This spring on May 19-20, in a special pre-opening event, we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the raising of the central monolith at Opus 40. This part of the work, begun and completed in the summer of 1961 (we've had to push back the date originally planned for this celebration because of Hurricane Irene), was the turning point in the development of Harvey Fite's masterpiece. He had originally planned to carve it, but the stark beauty of the stone helped to coalesce ideas which had been forming in his mind: that the terraced forms he had been creating to surround his carved sculpture had become superfluous—what had once been the setting for sculpture had become the sculpture. So the monolith remained uncarved, and the existing statues were removed, and placed around the grounds.
Plans for our celebration are still in the works, but we do have this much of a schedule:
A one-act play based on The Rocklins, Harvey Fite's book for children, begun in the 1940s and finished in 2009 by his stepson, Tad Richards. Richards wrote the dramatization, and Shelley Wyant will direct the production.
A talk on the raising of the monolith by Fite's stepson Jonathan Richards, who was on hand that summer to help.
A photographic exhibit celebrating the High Woods of Harvey and Barbara Fite's day.
A talk by D. J. Stern, the granddaughter of legendary High Woods storekeeper Henry Wilgus, who is working on a book about her grandfather and his store, the center of the High Woods community.
Square dancing, just as it happened at Wilgus' store on Saturday nights in the old days. Harvey first courted Barbara, new to country ways, by taking her square dancing at Wilgus'.
This entire weekend event will be free to the public,
as a gift from Opus 40 to our community and our region.