DO YOU HAVE 15 MINUTES ONCE A WEEK? South End Wire Sculptor, Will Corcoran Has Installed a New Local/Focus Display in the Library's Window

Recent studies have shown that the power of being read to at any age changes the brain’s chemistry in such a way that the power of recall is greatly enhanced. Will Corcoran can still vividly remember the books read to him by his mother for fifteen minutes, once a week, fifty years ago. Corcoran is a South End artist whose wire sculptures have been on display for years in front of his home, at the corner of Pembroke Street and Warren Avenue. All outside pieces are made of hex wire. Some art works are ‘spinners’ which literally (spin) in the breeze. Most Installs happen at noon when the collective buzz of people, nature, trucks and taxis create a breeze that bring them to life. The collective movement of the city becomes an integral part of the piece.

Sculptures are changed twice a month year-round. “Kids wait and wonder about the next install,” he says. For most interior pieces aluminum screening is used. This affords a transparent   effect by day and solid sculptures at night, “with amazing shadows,” he says.

Corcoran creates his works standing at a table in the bay window of his home overlooking Harriet Tubman Park. “The screening material is delicate to work with,” he says. “It is unforgiving and evanescent, much like the energy of the street scene below. There are patterns of light and dark that come and go and are never repeated the same way. Loud music floats up from moving cars. Motorcycles hum at the red light. There’s a dry cleaner’s, a liquor store, an ATM, a convenience store, a restaurant, a park: The buzz!”

The artist "tumbled into" wire sculpture a few years ago, and has participated in shows in Provincetown, Truro, and in various locations in Boston, including SoWa. He previously displayed his work in the Tremont Street window of the South End library in April 2016, in an exhibit inspired by the tales of Edgar Allen Poe and the Brothers Grimm. You can follow his spinners, yard mobiles, and more on Twitter (PembrokeYeah!), Instagram (will02118), or his website  www.willcorcoran.com

 “ So pick up a classic and read to someone you Love”

 Local/Focus is a program sponsored by the Friends of the South End Library to connect the South End branch of the BPL with local artists, non-profit institutions and creative entrepreneurs through informative and interesting installations in the library’s Tremont Street window(s).

The South End Knitters Strike Again with a Street Art Installation for June that Celebrates the Culture of Bikes, Books, Colors and Fiber in the Library’s Tremont Street Windows

The fabulous South End Knitters have installed their first exhibit in the Tremont Street windows of the South End library, a show that features a popular urban art form that counterveils the often harsh contours of our public streets’ furniture to give it a more welcoming, exciting and colorful profile. They are part of a legacy of guerilla, graffiti and stealth knitters that can be traced to Magda Sayeg, whose work with the group Knitta Please (founded in Houston in 2005) is credited with bringing sewing from the domestic circle to the street. 

Describing themselves as urban artists, the  South End Knitters’ vibrant fiber creations have beautified local fences, lamp and bicycle posts for years. The artful geometric patterns and  fiber-teased pom-poms covering the knitted bike frame in the library’s Tremont Street window combine with a quilt-shaped seat and fabric-patched bike lock, paying homage to what was generally considered a domestic form of art now claiming its rightful place in art on display in the public square.

Also known as yarn bombers, the  group participated in the deCordova Museum Biennial in 2012 for which the press release read, “When they secretly slip their colorful hand-sewn creations on fences, statues, street signs, hydrants, bicycles, and buses under cover of darkness, they humanize and prettify the urban realm; they decorate, swaddle, and in some cases, protect. They call attention to the forms they cover and remind us about our relationship to our surroundings in ways that seem far more innocuous and temporary than their painted graffiti counterparts.”

The South End Knitters are a revolving group of fiber artists of all ages, female and male, who gather in various public spaces and informal restaurants to knit, crochet and sew. Once-upon-a-time they met at Flour Bakery + Cafe on Washington Street, but more recently they have come to the Prudential Center across from the Post Office, or b.good on Dartmouth Street on Thursdays after work.  

This installation will be up for the next few weeks. It is one of a series of Tremont Street window exhibits of the Local/Focus project sponsored by the Friends of the South End Library to visually connect the library community with local artists, non-profits and creative entrepreneurs.

Ray Brown, "Talkin' Birds" Radio Host and NPR "Weekend Edition" Contributor, Will Present a Slide Show about Bird Migration, Thursday, September 22, at 6:30 PM, to accompany a Local/Focus Window

Poster design by Mary Owens

Next Thursday, September 22, at 6:30 PM, the South End branch will be open to host a remarkable slide show by Talkin' Birds show host, Ray Brown, whose illuminating bird commentary is a regular feature on NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon on Saturday mornings. Brown, who also is a radio host on the classical music station WCRB and a well-known WGBH-TV and radio fundraiser, is a longtime South End resident. In The Magic of Migration, he will answer what he imagines may be among your birding questions: Why do birds migrate? How do they decide when — and where — to go? How do they find their way? And, is it true that one bird species has been known to fly more than 7,000 miles…non-stop? Brown will also address the many threats to birds, both during migration and on their breeding and wintering grounds, and what we can all do to help birds survive.

Urban birding display with nests made by birds and by students at the Children's Art Centre

The bird-migration slide show accompanies the Urban Birding exhibit currently on display in the Tremont Street window of the South End library, a collaboration between USES's  Children's Arts Centre on Rutland Street and Mass. Audubon's Boston Nature Center (BNC). The latest Local Focus project is the fifth one sponsored by FOSEL to showcase local artists, creative entrepreneurs and non-profits in the library's prominent window spaces. For the September exhibit, students in the CAC Vacation Arts program visited the Mattapan bird sanctuary on the former grounds of Boston State Hospital, and studied birds and the ways in which they build and maintain their nests. Inspired by their visit, the children made their own nests from natural and studio materials. Their creations, as well as nests made by actual, birds are featured in the library window.

The event is free. We serve refreshments. Seating is limited. The South End library is fully handicapped accessible. 

Mass Audubon is generously offering reduced-rate annual memberships to the South End library's patrons, which provides free access to all Mass Audubon wildlife sanctuaries and a variety of other discounts. Membership forms are available at the library.