Tim Lebling to Speak About Public Art Projects & Harmony Trail Expansion

Tim Lebling, past president of the Westerly-Pawcatuck Downtown Business Association and owner of Wakin’ Up Waggin’ at The Wilcox Library’s Coy Cafe, will discuss how Westerly-Pawcatuck’s transformative public art and music projects, Bricks and Murals and Harmony Trail, came to fruition and plans to expand the Harmony Trail. The free event will take place on February 22 at 3:30 p.m. at The Elms Retirement Residence, 22 Elm Street, Westerly. There will be samples of murals for attendees to view and instruments from the Harmony Trail project to play.

Bricks and Murals is a non-profit organization formed in 2017 to celebrate Westerly-Pawcatuck’s rich history with a display of 16 giant murals on exterior walls throughout downtown. The group brought a famed international band of more than 100 muralists and sign painters, known as “The Walldogs,” to create murals downtown during a five-day painting festival. The resulting works—twelve in Westerly, 4 in Pawcatuck—honor events and sites that have shaped the area’s internationally renowned granite industry and the Hurricane of 1938 to the Stonington/Westerly Thanksgiving football rivalry, Wilcox Park, Ferries & Steamships, The Chorus of Westerly, and more.

In 2019 the group added sound to the visual display with Harmony Trail, a permanent outdoor installation of ten oversized instruments open to the public to play across the two-state downtown. Harmony Trail’s chimes, keys, marimba, metallophones and other features are durable, sustainable and perfectly tuned. Designed by Grammy Award winning musician Richard Cooke, the trail is one of more than a thousand “musical parks” around the world that, in the artist’s words, “break down barriers, unite people, and promote the learning of music.”

A resident of Pawcatuck, Connecticut, Lebling brought the idea for the musical park to Westerly-Pawcatuck after visiting one in Indiana. The Elms co-sponsored “The Manta Ray,” an array of 36 aluminum chimes spread across two “wings.” With four mallets, two people can play it together.

“Westerly-Pawcatuck just celebrated its 350th anniversary with a permanent visual and musical trail that makes downtown unique,” said Guy Maiorano, founder and owner of The Elms. “We’re proud to support these installations that bring people together. We look forward to hosting Tim Lebling’s presentation on how volunteers implemented the Harmony Trail and how they hope to expand it.”

The Elms is a privately owned, month-to-month rental community for 119 senior residents. Located in the coastal community of Westerly, Rhode Island near the Connecticut border, The Elms is close to scenic, cultural and recreational sites off Interstate 95. In 1985 Guy Maiorano founded The Elms in an elegant Victorian mansion in historic downtown Westerly. Owner Maiorano has evolved and expanded The Elms’ physical structure and services to meet the diverse aging needs of the community. The Elms now offers independent and assisted living, and the first dedicated memory care buildings of their kind in Rhode Island. For more information or to attend the event please RSVP to The Elms at 401-596-4630.