By Judith Dorato O’Gara

On June 9th, a celebration of the newest edition of the Franklin Sculpture Park’s Traveling School of Fish was held. The project, which turned into an annual event three years ago when artist Amy Adams took the initiative to rehab existing wooden fish that had deteriorated at the park, was this year again a collaboration between Tri-County Regional Technical Vocational High School students, who crafted the wooden fish, and elementary school students, this year at John F. Kennedy Elementary, who painted them.

“This collaboration really is about signifying teamwork and what that looks like when you join that with creativity,” said Adams, “The Traveling School of Fish is now in its third year,. We don’t know what will happen next year, because we have a shifting of some schools happening, so maybe it will go to the new school or be some other sort of collaboration.” Adams gave a nod to the direction of art teacher Sarah Pelletier, who guided students through the project this year and last year, but who will not be continuing as a Franklin Public School teacher next year.

Pelletier talked a bit about the process, noting she encouraged students to think about, “What it means to be part of the community, what it means to represent yourself within the community,” as well as “what it means to represent yourself in general…”