Twenty years ago this week, the gray days of winter changed to a blaze of orange as artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude opened The Gates in New York City’s Central Park. Over the two weeks that The Gates was on display, visitors from around the globe ventured to New York City to experience the art firsthand, including the Belmont Day Classes of 2005 and 2006 and their faculty chaperones.
For Anne Armstrong, visual arts teacher and arts coordinator, the trip to experience The Gates was the moment Belmont Day’s new middle school took a major step forward to becoming what it is today.
“[Going to The Gates] sparked the ‘I wonder if we could do this’ fire in the new middle school,” said Anne, now in her twenty-sixth year teaching at BDS. “Originally, I wanted to bring a sculpture class to volunteer as crew members setting up The Gates, but they were too young for that work. Lenesa [Leana, head of school, 1999-2011] suggested we take the entire seventh and eighth grade classes. From then on, it was a team experience, from planning and preparing everyone for the experience to guiding and leading in New York.”
On this “field trip of a lifetime,” students strolled Central Park among the 7,500 saffron-colored metal and fabric gates set up along the twenty-three miles of paths. Before the trip, the students studied other works by the internationally renowned husband-and-wife artists who created The Gates. Then, at the park, they learned more about them from Roger Dell, director of education at the Fitchburg Art Museum and a longtime associate of Christo.
Kathy Jo Solomon, visual arts teacher and sustainability coordinator, now in her twenty-third year at BDS, was a chaperone on the trip and remembers its most magical moment.
“We were walking in the park, and we ran into Christo and Jeanne-Claude!” said Kathy Jo, whose son, Joseph Stubbs ’05, was on the trip to NYC. “The students were so respectful and curious as they asked them questions.”
“Watching the students interact with the artists was magic,” Anne added. “The adults just hung back and let the students do all the talking.”
The talk of the art world was certainly The Gates twenty years ago, but for a few hours, as they walked through Central Park, there was also buzz around that “group from Boston” and their beautiful orange scarves. The scarves were a way to keep track of everyone in the group, not knowing they would become a bit of a sensation in the park. Admirers took their pictures, and a few BDS students gave volunteers gifts of their scarves.
“I think the scarves are what got the attention of the artists,” Kathy Jo said.
The art-focused field trip to the Big Apple lives on inside Belmont Day today. On the landing on the Kiva level of the middle school, a photo from the trip and a poster of The Gates are displayed. Be sure to pause to check them out on your next visit.
“This was definitely the most memorable trip I’ve been on in my twenty-five years at BDS, “said Anderson Santos, director of operations. “We were a smaller school then, so it was unique to pull all these students and teachers together for such a wonderful, community-building trip.”
Are you a member of Belmont Day School’s Classes of 2005 or 2006? Do you remember seeing The Gates with your classmates? Share a memory on Belmont Day’s Facebook or Instagram pages, or reach out to communications@belmontday.org.
