June Bisantz
GROW
Mansfield Artwalk 2024 - 2025
Project Overview
The Downtown Partnership of the Town of Mansfield, CT in consultation with RiseUP for Arts, has invited three selected artists fabricate public art installations along the Rte. 89 corridor in Mansfield Center to become the new Mansfield Artwalk. The Artwork will be a beacon of culture, history, and the spirited community of Mansfield. It will extend from the mouth of the Nipmuck Trail, through Southeast Park along Route 89 ending at the Mansfield Public Library.
GROW - defining the Artwalk
My vision for this project expands on recent installations connecting nature and the built environment (Healing Plants, Main Entrance, Windham Hospital, Willimantic, CT | Nature & the City, Downtown Pittsfield, MA)
My work is grounded in a desire to integrate - not merely place - art in public space. Based on this belief, my past work includes billboards, re-contextualized street signs, altered traffic control devices, advertising panels and video projections. I frequently use text in my work to speak simply and directly to the widest possible audience.
For GROW, I have designed a series of 15 double-sided signs mounted on historic style posts, containing silhouettes of local wildlife and aspirational words. The signs lead visitors from the Nipmuck Trailhead at Southeast Park to the Mansfield Public Library on Warrenville Road. This installation defines the Artwalk, and celebrates Mansfield’s burgeoning growth and beautiful natural setting.
Both words and images reference Mansfield’s community vision and the importance of its local wildlife.
Images are silhouettes of local wildlife and historic Native American plants including the Bald Eagle, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Christmas Fern, Northern Cardinal, Halactid Bee, Wild Canada Goose, Queen Anne's Lace, Spikenard, Witch Hazel, Marsh Marigold. The words serve more than one purpose. Some directly reference the Town of Mansfield's Mission: Grow, Lead, Balance, Thrive, Succeed. Others lead visitors from the trail head to its crossing on Warrenville Road: Emerge, Lead, Advance, Forward, Motivate, Persist, Persevere, Accomplish, Connect. Still others - Grow, Imagine - reference the Artwalk's sculpture garden at the Mansfield Public Library.
All signs are a shade of blue associated with trail-marking, highlighting the Nipmuck Trail, and leading us on another trail - the Mansfield Artwalk.
Visual Key & Photos below. Click to enlarge
About the artist
June Bisantz received her Masters of Fine Arts degree in painting from Claremont Graduate University in California. She has lived and worked in Boston, Los Angeles and New York City, and her work has been shown in galleries and museums nationally and internationally.
Since 1999, she has received grants and commissions to support her public projects from organizations including the Connecticut Office of the Arts; the Connecticut State University System; the Berkshire Artist Trust Fund; the Te Women’s Foundation; the Pittsfield, MA Cultural Council; Hartford Health Care, CT, the Denver, Colorado and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Percent for Art programs; and the Charlotte Area Transit System in Charlotte, NC.
Her public projects have been installed in New York City, Oregon, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, California, Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois. She has been a finalist in public art competitions including New York City’s MTA Centennial Car Card competition, Charlotte, NC’s Light Rail Expansion Project, Philadelphia PA’s Marion Anderson Recreational Center Project and Denver CO’s Brighton Blvd. Redevelopment Project. Her most recent project is a series of creative way finding signage for Mansfield, CT's Artwalk, installed in Spring 2025.
Ms. Bisantz is a faculty member in the Art Department at Eastern Connecticut State University, where she founded Eastern’s Digital Art & Design Program. During her tenure at Eastern, Ms. Bisantz received multiple grants and awards for both her own and her students’ work, and in 2015, was granted the title of Emeritus Professor of Art.
Bisantz is also an award-winning vocalist who has co-written and produced several albums of vocal jazz, all of which have all received national and international recognition. She has performed throughout the United States and Asia, and continues to record, write and perform. She is the recipient of three Global Music Awards, a World Songwriting Award and a Clouzine International Music Award.
More information @ junebisantz.com