Dozens of people gathered at Ocean Park Saturday afternoon for the annual Della Hardman day celebration, which honors the tireless volunteer, artist, and longtime educator.
A large white cake sat on a table toward the back of the tent on Saturday afternoon in Ocean Park. On it was a picture of a hand holding a rose, with the words “A flower for Della.” The picture was drawn by Shel Silverstein to honor Della Hardman.
This weekend marks the 10th Della Hardman Day, which begins Friday with the opening of a Featherstone exhibition. In honor of the milestone anniversary, Mrs. Hardman’s students are returning to the Island.
Oak Bluffs selectman Walter Vail called it a perfect Vineyard day. Kites hung in the clear blue sky over Ocean Park and a light breeze blew in off Nantucket Sound on Saturday. A crowd had gathered beneath a peaked tent to celebrate the memory of Della Hardman, a leader in the Island African American community and in the Island community as a whole.
The following essays were the top three winners in the annual Della Hardman Day essay contest for students at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. The theme this year was: “Does entertainment such as video games, TV, movies and social media, have the capacity to ‘ruin’ society, as Neal Gabler suggested in his book Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality.”
In 2002 Della Hardman told the Vineyard Gazette: “When I retired I could have stayed in West Virginia, or gone wherever, somewhere, anywhere, but I chose to come to Martha’s Vineyard. And I didn’t plan to come and sit. I planned to be involved.
It takes just one person to inspire a community. That is the legacy of the late Della Brown Hardman, educator, artist, writer, mother and friend. As residents and visitors in Oak Bluffs have witnessed since Della’s death in 2005, an inspired community can keep alive such a legacy through continued effort.
The annual Della Hardman Day celebration of the arts is tomorrow in Ocean Park. This will be the eighth year that a neighborhood, town and Island gather to celebrate art and life, Della-style.
Della L. Brown Hardman Was Educator, Gazette Columnist
By ALEXIS TONTI
Della Louise Brown Hardman, the artist and educator who enriched the
Vineyard community as much by her gentle and gracious presence as by her
far-reaching volunteerism, died Tuesday, Dec. 13, at the Martha's
Vineyard Hospital following a brief heart-related illness. She was 83.
Celebration Saturday to Honor Life of Della Brown Hardman
The message on her telephone answering machine and the closing for
her letters, columns and e-mails was always the same: Savor the moment,
she said.
Della Louise Brown Hardman, artist, mother, grandmother,
great-grandmother, teacher and columnist for the Vineyard Gazette, died
suddenly on Dec. 13, 2005, at the age of 83. The Vineyard community in
general and the Oak Bluffs community in particular mourned the loss of
the artist and educator who had enriched so many lives.
