8 minute read
A park apart
Kate Sheridan, Artist in Residence April through June 2022 gives a thumbs up in front of a park sign that reads "The Artist is IN! Explore the MakerSpace!"
by Sean McCarthy
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Great art often tells a story, and New Bedford has a lot of stories. Since 2018, New Bedford Whaling National Historic Park has used its Artists in Residence program to support the work of artists who are telling the myriad tales of New Bedford through an expansive array of mediums.
From comic books and children’s books to films, music, photography, sculpture, and more, New Bedford’s people, culture, and industries have made for unique creative opportunities for artistic minds from throughout America. Each year, the park’s AIR program funds four three-month opportunities for artists to portray the city in a manner that is limited only by their imaginations.
This year the program promises to be filled with artistic ingenuity in a variety of forms, including work from artists from Providence, Boston, Texas, and a couple that has hopscotched throughout the country and the world. Artists who are new to the area are finding themselves smitten with the richness of the region, while local their surroundings with refreshing depth.
“This is a unique way to share the histories and tell the stories of New Bedford,” says Lindsay Compton, a parks ranger and director of the AIR program. “Artists have been able to use the city as a source of inspiration.”
Last year, New Bedford “sound sculptor” Scott Bishop was able to use a residence to create the album “NBWaves,” a recording of six songs that were written around sound samples he used from throughout the city, including the Buttonwood Park Zoo, New Bedford Harbor, the Whaling Museum, and Play Arcade. He combined the samples with music that ranges from punk to dream pop to ambient and electronic instrumentals. The six-song album can be enjoyed on all of the major streaming services under Bishop’s alias, Scapeghost.
“The park gave me the opportunity to create a project that was a lot more community oriented, and they gave me the tools to fulfill it,” Bishop says. “I feel like Lindsay empowered me to just let it fly and see what worked. Because I was recording inside of businesses and institutions, I got to meet people I wouldn’t have otherwise met, learn about them, and see how many of them worked. And coming out of this project, I’ve got a few more things I can reach for in my musical toolbox.”
Echoes of history
Another New Bedford artist to benefit from the Park’s AIR program was Candida Rose, who last year used her residence to work on multiple projects. Rose was able to continue research and create the capstone project for her Master’s Degree at UMass Boston, in Transnational Cultural Community Studies. The project included how Cape Verdean immigrants were able to keep their heritage alive through music and culture. Among her work was the digitizing of vinyl records and cassettes made by Cape Verdean immigrants in America during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
Rose was also able to finish editing work for the documentary film, Candida, a 45-minute film detailing her relationship with her ancestral homeland.
Last summer, the park’s AIR program also enabled Rose to host presentations to local school children about Cape Verdean music and culture at the “Something’s Fishy” summer camp in New Bedford.
Other recent projects with the park’s AIR include a children’s book set in New Bedford by Fairhaven’s Margo Connolly-Masson, and a comic book of historical fiction by Kate Sheridan of Louisville, KY, that tells a horror-fantasy story about a whaling expedition to the arctic that takes a dramatic turn.
The upcoming year for the Park’s AIR participants is vast in styles, and many of the artists from outside of the region are finding great inspiration from the area.
From October through December, Texas artist Taylor Hickey will be offering her talents in multiple mediums for the AIR project. Hickey recently moved to New Bedford after recieving her Master’s Degree from UMass Dartmouth’s College of Visual and Performing Arts.
“New Bedford is a beautiful place to be,” Hickey says. “I plan on staying here for a while – I’ve grown really attached to it. It embodies something that is really influential for my work: the idea of the sublime. I get the feeling that the sky is closer here. I feel like when I’m driving here I’m on the edge of the world. I’m inspired by the feelings I get from the sea and the beautiful landscapes.”
From April to June, Providence’s Matt Steinke, a “sound artist,” will be creating sound sculpture inspired by different flora and fauna from throughout the New Bedford area. A Texas native, Steinke will be making interactive and autonomous instruments.
“Being near the ocean, there is so much to discover,” Steinke says. “There are a variety of different ecosystems that are very interesting. There are many bird cultures and communities that can create a patchwork of sounds as they communicate. There’s a lot of natural history here and I’ve enjoyed the people I’ve met.”
Whale illustration by Kate Sheridan, for their upcoming comic "Whalebones."
New perspectives
The current AIR participants are Beatrice and Elaine Alder, who are telling the stories of Queer people from the area. The couple are using their AIR opportunity to relocate to New Bedford after recently residing in Washington, Georgia, and Lithuania. Their mediums include textiles, ceramics, and the written word.
“There’s a popular narrative that Queerness is a recent trend, which just isn’t true,” Beatrice says. “This is a great opportunity for us to help dispel that. We’re reclaiming Queer history in New Bedford, stories unspoken and untold that have been forgotten or lost. Our art will honor the stories of ourselves and others – what they were like and how they lived. We want to educate people.
”Queer history has very deep roots. We’ve always been here and we will always be here.”
From July to September, Boston’s Calder Sell will use his abstract photography to interpret the city.
“I am excited for an opportunity to show ‘the city that lit the world’ that, actually, there is a light that we all
“With this residency program we’re aiming to go beyond that – to have people see the city uniquely and share it with others.” share that comes from somewhere far away from any of us and that we can use it as a way to share stories with each other and the other living beings around us,” Sell says. “I hope to establish regular photo walks around New Bedford and to establish a community engaged in the process of looking. Making a photograph does not need to be as singular as it is often made out to be.”
Funding for the Park’s AIR has traditionally been from their own federal budget, but this year they will receive support from the Whaling History Alliance, a local nonprofit. Each artist involved in the program will receive a stipend of $2,500 for their three-month residency. There are AIR’s at over 50 national parks throughout America.
Artists are selected by a three-person board which sifts through applications made online from spring through the end of summer. Applications are accepted, during open calls, at anyartist.org.
Compton is well-suited to run the program. Not only has she been the director for similar programs in South Carolina and Texas, but she also studied Art, Parks & Recreation Management, as well as Education during her undergraduate and graduate studies. She has been with the New Bedford location since August of 2019.
“This residence is a wonderful opportunity,” Hickey says. “It provides me with the time and effort to make something of my own and helps with the balance between making art for myself rather than doing art for a living.”
“When people think of art, they mostly think of paintings,” Compton says. “With this residency program we’re aiming to go beyond that – to have people see the city uniquely and share it with others.”
To learn more about the AIR program contact the park at nps.gov/nebe.
