March 29, 2024

Greater Attleboro MLK Service to feature the Community Circle Project

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On Monday, Jan. 20, 2020, at 2 p.m., the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Committee of Greater Attleboro will host the Community Circle Project, a collaborative art making session created by local artist Sandy Coleman to celebrate unity.

The project, with funding from the Attleboro Cultural Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, is part of the committee’s MLK holiday programming. The day’s events begin with a ceremony at Attleboro City Hall, 77 Park St., Attleboro, at 1 p.m., and continue with a 2 p.m. interfaith service featuring the Community Circle Project at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 1 Power St., Norton, MA.

The theme of this year’s service is “Breaking through Bias: Accepting Our Differences,” and will present author, educator, and historian Joel Christian Gill as keynote speaker, hip-hop violinist Big Lux, and soloist Lisa Stevenson. The Bishop Feehan High School Jazz Choir will perform at City Hall before the service. Guests of the interfaith service will be invited to paint and write on circles that will become part of a large-scale painting illustrating community connection and unity.

The Community Circle Project was created and is led by Attleboro artist Sandy Coleman. It seeks to connect participants through art making that focuses on common goals for good. “We all want good things for ourselves and our community. This project will be an illustration of that desire and a reminder that we can creatively work together to bring forth beauty,” Coleman said. “The circle is universally recognized in every culture as a symbol of unity.”

The circles will later be incorporated into a large-scale painting completed by artist Sandy Coleman and revealed at a public event in Attleboro. The final painting will be displayed in at least one location in Attleboro. The painting is currently set to be displayed at Attleboro City Hall and the Attleboro Public Library.

“The art project encourages connection through a shared experience and group reflection on good. It also shows all participants that they have the power to be creative in simple ways that matter—in art as well as in life,” Coleman said. “Even doing something small like painting or writing on a circle, combined with the work of others who have the same goal can lead to something large, beautiful and impactful such as a painting to take pride in and enjoy.”

Coleman, who mainly works in mixed media, is a member of the Attleboro Arts Museum Board of Directors; has taught art classes at the museum since 2015; has created and led several collaborative experiences for various groups, including doodling, vision board workshops, a yearlong painting project and a collaborative circle painting project for a business retreat. (Visit creationsbycoleman.com to see her work.)

For more information, contact Ethel Garvin at mlkgreaterattleboro@gmail.com 

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Attleboro Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

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