The How to Create a School Sculpture Garden Manual

Principal Neil Campeas begins the groundbreaking ceremony.

Art Club members and Art Teacher Kathy Catanese our ambassadors at Groundbreaking.

Sculptor Isaac Witkin with student designers at Groundbreaking.

Graduate Jill Lydon and Art teacher Kathy Catanese discuss the team designs as shown in the background.

Hamilton's Mayor Glenn Gilmore questions a student about the garden model.

Mayor Gilmore expresses his excitement about the quality of the student ideas and projects.

Administrators and teachers come together to celebrate the garden.

Carol Sterling of ISC addresses the Groundbreaking audience.

Introducing team members at groundbreaking.

Principal Neil Campeas thanks GFS partners with the North Star Community Partnership award.

17. EVENTS

Groundbreaking, Dedication, and Others

There are many opportunities for public participation throughout the design and construction phases of the sculpture garden as well as opportunities for use upon completion of the garden. The first of these is groundbreaking. Aside from the formal dedication, this is perhaps the most important event you can sponsor. Groundbreaking sets the tone of your project. We have listed some ideas below for you to consider. Opportunity is not limited to what we suggest.

• For any event the potential guest list should be compiled as early as possible. Let others look at your completed list to determine who may have been inadvertently overlooked. Start your list with elected officials in your community. Do not assume that they are too busy to attend the function. Consider asking them to address your assembled group. An added bonus to having elected officials attend is that when you contact local media for coverage, they (the media) may ask for the names of some of your invitees. This can mean the difference between media attention and no media attention. At Nottingham, we planned the groundbreaking event using the school calendar without checking the municipal calendar. We selected the date of the primary elections. Even so, our Mayor, Glen Gilmore, attended and spoke. Do not overlook school officials. Start with the Superintendent of Schools, Board of Education members, and Central Office Administrators. Make sure that included on your list of invitees is everyone who has given you a donation, no matter how small. Send an invitation to each of your building staff as well. Include an RSVP on your invitation. While everyone will not respond, enough will to provide an estimate for planning seating and refreshments.
• If you are planning your event in the garden itself, plan either an alternate date or venue in case of inclement weather. We selected an alternate location for our groundbreaking ceremony. It rained so our program was conducted in the school media center and refreshments and displays were set up in an adjacent hallway. We moved to the garden site only for the actual groundbreaking ceremony.
• Plan your program in advance. Make sure that all speakers know the order of events and are prepared to speak.
• Set up displays at groundbreaking. If you have formed organizational partnerships invite the organizations to set out materials or a banner. Place student designs and models on display. We matted photographs of the furniture and decorative items we were purchasing for the garden. We also decorated a shovel by painting it with our school colors for groundbreaking. An alternative would be to have a shovel-decorating contest for groundbreaking. This would offer another opportunity for individual students and/or clubs to become involved in the project.

For your consideration, the following is the outline for our groundbreaking event:

Program

• Introductions by Nottingham High School Principal
• Recognition of guests and sponsors
  • Legislators
  • Hamilton Township Mayor Glenn Gilmore
  • Hamilton Superintendent of Schools, Mr. Neil Bencivenco
  • Hamilton Central Office Administrators
  • Hamilton Board of Education members
  • PTSA President
  • Partners
    • International Sculpture Center
    • Grounds For Sculpture
    • Nottingham High School Community
  • Members of the Sculpture Garden Advisory Committee
  • Individual Donors
  • Staff
  • Parents
  • Students
  • Friends
• Introduction of the President and Executive Director of the International Sculpture Center to speak about the mission of ISC
• Introduction of the Curator of Grounds For Sculpture to speak about the importance of community interaction and involvement
• ISC staff on how the project began and where it is going
• GFS as a catalyst for creativity
• Recognition of Nottingham's association with GFS and ISC
• Recognition of student accomplishments
• Student thoughts on the garden
• Announcement of student sculpture
• Groundbreaking
• Thank you by Nottingham Principal

Garden dedication can follow a similar format as the groundbreaking. In place of actually digging, consider unveiling a perpetual plaque that lists donors and their level of participation in the project. This plaque could also list the official name of the garden.

Ongoing events provide an additional challenge. Make sure to include your events on your building's facility use calendar. Ongoing governance of the garden is discussed in another section of this manual. (See Maintenance and Governance)

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