Online art students create banners for Rotary Park

LACONIA — Larry Frates enjoyed the sounds of the first concert held in Rotary Park this year, but he felt the overall experience was lacking in one particular wavelength.

“I was looking around, and there wasn’t any color. It was just the concert and people sitting in chairs, and there were all those empty light poles,” said Frates, who serves as artist-in-residence for the Belknap Mill, which organizes the Friday night concert series.

During the pandemic, much of Frates’ activities have been curtailed. One program that has taken off, though, is his “Art To You” series of virtual cartooning instruction. Adults and children from near and far have started following his weekly classes, and most have taken pictures of their finished work and sent it to him, which he then posts to the group’s Facebook page.

Frates suggested to his colleagues at the Mill that he leverage the success of his drawing program to help bring some visual character to Rotary Park’s concert series.

“What do you think, if we do an ‘Art To You’ banner contest, and open it up to anyone who’s been doing the cartoon,” Frates said he asked Tara Shore, operations manager for the Mill, and Executive Director Karen Prior.

They gave him the go-ahead, so Frates challenged his online art participants to submit a banner-worthy drawing that fit the theme, “Summer in the Park.”

Frates selected the 10 best entries, had banners printed, and will be unveiling them during a ceremony at 5:30 on Friday evening, immediately prior to the performance by the Bob McCarthy Trio.

The creators of the winning banners will get their own copy of the two-foot-by-three-foot banner to take home, thanks to an anonymous donor, as well as gift certificates provided by the local McDonald’s restaurant.

The effort is an example of how people who might not consider themselves artists can make a contribution to their local landscape.

“It’s a community project to get people excited about doing something for the community, adding some color to the park for the concerts, and reminding people that there are concerts going on there,” Frates said.