InFocus featuring Ellen Griesdieck (American Mural Project)

From the 22 News Plus Studio, this is 22 News In Focus with Patrick Barry. Hello, everyone, and welcome to this edition of In Focus. I'm your host, Patrick Barry. I'm on the road today, as you can tell, in an amazing art space. Ellen Grisadic, the artistic director and founder of the American Mural Project, has been so kind to invite me down to visit this. It is absolutely amazing. What you're looking at now doesn't do it justice, but as Ellen and I continue this conversation, we'll filter in some photos that will just astound you. Ellen, thank you so very much for inviting me down here. This is amazing. Patrick, I'm so excited you're here, because I kept thinking, okay, come to the studio, but how am I gonna, I'm gonna wave my arms around a lot. Exactly, exactly. And that's not gonna help, but the minute you see it, you know we're talking scale, you know, and that's, I think, the biggest factor on this. It's interesting you say that, because the thing hit me when I walked in was the open mouth, the jaw drop sort of thing, because you have an idea that it's big. You had mentioned it's big, you know, but when you walk through the door, do you really grasp the enormity of this piece of artwork? Let's go back in time. You're the founder of this. Where did this idea come from? How did it all come about? Well, you know, nothing like this ever comes all, like, I had a dream. Right. It's a slow process, and you add to it through the years. I mean, I worked on this for 26 years. Really? Yeah, our kids were very small when I started, and now they're in their 40s. So, you know, these things are developing all the time as you go along. It's probably really dangerous for anyone in our family to hear me say, I've got an idea, because immediately people go, no, no, no, no, no, let's not talk about that, you know? And they're obviously joking, but John and Judy, our kids, were growing up, and a lot of the work I'd been doing as an artist was I'd go down to the West Side Highway, and I'd be up on, 200 feet up on these beams with these guys when they were doing the extension on the West Side Highway, and you see what they're doing, and you're fascinated. These guys are artists, and yet- They're construction workers. Yes. So you go, there's so much art in this. Now you go to a taxi garage, and you think, where's the art there? But if you hang out for a week with these guys, it's like that program taxi. Immediately, you are having this wonderful life with guys who can tell you everything about what you do when you break down in New York City in a cab. So let me ask you this. Is this your work, or is this a compilation of multiple artists? Okay, that's a great question, because yes, it is my work. Intertwined, there are all these projects I've done with kids and you say, how did this all start? It started because our kids seemed a little bit clueless about what was going on around them. Kids today, we all spend a lot of time with electronics on our phones and everything, but how many people get to hang out in that taxi garage, or get to be on the West Side Highway on that beam? Because what you find out when you're with these people who are hardworking people is, they're doing all of us a service, and- Their heart and soul is into it. Yes, and they're so animated. They're so colorful, and they're amazing. And we're all driving by saying, when's the highway going to be finished? Exactly, no one knows this. So why are we not putting Bob, Bobby, all of these guys that are the characters that create everything around us? Why are we not making more of that? Now, you want to think about the fact that if I started this in 1999 or 2000, you know, this was before 9-11. So think historically, all this happened since then, and so many things that have developed in this country and the world. So each time something happens, someone will come up to me and go, oh boy, it's a great time for that mural. Now, I didn't do it because of 9-11, I didn't do it because of a million other things that have happened between now and then, but right now especially, I can say this is a great time for this mural. Because what happens for people in here, you've seen a little of it today with visitors, they come in and they want to meet me, they want to tell me what job they did. I was a teacher, they want to tell me how they are part of the mural. People in this country right now want to be part of something, and they want to work together. And we've had a lot of years of orchestrated separation. So we are kind of programmed to take sides. And in here, no one takes sides. You're all working in unison. We're all working in unison. To create one piece. If you look at the scale, this took two years to install. We had two lifts going every time we came together. These are all working guys. These are fabricators, steel guys. I had a race mechanic working in here. We had a guy who is on our board, he moves art all over the world. Now you have all these combinations of guys with all of their staff. And they're all in here, we're working together. I don't know if they're Republicans, Democrats, none of us care. We don't care. But when we're through with the day, everybody says, when's the next day? And the reason is because they're doing the work they love, and people are gonna see it. So each element in this mural is a separate piece. And the way you describe it, then they all come together to make the one big mural. Yes, but I know everyone in this mural. And that's really important. Because if you aren't out on the West Side Highway, if you aren't on the pursuit of manly, you don't spend January with these guys on this boat, rocking around with ice on the rigging, you have no idea what you're painting. So in order to really vividly say, this is what