The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
BRINGING STORIES TO LIFE
Artist creating mural of storybook characters for children’s room
TORRINGTON » Above the heads of the young patrons of the Children’s Room at the Torrington Public Library, the images of wellloved characters from children’s literature will soon appear alongside landmarks from around the city.
A mural is planned, Executive Director Jessica Gueniat said Tuesday, made possible by the library’s recent renovation.
Children’s and teen librarian Jill Veras, noting the white space on a portion of overhanging wall throughout the children’s room, proposed the art project as both an educational and visually-stimulating addition,
“She really came up with the whole concept, and then brought it to me, and we fleshed it out from there,” said Gueniat.
The library has been raising funds to create the mural in recent weeks — Gueniat said that 70 to 80 percent of the books included in the mural had been spoken for, and that she expected to hit the $12,000 goal for the project.
“It’s shown me that people are very tied to their favorite children’s books, emotionally. They either have read them with their children, (or) they were read these books as children, so they fondly remember them,” said Gueniat. “So they want to sponsor that particular title, if you will, because it means a lot to them and it means a lot to their family.”
Funds raised will go directly
to the mural project, Gueniat said, and events are expected to be held as the mural is added to the library walls.
“It’s not just a painting on a wall. We’re trying to make it a really interactive learning experience for the kids,” said Gueniat.
Gueniat hopes that children come away with a sense of the evolution and history of children’s literature, and an appreciation of Torrington history.
A series of older landmarks have been chosen, Gueniat said, with the help of the Torrington Historical Society to be interspersed throughout the mural.
A scavenger hunt and fact sheet is planned, she said, to teach young people about the history of some of the notable features of the community.
“They’ll be more closely tied with their community — they’ll understand what the history of Torrington, and Torrington, is all about,” said Gueniat.
The mural is currently tentatively scheduled to be completed by early 2018, Gueniat said.
Artist Marc Stolfi, a Torrington native, has been chosen to create the mural.
He is a regular patron of the library, he said Tuesday — two of his children take classes there in the summer. He submitted a bid, which was accepted, and is excited at the chance to lend his hand to this piece of work.
“I’m very excited. I’m from Torrington, and have been going to the library all of my life,” said Stolfi.
He was given a list of more than 60 books to incorporate in the mural, including “Aesop’s Fables,” “Robinson Crusoe,” and, to bring things to the modern day, “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief,” and is in the process of planning out a scale model of the work.
Where possible, he said, he’s planning to go back to the early illustrations of the books when portraying characters, with hopes of prompting people to interact with the source material.
“I think it encourages people to go take a look at the books,” said Stolfi.
Gueniat is pleased that Stolfi has chosen to take on the project.
“I am crazy about his work. The Children’s Librarian is crazy about his work,” said Gueniat. “He’s really taking an artistic approach to it, and he’s making it creative and fun, and something where kids are going to look at it and go ‘oh, I haven’t seen Huck Finn in that particular way before’, or ‘oh, I haven’t seen Alice from “The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland” in that particular way before.”
The space for the mural was created as part of the recent renovation of the Torrington Library, which now includes a children’s room.
People have been thrilled with the new space so far, Gueniat said. A summer camp is planned, in addition to traditional offerings like story time.
“It’s been nothing but positive so far,” said Gueniat.