Farnsworth. Bell Ringers And A Crankie

Festive Holiday doings during the Farnsworth Art Museum's

seasonal Share the Wonder events.

First, a concert by the Penobscot Ringers,a handbell ensemble. 

It was music of the angels & had

a number of us in the audience crying for the beauty of it all!

Such beauty in the midst of some real ugliness in the world.

 After the concert, a lecture by Annie Bailey,

creator of a rotating storytelling mural for the Museum's 

front window. It tells about Maine heroine,

Abbie Burgess, a 16 year old who tended 

The Matinicus Rock Light & took care of her family

during a raging storm in 1856.

Her father, the lighthouse keeper, had gone to the mainland

for supplies, but could not get back for 4 weeks!

Bailey said she chose Abbie as a symbol

of focus of in a time of chaos.  

Something that is needed in these times too.     

(This photo of 1 scene doesn't show the mural's true size

& the window picked up reflections. But...)

The scroll's height is 4 ft. & one full rotation is 60 ft. 

The scroll, called a "Crankie", moves between 2 spools 

by way of a bicycle chain mechanism created by Andrew White. 

Bailey collaborated with a number of people 

to make this project work, & she has studied the Crankies 

of the 19th century.

There was, as with all original projects, 

trial & failure before final successes.

(I'm hoping the mural will stay up beyond its Jan. close date.)