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A muffin a day
by Outspoken on Sun Aug 10, 2008 5:09 am
A muffin a day
BY DARLA L. PICKETT
Staff Writer Morning Sentinel
SKOWHEGAN -- A little known fact is that it costs $9,000 to serve a free muffin in perpetuity at Empire Grill.
Such is the plan behind the Sham Foundation Muffin Endowment, which in May sponsored the first free muffin giveaway, according to Thomas Miller. He and co-owner Kerry Pomelow reopened the downtown eatery in April 2007.
But the man behind the muffin idea is James Sham, doing a residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in East Madison, who formed the foundation with the intent to raise enough money to "provide a muffin a day in perpetuity -- as in forever," Miller said.
To do so, Sham solicited money from business people up and down the Skowhegan streets. He even got a contribution from Ed Harris, the well-known actor who starred in the HBO movie "Empire Falls," which was filmed at the diner -- remodeled by filmmakers for the movie. Paul Newman also contributed; however he's a copyright lawyer, not the actor.
"You wouldn't believe the people the people he collected from," Miller said. "He put the money in a five-year (certificate of deposit) at 3.2 percent, almost $9,000 to create a 70-cent-a-day muffin to give away at our cost. Usually you hear of endowments of millions for things like college and orphanages. This is simply to give away one muffin a day."
Sham, a sculptor, looks beyond the ordinary in his vision of the world and art.
The unusual muffin endowment is one of what Sham calls "interactive performances" that help him in his search for "how the rules shift between the macro and micro scale of human activity." His full statement of intent can be found on his Web site at www.jamessham.com. Click on Sham's name in the photo.
In Charlottesville, Va. , during 2007, Sham had himself publicly locked in stocks for seven days and could only leave if a community member volunteered to take his place, anywhere from 15 to 40 minutes. He was often out of the pillories, according to his Web site.
In another performance , in Richmond, Va., in 2006, he swept a line of debris across the city, encountering various reactions, from anger, to people who offered to help.
Contacted by telephone last week, the 25-year-old Sham said he was on his way through town to do his residency at the Skowhegan art school last summer when he spotted the Empire Grill.
"I recognized the sign (from the movie) and was shocked. I went to the diner first, I was late for the residency," he said. "It was shocking to see what I had just seen on the big screen. The place had that kind of quality; it felt like I was in a set. Yet I walked outside, and it was completely real, the intersection of fact and fiction was very, very exciting to me."
Sham said the real consequences and the images of what the diner had meant for the town struck him and he decided on the muffin endowment for his next performance.
"I'm into creating interaction that begin with the mundane," he said. "As it accumulates over time, over the breadth of people who become involved, then it becomes extraordinary. I wanted to do something real simple and create an ongoing gesture of kindness that was really simple and would last forever."
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5292430.html
Staff photo by Jim Evans
BY DARLA L. PICKETT
Staff Writer Morning Sentinel
SKOWHEGAN -- A little known fact is that it costs $9,000 to serve a free muffin in perpetuity at Empire Grill.
Such is the plan behind the Sham Foundation Muffin Endowment, which in May sponsored the first free muffin giveaway, according to Thomas Miller. He and co-owner Kerry Pomelow reopened the downtown eatery in April 2007.
But the man behind the muffin idea is James Sham, doing a residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in East Madison, who formed the foundation with the intent to raise enough money to "provide a muffin a day in perpetuity -- as in forever," Miller said.
To do so, Sham solicited money from business people up and down the Skowhegan streets. He even got a contribution from Ed Harris, the well-known actor who starred in the HBO movie "Empire Falls," which was filmed at the diner -- remodeled by filmmakers for the movie. Paul Newman also contributed; however he's a copyright lawyer, not the actor.
"You wouldn't believe the people the people he collected from," Miller said. "He put the money in a five-year (certificate of deposit) at 3.2 percent, almost $9,000 to create a 70-cent-a-day muffin to give away at our cost. Usually you hear of endowments of millions for things like college and orphanages. This is simply to give away one muffin a day."
Sham, a sculptor, looks beyond the ordinary in his vision of the world and art.
The unusual muffin endowment is one of what Sham calls "interactive performances" that help him in his search for "how the rules shift between the macro and micro scale of human activity." His full statement of intent can be found on his Web site at www.jamessham.com. Click on Sham's name in the photo.
In Charlottesville, Va. , during 2007, Sham had himself publicly locked in stocks for seven days and could only leave if a community member volunteered to take his place, anywhere from 15 to 40 minutes. He was often out of the pillories, according to his Web site.
In another performance , in Richmond, Va., in 2006, he swept a line of debris across the city, encountering various reactions, from anger, to people who offered to help.
Contacted by telephone last week, the 25-year-old Sham said he was on his way through town to do his residency at the Skowhegan art school last summer when he spotted the Empire Grill.
"I recognized the sign (from the movie) and was shocked. I went to the diner first, I was late for the residency," he said. "It was shocking to see what I had just seen on the big screen. The place had that kind of quality; it felt like I was in a set. Yet I walked outside, and it was completely real, the intersection of fact and fiction was very, very exciting to me."
Sham said the real consequences and the images of what the diner had meant for the town struck him and he decided on the muffin endowment for his next performance.
"I'm into creating interaction that begin with the mundane," he said. "As it accumulates over time, over the breadth of people who become involved, then it becomes extraordinary. I wanted to do something real simple and create an ongoing gesture of kindness that was really simple and would last forever."
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5292430.html
Staff photo by Jim Evans
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
