newtown 2013 - dream big sculpture...2012/12/21  · origami cranes—embedded with drawings or...

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The Crane ProjeCT Transforming Grief into Hope “O flock of heavenly cranes, cover my child with your wings.” neWToWn 2013

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Page 1: neWToWn 2013 - Dream Big Sculpture...2012/12/21  · origami cranes—embedded with drawings or written prayers, wishes, and personal messages—intended as physical representations

The Crane ProjeCTTransforming Grief into Hope

“O flock of heavenly cranes,cover my child with your wings.”

neWToWn2013

Page 2: neWToWn 2013 - Dream Big Sculpture...2012/12/21  · origami cranes—embedded with drawings or written prayers, wishes, and personal messages—intended as physical representations

PraYer BY PraYer, Crane BY Crane

How does anyone respond to another’s grief ? How does a child, or a community, or a state, or a country help someone in pain? In cultures around the world, people have used the crane as a symbol of peace and hope—a way to soothe souls of their suffering. Following this tradition, children in Hill City, South Dakota—population 900—have begun a project intended to send an irrefutable message of love to the families in Newtown, Connecticut. They are folding origami cranes—embedded with drawings or written prayers, wishes, and personal messages—intended as physical representations of what is impossible to say. The artist who inspired this project, Lorri Acott, has located a template, instructions, and a video that teaches the process of how to fold an origami crane. She is working with Hill City art teachers to teach anyone who wants to learn. “Each crane is a representation of a prayer,” Acott said. “One person, one crane, one prayer.” With the help of the Hill City Arts Council and the South Dakota Arts Council, Hill City’s children imagine joining others who also are making cranes for Newtown in spreading the word across the country and throughout the world. Bethel, Connecticut, is just minutes away from Newtown, and students in its high school also have started folding cranes, with the hope of creating one string of 1,000 cranes for each of Newtown’s 26 grieving families. Hill City’s cranes will first fly to Bethel to assist with that project—but we envision even more. Perhaps communities around the country will provide their own crane “populations”—which eventually Newtown children can string together as the “full-circle” completion of this hands-on healing project. “Art has a transformational quality,” Acott said. “Art gives people a place to put their grief, sorrow, and pain—and a way to begin to transform it. Art gives both children and adults a way to share a silent prayer that cannot be adequately expressed in words—and if anyone needs our prayers right now, it’s the folks in Newtown.”

“Art is a wound turned into light.”

Georges Braque

“This project is a tangible way that people can actually do something to help others—and themselves,” said Kristin Donnan Standard, president of the Hill City Arts Council. “This is art at its highest service.” She said that folding cranes for a particular purpose reminded her of a traditional Native American practice of making prayer ties—in which tobacco is folded into small squares of cotton. “You really focus your heart while you fold, whether it’s a crane or a tie,” she said. “And when you hang up a string of cranes, it’s like hanging Tibetan prayer flags. You’re putting your message out to God.”

Page 3: neWToWn 2013 - Dream Big Sculpture...2012/12/21  · origami cranes—embedded with drawings or written prayers, wishes, and personal messages—intended as physical representations

