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Jamestown Anvil Picnic Table Project is helping to bring a community and CU �鶹ӰԺ together

Artists, engineers, designers, chefs, elementary school students and teachers do not often work together. But Martha Russo, art instructor at the �鶹ӰԺ, has found a way to get all sorts of people involved in a public art project centered on building a picnic table.

Students take a moment to relax as they build a picnic table shaped like an anvil for Jamestown, which has a tradition of launching an anvil into the sky each Fourth of July. Photo courtesy of Martha Russo.

Last fall, CU �鶹ӰԺ offered a class called “Art: Aesthetics to Engineering” that combined student artists, engineers and environmental designers to encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration. As a part of the class, students Graham Thompson, Laura Smith, Julie Stauffer and Natalie Bognanno worked with Michael Beitz, an assistant professor in the art and art history department, to build a picnic table shaped like an anvil for Jamestown, a small mountain town 10 miles northwest of �鶹ӰԺ.

The inspiration for the table, Russo explains, comes from the Jamestown tradition of shooting an anvil into the sky every Fourth of July. The student artists, designers and engineers from CU �鶹ӰԺ worked on the table itself, and Jamestown Elementary School added the final touches. Under the guidance of the art teachers Beth Brotherton and Lee Massey-Heekin, the 23 elementary students painted the benches that surround the table.

The table was made possible by with private support after �鶹ӰԺ County’s 2013 floods, which hit Jamestown particularly hard. The funding was intended to help the town to make something that would help the community heal. 

And the Jamestown community has embraced the project. The CU �鶹ӰԺ students worked with �鶹ӰԺ artist Rebecca DiDomenico and the chef of the Mercantile Cafe, Rainbow Shultz, to organize a sit-down dinner for 55 members of the Jamestown and CU �鶹ӰԺ communities.

“Your students gave our town such a gift… one that we really needed as we have make our way back since the flood,” said Val Fike, a Jamestown resident.

This project is one in a series of artistic tables designed and made under the direction of Beitz. His art practice focuses on ideas about tables, space and bringing communities together. His large-scale works are exhibited nationally and internationally, including in Europe, South America and Russia. 

A sketch of the anvil table.

For the CU �鶹ӰԺ students, by the end of the semester-long class, the artists, designers and engineers began to better appreciate each other’s fields.

“When everyone came to class the first day, we were all a bit nervous,” says Russo. “The artists and designers haven’t been around many engineers, and the engineers haven’t been around many artists. By the end of the class, the students realized that their worlds are not all that different. The common denominators are that everyone likes to problem solve, make stuff and, ultimately, work together. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to bring this type of curriculum to CU �鶹ӰԺ and out into the community at large.”

Russo received her bachelor’s degree in developmental biology and psychology from Princeton University before earning a MFA from the �鶹ӰԺ in 1995. She is a practicing visual artist and a CU instructor who teaches interdisciplinary classes with students from the Art and Art History Department, College of Engineering and the Environmental Design Program. 

The anvil picnic table will be placed in Elysian Park, the big park in the heart of Jamestown, on May 21.