An Open Invitation, A Broad Collaboration

Over the last five years, The Dreaming has taken shape through two very different streams of public engagement. The first stream involved a long series of public gatherings and open regulatory review meetings wherein the visual concept, design, scale and materials were discussed and approved.

Public Hearing Notice	Shared Vision's large tent at The Frederick Festival of the Arts

During this same time period, the artist was developing the meaning and content of the work. He built this process on the second stream of public engagement, one that invited broad participation from residents of all backgrounds as well as from numerous historians, educators, scholars, craftsmen, and other specialists. Within this multifaceted process, the most important component was undoubtedly The Dreaming Conversations.

In a process that was designed and led by Teresa Cochran in collaboration with the lead artist, 30 specially-trained facilitators and witnesses held a series of widely advertised public meetings called The Dreaming Conversations to gather imaginative responses from residents in answer to a series of questions that explored individual visions.

Some 120 Dreaming Conversations were held in coffee shops, schools, retirement complexes, churches, businesses and private homes. These conversations brought residents of different ages and backgrounds face to face and posed a series of very personal questions. Many participants described these encounters with their fellow citizens as surprisingly eye-opening and emotional. Facilitators often noticed that participants were nervous and awkward at the beginning of the conversations but were unwilling to end the conversation an hour later, as interactions among strangers extended long after the event ended. A participant at the close of one such gathering summarized similar comments of others by saying, "Every time I see that artwork on the wall, I will remember the way I feel tonight."

The process was simple. A few basic guidelines were established at the beginning of each conversation to promote trust, and then participants were invited to answer a series of four questions posed by the project's lead artist. The goal of these questions was to delve more deeply than usual into the personal and subjective roots of human vision.

An interesting findings that emerged from the Dreaming Conversation process, reported often by the facilitators, was that many people said they discovered specific, clear and detailed dreams and aspirations within them that they had not previously been aware of until they were invited to describe them.

Trained witnesses recorded the Conversations on paper, and the artist and his partner Teresa wove fragments of the words of conversation participants into a field of text that is being etched into stone below the glass and weaving of The Dreaming, beginning at ground level and rising more than twenty feet up the wall, where the text continues up the back of the glass panels and continues all the way to the top of the fifty foot tall artwork.

If you were unable to attend one of the scheduled events or if you wish to host your own group, email us and we will provide you with a trained facilitation team. Or you may download instructions for how to conduct your own Conversation here. You can also contribute your ideas online here. The artistic team will use your creative input to shape the meaning and content of phase two of this artwork.

We also want your knowledge of Frederick's history in the area of arts and culture. Email us using this form to tell us your story. It may be used on the web site, in the artwork, or in the historical interpretive materials that will accompany it.

Project Funding

The project is funded by developer Struever Bros Eccles & Rouse, Frederick County, numerous private philanthropists, corporate contributors and state and local art grants. About 10% of the project budget comes from public funds, approved in a series of open, televised public hearings. Fundraising is ongoing as funding goals have not yet been met. Please consider a gift to further this work.

This project was made possible by the success of a large participatory public art project called Community Bridge, and five smaller murals in Frederick'shistoric district that preceded it. All of these projects were designed to help revitalize Frederick's downtown by weaving a strong thread of cultural vitality and community engagement into the historic streetscape. The purpose of these artworks is to build community, celebrate and reclaim Frederick's identity as an arts capital, draw visitors downtown, expand cultural participation as a path to community health, and strengthen the many arts and business organizations that call Frederick home.

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The Vision • The Process • A Place of Dreams • Imagination • The Glass Veil
The Weaving Layer • Carved Stone • Dream Pool • Artistic Team