The Museum’s 2012 One-Day Contemporary Art Series at the White-Ellery House continues with IlaSahai Prouty’s installation entitled Dream Repeater. The White-Ellery House will be open that day as part of 17th Century Saturdays, an Escapes North program and is free and open to the public.

IlaSahai Prouty grew up in the Lanesville area of Gloucester and has an undergraduate degree in Art from Brown University and an MFA from the California College of Art in San Francisco, CA. Prouty chaired the Art Department at the Waring School in Beverly, and has a passion for teaching. She was a Resident Artist at the Penland School of Crafts, and continues to live near the school. She is currently living in Western North Carolina where she is an Assistant Professor at Appalachian State University.

For Dream Repeater Prouty will be filling the White-Ellery House with repetitions of a dream called, “Goldilocks, Save the World.” Each room will contain a different plan for saving the world. Prouty writes:

I’ve been collecting dreams and then repeating them. For the White-Ellery House, I asked folks from the North Shore to donate dreams, then chose “Goldilocks, Save the World.” It’s an unlikely dream: a funny one with a serious topic. Dreams have their own sense, and I think this one will get us all thinking in different directions.

In the dream, I’m Goldilocks.  It’s my job to be Goldilocks and it’s her job is to save the world.  I have no plan to save the world, but I can do it.  So I’m making plans and getting ready.

The Goldilocks dream joins the ranks of other notable dreams such as “Boat Sinking,” “Utopia,” and “Balancing Act.” Prouty will show a series of installations and sculptures throughout the house based upon the dream. Her work explores how repetition can intensify and expand meaning. ‘I’d like to see if a short snippet of story can grow to become something larger and more important.’

More information about Prouty and her work can be found at www.ilasahaiprouty.net.

The White-Ellery House is one of a handful of surviving First Period buildings in Massachusetts that retains a substantial portion of its original interior fabric. The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Sites because of its design, materials, and workmanship, and its plank frame construction. The house was built in 1710 for the Reverend John White, Gloucester’s first settled minister, on the original Town Green. It exhibits an elegance and refinement commensurate with White’s esteemed position in the community. The second owner of the house was James Stevens, who kept it as a tavern until 1740, at which time it was sold to the Ellery family. In 1947, when plans were unveiled showing Route 128 traversing the Town Green, the house was taken by the City of Gloucester by eminent domain, turned over to the Cape Ann Historical Association, and moved safely out of the path of the highway. The White-Ellery House is located at 245 Washington Street in Gloucester at the Route 128 Grant Circle Rotary.