And the Gold Star Goes to…
by Celina Colby
The staff here at Art New England doesn’t just report on the arts, we’re deeply involved in them as well. We’re happy to announce that Merli V Guerra, our magazine’s production manager, has been recognized for her astounding artistic contribution to the town of Arlington, MA.
Together Guerra and Kimberleigh A. Holman founded Luminarium Dance Company as a new outlet for performing arts. The pair envisioned innovative performers using music, dance and light to create completely unique presentations. This past fall Guerra decided to bring their work from the stage to the street.
With the help of a Massachusetts LCC grant and a gift from the Bob Jolly Charitable Trust, Luminarium turned Arlington’s Grecian-style water tower into a “breathing installation,” complete with dance, music and video projections. The one-night-only event took place from dusk into the night on Sunday, September 7. Every year Guerra leads a Cultural Community Outreach Project like this and she says, “My hope is to use dance in a way that it hasn’t been used before to highlight a cultural or historical space.”
Young local participants assist Luminarium company members with creative sound effects during Luminarium’s Night at the Tower event (September 7, 2014), awarded the 2015 Gold Star Award by the MCC. Photo: Maria Fonseca.
Guerra had just moved to Arlington when she began brainstorming for her 2014 project. Every day on her commute into work she passes the water tower and wonders about it. Come to find out, the tower is 90 years old and still serves as an active reserve. It’s the focal point of Arlington architecture, and the highest point in the town. From the top you can see straight to the city of Boston. From here the wheels began turning in Guerra’s head, and Night at the Tower was born.
The evening began at dusk and functioned in two parts. While it was still fairly light out the dancers engaged in a series of programming for children. One particular event had the kids call out numbers to direct the dancers’ movements on the stage. Another included the children making sound effects for the dancers to move to. As it got darker, the dancers helped the younger set make shadow puppets on the wall of the tower.
As darkness settled around the event the focus shifted to the adults. A series of Guerra and Holman’s films were projected on the tower, accentuating the architectural component of the performance. But the real show stopper was a series of 75 images projected 60 feet high. These images, provided by the Arlington Center for the Arts, were all depictions of the water tower created by Arlington residents. Not only were the viewers able to celebrate this integral part of their town, they were also able to see their own artwork projected above them. “It was amazing to hear people from the audience saying, ‘That’s mine!’” says Guerra.
Luminarium company members perform in Night at the Tower (September 7, 2014), awarded the 2015 Gold Star Award by the MCC. l. to r. Rose Abramoff, Amy Mastrangelo, Jessica Jacob, Merli V. Guerra, and Melenie Diarbekirian. Photo: Maria Fonseca.
More than 300 viewers attended, and though Arlington has extensive cultural programming, this was the first event of its kind and the first to include the historic Arlington Reservoir.
Luminarium’s extraordinary efforts did not go unnoticed. The Massachusetts Cultural Council is honoring the group with one of only three Gold Star Awards. Gold Star awards are nominated by Local Cultural Councils and are evaluated by the MCC based on a variety of criteria including: artistic quality, success in reaching out to underserved constituents, extent to which the project highlights a unique quality of the community and ability to engage with the community. It’s an incredible honor and thoroughly deserved by the Luminarium group, particularly, Merli V. Guerra.
The award will be presented to Guerra and the company at a ceremony in April and then again in June at Luminarium’s 5-year anniversary gala. To see more information about Luminarium and Night at the Tower check out Guerra’s blog and the Luminarium website.
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Image Credit: Images courtesy of Maria Fonseca.
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Celina Colby is the editorial assistant at Art New England magazine and the blogger behind Trends and Tolstoy.