American Dream ski hill to transform into community-based art program

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American Dream said it will create the most ambitious public artworks on the Eastern seaboard — a 60,000-square-foot, hand-painted mural covering the exterior of Big Snow, North America’s first and only real-snow indoor ski and snowboard park.

American Dream together with En Masse, a global urban arts initiative led by Denver-born Jason Botkin, will create a one-of-a-kind black-and-white collage composed of images gathered from a series of community workshops, a web-based portal and submissions from artists – professional and emerging.

En Masse said it will host a series of workshops with local schools, organizations and groups from throughout the area. This inclusive project will showcase artwork from all ages throughout the state of New Jersey, highlighting individuals’ interpretations of the “American Dream”.

“Diversity and community are two guiding principles behind American Dream,” says Don Ghermezian, chief executive officer of American Dream. “This is a monumental project that will be created by and for the local community and we are thrilled to be working with Jason and his team on this larger than life, completely unique art project.”

“This is the largest and most challenging project we have worked on to date,” said Botkin, director of En Masse. “American Dream’s decision to host this project has been an exceptional and rare opportunity. Their trust has opened the doors wide to the broadest possible manifestation of our core mandate, designed to explore shared creativity and the building of strong communities through communication.”

En Masse is currently hand-painting the first 10,000-square-foot portion of the ski hill. The mural is expected to be completed in the Summer of 2020.