‘Art of Work’ coming to Winsted

There’s a lot to like about Winsted, and when it’s finished, the American Mural Project is going to be in a class by itself as a city showplace. Not yet completed, it already generates an inner excitement.

Size matters, and this thing, besides being an artistic masterpiece, is gigantic. In a nutshell, it will be the largest indoor collaborative art work in the nation. (Side road: I’m always leery about “largest in the country’’ claims, but this one seems logical to me and until this is shown to be wrong, I’m going with it). The measurements: 120 feet long, 48 feet high and 10 feet deep.

Can you picture yourself walking through, examining all the occupations depicted in the mural? These are the people who, with their sweat and brains, built America. Seems to me it will be like a visual recreation of the Studs Terkel book “Working.”

Attention was called once again to the AMC, located in what was once a factory building at 74 Whiting Ave., when an email arrived announcing that the annual “Art of Work” gala will be held on site at 6 p.m. Sept. 29, featuring live music, cocktails, excellent food and something called “art in motion’’ video productions. The announcement called the AMP and the gala “a celebration of American ingenuity, productivity and commitment to work.’’

Ellen Griesedieck is the Sharon artist who began this daunting (but not for her) project way back in 2002. Ellen was a former photographer for Sports Illustrated and People magazines, who began to concentrate strictly on painting in the early 1980s. Her sister, Judy, also a skilled photographer, worked for several years for The Hartford Courant.

The AMP is now only a few months from completion, and 70-year-old Ellen has hardly paused to catch her breath. AMP has long since gathered momentum and collected backing and support from prominent people and interested ordinary citizens alike.

Some 10,000 children and adults have helped create parts of the mural. Thousands more will add their contributions, and all 50 states will be represented in the finished project.

I well remember when the search for a permanent site was going on. The factory was finally found, and though it needed some structural work, it filled the bill. There are plans to use a building next door to the AMP unit as a visitors’ center.

Winsted, a little town in Connecticut’s Northwest corner, is, to Griesedieck’s way of thinking, the perfect site for her project. In an interview a while ago, she said that this setting, in a small city that had subsisted on industry, was perfect, fitting the theme of the project. She didn’t want Washington, New York or any other big city to showcase her mural.

I think she’s right. While most industry has flown, as it has in so many other Connecticut cities and towns, the history is here — and the Whiting Street building that houses the project, is a clear reminder of another time.

Winsted, to me at least,

When it’s finished, the American Mural Project is going to be in a class by itself as a city showplace.

is a welcoming place with assets many larger towns can’t offer. Northwestern Connecticut Community College, the Gilson Theatre, beautiful Highland Lake and friendly citizens are highlights.

I’ve enjoyed the town since caddying days at Green Woods, when, with brother Matt and neighbor Bobby Regner, we would ride our V-bikes (there was a war on) up and down and over the Torringford Street hills to the Strand Theater (now the Gilson), pay our thirty cents, and watch the afternoon double feature.