Manly Dowdy and many other fishermen are doing, I have to be with them. So that's an important part of everything. You have to get engrossed in your subject. You have to. I've seen them print the New York Times in the old building in New York City. These are things you have to be part of so that you can say, yeah, I have to walk away from a work site and go, I'm part of the team. You know, it's interesting the way you describe that. What's coming to my mind are musicians, especially blues musicians. They go through the heartache, the pain, but their art comes out of that. Same idea. Absolutely. And in fact, a lot of what we're doing now, obviously you have all these kids programs and you're gonna talk to Jen, so you're gonna find out a lot about what we're really doing with education curriculum, which is all part of what this is all about. But I think at the heart of it, we have events that are what we call live events, jazz, rock and roll, Motown, and all of it is to bring people together. We all appreciate what happens when these guys get up and play. So it's always a celebration of what we're doing together. Where do you find the artists to complete the work? Do they come to you? Do you seek people out? The artists, you mean, as in, I'm the main guy painting it just because that's, I mean, every panel. So you're doing all of the painting. These aren't separate individual painting artists. It's all your work. If you look, you'll see there's a certain style that is throughout. I don't have that kind of eye. You'll teach me today. That's okay. Because in the middle, like if you look at Stitch, he spent a week with these guys out on this thing and Stitch is Native American. So we started talking about how he grew up as a kid. So I thought, why don't I go to a Pueblo school and create Stitch's shirt? All the plaid tiles were created by kids and they met Stitch. Stitch came to their school. He talked to them about what he did and then they knew what they were painting and they knew what they were doing. So here's a great collaboration between these kids that are sixth graders and Stitch, the mechanic. So what are you doing? You're joining people together and they're working together on these projects that what comes out of it, it's clear to everybody who sees this, wait a minute, what happened? That was done by kids. Fantastic. We're up on our first commercial break. Ellen and I are going to come back in a little bit, but in the interim, we will speak with the executive director. Stay with us. We'll be back in just a minute. This is 22 News In Focus with Patrick Berry. Welcome back to this edition of In Focus. I'm your host, Patrick Berry. Jennifer Krein, the executive director of the American Mural Project joins me now to talk about this amazing piece of work. Jen, thank you for joining me and inviting me again. You and Ellen have been so kind. We love having you here. So you're actually new to this project. You've been executive director really since the beginning of 2026. Why at this point in your career was this so important to you? Well, it all started with being invited to a wine tasting event here. Really? Yes, by a friend of mine who has been part of the planning of AMP over the years. And I thought he was coming to meet me. So I was gonna go. I walked in and I was asking for him and he wasn't here, but everybody else was so happy to see me. And I walked in and like, literally my breath was taken away. I just, first of all, the space is just spectacular. And I was raised in a loft in New York City. So it really like, it felt like home to me when I walked in. And then this. Then your eyes go upwards. Yeah, and I was just like, yeah, my mouth, my jaw dropped open. And then quite honestly, I come from the children's media business and I mainly educational content at Brooklyn Sesame and a lot of other educational content companies. And I'm a content creator and developer. And all of a sudden, like while I was walking through and I didn't even have a glass of wine yet, I promise. I saw all the characters in the mural and they, I was like, what are their stories? And then I started making up stories. And then I saw animation. Like you do with any piece of like a Metropolitan Museum of Art, you just start making up stories of the artwork. Yeah, and I saw animation, I saw live action and like my brain just went on overload. And so then I enjoyed the evening and great people. And it was a long time since I've been in a place where I had so many like-minded people in one spot and it made me just so excited. And I've met everybody and I said, I need to meet Ellen. I need to meet the team. I wanted to see maybe if I can consult. I never thought of becoming an executive director because I was in the children's media business for almost 30 years. And we immediately met like a week later and we had great conversation and I had a whole long list and I still have it of all these different ideas from books to educational programs and everything. And I still didn't know much about AMP. I mean, I checked out the website but I really didn't know how things had developed anything. And it just wasn't the right time for me. This was like two and a half years ago and the space just opened about four years ago, right? So it wasn't the right time for me to join and- All the pieces had to come into place before the move. And so the prior executive director is really great at organizational and setting up all the nonprofit and all the important things of getting the structure and infrastructure set up. And that was needed at the time. And then I think as AMP has been around, it was time to grow. And how will it be sustainable over the years? And I don't think Ellen mentioned this but Ellen's vision really did start off with all these people are from across the United States and a lot