The Cape Cod Melody Tent this Wednesday is celebrating the completion of a new mural.
The Arts Foundation of Cape Cod partnered with the Hyannis performance venue to organize the project.
The Arts Foundation's 2025 Artist of the Year Joe Diggs of Osterville led the project. His assistant was Brendan Nicolan of Plymouth, an artist and recent graduate of Cape Cod Community College. The two led a group of five high school students through the process of making a mural.
CAI's Gilda Geist spoke with Diggs to learn more.
Gilda Geist How did you get involved in this mural project at the Melody Tent?
Joe Diggs Last year, I was fortunate to receive the Cape Cod Artist of the Year award through the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod. They, along with the Melody Tent, came up with an idea of a mural. I've worked with youth before, so they suggested me, which was fabulous. So, I got a chance to work with a group of 6. We got together at the Cotuit Center for the Arts. They were kind enough to give us the space to work there for the beginning. We came up with a design, just kind of did a lot of throwing things around, back and forth, a lot of conversation. After that happened, we started designing the mural itself. We had to go and look for the specific spot where it was going to go. It's on a building that's part of the tent. And so, we found the space, did the measurements and started talking about how we could actually put the whole thing together. So, it was a total community-type situation, where the kids and I put it all together as a collaboration, from figuring it out to actually putting it physically up. We came up with a design, and then after we came up with the design, we had to figure a space to work because it's quite large. We ended up working that in my studio, actually. So, then everybody started coming to the studio and worked on it with me until we got it completed.
GG And how did you folks decide what the mural was going to look like?
JD I asked for these different ideas, and of course seafood and fish and stuff were the first thing that came to everybody's mind. JoJo, one of the young men, he said, "well, I've got this idea of a lobster playing a guitar." And he didn't think it was a great idea. I said, "I think that's wonderful." I said, "where can we go with this?" And then this young lady came up with a fish playing a slide trombone. And then Amelia came up with the seal playing [an instrument]. So, it just went on to all the different things that we have here on the Cape. We started thinking about different animals that worked. Then a young lady who has Wampanoag ties—this [North American] was all called Turtle Island at one point—so she wanted to bring her heritage into it. And I thought that was a fantastic idea, so we tossed the turtles in. I've met Andre the Giant a couple of times, and I remember the wrestling guys used to come to the Melody Tent. I said, "I'd like to have Andre the Giant in there." And then we used the Melody Tent's logo. Victor Borge was one of the characters that used to come to the Melody Tent on a regular basis and I loved his little cartoon character. So, we included him along with the young Johnny Cash and the young Aretha Franklin—all people who had played at the Melody Tent at one point, but [we] did it retro, pushed them all the way back to when they were very young.
GG So, you're from the Cape. You graduated from Barnstable High School. Have you spent much time at the Melody Tent?
JD I've been fortunate enough to go to the Melody Tent quite a bit growing up. So, this has been a fantastic opportunity. I've seen everything from Sister Sledge to KC and the Sunshine Band [to] the Marley Brothers experience. I've seen a lot of shows at the Melody Tent. Not a bad seat in the house. I remember even as a child going there to do kids events. So, the Melody Tent's got a lot to offer.
GG You were sort of a mentor for these students throughout this process, especially since many of them are budding artists themselves. But what do you think you learned from them?
JD I definitely learned from them just as much as I think as they learned from me. First of all, their energy level was just incredible, and their stick-to-itiveness. They were very, very professional about how they handled themselves, which I thought was amazing. They were just a great group of individuals to work with as far as that was concerned. But the other thing that kind of got me was that they actually care. You know, once you get a little older, like I am, I haven't been around that many youth for a long time. You could tell that they cared about environmental [issues]. We had conversations that went beyond just art and into environmental problems and political problems. I think we hit a lot of areas. It was fantastic to be able to hear their perspective and realize that, yeah, we have conscious young people who are really working hard to make our whole lives better.
The mural will be commemorated at the Melody Tent Wednesday, August 26 at 6:30 PM.
Student artists Elliot Chapman of Sandwich and Larsen Wake of Centerville graduated from Sturgis West and Kianna Hicks of West Barnstable graduated from Barnstable High School. Student artists JoJo Sader of Centerville and Ameria Stoots of West Barnstable are starting their senior years at Sturgis West next month.
Diggs has a show opening at Gallery NAGA in Boston September 8. "Echoes of Place" runs through October 3.
