Pockets of Perception team members work on a mural on the southwest corner of the Dearborn Historical Museum Jack Tate Annex June 30.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – The annual summer Pockets of Perception mural, sponsored by the Dearborn Community Fund, is colorfully coming to life on the southeast side of the Dearborn Historical Museum Jack Tate Annex.
The annex, which serves as the DHM office building, is located at Brady and Garrison streets.
POP Project Leader Sunshine Durant said the POP team came up with a great idea this year after DHM assistant curator Matthew Graff gave the team a guided tour of the area.
“We do site-specific art work, and he gave us this tour and they all took pictures and used their mind maps to make all these connections in the community and what this used to be and every single one they came up with had a Model T in it,” she said. “And we have a picture of Lizzie McFadden and her two dogs, and one of those dogs is named Jack.”
Graff said the museum staff didn’t know the dog’s name was Jack until they did some research, and they found it humorous that they have a chief curator named Jack who has a dog named Lizzie, so the story has come full circle.
EmmaJean Woodyard of the Dearborn Community Fund (left), Pockets of Perception Project Leader Sunshine Durant and Assistant Dearborn Historical Museum Curator Matthew Graff watch the POP mural progress June 30 at the Dearborn Historical Museum Jack Tate Annex.
Durant said the mural contains references to the china kept at the DHM, as well as the Rosie the Riveter rose garden in front of the McFadden-Ross House.
She said the POP team also wanted to include the old city seal, and they incorporated the Rouge River and Ford Rouge Plant into the mural as well.
Durant said they also included a vintage bicycle, as well as a section of lace, since the museum has a collection of vintage wedding dresses.
“They had so many other ideas we really had to dial it back and keep the symbolism down,” she said. “They wanted to include the memorial tree garden and they wanted so many things, and I was like ‘It’s a very small wall.’”
There is a larger wall on the north wall of the annex which could be used a potential mural site in the future.
Supporter EmmaJean Woodyard of the Dearborn Community Fund said they have been sponsoring the POP team art projects since the program’s inception about 14 years ago.
“We are the ones that put it together and funded it,” she said. “We helped to initiate it.”
Woodyard said she loves watching the mural come to life.
“Every year it’s just wonderful to watch the process evolve and see what the students come up with,” she said. “As I drive through town and I look at some of the past ones that we’ve done, they are holding up beautifully.”
Above and below, Pockets of Perception team members work on a mural on the southwest corner of the Dearborn Historical Museum Jack Tate Annex June 30.
Pockets of Perception team members work on a mural on the southwest corner of the Dearborn Historical Museum Jack Tate Annex June 30.
A rendering shows the Pockets of Perceptions mural design being placed on the Dearborn Historical Museum Jack Tate Annex.