Translating an Indian mound into art and music

I saved a copy of this arresting photograph the day it first appeared on Thom Fletcher's Flickr site, figuring I would need it one day, and I was right.

Cindy Tower, who contributed to the 2008 Poetry Scores Art Invitational, is making this Indian mound the subject of a unique multi-media performance titled "Crescendo" as part of the July 25-26 Art Walk.

Her idea is to get a group of creative musicians, she suggested eleven, and pair them each with a painter. As the musicians improvised together on this compromised Indian mound (said to be the last standing in Mound City), the painters would paint them.

A recording would be made of the July 25 performance, which would be played on July 26 inside the house perched on the moundtop, where the paintings from day one would be displayed. There would then be a third event where all of the paintings would be exhibited and all of the music played.

Cindy has proposed making this third event a benefit for Poetry Scores, if I will help her round up the creative musicians and painters, since that is what we do - gather together creative people who like to hijack one medium and take a ride into another.

Sounds like a great idea to me, and I don't think I will have too much trouble persuading the Poetry Scores board to back me on this, since it is a win/win/win/win/win: We would get to be a part of a creative event, get our name out there a little more, midwife some music and art into being, see the art go to happy homes (for bargain prices, probably, knowing us), and pocket a few quid to help pay for our next project.

The event is being produced, I take it, by Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Jennifer Gaby from The Contemporary made the connection is why I think this. We have started assembling a list of likely suspects to contribute; inquire within.