CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Jim Hurley of Cape Cod CAN! and Melinda Gallant, who is helping with the mosaic project, “Bringing Cape Cod Together Piece by Piece.
HYANNIS – The Cape Cod Collaborative Arts Network, also known as Cape Cod CAN!, has several projects in the works, including a major mosaic art work entitled “Bringing Cape Cod Together Piece by Piece” that will be installed at the Hyannis Transportation Center.
According to Jim Hurley of Cape Cod CAN!, “The arts help to dispel myths about ability and disability. Shared art experiences can build our communities in a way that nothing else can. It’s amazing the potential we can uncover when more people are included and the shifts it can precipitate in a community.”
The mosaic is an 8 foot by 9 foot mixed-medial mural of Cape Cod, consisting of nearly 300 six inch square tiles. It has been created through the collaborative efforts of 150 creative individuals living with disabilities, their affiliated organizations, as well as local artists, teachers and businesses.
CapeCodCAN! Art Director Tessa D’Agostino and Mural Consultant Cris Reverdy are the leaders of the project.
The mosaic has been assembled initially into five distinct segments representing geographical areas of Cape Cod and put on temporary display at five different Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank branch offices.
This project will culminate in an unveiling ceremony of the full, unified mosaic in a permanent public display at the Cape Cod Regional Transportation Authority at the Hyannis Transportation Center in Hyannis. The ceremony is scheduled for June 24, at 4 p.m. All are welcome.
Cape Cod CAN! is dedicated to inclusive arts, music, and theater for people with disabilities on Cape Cod..
The genesis of Cape Cod Collaborative Arts Network—CapeCodCAN! dates back to Valentine’s Day 2005, when a little boy named Roan, six months old at the time, endured a brain and eye injury which changed his life and the life of his family forever.
COURTESY CAPE COD CAN!
However, Roan was born with an indomitable spirit and a love of music which have endured and transcend his injury. That spirit infects everyone whom he meets. It inspired his retired grandfather, Jim Hurley, to look for volunteer opportunities here on the Cape.
While attending a Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts meeting being held at the Cotuit Center for the Arts, Hurley was asked what he would like to do. He mentioned outreach as a possibility, having both a theater and business background. When a young man at the meeting, recovering from a brain injury, heard the word theater, he said that he had been in a production at Cape Cod Community College several years before and that it had helped his memory, speech, and self esteem.
For Hurley, this was the “Aha” moment, when sitting in a building dedicated to the visual and performing arts and hearing the impact such arts can have on people with disabilities, the idea of Cape Cod CAN! was born.
Since that time, Hurley’s many discussions, meetings, and involvement among numerous Cape Cod people and organizations working with people with disabilities, plus interactions with inspirational groups throughout the country, have led to the Cape Cod Collaborative Arts Network – CapeCodCAN!
The network is dedicated to providing opportunities for access, inclusion, and active participation in the literary, visual, and performing arts for people with disabilities on Cape Cod.
COURTESY CAPE COD CAN!
It is estimated that 11% of the population in Massachusetts are people with disabilities, 13% are over 65 and experiencing the loss of vision, hearing and mobility associated with aging. That’s 1.6 million people in Massachusetts alone. And with the aging population on the Cape the numbers are even higher.
Over the last three years, CapeCodCAN! collaborative programs have provided hundreds of people with disabilities the chance to directly participate in the arts and exposed large audiences to the capabilities of this population.
Collaborating organizations have included: Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts, Cape Abilities, Cape Organization for Rights of the Disabled (CORD), Community Connections, Community Support Associates (CSA), Esprit Partnership for Independence, Habilitation Assistance Corporation (HAC), LIFE–Living Independently Forever, Independence Farm, Paleamon House. Plan It Network, Inc., Riverview School, and Towards Greater Independence.
Listen below to Jim Hurley and Melinda Gallant discuss Cape Cod CAN! and the mosaic project, “Bringing Cape Cod Together Piece by Piece.”
