GREENFIELD — Rachael Katz was thinking about the upcoming Bee Festival and just how important bees are to the community and the world when she had an idea.
She wanted to create something that everyone in Greenfield could enjoy, she said, so she built a three-dimensional computer model bee and painted it. That 3½-foot bee will be unveiled at this year’s Bee Fest on June 1 in front of the Second Congregational Church.
“I wanted to do something to coordinate with the festival, but this will go beyond that,” she said.
It will go beyond because Katz is having somewhere between a half-dozen and 20 more bees, just like hers, printed so that artists from across the county and beyond can paint them the way they want, and those bees will eventually end up in spots throughout Greenfield.
“We’ve got a bee crosswalk, a bee pocket park at the parking garage entrance and a Bee Fest,” Katz said. “This just adds to that, and I think many of us would love to see Greenfield be known as ‘Bee Town’ someday.”
Katz said after her foam and fiberglass bee is unveiled, it will be on display in her business, Greenfield Gallery & Fine Art Printing on Main Street. She said it will stay at the gallery for a few weeks and then be shipped to the printer, who will create the other bees. She said unfortunately, her bee will be destroyed in the process.
“But we’ll have many more, depending on how much financing we get,” she said.
Katz said she tried to balance creating a realistic bee with an approachable, friendly looking bee.
“I didn’t want people to be afraid of it, especially kids,” she said. “And I didn’t want it to look cartoonish.”
Katz said she has already put out a call to artists and has received about 10 submissions. She said she will continue to accept submissions and a committee will choose which artists will paint a bee.
She said she expects those bees will be rolled out at about the same time next year — just in time for the Bee Fest in early June.
“Bee are such an important part of agriculture and agriculture is so much of our identity,” Katz said. “I hope these bees bring us all together, just like they do with each other.”
Katz said the bees will most likely be distributed by the end of summer. Artists will have fall and winter to work on them, and they’ll be unveiled in spring 2020.
Katz plans to hold an artist reception at the gallery Thursday, June 6 from 5 to 8 p.m., where she’ll discuss her process with attendees.
Greenfield Business Association will be using small versions of the sculpture to spotlight member businesses with BEELINE, a map-flyer listing what food and drink they have made with honey during the Bee Fest.
The GBA will also hold a Bee Busy-ness Scavenger Hunt on Bee Fest weekend and throughout Bee Week. Up to 20 miniature bees will be hidden — not too difficult to find — in participating member businesses throughout the week after the festival. The GBA will give out scavenger hunt cards to the community June 1 during the Bee Fest, and participants will spend the week from June 1 through 8 finding hidden bees.
Once a scavenger hunt card is complete, it can be dropped off at the GBA office. Prizes will be awarded to several participants chosen at random from the turned-in cards.
Rachel Roberts, GBA coordinator, said she hopes both bee-themed activities will get people moving around Greenfield throughout the entire week.
For more information, or for artists to submit an idea for one of the large bee sculptures, send an email to Katz at: rachael@thegreenfieldgallery.com
You can reach Anita Fritz at: afritz@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 269.