FEATURED ARTS
Classic Tale Inspires Kimball Jenkins Show
Written By Kelly Sennott (ksennott@hippopress.com)
Images: Courtesy Photo
This winter and spring, the Kimball Jenkins School of Art turns into Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland, which kids (and adults) can see during self-led tours or its Alice in Wonderland Tea Party Series.
Rachel Young curated the show, which includes illustrations by art teacher Sylvia Brofos and an installation of items that help tell Alice’s story. Young was inspired by the popularity of the school’s fairy house festival and her favorite childhood book. The hope is to attract both boys and girls.
“Personally, when I was a little girl, I would have absolutely loved it. My grandmother and I would have Alice in Wonderland tea parties all the time,” Young said. “It’s easy for any little girl to come to a fairy tea party, but Alice in Wonderland is more universal.”
The show is like a visual walking tour of the book throughout four of the school’s rooms, starting with the rabbit hole at the entrance. Here, viewers will find a mish-mash of items hanging on the walls and ceiling, including framed paintings, photos, maps and an upside down chair, which Alice passes by as she falls.
Under the stairs is a long, shrinking hallway lined with a black and white tiled floor and a variety of door knobs to choose from. The Red Queen’s room contains a mirror scattered with playing cards and a tree of white and red roses, and the Mad Hatter’s workshop houses Victorian-esque props, from quills to old books. To create the illusion of a disappearing Cheshire Cat, Kimball Jenkins staff member Eleanor Poirier drew him on a mirror.
The installation was put together after shopping trips at Showcase Consignments, the Concord Antique Gallery and the Concord Auction Center in New Hampshire, and the Winsmith Mill Market and Remarkable Estate Cleanouts in Massachusetts.
All four of the transformed rooms contain Brofos’s illustrations — 23 pen and ink, two color — which were inspired by the Alice in Wonderland originals by John Tenniel. They’ll be accompanied by text from the book and contain characters like the Cheshire Cat, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Red Queen, the Caterpillar and the Garden of Live Flowers. During tea parties, kids color printed versions.
Brofos began drawing this summer. At the time of her phone interview, she was working on her final illustration: a 40- by 30-inch watercolor of the “enormously ugly” Jabberwock, which will hang over the fireplace. For her, it was a chance to go back and admire the story and the artwork that goes along with it.
“The people who wrote this book and illustrated it were geniuses,” Brofos said via phone. “I had a lot of fun doing it.”
Alice in Wonderland Tea Party Series
Where: Kimball Jenkins School of Art, 266 N. Main St., Concord
When: Sunday, Feb. 19, Sunday, March 19, and Sunday, May 14, from 2 to 4 p.m.
Admission: Pre-registration is required; tickets are $10
What: The tea parties will include refreshments, storytelling, crafts, hot cocoa; all children must be accompanied by a participating adult.
Or just see the show: Call 225-3932 before your visit.