ALLENTOWN – The first phase of a collaborative outdoor art project was recently completed by three organizations in an effort to create a “sense of place” throughout Allentown.
Representatives of the Allentown Village Initiative (AVI), the Upper Freehold Regional School District and the borough noted the completion of six wooden figures that will be displayed throughout town.
According to the AVI, the idea for the winter season project, which features six handcrafted characters representing different points in history, grew out of similar projects in other municipalities.
The AVI, which was created in August 2013, is a volunteer organization made up of residents who want to rejuvenate historic Allentown by undertaking various projects.
“One thing we are trying to do is to get people to enjoy walking around and having a good time in Allentown,” AVI Vice President Ann Garrison said.
Garrison said Upper Freehold Regional School District Superintendent of Schools Richard Fitzpatrick joined the project in a leadership role, while school district employees John Sorensen and Artie Wescott cut and constructed the six figures out of marine plywood.
To give each character a personality, Allentown resident Alice Wikoff spent hundreds of hours painting the characters with the assistance of fellow resident Karen Dahms.
“Alice actually painted one of the characters to resemble someone she knew as a child,” Garrison said. “She even named them.”
The six wooden characters were installed with the help of residents Ed, Justin, Joan and Julianne Sitler; Caitlin and Christian Nicoletta; Kim O’Rourke; Jeff and Martha Ploshay; Bill Mehegan; and Garrison.
According to Garrison, AVI plans to continue the project in the future with different community members contributing to the design and work that goes into each figure.
“We are going to do this for a number of years, so hopefully we will be able to get a lot more [figures],” she said. “Hopefully, over the years this will involve a lot of people so they become more interested in how the town looks.”
Garrison said the AVI is hoping the figures will prove to have more than an aesthetic appeal for Allentown’s downtown area.
“We have learned that the most important thing is to get feet on the street when it comes to the downtown,” Garrison said. “Anything we can do to accomplish that is a good idea.”