SOUTH DEERFIELD — As Deerfield’s 350th year comes to an end, there is one final community event scheduled before the calendar flips to 2024.

In the theme of celebrating Deerfield’s long history, a new, permanent mural highlighting the town’s eras will be unveiled at Town Hall, 8 Conway St., on Saturday, Dec. 30, at 1:30 p.m. Coinciding with the event is an ice cream social sponsored by the Friends of Deerfield and catered by Kathleen Tomaus Catering.

Designed by Leverett artist Judith Inglese, the ceramic mural — reading from the bottom up — begins with the glacial age with caribou and then proceeds into Indigenous history, European colonization, industrialization and then present-day Deerfield, where people of all backgrounds live and work together.

“Deerfield has a really interesting history and development,” Inglese said, noting her motivation for pitching the idea to the 350th Anniversary Committee is a desire to see more art in public places in small, rural communities.

Although she has no connection to Deerfield, Inglese said she reached out to state Rep. Natalie Blais to talk about installing more art in the area’s communities. In turn, Blais provided a list of towns and their anniversary celebrations because those are great opportunities to install commemorative art.

Inglese is also responsible for a mural at the Leverett Village Co-op, as well as a mural for the Leverett Library in anticipation of the town’s upcoming 250th celebration in 2024.

“I think [seeing art] is something that’s important for our human nature or human spirit — to see things that people make and also to be inspired,” she said. “Art should be in daily life more.”

That conversation with Blais led to Inglese reaching out to Deerfield’s 350th Anniversary Committee, which helped bring the mural project to fruition. Committee Chairman Peter Thomas said Inglese’s work has come out great and the mural serves as a wonderful parting gift for the town’s birthday celebration.

“It’s a wonderful mix of images that just flow together. I think she’s done a wonderful job with it,” Thomas said of the mural. “It’s a nice legacy for Deerfield’s 350th to leave that behind for everyone to see going forward.”

Reflecting on the year of events, which began on Dec. 31, 2022 with a gala, Thomas said the 350th anniversary has been a huge success. The slew of events have brought out a wide variety of community members, even when the year’s marquee event, the parade, was a “little soggy” with torrential downpours.

“I’m really pleased, for a celebration like this, it started and ran an entire year and it’s had diversified events,” Thomas said. “I’ve run into a number of people lately who have said this has been a really good year.”

While the mural unveiling wraps up the official list of events for the year, the town will be burying a time capsule at some point in the spring once the ground thaws.

Additionally, the committee’s website will remain up through 2024 and will feature historical research papers and photo and video galleries that people can check out if they missed something this year. The site can be accessed at deerfield350.org.

“We’ll continue on with various things,” Thomas said, with his wife, Marie, adding “we’re not shutting the doors because the year is over.”