New calendar portrays heritage trees on campus

by Daniel J. Fitzgibbons, Chronicle staff

Jay Alexander's watercolor/digital image of a Japanese snowbell at the northeast of Curry Hicks illustrates December on the heritage tree calendar.

eaturing 15 illustrations by local artists, a new calendar depicting some of the campus's heritage trees arrived on campus last week.

     A joint project of Physical Plant's Grounds Management Department, College of Food and Natural Resources, and Communications and Marketing, the full-color 2002 calendar was developed as a fund-raising tool to support the campus's Frank A. Waugh Arboretum.

     Titled "Rise Up and Take Us With You," the "museum quality" calendar has 12 full-page illustrations of various trees. The artists, including staff, faculty, students, alumni and friends of the University, used a variety of media from oils, watercolors and acrylics to scratchboard, collage, photography and computer-enhanced imaging. The title of the calendar comes from a poem by Margaret Melozzi of the Fine Arts Center which is reproduced on the inner cover.

    According to Kat Eldred, director of Marketing, the volunteer efforts of the contributors, who were selected through a juried competition, was key to the successful development of a high quality calendar.

     "The majority of these folks are fairly well-established artists in the com-munity and we could never have afforded to commission them," she said.

     Calendars can be ordered by mail for $13.95 each plus $2.50 postage and handling. Send checks payable to "University of Massachusetts Amherst" to Valerie Knightly, Grounds Management Department, Physical Plant Building.

     To order by credit card, call the University Store at 5-2619.