Good art for good deeds: Belchertown Trash Gala next weekend will showcase three newly commissioned transfer station murals

Last September, the City of Belchertown put out a call for muralists to decorate three unusual canvases: transfer station containers, which hold large amounts of recyclable materials. The intent, according to a press release, was to “enhance the visual appeal of the site while also conveying the message that every resident’s effort contributes to a larger process.” Each mural had to use imagery related to Belchertown, drawing from nearly 100 responses to a community survey, and follow the theme “recycle, reuse, reduce, regenerate.”

Next week, the community will see the fruits of those labors at an event celebrating community and sustainability.

On Friday, June 13 (or, if it rains, Saturday, June 14), from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Belchertown Transfer Station, the City of Belchertown will host its Trash Gala, which will showcase the artists and dedicate their new murals.

Besides a showcase of the new murals, the Trash Gala will also include a fashion show – dare we say “trashion” show? – of outfits featuring upcycled materials, as well as a few other recycling-themed activities: a collage workshop featuring old magazines, a planter-making activity using discarded containers, teaching demonstrations, drawing, and more.

The selected artists, who were announced in December, are Caoin O’Durgy (Somerville), Melissa Pandina (Easthampton), and husband-and-wife duo Joshua and Brittany Smith (Belchertown). As a requirement for their selection, each artist brought the community into their creation process.

O’Durgy’s mural features cartoon woodland creatures engaging with the outdoors in various ways – gardening, kayaking in Jabish Brook, fishing, and collecting recyclables, underneath the word “Belchertown.” His mural, incidentally, isn’t his first foray into sustainability-themed public art; his past projects include frog-themed designs painted over catch basins in Worcester, imploring residents to keep local reservoirs clean.

“Sustainability is an incredibly important way that we can directly impact the world our children will live in; it’s a message that stresses community collaboration, empathy for our environment and neighbors, and the cumulative impact of individual responsibility. All of these are values I personally hold close,” he said.

In January, O’Durgy held a workshop for kids at Clapp Memorial Library in which they could choose from a variety of design templates to create and color in a paper doll character. Those characters inspired the ones who appeared in the final mural.

“Children’s excitement is contagious,” O’Durgy said. “Not only were they excited to make the dolls, but many of the same kids came to Melissa (Pandina)’s community event. While they were there, several kids ran over to my mural to excitedly point out which characters they made. Involving kids in the creation process is definitely something I’ll do as much as possible. They really bring it to life.”

In April, Pandina hosted a “paint party” at the Transfer Station in which community members could come and fill in outlined parts of the mural. Pandina, who calls herself a “community engagement muralist,” often brings community members into her artistic practice, which she finds gratifying.

“Honestly, it’s my favorite part,” she said. “People take a lot of pride in being able to create something like that, so it takes it from just being pure labor on my part to really being this fun thing that I get to share.”

Pandina’s design features children engaging with the outdoors, and each element of the mural ties into a recycling theme in a different way: a child blows dandelion seeds, which will become flowers; another child uses a plastic milk jug to water flowers. Nearby, a caterpillar rests in a cocoon while undergoing metamorphosis; on the opposite side of the container, a fully-grown butterfly flies near a child tending to a garden.

To her, being able to showcase local sustainability efforts through art is a matter of civic pride.

“Of all the good things we’re doing, we might as well make art about it, because it helps get the word out,” she said.

Maude Haak-Frendscho, creative economy coordinator for the Town of Belchertown, agreed.

“Public art is a way of realizing your community values in a tangible result, and that’s true here with the idea of sustainability in these murals,” Haak-Frendscho said. “The Transfer Station is just a waypoint on a much longer journey for materials, not an end, and as a place of community gathering, really embodies the idea that we’re all in it together.”

For more information on the Trash Gala, visit www.belchertown.org/513/Municipal-Arts-Program.

Carolyn Brown can be reached at [email protected].