On September 20, the Boston HarborArts Festival will overtake the Boston Harbor Shipyard & Marina in East Boston and showcase various art installations along the industrial piece of coastline. One of the headline masterpieces is Liz LaManche’s Connected By Sea, a tattoo stain of the entire 1,000-foot pier in the middle of the boating community. Designed as an exhibition of the numerous seafaring connections made by nationalities worldwide and Boston, Connected By Sea could use a little public support to keep telling Boston’s ancestral story.
LaManche launched a Kickstarter campaign in hopes of soliciting funds for various materials like paint and brushes, logistical costs like gas and tolls, and, of course, a small monetary sum to be paid for all of LaManche’s associate artists for their hard work and dedication.
The budget, as outlined on the Kickstarter page here, shows that LaManche needs the following in order to complete Connected By Sea by the HarborArts Festival on September 20:
- Sundry Materials $350.00
- Gas & Tolls $950.00
- Feed volunteers $1,250.00
- Honoraria for artists & advisors $850.00
(Subtotal $3,400.00) - Kickstarter percentage $170.00
- Credit Card percentage $178.00
- Rewards: $835
- Shipping: $300
Total needed: $4,373.00
I was lucky enough to catch LaManche in action back in August, and I can state with great authority that your generosity will not be going to waste. Connected By Sea tells a story of Boston’s past that’s not often described in textbooks or commissioned in monuments throughout the city.
Our history didn’t begin with colonization by the British, after all. Various cultures interacted with the natives of the Shawmut Peninsula, and most have left a lasting impact in some form or another, by consequene influencing our daily lives. LaManche’s 1,000-foot work is not just a composition of 14 sub-designs, it’s a roadmap of Boston’s lineage represented by ethic symbols.
The support alone they’ve received from the boating community of the Shipyard, LaManche told me, has been overwhelmingly positive. They’ve contributed time and elbow grease to help bring the HarborArts displays into fruition, but unfortunately that doesn’t pay the bills.
To learn more about LaManche’s effort, check out the Kickstarter pitch video above. She has 28 days left to reach her goal of $4,373 and has already raised $725 from 21 different backers. For more information on HarborArts Festival 2014, check out the website here.
$4,373 goal
