Committee for the Better Use of Air

Description

The Committee for the Better Use of Air was a nonprofit formed by a group of artist, architect, and designer friends to coordinate the first Great Boston Kite Festival. The Committee ran the festival for 13 years, eventually handing it over to the City of Boston in 1982.

The original Committee consisted of Clara Mack (who originally proposed the festival to Boston Parks Commissioner John Warren and who would later found Boston’s infamous First Night celebration), William Wainwright (who Clara would soon marry), Michael Sand, Lorna Dawson, Constance Ross Dupee, Fenton Hollander, H. Randolph Lewis, Francine Mills and John Taylor Williams.

Special thanks to artist Darrah Bowden for her research, enabling us to identify many of the GBKF-related images in the collection, as well as her work to preserve this piece of Boston’s history.

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