Salem Preservation presents Art in McPark!
Preservation members who gathered to check out the Alan Freed portrait included, from left, Arlene K. Schwartz, David K. Schwartz, Ginger Grilli, Jeane Hendricks, John (Jack) Gilbert, Cathie Clizbe, and Kelli Bush.
Melissa Thompson was engaged by Preservation’s McCulloch Park committee to bring her unique artistic talents to this project.
Preservation members who gathered to check out the Alan Freed portrait included, from left, Arlene K. Schwartz, David K. Schwartz, Ginger Grilli, Jeane Hendricks, John (Jack) Gilbert, Cathie Clizbe, and Kelli Bush.
Melissa Thompson was engaged by Preservation’s McCulloch Park committee to bring her unique artistic talents to this project.
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Some Salem Preservation members recently paid a visit to the nearly complete updated and revised McCulloch Park in downtown Salem.
The park is tucked between Burchfield Trace which displays internationally acclaimed artwork of Salemite Charles Burchfield to the south behind the Timberlanes Complex and the park's beautifully arched wrought iron entrance along East State to the north. It is getting its finishing touches in the next few weeks. Melissa Thompson was engaged by Preservation's McCulloch Park committee to bring her unique artistic talents to this project.
Thompson said she does not usually approach her art work from a "face down to the ground position." It gave her a whole new perspective, because her subjects are usually upright and straight ahead.
The Salem Preservation committee decided to call the the stage in McCulloch Park "The Alan Freed Stage" because he was a local Salem High School graduate who made Salem known as the home of Alan Freed, the man who made the term "Rock 'n Roll"Roll" known worldwide. "AJ" as his friends knew him, was a 1940 graduate of Salem High School. He had bands while in high school. Some of his band members are still in Salem and have some very interesting tales to tell about "AJ" and their antics in Salem.
Salem Preservation projects which area residents can see locally are the Historic Reilly Banners along East Pershing in front of Sebo Stadium and Reilly Schoo and the Historic Reilly Dedication Gardens inside the stadium with their marble benches, memorial stones and bricks in the name of friends, families and classmates. They may also enjoy the "Purple Grape." Salem Preservation paid for the painting of the Ruth Smucker House --home of the Salem Federation of Women's Clubs along South Broadway in "historically correct" colors of the era. For more information about Salem Preservation go to www.salempreservationsociety.org