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This article is being prepared as an assignment in Megan Lyster’s social entrepreneurship course. = The American Mural Project = The American Mural Project is a nonprofit community art organization with an unusual approach to arts education. It was founded in 1998 by Ellen Griesedieck, who also is the artist in charge of the project. The projects focus is on creating the largest indoor collaborative artwork in the world. The mural itself is a tribute to American ingenuity, productivity, and commitment to work.

Over 10,000 kids from multiple diverse communities across the country have now worked with AMP on projects in their communities to create pieces of the mural. The mural will be housed in Winsted, Connecticut in two former mill buildings. The completion date for the project is currently unknown.

History
American Mural Project is an idea conceived by Ellen Griesedieck about 10 years ago, “to celebrate the labor of engineers, iron workers, craftsmen, athletes and all sorts of ordinary Americans”, the American Mural Project is currently a quarter way finished. This project has required a trip across the United States, working in collaboration with creative professionals and countless students – more than 10 thousand people have worked on it so far”. It is currently stored at the Hartford Public Library; however, upon completion it will be on display permanently at the Whiting Mills complex in Winsted, CT.

The Whiting Mills complex in Winsted, CT was purchased in 2006 for the exhibition of this project. “The architecture firm of Burr McCallum has nearly finished plans for the buildings' renovation, which involves raising the roof of the mural building 25 feet.” The choice for this final location is for several reasons, including the mills’ historical significance in the 19th century for workers as well as federal, state, local and private initiatives to revitalize main street Winsted since 1998 to make “long-unused buildings and sites habitable again”. The future for this site includes, “a visitor’s center with spaces for a theater, studios, and classrooms, as well as a woodland park for outdoor summer concerts and special events,” among other ideas from the creator Griesedieck such as a café and 50 gardens featuring plants from each state.

About the Project
The American Mural Project is a three-dimensional, indoor, mural located in Winsted, Connecticut. It was founded by the artist, Ellen Griesedieck in 1998, and is a hybrid piece that contains different contributions made by members of the youth nationwide. Ultimately, the mural will comprise the work of over 10,000 students from diverse communities across the country. To create each element Ellen pairs experts in their field with local school children to create their portion of the mural. When completed, the mural is planned to be approximately 120 feet long, five stories high, and up to ten feet deep, making it the largest indoor collaborative artwork in the world.

The goal of this project is to represent all 50 states, with each “element” in the mural depicts a story and represents a special project. Besides that, Ellen also hopes that with the completion of the project, more attraction will be placed on the town it is located in, Winsted, Connecticut. When talking about Winsted, she stated, “you can’t tell me there aren’t going to be new jobs there, new businesses, new opportunities. I can’t understand how there couldn’t be.”

The date of completion of this project is currently unknown. Although in September of 2011, Griesedieck estimated that roughly 70 percent of the mural was completed.

The People
The creation of this mural, which seeks to invite collaboration, has so far revealed to countless people of all ages, the many contributions they can make to the building of American culture. From multiple state projects to contributions of over 10,000 childre in diverse communities across the nation, the American Mural Project has so far inspired thousands through its process of creation. Each "element" in the mural depicts a story and represents a special project. To create each element, Ellen pairs experts in their field with local school children. Ellen shares her vision and then sets them free to create what will ultimately be a piece of the mural. Over 15 thousand people from across America have taken part in the mural to date. To make the mural as large in spirit as it is in size, Ellen has asked people in all 50 states to contribute. Thousands of artists, scientists, teachers and children from coast to coast have responded. The mural has so far received contributions and support from the following people and places.



Foundry Project
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York: February 2003 - July 2004.

250 children from eight school in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York worked together in creating AMP’s first state project: a ten foot tall foundry worker sculpture, made out of two tons of ceramic clay.

Taos Tiles Project
Taos, New Mexico: September 15-19, 2003.

In Taos, New Mexico, students of the Taos Day School painted their own designs on glazed tiles that, at a distance, will form a mechanic’s shirt.

AMP Sports Field Page
In 2003, with the intention of having American athletes sign pieces of mesh with custom markers that Golden Paints created for AMP, Ellen sent out kits. Once returned, these signed pieces of mesh will contribute to part of the 16’ by 32’ field on the mural wall.

Indigo Squares Project
St. Helena Island, South Carolina: April 1-4, 2004.

Penn Center, dedicated to the preservation of the history and culture of the Gullah people, who first came to the US from Africa in the 1500s as slaves, was the location for this project. Offering a project for underprivileged children from the four counties of the Low Country, Ellen selected 60 children for the project. These 60 children made designs in hot wax on muslin squares, which they then submerged in indigo dye, leaving the designs as white lines in the indigo. Each of the children made one square for the mural and one to display in locations in the four counties.

