Conny the Whale returning to West Hartford next week — in part
Conny the Whale has been missing from West Hartford center for a year but soon a piece of the life-sized sculpture that stood for decades outside the Children’s Museum will return — in part.
The 60-foot, 20-ton replica of a sperm whale once delighted generations of children, who climbed around its hollow inside before the whale was removed last year when the museum relocated to make way for apartments on the site.
After a campaign failed to raise enough money to preserve Conny in her entirety, her tail was severed to be installed nearby later, a reminder not just of the statue’s history but also of its original purpose — to raise awareness of endangered whales, hunted almost to extinction for their oil.
The tail has since been in storage at the West Hartford Public Works storage facility on Brixton Street.
Conny, built in 1976, was originally conceived as a symbol of the “Save the Whales” movement of the 1960s and 1970s, championed by the Connecticut Cetacean Society — now the Cetacean Society International — which was instrumental in having the whale named the state animal and the statue placed outside the museum where it held outreach programs.
This week Conny’s 4-ton tail, severed in April, will be installed on the Trout Brook Greenway directly across the street from the whale’s old home. Construction equipment will be delivered to the site on Thursday and work is expected to begin Friday, a release from the town of West Hartford said.
Conny is scheduled to be installed — to appear as if the whale is diving in to the ocean between — 10 a.m. and noon on Wednesday, May 29, according to the town. An official dedication ceremony will be held in the fall.
The Cetacean Society International will assume care of the sculpture in its new location on the greenway and hopes it will again serve the purpose for which it was built: raising awareness of whales’ plight.
“Our hope is we are going to be able to use Conny and the tail to educate the public about the need to protect the environment and the whales’ habitat and in this biodiversity crisis, we need symbols like this more than ever,” said Kate O’Connell, a society board member and a marine wildlife consultant.
Reporting by Courant reporter Kenneth Gosselin is included in this report.
