Connie Talbot. Part archaeology, part commemoration, each object tells a story and provides an opportunity to reflect on the present and history in this small but deeply connected Western Massachusetts community.
EVERYTHING IS UPSIDE DOWN
2024
repurposed maple tree, paint, wooden base
In Spring 2024, Sergei Isupov completed a carved wooden sculpture now on view at 54 Main Street. He was invited to use the trunk of a sugar maple tree left behind after the top half was removed due to storm damage in the winter of 2024. With an approved design presented to the Cummington Cultural District, Isupov was awarded an honorarium through the 2024 Arts Activation Project which partially funded the proposal. Work took place over three weeks engaging many members of the community as they watched the progress. When completed, volunteers from the community and additional support from CCD provided funds and equipment to remove the tree from its roots. It was re-installed on a newly fabricated base pedestal at Project Art. Now facing the street, it can be enjoyed by passers by along with other public art along Main Street.
