SWAMPSCOTT — A large-scale active art installation will take over Linscott Park in the hopes of spreading a peaceful message.
The International Day of Peace is Sept. 21 and the Swampscott school district, as well as the Johnson School in Nahant, is joining in on the initiative for the first time. Pinwheels for Peace is a “whirled”-wide peaceful art and literacy project that invites students and community members to share and illustrate positive messages.
“The point is the project is not just a Swampscott project, it’s worldwide …” said Rachel Eisenberg, art teacher for Clarke Elementary School and Hadley Elementary School. “I have wanted to do it for a couple years and I feel like, especially now during these times, it’s very important and timely. I feel like art can be so much more and bringing that to my students is important.”
The event is from 5-6:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 21 and is free to the public at Linscott Park. Food and drinks will be available for purchase but attendees are invited to bring their own dinner to enjoy picnic-style. In case of rain, the location will move to Swampscott High School.
Eisenberg said her young students, as well as the town’s high schoolers, have already started their own personal pinwheels with the use of lead pencils staked into the ground. The elementary-aged students are making their pinwheel tops with paper while the older students have been using a different material.
Once finished, their pieces will remain as an art installation at the park throughout the weekend. Eisenberg said she hopes community members will attend and add their own messages of peace. She is expecting to begin the event with at least 1,000 student pinwheels.
The purpose of the pinwheels is for the students to write a positive or peaceful message on one side of the pinwheel and illustrate an example of their message on the backside. Eisenberg said an example of that could be a student writing a message about being kind to a friend and drawing a picture of them providing the friend with a gift.
“We’ve been talking with the kids and saying it’s not just peace within ourselves, it’s within our homes and our community and the pinwheel is a representation of harmony and spreading peace,” she said. “Not just on this day, but everyday going forward.”
Some of the high schoolers have chosen to volunteer during the event in order to receive community service hours. Eisenberg said she wants the older students to become responsible citizens, given they are getting close to thinking about college and being old enough to vote. The younger students are at such an impressionable age, she said, it’s important for them to have strong role models.
“It’s really been a community effort because we have organizations like For the Love of Swampscott and PTAs from school who’ve been really generous, even parents from the community,” said Eisenberg. “It’s been pretty moving, actually. There’s something really remarkable about the whole thing and how everyone came together.”