Paw Prints Project
White Earth Reservation, Minnesota: April 15-18, 2004.

AMP’s partner on this project was AMP advisor and vice-presidential candidate Winona LaDuke. In the first stage of the project, young American Indians from LaDuke’s White Earth reservation and the girl scouts of Troupe 591 in Minneapolis’s Lakes Service Unit studied animals that interested them and made drawings of their footprints in order to make stencils for the mural. These stencils, along with materials found while on a White Earth Reservation nature walk, were used to make impressions in plaster on two eight-foot-square matte board panels.

Glass Project
Milton, West Virginia: May 3-7, 2004.

39 fifth-grade students from Ceredo Elementary came to the Blenko Glass factory in Milton to learn how to blow glass. Wearing protective glasses and thick gloves, the children watched the molten glass take shape as they blew through long tubes, under the guidance of Blenko veteran, David Osburn. The glass will be the water under the fishing boat near the center of the mural.

Hope Meadows Project
Rantoul, Illinois: June 7-10, 2005.

Brenda Eheart, a foster-care placement specialist and AMP advisor, created Hope Meadows, a revolutionary foster-care community. For the project, residents made rubbings from objects in the community – including tree bark, house siding, garden plants, manhole covers, basketball jerseys and running shoes – for Ellen to collage together into the mural.

Helix Project
Manzanar and Japantown, San Jose, California : April 28-30, 2005.

For this project, preschool children in Japantown made paintings and drawings on rice paper. Paintings and drawings were also made by former internees of Japanese WWII internment camps and their relatives, based on their memories of the camps. These painting and drawings were then collaged onto the surface of the helix, which Ellen created with the help of Connecticut airplane builder Mark Grusauski. The shape of this large translucent sculpture, a DNA double helix, is to symbolize diversity and honor the Japanese Americans interned in the camps.

Mid City Dance Project
Baton Rouge, Louisiana: March 29-31, 2005.

AMP advisor Renee Chatelain is a lawyer and classically trained dancer who founded the Mid City Dance organization to give at-risk kids in Baton Rouge an alternative to what they were doing after school. Ellen had the young children in the company dip their feet in paint and do their part of the performance on a canvas on the floor. The older dancers performed their part on a gauzy material on top of the kids’ footprints. Then four of the dancers lay on a piece of tulle and simulated traditional dance positions while Ellen outlined them with spray paint.

Health-Corps Project
Gallery Henoch, New York; Tomkins Square Park, New York; Health Festival, New York; Grace Camp, New York: 2007, ongoing.

AMP’s Health-Corps projects were brought by AMP advisor and renowned heart surgeon, Mehmet Oz, who founded Health-Corps to combat childhood obesity through health education. These projects will produce a large sculpture from tongue depressors that children from the organization are decorating at various venues around Health-Corps’ New York headquarters.

Space Studies Projects
19 states: 2007, on going.

Students on high school robotics teams are studying a particular group of scientists or engineers on NASA’s recent Mars Explorer Rover mission, meeting members of that group, and then working with them to create a metaphoric portrait honoring the group and its contributions to the mission. Students are meeting the MER participants at the Jet Propulsion Lab, General Dynamics, Kennedy Space Center, and other venues across the country; their portraits will become part of the mural.

Ax Handle Project
Ashland, Wisconsin: May 2007.

AMP Advisor and American Wetwood founder Scott Mitchen invited a class of middle-school students in Wisconsin to create a 22-foot sculpture of an ax for the mural out of recycled timber from the bottom of Lake Superior.

Habitat for Humanity
In 2008, AMP began working on a tribute to Habitat for Humanity. Volunteers on Habitat projects around the world began sending scraps from their projects, out of which Ellen will create a 17-by-10-by-3-foot representation of a gable under construction to incorporate into the mural. The project has so far received siding, wallboard, garden spades, T squares, the muddy cutoffs from a foundation pour. People have signed, written notes, and painted elaborate designs on their donations.

Manchester Craftsmen's Guild Project
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania: July 2009.

AMP's Pennsylvania state project was conducted by Bill Strickland, AMP advisor and founder of the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, and 80 13-to-18-year-old students from MCG’s summer program. The inspiration for the project was the Quincy Jones quote “You have to know where you come from to know where you’re going.” Digital Arts students took video and audio clips while students in the ceramics, design arts, and photography studios sculpted clay, made drawings, and took pictures that expressed who they were and what they loved about Pittsburg. Then they etched the work onto aluminum plates that from a distance will appear to be a 14-foot-tall steel beam in a section of the mural depicting steelworkers on New York’s West Side Highway.

Maine Project
Scarborough, Maine: July 15-17, 2009.

