One of the lingering ongoing tasks since the PNW Community Coral Reef was decommissioned has been searching for new homes for our coral pieces. Over the past six months or so, I have been sending large care packages to a new fiber art coral reef that was being created at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. My hope has been to use the “recycle” part of our reef’s message quite literally.
I would say that a “normal” response would be to send the boxes off with good wishes and go on to the next project but this reef has occupied five years of my life and I really felt the need to see the new reef in situ. As it was a Wertheim Reef, I also had the goal of experiencing a fiber art coral reef from the people who created the idea in the first place.
So, I planned an East Coast trip to take in the opening of the reef and visit a few bucket list places along the way. I used to live in Maine a million years ago when I first started college and my favorite parts of Minnesota, where I lived for 20 years, always reminded me of the rocky coast of Maine.
Leaving the reef to the end of my trip, I started out by going to New Bedford. As the center for whaling in America (and arguably globally), and with so many ties to Herman Melville and Moby Dick, it has been a place that I wanted to see for many years. It didn’t disappoint.
The historic part of New Bedford is home to the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the Seaman’s Bethel which was mentioned in Moby Dick. The New Bedford Whaling Museum is an incredible place charting the history of whaling along with conservation. There is even the largest scale model of a whaling ship inside the museum which was the sister ship of the Acushnet, the ship that Melville sailed on.
I also took in some outdoor art which depicts right whales but is made out of recycled objects. It was very interesting to be in another coastal town that has a strong association with whales but totally different species to the whales on the west coast where I am located. Our most common whales are Grays and Humpbacks where many of the stories and art around New Bedford talked about Right and Sperm Whales.
I was also able to take in the fiber art installation by Heidi Whitman titled American Vengeance at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. It’s been quite some time since I have been stopped in my tracks by such a powerful art piece. Luckily, I would have a similar experience the next day when I visited Mystic Seaport.
On my second day, I was able to visit Mystic Seaport, the recreated whaling village in Mystic Connecticut. As a kid growing up in Michigan, we would often visit a place called Crossroads Village which was a recreated town centering around life in the area in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. Mystic Seaport had the same vibe surrounding whaling. One of my favorite things that I noticed was the young female blacksmith who had a shop in a barn, overlooking the ocean once the huge doors were thrown open. I asked her if she was a volunteer or a paid staff member and she smiled and said that she was a full time paid staff member and this was her office. What a cool job in an amazing location!
While at Mystic Seaport, I was able to see the installation by Jos Sances called “Or, The Whale” which was incredible. It commanded the gallery space and from afar it appeared to be a beautiful rendering of a Sperm Whale but once you got close, it turned out to be a history of us, etched into the body of the whale. It nearly brought me to tears.
I was also able to visit Plymouth, go to the oldest cemetery in the United States, and visit the living history museum along with “The Rock”. I also wandered along the beaches of Cape Cod and found some lovely treasures. It was also fun to stumble across a wooden Humpback Whale in the parking lot of the local bank.
After visiting the Herman Melville House (where they didn’t allow you to take photos), the opening day of the reef arrived. The reef project was led by the theatre department at Williams College and was on one of their stages. This allowed for changing lights and sounds which gave the reef even more character. It was amazing. It was also fun to go around and “visit” the corals that I recognized from our reef. Like saying good bye to some old friends.
There are still reef parts left and I will still be watching out for new reefs to donate to but for now, it’s on to other adventures.