THE LEGEND OF THE CRANE This large and graceful bird is the subject of many legends, thanks to fables claiming that a single crane can live for a thousand years. The fossil record suggests that today’s cranes are probably relatives of the oldest birds on earth, which gives some credence to our human interpretations of their power of endurance. More than a dozen species of crane inhabit five continents, with the most majestic standing five feet tall with a wingspan of more than seven feet. The crane has been connected to ideas of joy and the celebration of life since Greek and Roman times, thanks to their association with Apollo, the sun god. Throughout Asia, the crane has symbolized happiness, eternal youth, longevity, and good fortune. In some legends, these powerful birds are said to carry a person to higher levels of spiritual consciousness—or a soul up to paradise. If any bird has broad enough shoulders to carry messages of hope across the land, surely it is the crane—in the flesh or in paper. It is said that a thousand folded cranes, one for each year of the bird’s life, makes a wish come true. In the children’s book Sadako and the Thousand Pa-per Cranes, paper origami cranes represented peace and hope for the future. They were made in response to Sadako Sasaki’s unforgettable story of folding cranes as she suffered with leukemia—she had been exposed to radiation after the horrible tragedy of Hiroshima. She folded 644 of the 1,000 cranes intended to express her hope for happiness and a world of eternal peace. Her classmates finished the project, after which a statue was placed in the Hiroshima Peace Park to commemorate her strong spirit. Likewise, the children of Hill City will show their love and support through an initial gift of 1,000 paper cranes. These will provide the foundation for thousands of others. “As we adults are struggling to deal with this tragedy, our children are also going through major trauma. Art can help them heal,” Acott says. “There are many examples of how art has been used to help people recover from traumatic events in the past. The crane project is the vehicle we can use to help people who are so desperately in need of healing right now as a town, community, and country.”

The folded paper cranes will give Newtown resi-dents a tangible reminder of the love that is in the world. This is something that everyone from preschool to old age can understand and make.

ABOUT LORRI ACOTT A teacher for 25 years in elementary, junior high, and high school, Acott taught in both general and art classrooms. She also taught children with emotional and learning disabilities. “When I taught in the elementary school, I remember all the wonderful things the first grade teachers did to help kids understand the concept of 100,” she said. “They collected things all year long—they laid out bottle caps, jelly beans, and pennies, one by one, so that a hundred could really be understood.” As she folds practice cranes, in brightly colored origami squares, she asks, “What do a thousand prayers look like? What about ten thousand, or one hundred thousand, or a million? The only way we will know is by seeing them.” Prayers strung as paper cranes. The tiny village of Hill City in the Black Hills wants Newtown residents to know that more people love them than don’t, more people are good than bad, and although horrible things happen, there is still good in the world.

THE BIGGER PICTURE Acott also has created a bronze sculpture called Peace, which she hopes to donate to Sandy Hook Elementary School. The 15-foot female figure holds folded “paper” cranes over her head in a gesture of peace. [See photo on cover.] In collaboration with Hill City’s fine art foundry, Black Hills Bronze, Acott hopes to fund the project through Kickstarter. The team plans to include table-top-sized pieces for the families of the victims. This project is scheduled for mid-2013.

IMAGES: Cover photo of Acott’s Peace by Mark Anthony King; Previous page origami photo by Marie in NC (flickr.com); Following page photo by stickwithjosh (flickr.com); Origami diagrams by www.origami-fun.com.

Page 4: neWToWn 2013 - Dream Big Sculpture...2012/12/21  · origami cranes—embedded with drawings or written prayers, wishes, and personal messages—intended as physical representations

hoW To ParTICIPaTe If you would like to express your best wishes, and to fold your own origami paper crane, watch the video (link below) or use the attached instructions, which came from www.origami-fun.com. Please keep checking our Web sites below for uPDATES ON DELIVERY LOCATIONS for finished cranes. At first, we will assist Bethel High School with its goal of 26,000 cranes, but in coming weeks, Bethel and/or Newtown citizens might prefer that we send to a different location. For the last week of December and first week of January, send finished cranes to:

BETHEL HIGH SCHOOL, 300 WHITTLESEY DRIVE, BETHEL, CT 06801Phone: 203-794-8600

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Lorri Acott: [email protected]; www.dreambigsculpture.comHill City Arts Council: [email protected]; [email protected]; www.hillcityarts.org

South Dakota Arts Council: www.artscouncil.sd.govBlack Hills Bronze art foundry: [email protected]; www.blackhillsbronze.com

For a training video and detailed instructions on how to fold an origami crane:www.origami-instructions.com/origami-crane.html

For downloadable diagrams on how to fold an origami crane:www.origami-fun.com/origami-crane.html

Page 5: neWToWn 2013 - Dream Big Sculpture...2012/12/21  · origami cranes—embedded with drawings or written prayers, wishes, and personal messages—intended as physical representations

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