From Ice to Us
Greenville Area Community Foundation
Greenville, Michigan
The Flat River runs through the City of Greenville. The community has taken the opportunity to develop a trail system paralleling the river and looping through other parts of town to create a recreational asset. The trail runs through a tunnel under a busy highway in town, the site of this exhibit. Funding for the exhibit project was awarded to make recreational activities accessible to all people. The project was designed to work on many levels – tactile, visual, readers, children and adults. Physically, it needed to be temperature tolerant and vandal resistant. And, funds were limited.
The concept of a history of Greenville was determined in early thinking. Greenville history would be broken into four periods. Ceramic tile relief panels to illustrate each would be made by a Greenville area group – middle school, high school community college, and an artists’ association. Content guidance would be provided by Cranbrook Institute of Science.
The design was developed by leaders of the various groups facilitated and directed by Larry Hutchinson. The ceramic tiles were made during a work day at the community college where they were subsequently glazed and fired. A commercial tile company installed them in the tunnel.
Hutchinson Studios provided exhibit design and group facilitation, project management, and general guidance for this community-based project.
August 2011
