A group of former residents at Belchertown State School has teamed up to reclaim a piece of troubling and personal history through an art project at the site of the former institution.
Earlier this year, the six former residents began planning a mural to be installed on the land around the remains of the former school. The Belchertown State School for the Feeble-Minded was established in 1922 as an institution for children with intellectual disabilities and became the site of serious human rights violations. It was closed 70 years later in 1992 after public criticism and a series of lawsuits that began in 1972.
As the grounds continue to be redeveloped, former residents have found a way to publicly address its painful history.
“You know, the history of the Belchertown State School, that’s what I think of when I think of a problematic space,” said Tess Mathewson, a grant writer from the Belchertown Justice Collaborative, who helped come up with the idea. “We’ve never addressed it, it’s on town property, and it’s being redone and we’ve never talked about anything.”
The art installation will consist of six paintings on free-standing wooden frames. Each piece will be individualized to one of the six former residents and panelists working on the project. Each panelist worked to decide on a design that they thought was meaningful to them. All the designs will be painted by artist James Blackmore, who is on the panel and will have a painting specific to himself, as well.
“I want to paint people,” Blackmore said during an interview with three of the panelists last Wednesday.
Richard Dresser, a panelist and former resident, says he wants his piece of the mural to depict himself standing with a person in a wheelchair, to represent the disabled people that he’s worked with during his time in the institution and in his adult life.
Russel Daniel, a member of the panel and former resident, wants his painting to be of himself in the school’s kitchen because that was a significant location for him. “I used to work in the kitchen,” he said.
Dresser is hoping that the mural will bring awareness to the site’s history.
“I always tell people, ‘Hey, we need to put this out to the public and let people know what it was like and the things that really happened,’” he said.
The project is financed by a grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts, called the “Public Art for Spatial Justice” grant.
“The grant wanted to assist artists of color in reclaiming some very problematic space, historically,” said Mathewson, of the Belchertown Justice Collaborative.
Cory Brown is a caseworker at Almadan Inc., an agency that offers support to individuals with mental or physical disabilities. He had several other clients who had been residents at the institution and wanted to participate in planning the mural.
“Having their voice able to be heard and knowing that this is going to be at the state school is important,” Brown said. “Maybe, one day, some of the clientele who aren’t able to speak up will be able just to go to this mural and just kind of see, like, OK we do have some people who are able to speak about this for the community to know what went on.”
The mural is just one part of a project called Reflections: Public Art Honoring Lives Lived at Belchertown State School, which will feature several different types of art from the former residents, including a play, sculpture installations and a book trail, featuring stories about the life in the institution.
Massachusetts Cultural Council and Belchertown Cultural Council are both helping fund the initiative and it’s organized through the Belchertown Community Alliance.
The project comes as the site of the state school is being renovated by MassDevelopment. So far, the area has a new assisted living facility called Christopher Heights and an early childhood education center called Belchertown Day School, which opened its doors in September 2020.
The official showcase is planned for Aug. 14, but the art will remain up until Sep. 14. The art installations are expected to be visible from Carriage Drive, Berkshire Avenue and Front Street.
Sarah Maroney, the board grant manager at the Belchertown Community Alliance, hopes that the Reflections project will help bring positive change to the space.
“It will promote welcoming people back into the area and show them what it has to offer,” she said.