Tullahoma Polyptych by Jeremiah Miller
The Millennium Project
Arts and Communities: America Creates for the Millennium, created in 2000, was coordinated by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, with the blessing of the National Endowment for the Arts and the White House Millennium Council.
Each state, hosted an art project, created through a collaboration of artists and community members. The participating artists ranged from storytellers to sculptors.
Tennessee's host site, Tullahoma, chose a North Carolina painter to steer its project. Jeremiah Miller, who paints large-scale works, spent three months in the city creating a polyptych.
Consisting of hinged panels and a sliding grid section, the portable polyptych measured 11 feet in height and stretched to 64 feet wide when the hinged wings were fully opened.
The structurewas placed in a park in the center of town. It held sections painted by Miller, fourth-grade students, senior citizens and other local residents.
Although the project was meant to be on-going, with additional contributions from local "artists" over the years, it remained on display for only a few months. After high winds damaged a section of the structure, the City of Tullahoma dismantled the art work. Most of the polyptych was scrapped at that time. A few small panels, painted by individual artists, are housed in the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center. Several larger panels remained on the center's property exposed to the elements until they were tossed away in 2012.
All photos © 2000, Russel Mobley, all rights reserved. No image can be used without permission.
