Susan Dickenson

Market Centennial Celebration Mural acquired by High Point Museum

The Centennial Celebration Mural, a unique work of art that captures and illustrates the memories of High Point Market guests, has been acquired by the High Point Museum for the Museum’s permanent collection.  

Commissioned by the High Point Market Authority to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the High Point Market this year, and created by Greensboro, N.C.-based artist David Stanley, the mural celebrates great moments enjoyed by Market guests over the years, as well as the entrepreneurs and innovators who created and nurtured the remarkable institution. Featuring 65 illustrations, the mural stretches across four, six-foot high panels and is rendered in Polaroid, pencil, wax pencil, acrylic and oil on masonite.

“The mural is a very important piece that we are thrilled to add to our collection,” said Edith W. Brady, director of the High Point Museum. “The High Point Market is so important to this City, and such an important part of our collective history and heritage. This work provides unique insight into the Market, and seeing it will help visitors both from High Point, and from around the world, gain a better understanding of the Market itself and its significance to High Point. Additionally, it’s a wonderful complement to our recently opened Furniture Heritage Exhibit which encompasses the entire lower exhibit gallery of our Museum and artifacts from the former Furniture Discovery Center.”

Begun at Spring Market 2009, the Centennial Celebration mural combines the in-the-moment vitality of a Polaroid snapshot with a dynamic illustration style to depict the High Point Market as the one place that brings together the products, people, information and ideas that shape the industry.

“The High Point Market has been an integral part of thousands of home furnishings professionals’ lives for generations, so it was important to us from the start that the Centennial be a participative celebration,” said Brian D. Casey, president and chief executive office of the High Point Market Authority. “To create the mural, each day during the Spring and Fall Markets, the artist and a team of photographers and interviewers were stationed on the walkway between SHOWPLACE and the International Home Furnishings Center. They collected snapshots, memories and anecdotes from Market-goers which the artist then interpreted before everyone’s eyes to create a truly unique, interactive work of art.”

The memories and images they were able to capture are at turns poignant, funny, and truly arresting, and the experience, the artist said, allowed him to “see right into the soul of the Market. It’s the people and the stories that they carry with them, that they build on, little by little, twice each year, year after year, that really make up the molecular structure of what the High Point Market is all about,” he said. “And it can only be that way because the Market is one century old, and it takes time, and love, commitment and routine to build that kind of foundation. I feel very privileged that I was able to step in from the outside and get to see into the very heart of what drives the Market and really makes it tick.

“My hat is off to the High Point Market Authority for having the guts to undertake this project in the first place, to step out and say, ‘Let’s do something different, something that is interactive, in real time, with no five-second delay, so to speak… something that has really never been done before. Everyone involved in the project knew that it was going to be challenging working out in the elements, onsite, in real time, surrounded by people, with noise and distractions. In creating the work, I was impressed, challenged and inspired all along the way, to rise to that level of courage.”

Unusual working conditions aside, the artist says the interaction with Market-goers was “nothing short of delightful. People were so gracious and complimentary. I guess it’s something that is intrinsic to peoples’ souls that really resonates with them deep down, that they just come alive when they come into contact with art. I just hoped that what I was creating was going to be worthy of the kind of high art that is all around us at the Market in so many different forms.”

About David Stanley: After graduating with a BFA in Communication Arts with a concentration in illustration from East Carolina University in 1991, Stanley spent a year co-developing all the illustration and graphic design for a North Carolina-based science museum, then worked  in advertising before launching his freelance career. He attended the Illustration Academy at Virginia Commonwealth University and co-founded the North Carolina Society of Illustrators in his hometown of Greensboro, N.C. 

Posted by Susan Dickenson on October 28, 2009 | Comments (0)