Norman Rockwell painting keeps on giving to Gardner schools: what they got this year

Theater and festival field trips, auditorium spotlights, a state-of-the-art laser cutter, electronic baby simulators, and a new tuba are among the local school projects that will be funded via the Williams-Rockwell Education Gift Foundation.

The fund, which was established 10 years ago following the auction of an original Norman Rockwell painting to provide financial assistance to projects and programs requested by the faculty and administration of Gardner public schools, distributed $82,831 to fund 14 projects in the Gardner school system during this year’s round of grants.

“The Williams-Rockwell grants continue to generously give to Gardner Public Schools,” said Dr. Mark Pellegrino, superintendent of public schools. “These funds allow us to offer very creative programs that enhance the experience of our students beyond the core and essential expectations of our community.”

The grants are funded by the interest and capital gains earned from investments of the sale price of the painting, “Willie Gillis in the Convoy,” which was displayed for years outside the principal’s office of Gardner High School. The painting sold for over $2 million at Sotheby’s auction in New York in 2014. To date, fund the committee has awarded $610,064 in grants.

As required by the fund’s governing statute, awards were given out to both arts-related applications as well as applications that promote athletics and academics in the district.

What projects will be funded?

A grant of $1,300 will be used for the installation of a sound lab in the Elm Street School auditorium which will be used by Gardner Academy students. Janet Henderson, a history teacher at Gardner Academy, said the new equipment would provide an opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience in music production.

“There are tools for mixing and recording regular bands with instruments as well as tools for producing hip-hop and rapping audios,” Henderson said. “The students need a space for putting their creativity in action, both by performing and producing.”

The sound lab’s components had already been delivered to the school, Henderson said, and work had begun on clearing a space in the auditorium for the studio’s permanent space.

“The sooner it’s up and running, the better,” Henderson said.

More: Gardner's Norman Rockwell sale nets $1.9 million

Joanne Landry, a music and drama teacher at Gardner High School, said she was thrilled at the idea of receiving $1,900 for the purchase of two portable LED spotlights that could be used at both the high school and Gardner Middle School.

“Twenty years ago when I started teaching at the middle school, I used the spotlights that were shared with the high school to light a lot of each production due to a lack of an auditorium at GMS,” she said. “All the drama students from both schools will be able to benefit from better lighting. I am excited to have the new spotlights shine brightly on our hard working performers.”

Gardner Elementary School will receive $3,000 to fund the fourth-grade band’s trip to the Great East Festival this year, according to Band Director Michelle Heffner.

“Students will perform in front of a panel of judges and then receive a clinic where the judges will work with our band students to help them improve their playing, listening, and ensemble skills,” Heffner said. “It is exciting to provide our youngest band students with this opportunity to demonstrate their skills in a real-life competitive setting and provide them with their first experience with adjudication.”

A trip to Nature’s Classroom for Gardner Middle School sixth-grade students will be funded by a $20,000 grant from the fund, according to Annette Lussier, who teaches science at the school.

“Students look forward to this trip every year,” she said. “This amazing educational experience provides our students with an opportunity to think and learn about the natural world around us and more importantly our place in nature and how we, humans, are uniquely responsible for the stewardship of our planet.”

How did Gardner High School wind up with Norman Rockwell painting?

The Rockwell painting was originally presented to Gardner High School Principal F. Earl Williams in the 1950s. At some point over the next few decades, it was taken down during renovations and placed in storage, where it remained, essentially forgotten. After it was rediscovered and sold at auction, the Gardner school district received about $1.9 million, which was used to establish the Williams-Rockwell Educational Gift Foundation.

“Willie Gillis in the Convoy” was painted in 1943 as part of a well-known series and had the famed distinction of being the only painting in the series to not appear in circulation or on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, as it was transferred to Gardner High School as a gift directly from Rockwell’s studio.

Another original Norman Rockwell painting in Winchendon

The Rockwell painting at the high school was the first of two of the famed illustrator’s works of art discovered recently in Greater Gardner and auctioned off for a fortune.

A few years ago someone decided to take a closer look at a painting that had been hanging largely unnoticed over the stairway in the Eugene M. Connor American Legion Post 193 in Winchendon. It was a wise decision. The painting turned out to be “Home for Thanksgiving,” a Norman Rockwell original that had been donated to the Legion – along with $500 -  by a local priest in 1959, when members were in the process of moving from their original location on Central Street into a new building on School Street.

The painting, which depicts a soldier and his mother sitting in chairs and peeling potatoes for Thanksgiving, graced the cover of the Nov. 24, 1945, issue of The Saturday Evening Post.

More: Winchendon American Legion post's Norman Rockwell painting sells for $3.6M in auction

The painting, which was estimated to be worth about $7 million, sold for $3.6 million in 2021. It remains unknown who purchased the artwork but one of the buyers at the time of the auction was rumored to be Steven Spielberg.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: GPS funds school grants with Norman Rockwell Painting proceeds