of the children and teachers that worked with her on this project is a huge collaboration. Over 15,000 people, I believe, worked with Ellen on putting this together. And but she is the main artist of it but different projects with a whole new ramp that's opening up with very special projects that she worked on across the country. I think there's 17 states and 15,000 students that have been touched by Ellen. You know, you've mentioned it a few times. Ellen mentioned it in the first part of this conversation. It seems to, there seems to be the common denominator of youth education and your background really hammers that home. What do you hope the children get out of this? Well, inspiration, seeing that there's the world of possibilities, as Ellen always says, and how to collaborate and how to work together. And you know, and also understanding that if everything has creative process to it and appreciating, as Ellen was mentioning in priors, that work is really important and people need to be validated. So how are children involved today? We have educational programs. We have them during the summertime, which we have some right now, which up in our camp area up above, they're playing with turtles today and learning about turtles from Costa Rica and so on. And then we have year-long educational programs. We have school trips, and not just for kids, also for communities and so on. Are there facilities or spaces within the building for artists to sit down and work on pieces and learn the craft better? Yeah, very much so. We have a big classroom back there. We have, our whole space, actually, is when you walk around, we have different spots that you can just sort of sit down and pick up a piece of paper and so on. And then we're actually, we just were awarded a development grant for our second mill. We have this beautiful mill back behind the main mill. And so we're gonna be developing the space for something that is the working title now is the Idea Center. And the idea of the Idea Center is to bring a much bigger space to really do everything that a kid wants to do. And it'd be all the way up to teenagers and really opening up to the community and visiting people. Do adults have an opportunity to come in and learn more aside from just viewing the mill? Oh, very much so. We have senior trips that come in and walk through. And then a lot of our visitors, we have a regular open hours, Friday through Sunday. We have family days that we offer to the community for free. And parents and children come and they do activities and they're always themed. So how important is this to the fabric of Winstead Connecticut? Yeah, me? Very. But it's incredibly important because Winstead is like many towns and big cities that need to be a destination in order to really be alive and generate income and keep their business going and their people going. So it's very important. I mean, and also we, one of the most beautiful things that people don't really realize is that Ellen chose to house the mural. She could have housed it really anywhere and in any type of building, I guess. Well, maybe not, because it is five stories high and 120 feet long, but it's a working mill. It was a working mill. And Winstead has a long history of working mills. So to really restore a mill where a lot of blood, sweat and tears and hard work Already in the history of this building. We are up on our second commercial break. Jen, I want to thank you so very much for joining me for this part of the conversation. I love your vision. I love your experience and what you're going to bring to the future of this project. Thank you. Stay with us, folks. We're back in just a minute. This is 22 News In Focus with Patrick Berry. Welcome back everyone to this edition of In Focus. I'm here at the American Mural Project in Winstead, Connecticut, an amazing space. You have to come check it out. But I'm so excited because Ellen Griesendieck is the founder and artistic director here. Ellen, thank you again, you and Jen for inviting me down. This truly is an amazing space. When you and I were talking early on, you had mentioned your time in New York City and the West Side Highway and all of this stuff. Are you from New York? No, I'm from St. Louis. You're from St. Louis? Yes. Okay, so that's even more important for my next question. Why Winstead, Connecticut? Why is this amazing piece of artwork in Winstead, Connecticut? You are not the first person to ask this question, Patrick. In fact, we're going to print why Winstead. There you go, great. I wanted to put this project in a building where work was done. Okay. But there are warehouses, empty warehouses all across our country. There are, and that's absolutely true. But believe me, I was up in Massachusetts, I was in New York State, here in Connecticut. Gorgeous buildings, but for one reason or another, you always have to make them work for you. This building is exceptional in that every other part of it is also beautiful, the brick point and everything. What you've got here is, all these old mill buildings are America's cathedrals. We're not going to build them. Exactly. You ask an architect to come in here, or a contractor, and say, brick point that way. He'll go, okay, it's going to take me about two weeks and this is what it's going to cost. So every time we lose one of these great old buildings, we're losing a part of our history. So a good friend of ours, Sandy Boynton, who writes all the kids' books, she came in the first time it was complete and she said, I feel like I have to genuflect. It's like a cathedral of steel and brick. So when you walked into this building, because it sounds like you had been in a number of different buildings, was this one of those where it hit you right in the heart and said, this is the spot? No. Really? No, no, no, no. In fact, we had a