York Town News
Using art to heal: Nov. 4 auction will benefit York musician
By Jennifer L. Saunders
York musician and educator Stephen Bracciotti, pictured here, has been fighting Lyme disease and ensuing complications, including meningitis, that have left him legally blind and unable to continue his work as a teacher and performer. Artist friends of Bracciotti are coming together to offer an art auction on Nov. 4 to help Bracciotti and his young family in their time of need.
Courtesy photo
In 2005, Bracciotti contracted Lyme disease, which was then compounded when he developed meningitis followed by an infection that affected his optic nerves. Now legally blind in his left eye, with severely limited vision in his right, Bracciotti, his wife Lauren, and their young son Adrian face the struggle of medical bills while beginning again after the effects of his tragic illness.
With Bracciotti unable to read or drive, or to teach music and guitar as he did previously, the family has faced financial uncertainty, prompting Gypsy Sweethearts in Ogunquit to host a benefit back on Columbus Day and area artists to come together to offer an auction to assist the family on Nov. 4.
The auction will be held at the River Tree Arts Center in Kennebunk, with between 75 and 100 artists expected to participate. River Tree, where Bracciotti taught for many years, is providing the space for the event.
Artist friends of this local musician and educator are offering their own works of fine art in a benefit auction to help a man they have described as a dear friend in need. As a result of his unexpected illness, explained Jeremy Foss, one of the organizers of the November event, Bracciotti has become disabled by progressive blindness. Foss and area artists Kim Bernard and Chris Calivas recently shared information about Bracciotti's struggle with this disease with businesses across the community.
"I'm pretty bowled over by the whole thing," Bracciotti said of the effort of those coming to his family's aid at this difficult time. "It's overwhelming to be the focus of all this, and yet the help is definitely needed."
Bracciotti described the feeling of a silent scream in these past months, coping with the day-to-day changes and progressive loss of his vision.
"I feel like I'm on the edge of a crevasse," he said, explaining that while he has been told the minimal eyesight left in his right eye is stable, the effects of his illness have left him wondering when that, too, might be taken from him. "Learning to live with that kind of uncertainly has been incredible … and yet there is so much promise in the love and support I've been receiving."
As a musician, in the past three decades, Bracciotti not only performed, but even recorded an album on his own River Run label and wrote music for videos, including one about tornado-chasers entitled "Chasing the Wind." Although he grew up outside Boston, Mass., he fell in love with the York and Ogunquit area at a young age, even performing in Perkins Cove in the 1970s when he was just out of high school.
After returning to the Boston area to study classical guitar at Berklee, he moved to Maine in the 1980s, where he met and married his wife Lauren Pollaro, known in the area as a jeweler and crafter. At first offering private guitar lessons in his home, he began teaching at River Tree Arts Center in 1987, which he did for the 18 years before he grew ill in 2005. He was also invited to teach at Berwick Academy.
In the spring of 2005, Bracciotti was infected with Lyme disease for the second time, and quickly developed meningitis. Although he acknowledged practitioners will not say Lyme disease is the cause, Bracciotti cannot believe his two bouts with the disease and the effects that followed are a coincidence.
"Up until 2003, this little family had a happy, independent, creative life in their own home in York," Foss explained. "Then, without warning, almost everything went wrong."
Foss recounted what Bracciotti told him when he asked him what the most difficult part of this ordeal has been.
"Steve said that he lives in a world that is mostly shadows and shapes. If only he could just see the color of his son's eyes again, the color of Lauren's eyes," Foss said. "This is the struggle that has moved so many artists to come together to give their art to provide aid to Steve, Lauren and Adrian."
The Nov. 4 event will begin with a free public preview from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m., followed by a reception at 5 p.m., complete with live music, wine and hors d'oeuvres, and the auction at 7 p.m. Tickets will be $10 at the door and space is limited to the first 120 attendees.
The family is facing medical bills - many of which have fallen within an unforeseen exclusionary clause in their insurance policy - and that is one way their fellow area artists hope to help through the Nov. 4 auction event.
"I'm really grateful for people reaching out the way they are," Bracciotti said, "and yet it's hard to accept that people are focusing on me."
Bracciotti, meanwhile, is focusing now on his rehabilitation. He is currently working with the IRIS Network to gain vocational rehabilitation through the Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired.
"I'm going to be looking for ways to give back," he said, adding one of those ways will be to "help people who find themselves in a predicament like this."
Supporters of the benefit event include Barnacle Billy's, Jonathan's and Gypsy Sweethearts in Ogunquit, and Eldredge Lumber and Food & Co. in York. All proceeds from the auction will go to the family to help with substantial medical expenses incurred this past year.
For details or directions, visit www.rivertreearts.org or call 967-9120.
