Recruiting for Utopia exhibit at Fruitlands looks to the past and the present – Worcester Telegram

HARVARD Nestled in the woods of Harvard is a message waiting to be discovered: Hope is the watchword now.

These words of Bronson Alcott flutter on a printed banner near the entrance to Fruitlands Museum. Flapping in the wind on large banners throughout the grounds are the words of other transcendentalists, too, utopians and some contemporary philosophers.

Jane Marsching, the 2020 artist-in-residence at Fruitlands Museum, is creating outdoors her interpretation of the newest exhibit indoors.

Recruiting for Utopia: Print and the Imagination, which opened Sept. 5, is an exhibit in two distinct parts. There is a historical collection and a contemporary collection of visual artifacts.

Shana Dumont Garr, curator at Fruitlands, explained the overall premise of the exhibit: To look at New England in two specific time periods: the 1840s and 2019-2020. And to explore how print and design helped express peoples worries and their desires to make the world a better place.

When we think of utopia in this way it was peoples imaginings of what was good, said Dumont Garr. Utopia has meant different things to different people.

In the1840s there were various ideologies competing for the attention of New Englanders. Since there was no internet to share memes, visual representations of complex ideas and concepts were created to spread particular beliefs.

For a little background, 1843 is the year that Bronson Alcott, educator, reformer and father of "Little Women" author Louisa May Alcott, tried unsuccessfully to establish Fruitlands, the experimental utopian community.

About that same time William Miller, a farmer turned preacher, who was born in Pittsfield, prophesied the return of Christ, the end of the world and the 1843 ascension of the true believers to heaven utopia. Miller was a charismatic speaker who gained followers across many social sectors. The Millerites were aligned with the temperance and abolitionist movements and they were encouraged to help others prepare to be worthy to ascend into heaven.

At large outdoor gatherings called tent revivals, Miller would preach to hundreds of people. To help spread the word, large-scale banners printed on linen were hung from the tent depicting timelines of real historical events, blended with scripture from the Old Testament. There were also frightening images of mythical beasts and lots of mathematical calculations. Instilling fear of an apocalypse was an important aspect of Millers proselytizing.

Miller successfully recruited many followers with his persuasive speaking and his didactic visuals. Flyers and pamphlets were printed and distributed and newspapers were sold to further promote his teachings.

The Millerites were only one of many Protestant organizations during this time of resurgent religious fervor. The Shakers in nearby Harvard believed that living a life of simplicity and perfection in all their endeavors would produce a utopia on Earth. They are known for their fine craftsmanship and innovation, but on display in this exhibit are writings devoted to their spirituality.

Shaker Sister Sarah Bates secretly documented in ink on paper her spiritual communications using detailed biblical symbols and text. It was kept secret, rolled up in a drawer, because creating two dimensional art was forbidden in the Shaker faith.

Also on display are handmade and printed ephemera from the Freemasons, the Phrenologists (practitioners of a pseudoscience who claimed they could discern a persons character from the shape of the skull), and various flyers concerned with the urgent issues of the times.

I am hoping that it will be reassuring for people to see that in 1840s New England, it wasnt just farmers who all got along and lived a simple life. There were conflicting ideas and life was just as complicated then, said Dumont Garr.

Today, even with the internet to digitally spread content, there is still a place for the printed word. Think about the signs we have all seen for the Black Lives Matter and Hate Has No Home Here movements, or Greta Thurnbergs Skolstrejk fr klimatet (School Strike for Climate). These powerful messages have spread organically with simply printed yard signs.

The contemporary part of the exhibit is an eclectic collection of printed materials, pamphlets, street signs, posters, zines and a comic book, all created within the past few years by diverse artists. These physical documents highlight issues as varied as the slave market at Faneuil Hall, saving the U.S. Postal Service, the repatriation of sensitive objects belonging to indigenous peoples, and the interface of beekeeping and environmental injustice.

This is not the singular, precious, one-of-a-kind type of artwork destined to hang on the wall of a museum, viewed only by people who have the privilege of visiting that place. These works were intended to be distributed, to convey a message and to recruit others who support the message, building a community in the process.

Paige Johnston, an art historian and co-curator for the contemporary portion of Recruiting for Utopia, explained the value of making art to be distributed. It is a very democratic art form. You can make it out of inexpensive materials, whether that is by photocopying or by hand stitching on paper you have made yourself out of old clothes. There is a level of economic and monetary accessibility.

And Marsching, the artist-in-residence, is creating banners that flutter in the breeze at Fruitlands just as the Millerite banners would have done in the mid-1800s. Marsching is a visual multidisciplinary artist, a professor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a climate change activist. For her project, Utopian Press, she uses bark and acorns foraged on the grounds of Fruitlands to make the ink for the 3-by-30-foot banners hung from trees.

Her ink is steeped in a passive solar oven that she made herself. Marsching designed and built a portable backpack letterpress that can be carried out onto the trails at Fruitlands for groups to collaboratively create the banners onsite and hang them from the trees. Marschings banners visually recreate the words and ideas of the utopians.

"Recruiting for Utopia" runs through March 21, 2021. While visiting Fruitlands, do not miss the exquisite work of Boston painter Polly Thayer Starr. Also on view are some of Starrs personal items and journals.

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Recruiting for Utopia exhibit at Fruitlands looks to the past and the present - Worcester Telegram