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With an elder tree sheltering a sapling, the sculpture represents the co-mingling of Branford generations. Funded with a a grant won by BACA and BGC, the sculpture was designed by Mariah Fazzino (next photo) as 4th grade student in 2017. It was installed June 16 with assistance from Branford's Giordano Construction and United Towing (see last photo). (Photo by Pam Johnson/The Sound)

Mariah Fazzino, an incoming BHS junior, was a Sliney School 4th grader in teacher Frank Dormer's art class when she developed the concept for the sculpture, which was brought into form by West Haven artist Rocko Gallipoli this year. (Photo courtesy Gia Fazzino)

On June 16, the sculpture arrived and was installed with assistance from Branford businesses Giordano Construction and United Towing. Crews from both companies are shown here with Branford Parks and Recreation Director Alex Palluzzi Jr. (second from left) and BACA founder Frank Carrano (far right, front) on installation day. (Photo courtesy Frank Carrano)

A new tree recently planted in Branford is absolutely unlike any other ever to take root here; in the form of a symbolic sculpture on the grounds of Branford's community house.

On June 16, the public sculpture, grown from a Branford Arts and Cultural Alliance (BACA), Branford Garden Club (BGC) and Board of Education (BOE) project first seeded 7 years ago was installed. It now anchors the grounds along the Prospect Street side of the Joe Trapasso Community House, which also home to Branford's Canoe Brook Senior Center. From there, it's visible from John B. Sliney Elementary School on Eades Street, where its designer, Mariah Fazzino, then a fourth grader, made her first sketches.

The sculpture represents a sturdy tree and its branches intertwined with a delicate sapling. It also represents months and even years of work by many, including local art teachers, students, sculptors and others who helped along the way. BACA, founded in 2014, was not yet a non-profit when the 2015 grant request was submitted, so BACA founder Frank Carrano partnered with Branford Garden Club (BGC) to seek grant funding for the project, he said.

"I found out about a grant to create some public art," he recalled. "The proposal I submitted said we would involve school children in the project, and the grant would also fund a small public garden setting near the sculpture."

With funding from the grant, BGC took on the work of installing a small, semi-circle public garden and BACA undertook shepherding the new, public sculpture. To get the project underway, art teachers from Sliney Elementary School, Walsh Intermediate School and Branford High School (BHS) responded to Carrano's call for assistance, helping to organize a committee of young artists, 3 from each school. During the 2016-2017 school year, the teachers and students visited local sculptor's workshops, including Branford artist Val Kropiwnicki, to learn about the process of design and development.

Once student concepts were developed, the educators, BACA and BOE selected a winning student design, crafted by one of the program's youngest students. At the time, Fazzino was a Sliney School fourth grade student of art teacher Frank Dormer. Dormer still teaches at Sliney. Fazzino will be a BHS junior in the fall.

As the educator working with the student designer, Dormer kept a record of the project from start to finish, complete with photos and other items he hopes to compose into a slide show to share with his students. He also would like to acknowledge Branford sculptor Susan Faricelli for taking the time to work closely with Fazzino, once her design had been selected.

At the time the collaborative project was first getting underway, Branford was in the midst of plans to transform the community house into today's combined recreation facility and Canoe Brook Senior Center. The facility project was funded in 2016, broke ground in 2017, and opened in late 2019. For the sculpture project, student artists were asked to create a design illustrating the intergenerational concept of the new building.

"Mariah came up with this idea for the tree, a mature tree and a sapling alongside, to represent the co-mingling in the Community House between the younger people with the recreation programs and the seniors in the building," said Carrano. "We thought it was a mature concept for a fourth-grader."

Dormer said he wasn't surprised that Fazzino's creative, well-considered idea was selected for the sculpture's final form.

"Mariah's been like that since she was in kindergarten, so I was not surprised," he said.

Fazzino said it's been a very long process, but she is very happy with the results and has been over to the community house to see the installation she helped to create.

"I remember loving Mr. Dormer's class," said Fazzino. "I had a lot of different sketches and plans but my favorite one was the tree. Originally, it was just a tree, and then I added the sapling because I thought about growth and representing the elder and the younger communities. So the bigger tree would be sheltering the sapling, and they would be right next to each other, together. And everybody liked that."

Carrano said the entire process was an extensive one which also included a prolonged pause due to the pandemic. When the time finally came to develop the steel structure, West Haven artist Rocko Gallipoli undertook the work to build it.

"He was the one that brought it to life and gave it form," said Dormer.

Once it was completed this year, it took some casting about to find a way to get the large sculpture from West Haven to Branford. Carrano thanks two Branford businesses who made it possible to bring in and install the sculpture, Giordano Construction and United Towing.  Giordano Construction provided a truck and crew to haul the sculpture to the site and United Towing the equipment and crew to lift the sculpture from truck bed to foundation. Crews from both companies then assisted with securing the piece, which was greeted by Carrano and Branford Parks and Recreation Director Alex Palluzzi Jr.

Now that the sculpture has been planted at its permanent site, Dormer hopes to show a completed project slide show to his students next year, possibly combined with having Fazzino come back to Sliney school to visit with the students and talk about her process.

Carrano said the sculpture also has the potential to inspire other artful and intergenerational collaborations in the future.

"Some of the other things we are thinking about doing is have the students and the seniors create metal leaves they could either decorate or write things on, and hang them from the branches, so it would also become kinetic," said Carrano.

Pam Johnson covers news for Branford and North Branford for Zip06. Email Pam at p.johnson@shorepublishing.com.

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