Arts & Leisure

Meet the Find Your Wings artist: Joe Schine

JOE SCHINE OF Middlebury, is one of the contributing artists for the “Find Your Wings” community-led public art installation project in downtown Middlebury. Projects will be on view by June.

Last month, Lacewing Productions announced three artists that will have their work installed in town as part of the community-led public art installation project called Find Your Wings. Shirley Reid, Matt Heywood and Joe Schine will be contributing to the project. This is the third of a three-part series that will highlight each artist and their submission to Find Your Wings, which will be installed by June.
Artwork submitted in response to last October’s call to artist for “wings” was reviewed by over 20 community members who made up the peer art review panel known as the Find Your Wing Ambassadors. These artists have been funded by a grant from The Vermont Community Foundation and generous contributors to the Find Your Wings GoFund Me campaign. Early contributors to Find Your Wings were Neighbors’ Together and Better Middlebury Partnership.
Each piece of art must have a significant community-collaborative component. These artists are moving the mission of Find Your Wings forward by asking the community to contribute artistically to their concepts. 
For more information about how to contribute to these artists’ work, to sponsor an artist, or for guidelines on how to build a set of wings for your organization visit findyourwingsvt.com or email Ashley at [email protected].

Feather Flutter
Joe Schine finds the most connection and excitement in arts through his connections with people, his artistic friends, his students and his mentors. Born in Germany, Middlebury has been his home since childhood. He has a B.A. in Studio Art from Middlebury College. He attended Middlebury public schools as well and now teaches art at MUHS. He has contributed visually to the town with projects like the colorful picnic tables at the Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op, a restoration of Sabra Field’s mural “Cosmic Geometry,” and graphic design. Through “Feather Flutter,” he will bring together his interests in painting, sculpture, interaction, movement and technology’s expressive possibilities.
“Find your Wings is giving me the opportunity to not only engage more fully with local teens through the project but to create a public work,” Schine said. “Feather Flutter” marries art to technology through a unique design using servo-motor powered hinge assemblies, controlled individually by a central processor. Feathers designed by the community will snap into these motors and react to audience members around the sculpture based on proximity, movement or sound. “Feather Flutter” will make appearances throughout Middlebury and Addison County in late summer. 
High school students interested in the intersection between creative arts and technology have an opportunity to participate in an eight-day summer workshop, led by Schine, to innovate and fabricate the mechanisms for allowing the bird sculpture to be an interactive experience for adults and children alike. Students interested in working with Schine on this project should email him at [email protected].
To see more of Schine’s work, past, present and in progress, visit josephschine.com.
Meet the Find Your Wing artists at the Bundle Market on May 21, from 3-7 p.m. At the Find Your Wings booth, community members are invited to contribute to each piece of art that will be installed in Middlebury this summer. Create a feather, paint a stone and add a reflection to Find Your Wings artist concepts.

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