Channeling Peekskill's History through Community Mural Project

Peekskill’s rich history will soon be combined with its more recently established vibrant art seen with Sone Tower and Larry D’Amico’s mural project.

The two local artists are inviting community members to join them in painting a 12 by 16 foot mural featuring the image of a vintage postcard portraying a beautiful fountain in Depew Park, circa the 1880s, during four workshops over the next two weeks.

“This is an art town at this point so lets show it,” D’Amico said. “Beautification and integrating of art into the streetscape has been a long time goal for a number of artists in the city. We've been here for 20 years now and wanted to see this happen.”

D’Amico and Tower have been doing murals for more than 30 years. Over the last two years they did collaborative murals with an over 55 population. Those murals are displayed on the side of the library and courthouse buildings.

“I love looking at (them) when I walk across the street into work every morning,” Field Library Director Sibyl Canaan said. “Larry is all about beautifying Peekskill with public art!”

“It is a great community building process,” D’Amico said of the 2009 and 2010 murals, which brought about 20 Peekskillians together.

The two have led other group projects that pulled more than 500 participants at various school locations and at the Neuberger Museum.

This year’s project, funded by an ArtsAlive grant from ArtsWestchester, will become a permanent fixture on the corner of N. Division and Central streets and features a historical image of a fountain in

The image is from a postcard that belongs to Robert Barthelmes collection. “Barthelmes is a lifelong Peekskillian with an extensive antique postcard collection of the city, which he inherited from his father,” D’Amico said.

He has worked on other mural projects and currently has a show on of his now through the end of December at the Chappaqua Library.

“We had this in mind for 5 or 6 years. The previous murals were more fine art images but the idea of somehow integrating Peekskill history into the process was there. We all wanted to see this happen.”

Volunteers are invited to join the artists on four separate dates – Dec. 7, 10, 14 and 17 from noon to 4 p.m. to use high quality artists grade acrylic paint to create the masterpiece. The project will be coated with a UV inhibitive finish varnish. The public is invited to come help out for however long they’d like, a portion of a session or all four full sessions. The workshops are free and will take place at 901 South Street (the corner of South Street and Union Avenue, the old Field Library). No painting skills required.

I will be there this Wednesday, Dec. 7 from about 12 to 1 p.m. Please join me in helping to further beautify Peekskill and celebrate the city’s rich history. Or, just stop by and say hi.

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