Groton-Dunstable

FITCHBURG — The mammoth Big Book, aka the biggest book in the world, with its super-sized proportions, weighty poundage and colorful, multipaged messages promoting world peace, made its debut as a work of art at the Fitchburg Art Museum last week, part of the museum’s Regional Exhibit.

Featuring the works of 100 local artists from many area communities and arrayed in spacious galleries on the museum’s two floors, the summer-long show is up through September.

The Big Book — now on display in FAM’s Community Gallery — began as a classroom project in Betsy Sawyer’s fifth grade class at Groton Dunstable Middle School in 2004.

Since then, the Big Book has traveled far and near, displayed in public places such as the United Nations in New York City, Boston’s JFK Library and the Providence, R.I., Civic Center before coming back to Groton, where it was housed for a time at the Prescott Community Center.

Sawyer, who died in 2014, left a legacy of good works, fond memories and memorable quotes, including words of wisdom for her students, some of which are captured on a wall outside the FAM Community Gallery, where the Big Book centers the space.

“You never know when and where a dream will be born” that might change the world, she said.

Sawyer told her students that if the project inspires “just one other person … we might make a difference” and that should be their goal. “I believe we should always try,” she said.

Betsy (Guercio) Sawyer was not only a visionary, she got things done. According to those who knew her, she was a tireless, hands-on champion for causes she believed in. Her husband, Charles Sawyer, one of many family members and friends who turned out for the Big Book’s FAM opener, recalled that after a devastating hurricane hit the Caribbean island of St. Kits, leveling its elementary school, Betsy raised funds and rounded up supplies. She even flew out to St. Kits to teach for awhile, he said.

Sawyer chuckled as he recalled how his wife commandeered his workroom/warehouse to house “thousands of dollars worth” of donated goods and supplies. “We’ll have to get this stuff out of here,” she told him, so the space could be used to store the donations, Sawyer said.

The question then was how to get those goods from Shirley to St. Kits. A local business owner stepped up to help. Ayer Moving and Storage trucked it all to the airport, free, Sawyer said, and an airline agreed to transport the charitable cargo to the island, no charge.

“She was unbelievable,” Sawyer said, marveling at how his wife could get people to help when needed.

Take the Big Book, for example.

As Betsy Sawyer’s brainchild project grew, from a core group of eight fifth graders to a team of over 200 students and teachers, responses to their outreach came in from peace makers all over the world. Leaders and celebrities, legends — the Dali Lama, former President Jimmy Carter, folk singer Pete Seeger, The Byrds, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy and many others. Scores of people — famous and not — sent notes, letters, poems, original art, kids and adults alike, adding pages to the Big Book.

As the Big Book shaped up, conceptually, construction issues and logistical problems came up, Sawyer said, such as finding the right material for its pages. It had to be lightweight, tough, flexible.

Engineers at Dupont came up with a solution, he said, retooling a durable, paper-like material the company manufactures that is used in home construction. The pages are made of a lighter version of Tyvek.

Nearly two decades after its birth, the Big Book has become an itinerant messenger in need of a home.

The search is a challenge for the Pages for Peace Foundation, the nonprofit organization that grew out of a local teacher’s visionary class project and now keeps its mission and message alive. The group — whose president, Susan Willcox, was one of Betsy Sawyer’s friends and fellow teachers — shepherds the Big Book on its travels and continues to seek a permanent home where it can be displayed.

It also sponsors speakers and other efforts to promote peace. For more information, visit pagesforpeace.org.

At the FAM event last week, where the Big Book will be on stage all summer, Pages for Peace Vice President Anne Polaski said the search for a home continues, with no takers yet. Asked if special needs figured in, other than size, such as temperature, light exposure, etc., she said no. “It’s been in storage,” she said, with no special provisions. It’s also been taken apart and re-assembled several times.

Susan Diachisin, FAM’s Director of Education, said the only set-up challenge was time. She explained that the Big Book’s huge pages arrived in rolls and the mounting stand came in pieces that join together like a simple puzzle, with a binder in the middle. “It took eight of us all day,” she said.

The effort was worth it, she said, noting its importance as a community project as well as a work of art, fitting the museum’s mission. Asked about the FAM/Big Book link, Diachisin credited Carol Canner, the museum’s director, who lives in Groton. Canner saw it it on display at Prescott and mentioned it to her, Diachisin said.

That was in 2020. “We sent folks to spec it out,” and it was a go, she said. But before the exhibit could be mounted, the pandemic shutdown put plans on hold, she said.

Until now.

“We are thrilled to finally” get the exhibit up, she said, noting it was the first time the Big Book has been in an art museum. Thus the focus on the art arrayed among its pages, she said, noting blow ups of original art work prominently displayed on the gallery walls, including big, bright depictions of the peace symbol and a handsome quilt squared with peace-themed art, made by teachers and staff at Florence Roche Elementary School in Groton.

On a table by another wall, crayons and other art materials invite interaction. Children can create peace signs and messages of their own. A sheaf of blank pages headed with prompters, for example. Introductory lines such as “When I think about peace, I think about,” and “To me, peace means.”

The unveiling of the Big Book as a work of art coincided with FAM’s “Summer Party” event on June 24. It was well-attended, with people milling and mingling under tents on the lawn and in the galleries, enjoying free admission, refreshments and chatting with the local artists whose work was featured in the regional show.

The artists’ work — representing all mediums — was judged by an independent curator who will chose a show winner when it wraps up, Diachisin said. The winner gets a solo show in the fall, she said.