The latest Building Community Brick Project at my son Josh Copus’s Old Marshall Jail Hotel began in late September and ran until Saturday of this weekend when the project’s 4,000 goal was met.
The Old Marshall Jail, a boutique art hotel and restaurant along the French Broad River in Marshall NC, is itself a reflection of this community art project. Bricks designed and stamped by the community were incorporated throughout the repurposing of the old jail with tributes, historic notes, humor, sayings and signs of the time.
For this latest project, a public folk art monument will be created next spring using the stamped bricks to build a place to sit for contemplation on the OMJ patio.
It will be something between a ruin and cathedral, and in my mind a representation of resiliency and resurgence shaped by time and trials, such as the Helene flood that decimated the town last year and ultimately brought the community together to rebuild.
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