Imagine that a community decided to put lots of art into their children’s new school. Beautiful, enduring objects, produced in the town - from local material, using skills that many residents practiced for a living.
The city of Barre has been associated with granite for more than 100 years. Immigrants came from Italy, Spain, Scotland, Canada, and elsewhere to quarry the stone, then shape and carve it for buildings and memorials. Today there’s competition from overseas, but many families remain involved in the business.
Barre City Elementary and Middle School was built 20 years ago to replace seven neighborhood schools and today it serves about 900 students. It makes sense that granite was invited into the new consolidated school. Granite is “still a symbol,” says school co-principal James Taffel. “It’s the pride of the city.”
Donated sculptures of Barre Gray enhance the school inside and out. Near the entrance, a lifesize granite mailbox greets children, parents, and visitors. No letters can be mailed there - but sculptor Mark Fredenburg clearly had fun. It bears a label addressed to the Eternal Revenue Service in Andover, Mass.
Nearby stands a granite desk – in the old one-piece style, for several kids - with a view of city and mountains beyond. Also, several flat pieces of granite form a rowboat.
As to the building itself, the school gym is constructed of large tan blocks, with a course of large, carved granite plaques set into them, about one-third down from the roof line.
The subjects are charming but realistic animals – including two horses, two eagles, a large grinning cat - deer, turkey, and bears. An adult bear and cub stand sedately in one plaque – but they face a riotous group of six Teddy bears. Two of these dangle their feet over the edge of their sculpture in a friendly gesture to the new arrivals for kindergarten.
My favorite plaque shows a boy playing soccer – kicking the ball right down at the observer. Jim Taffel likes to think of this sculpture as inspiring kids - “to be the soccer player or to create the art.”
Inside are more treasures. A large square book, held by the small hands of a child, indicates that a library is nearby. It was carved in 1995 by Vincent Illuzzi, Sr. Inside the library stands a grandfather clock of granite, carved with the flora and fauna of Vermont. Sculptors Sofia Shatkivska and Butch Gandin created this unique timepiece in 1999. A granite sculptors’ symposium took place in Barre in 1995 and some works were immediately given to the new school.
Today there’s still room, under the roof line of the gym, for a dozen more new granite plaques.
