Hot on the heels of her successful stint as director of the 10x10x10 art event in Ellenville, local artist Judy Sigunick is in the process of getting approval for a new art sensation for our town: the Ellen Project. Modeled on Chicago's "Cows on Parade," and similar projects in communities around the country, this project would feature life-size statues of the woman for whom the town is named, Ellen Snyder, each decorated and designed by different local artists. Sigunick's motivations are simple: "We have a tiny little community, and obviously a few of [the Ellens] would be placed along Canal and Center streets. One of the ideas was to get them into the wider community, which would encourage tourism and even us, the residents, local people, to kind of explore other areas of the community." While it would seem that this is a perfect fit for Ellenville's burgeoning art-centric community, the project faces some hurdles before getting the final thumbs-up from the Village Board.

Sigunick explains the origins of the concept: "About a year and a half ago Phyllis Rubin, a prominent community member, called me and said, 'Wouldn't it be wonderful to have Ellens in our community?'" This got Sigunick's creative gears turning. "I designed an Ellen, and that was about a year ago, I made a clay model of it, I've since revised the clay model when [Mayor Jeff Kaplan] asked me for a new proposal. I gave [Village Manager Elliot Auerbach] and Jeff a copy of the proposals with a digitally manipulated image. It's sort of an idea in progress."

Auerbach is enthusiastic about the idea: "It's truly interesting; she's put a lot of thought into this, she's put a lot of time into it, the proposal itself—I'm going to regard it as cutting edge, that's what I like about it." However, the project's delay stems from the proposal process being incomplete. In reference to the hold-up, Auerbach says, "We are waiting for Judy to make a presentation to the board… she's been having problems getting a time table together."

Once the project's presentation is complete, there are still more issues to contend with. "I think financing is probably going to be our first hurdle," says Auerbach. "If we can find some benefactors, whether it be individuals or community groups who want to 'adopt' the Ellen, and pay for it, that would be a great thing to defray the cost. Judy has some great ideas. We talked about auctioning off some of the Ellens at the end of a period, and using that money to help infuse some additional art programs." On the subject of where the raised money would go, Sigunick elaborates, "It would go back into the arts, into the development of a real strong art community. It wouldn't be up to me. It would somehow go back into the community, either through the arts or workshops…some scholarship money for kids who want to study art… Some of it would go to stipends for the artists." Look to the Ellenville Journal for more on this project as it develops. v

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