Ellen organized this project for AMP’s board-members and staff. On the first day, they brought back rubbings from the streets of Portland, a large piece of drift wood, fishing nets, lobster traps, lawn ornaments...etc. The next morning, the Sea Fleas and Periwinkles from a local summer camp painted their designs on some of the things they’d collected. These items will become part of the section of the mural depicting Maine fisherman Manley Doughty and his crew.

Links Project
On AMP’s Links projects, 50 to 75 communities across the country will receive eight-foot-long sculptures out of recycled paper pulp – abstract forms resembling links on a chain. The communities will decorate these links and return them to the studio; the links will become an element over 400 feet long weaving through the finished mural. The inspiration for the project is environmentalist and AMP advisor Paul Hawken’s recent book Blessed Unrest, in which he argues that social justice and environmental preservation both depend on linking the efforts of diverse small communities across the country. Keiding Industries donated the links, for which they had to make a special mold according to Ellen’s design – the largest ever mold for a recycled paper-pulp object.

Red Rocks, Colorado
September 2009. AMP’s Colorado state project, the first of the Links projects, involved painting, drawing, and writing messages on one of the eight-foot paper-pulp sculptures. Greg Mortenson, Nobel Peace Prize nominee and co-author of the best-selling book Three Cups of Tea, gave it his signature and the message “Blessings of Peace.” His daughter and hundreds of other participants followed with drawings and messages.

Agassi Academy
Las Vegas, Nevada: September 2009.

AMP’s Nevada state project took place at the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy. Founded by tennis player Andre Agassi, the k-12 school opened in 2001 in Las Vegas’s most at-risk neighborhood and has been named a National Model Charter School by the U.S. Department of Education. For the project, Ellen asked the students to bring in small items that represented their individual identity to press into wet spackle. Once the spackle dried, the students painted and decorated the projects, which will become part of the finished mural. Projects also went on display in the hallways of the academy.

Watch Project :The General Federation of Women's Clubs
American Mural Project is now GFWC International’s Partnership Program for Arts in the Community. Ellen’s “Watch Project” is under way across the country. Ellen will honor GFWC Members’ hours of volunteerism by collecting old non-working watches from each member. These thousands of watches will be encased in resin and intertwined together to form a huge watch link running throughout the three dimensional mural. Ellen will be recording each individual’s contribution to the mural, thus they are requesting members’ names and information along with their watches.



Work Clothes Quilt
Gee’s Bend is the home of a small, remote community whose women have exhibited their quilts in the Whitney Museum in New York, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Ellen asked these women to make a quilt out of people’s work clothes for the mural. Doris Eaton Travis – one of four living Ziegfield girls, who was celebrating her 100th birthday – sent a scarf with people dancing around the border. Howie Mayer, retired after 42 years on the Aspen Ski Patrol, sent his parka. AMP received a flight suit from Colonel Alton Whitley, first pilot of the stealth bomber. Submissions came from Oscar Moreno, owner of a valet-parking business in LA, and ‘Mr. Fireplace,’ a chimneysweep in New Hampshire. And Mohammad Ali sent an autographed pair of his Everlast trunks. In mid-May, Ellen brought all the clothes to Gee’s Bend, and 39 women used everything from embroidery thread to fishing line to sew them together in two days, in close to 100-degree heat.

American Mural Project Tribute to US Military
As part of AMP's tribute to working Americans, there is a large area on the mural dedicated to US military personnel. AMP is collecting uniform name-tags from their AMP supporters who served in the armed forces for inclusion in this section. Veterans who do not have a name-tag, may send a unit patch, a military pin, or a photo in uniform.

The Artist
Ellen Griesedieck is an American artist best known as the founder of the American Mural Project (AMP). Ellen was born in 1948 in Saint Louis, Missouri The 63-year-old is from Sharon, Connecticut. Ellen used to be a photographer for People and Sports Illustrated before becoming a painter in 1980. She married retired Formula One and Grand Prix racecar driver and ABC broadcast journalist Sam Posey in 1979 In 1982, Ellen designed the first label for Newman’s Own, Paul Newman was an original supporter of the American Mural Project, conceived in 1998. Ellen has had her murals and paintings displayed in private collections. Her paintings are displayed in the headquarters of the New York Times, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, CBS and Miller Brewing Company.

The American Mural Project, a non-for-profit, is a collaboration of painting from across the United States as a tribute to the working man. Ellen attributes her inspiration to a trip to a New York Foundry with her husband. The idea later evolved to include the involvement of children to give them an understanding of the working man. A year after her visit to the foundry, Ellen mentioned the project to her actor friend Paul Newman who supported her with a two million dollar donation. "It started out as me just making something big so that people would take notice, and now it's developed into something to which many wonderful people have contributed," Griesedieck said. "It's ours." Through the creation of this mural, Ellen Griesedieck, wished to display her unusual approach to arts education through the benefits of a collaborative artwork.