About Haystack

Haystack's Center for Community Programs and "winter office," our year-round administrative offices, is located in Deer Isle Village. A bequest from the estate of Charlie Gailis provided for the purchase of the property, with additional funding for renovations donated by Eleanor and Sam Rosenfeld. The facilities provide staff with essential office and storage areas, as well as a central space for year-round community programming.

Eddie Dominguez mural honoring Charlie Gailis installed

Charlie Gailis, longtime Haystack trustee who passed away in the winter of 2005, provided for Haystack in many ways.  Our vision to establish year-round administrative offices and an exhibition/workshop space in the village for the community, our Center for Community Programs, was made possible because of a bequest from his estate.

Eddie Dominguez stands in front of the mural mid-way through the installation process.

As mentioned in our Fall 2007 Gateway newsletter, Haystack wanted to recognize Charlie’s incredible generosity by creating artwork that would be in his memory. Eddie Dominguez, a former trustee and frequent faculty member, ceramist and professor of ceramics, was commissioned to create a mosaic mural at the new facility.  Eddie had completed three other mural projects on the Island and Charlie was touched by the idea, and asked that we had people who knew him contribute to the content. Eddie came to Haystack in fall 2007 to begin work on the mosaic, using our visiting artist’s studio at the campus as his working space. Earlier, to honor Charlie’s request, we had asked people close to him to share their memories, and Eddie began work to incorporate their sentiments into the piece. The emotional consensus was that Charlie was a man who worked behind the scenes to support those things that he cared about, and didn’t call attention to himself. Eddie began his preliminary drawings with this in mind. At the same time, he was taken with the large granite boulders—the glacial erratics— that stand nearby the studio, and the way that the spruce trees grow around and against them, and the ferns, lichen, and moss gradually cover the tops. He was combining, in a sense, Charlie’s life with the landscape Charlie loved.

Placing tiles.

Applying and cleaning grout.

Eddie invited people to help him, and many came by the artist’s studio and placed the tile shards to help create the image, which is now a 6’x 8’ landscape that was installed in the entryway of our administrative offices in Deer Isle village this past February, 2008. The mural is now the first thing you see upon entering the administrative offices that Charlie helped establish. Eddie’s well considered and finely crafted work is a fitting tribute, illustrating how deeply intertwined Charlie’s life was with Haystack but also conveying the high regard in which Charlie is held by so many.

This detail shows the intricate placement of tiles and vibrant color depicting the natural environment of the campus combined with the dynamic energy of Charlie and Haystack.

Construction Progress

Administrative offices - interior shot.

The new offices are spacious.

Crews worked tirelessly throughout the winter months, keeping the project on schedule.

The storage building and connecting walkway have been added and the roof and exterior walls shingled.

Pouring cement for the foundation of the new addition.

The new administrative offices and Center for Community Programs begin to take shape.