building up in Housatonic, Massachusetts, which was on the river. It was unbelievable, it was so beautiful. But what happens with a lot of these buildings, you have to clean them up first. And if you're the owner, you take a lot of responsibility for what they might find. So it took quite a while to look at different buildings and think about, is this going to work for us? And there are other considerations too. How do we get people here? And some of them I disregarded. If you ever remember the film Field of Dreams, build it and they will come. That is my, because I believe if you create something really exceptional and hits people the right way, they will travel to see it. And this isn't Disneyland. I don't want to put it on the mall in Washington, especially right now. But anyway, I think the most important thing we want to do is have a place where people walk in, you said it, your mouth dropped. Absolutely. Now, in this day and age, people do not experience enough awe. They do not come into a situation and go, oh my God. Now, that's one thing to experience the awe. And it's truly something necessary for all of us. And that's why people want to come up and say, hey, I just want to give you a hug because they don't know me, but they want to tell me how they feel when they're in the building. And they feel something akin to partnership with what's going on. And they all say the same thing. How can I help? Fantastic. You know, so that's what you're looking for. Before we run out of time, what's the vision for the future? Wow, this is so good, Patrick. You'll have to come back, but I will start you so you can think about this. That idea center. That's the one that Jen mentioned. The one that Jen mentioned. We're going to build that out. We've got a planning grant and we're going to go for the construction grant. I want to be able to have 200 kids and adults in there all week long. I want to have events. We've got to have a theater. We've got to do, when a kid comes in here and looks up and says, I want to do this, or just says, if this artist can do this, what's my big idea? So what we're really asking those kids is, what is your big idea? What's your big idea? So now- Every kid has one. You just got to get it out of their head. Yes, and it's all different. All different. So let's get them over in the idea center so they can explore that possibility. And all of our teaching artists know, you're not telling them what to do when they're creating something. You're enabling them. Because it's up to them to say, this is what I have in mind. And then the teacher goes, here's how we're going to do that. We had a wonderful visit from Stephen Dubner, a great friend of Freakonomics. And he did a future of work start here. And at one point, we had some of our students coming in and I said, oh, Steve, what about Freakonomics Junior? Let's let the kids run that. And let's let them interview people that they want to interview. Perfect. Yeah, so the first kid that comes up says, she's a gymnast, she says, I want to interview Simone Biles. And I went, good, let's go find her. So the main thing is, how does that young person go about doing what you're doing? How do they go through that? Because they can. Right, they just have to learn it. But they have to know the steps. So let's not mess around here. Let's have them do that. Let's build an electric car over there. And let's test it at Lime Rock, which is a track very close to us. And Lime Rock has said, come on. So what are the challenges here? This is an amazing piece of art. It's an amazing facility. What are the challenges? Are the challenges not enough people, too many people? Oh no, we aren't located. Now here's the negative on not being in New York City or something. You're not going to get that big traffic all the time. So a lot of what we're doing and what Jen has already described are things that are going to reach out once again where we started. With talking about this, it has a national reach. And what that means is, teachers are asking me all the time, I wish I had a full year of curriculum. And they're asking me that in Washington. They're asking me every time we did a project and we did anything in the States. The first thing the teacher would say is, don't you have a curriculum? Because what you're really trying to do is say, how can we take this message everywhere? So we've got the thing that's happening here in the Idea Center. And then we have also got what we're going to do nationally with this curriculum. Fantastic. And you know, we haven't even started to think about it. And we haven't even gone to our outdoor space. Where we've got kids building everything out there. If people want to learn more about you, the American Mural Project, the space, where can they go? Online, social media? The first thing I would say is go to our website, American Mural Project. And you're going to see, go to the events page. You can see all the events we're having. You can see all the programs we're doing with kids. You know, whatever interests you. And you can always get in touch with us. Great ideas walk in that door. Every single day. If anybody knows Yo-Yo Ma, we're looking for him to come play here. So he's our next target. And this would be a perfect space for him. And Yo-Yo loves us. Our music, our piano, which is dedicated to music. He sent his first piano concerto. I mean, I'm sorry, a cello concerto, which is what he felt he wanted to put on the piano is his most favorite piece of music. So we're getting there. We got a ways to go. Hopefully this will help. Yes. Ellen, thank you so very much for inviting me. Jen as well. This is an amazing space. Folks, get in your car, make the road trip to Winstead, Connecticut, and check out the American Mural Project. Thanks again. This is 22 News In Focus with Patrick Barry.