'Historical' signs are really an art installation

6/3/2014

What appear to be newly-installed historical markers around Schoharie County aren't that at all.
Instead, the markers, which are nearly identical to state historical markers, are sculptures by Woodstock artist Norm Magnusson.
And they're sculptures with a message.
The signs display fictitious stories that "add the weight of history to some of today's most pressing issues," Mr. Magnusson writes on his website.
Six of Mr. Magnusson's cast aluminum markers have been installed around Schoharie County.
One on Elm Street, Cobleskill, reads:
"On this site stood Jane King, whose white male coworkers earn 39% more than she does for doing the same job."
And another, also on Elm Street:
"On this site stood one of America's 12 million illegal immigrants. They pick our food, cook, serve and clean, care for our babies and earn our scorn."
Others of Mr. Magnusson's markers deal with such topics as violence on TV and in the movies, shipping US jobs overseas and hydrofracking.
The markers will remain in place until July 31.
Mr. Magnusson had an opening for his sculptures at the Hive in Schoharie. It was presented by the Center of Sustainable Rural Communities and funded in part by the Decentralization Program of the New York Council on the Arts, administered by the Green County Arts Council.