The letter blocks at the top of the train station are the first hint that major creativity and involvement await visitors and prospective new residents when they exit the train to head up to the town of Beacon. Where did these letter blocks come from? Who designed and built them? Was it a city commissioned project? Those have often been my questions since I moved to Beacon in 2010, and it’s time we found out. Art awareness is especially high during the spring and summer months with projects like
Beacon Open Studios,
Windows on Main, and
Beacon3D, so we wanted to explore the origins during this high-art season.
Like most notable projects that just appear around Beacon, the “Welcome to Beacon” sign was not a city-funded art installation. However, it has roots in city leader George Mansfield and others. To find out the origins of the “Welcome to Beacon” sign, we first went to
BeaconArts for a clue. Kelly Ellenwood, Vice President of the BeaconArts Community Association, referred us to Kalene Rivers, co-founder of
Open Space, an exhibition space created to explore passions for art, culture and design. Kalene and her partner Daniel Weise had a history of organizing and curating public art in Beacon like
Electric Windows.
Open Space was approached years a go by city councilman George Mansfield when he was running for his first term, after he had placed a large campaign sign in the very spot that the letter blocks are currently installed today. The owner of the property gave George permission to place his sign there. According to Kalene, “After the election, George had the idea to continue to utilize the space for art. Partly inspired by a ‘You Are Beautiful’ project, we decided that an eclectic ‘Welcome to Beacon’ sign would be wonderful in this location. George and I invited fifteen artists to create the first round of letters back in 2010.”
If you have been familiar with Beacon since then, you will know that in 2014, the “Welcome to Beacon” sign got a total refresh with new designs for each letter. Personally, the blocks inspired the first design for
A Little Beacon Blog’s original logo (has since had its own redesign), so I was especially interested in the new design and who the creators were behind each look.
Kalene, with the ongoing permission of the property owner, again asked fifteen new artists to participate. Says Kalene, “Heidi Harrison and Chris Janks graciously volunteered to assist in the production, and the second round of letters were completed in November of 2014. George Mansfield and Patrick Freeman come down to the site on a cold morning and carefully installed the new sign. We had an unveiling on November 15th and it has proudly welcomed people to Beacon ever since.“
We have the names of each artist behind a letter in a spread below. If you follow the
#BeaconNY community on Instagram, you may have gotten to know the styles of a few artists, and you have probably guessed which artist did what letter. Before you read the names, see if you can guess which artist did which block! Otherwise, satisfy your curiosity right here!
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| Dharman Abdu |
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| Katrina Zezza |
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| Chris Janks |
