Bandstand
Bandstand
Jennifer Drinkwater. Bandstand, acrylic on wood panel, 12” x 12”, 2023.
**Please note that while Bandstand is available for purchase, it is currently in an exhibition and will not be available for delivery until late April. Please email jennifer@whatsgoodproject.com with any questions.
Bandstand arrives wired and ready to hang. My genius husband Aaron Swanson carefully crafts each panel with high-quality wood, mounting a smooth plywood surface onto a sturdy, mitred wooden frame that provides depth and support to the painting. The sides of the panel are sanded and finished for smoothness.
Free Shipping. (Life is complicated enough.)
Twenty percent of profits support Oskaloosa Main Street.
The community story that inspired Bandstand….
Two years ago, I was invited to bring The What's Good Project to Oskaloosa, Iowa, by friends and theatre-makers, Allison and Andy McGuire.
The Oskaloosa Municipal Band began in 1864.
1864.
The first city bandstand was built in 1882 in the center of the city park when the city park was a field. This fancy one, likened in 1970 to a cupcake by (now defunct) Des Moines Tribune writer Lillian McGaughlin, was built in 1912.
When it's warm outside, the Oskaloosa Municipal Band plays a free concert each Thursday evening, a tradition that began back in, you guessed it, 1864. And even when the band is not playing, you can still hear music piped through speakers from the bandstand to permeate downtown. Pretty magical. And it invites folks to gather together, in public, to listen.
Music seems to trickle into every facet of Oskaloosa, permeating from that central bandstand into the orchestra and marching band at the high school and musical theatre at George Daily Community Auditorium. Several Oskaloosa folks mentioned that music and performance provide other places for kids to belong beyond sports.
An insightful quote from a local community member that gets at the spirit of Oskaloosa: “There's really a support for kids in the community in all different ways. No matter what a child would want to be involved in, there’s a group in the community.
And people just step forward and sponsor kids. Need is never going to be a reason that kids can't participate. I think we find transportation or getting them shoes or a costume or an instrument or whatever they need. We have some communities around us that are wealthier, but I've always felt like we do a better job at taking care of the kids. At the end of the day, the edges might be a little tattered. And we might be a little dirtier, but we take care of the kids better. And at the end of the day, I think that means more.”
