Summer of Joy!
Prevent it from flying by too fast by over-planning. Make it your most arts-filled summer yet
DATMA
New Bedford, MA
datma.org
Massachusetts Design Art and Technology Institute (DATMA) celebrates its fifth anniversary with robust programming, public art pieces and more with SHELTER 2023. Threshold by New York City-based sculptor Mark Reigelman, one of three outdoor public art pieces commissioned for SHELTER 2023, is inspired by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) who inhabited the city in the 17th century. Our Woven Story is a sculpture made by mixed-media and multi-disciplinary artist Maxwell Emcays, the winner of DATMA’s first national Request for Qualifications. Finally, Community Tides is a mural that will be presented on the Northern Pelagic Group’s exterior wall and is the result of a collaboration between muralist Silvia Lopez Chavez and local New Bedford High School students.
As part of SHELTER 2023, DATMA is highlighting the role of artists in shaping the local community. Open Studios on the Sidewalk offers South Coast artists the opportunity to be showcased in an outdoor print exhibition. This program will bring artwork out of traditional gallery spaces and into the community, showing the creative practices and unique spaces where artists create work regionally. Open Studios on the Sidewalk will be on view at Tonnessen Park and the entrance of the Seastreak Ferry building in downtown New Bedford.
In addition to these ambitious projects, DATMA has a slew of unique programming planned throughout the summer and into the fall. Visit New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park Garden and Custom House Square on July 13 for Family Design Day: Public Art Pop Up and become a part of a public art installation inspired by Threshold and the architecture of New Bedford. August 8 through October 8, New Bedford Art Museum will host Under the Sheltering Sky, an exhibition featuring prints from New Bedford Public Library’s first edition set of John J. Audubon’s Birds of America and work from Brooklyn-based artist Adrian Brandon. With a brilliant mix of workshops, discussions, exhibitions and more, visitors to New Bedford will be mesmerized this summer. — Autumn Duke
Be the Change
Boston, MA
jartsboston.org/bethechange
In its second year, Be the Change will recreate its public art installations in the Fenway neighborhood beginning August 2, 2023. Taking inspiration from the Jewish tenet of justice, the tzedakah box is the inspired ritual of giving loose change for charity. At the intersection of art and activism, Boston area artist Caron Tabb previously partnered with Ruth Messinger, former CEO and president of American Jewish World Service to erect the experience in Boston, Cincinnati, and Los Angeles with emergent local artists in each city.
With each tzedakah box, the ‘artivists’ will highlight a social justice movement. “The inclusion of a piece highlighting voter suppression and encouraging viewers to register to vote on the spot feels especially poignant as voting is core to making change,” says Laura Mandel of Dana Woulfe’s submission. Mandel is the executive director of Jewish Arts Collaborative, lead producer of the Boston installation.
Ruth Kathryn Henry’s installation will speak on academic censorship; Chanel Thervil is taking on the historical impact of redlining; Caron Tabb’s piece spotlights reproductive justice. Cambridge-based artist and recent recipient of the ICA, Boston’s 2023 James and Audrey Foster Prize, Cicely Carew, is creating a piece that calls attention to mental health, stigma, and healing in BIPOC communities. The piece incorporates her signature, blooming, sculptural elements in a wooden pyramid as a wishing well. “My interpretation of tzedakah applies to the Law of One which says: When one is helped, all are healed,” says Carew. “I chose the structure of the pyramid for its form and innate healing purposes through sacred geometry.” Other artists include Wen-hao Tien and Julia Cseko. — Jennifer Mancuso
Firelight Theatre Workshop
Peterborough, NH
firelighttheatreworkshop.com
In a darkened room, decorated with balloons and banners, audience members sit at a scattering of small tables. It’s a thirty-year high-school reunion party, and we’re in it. Enter the narrator, played by Henry Walters (who also flash-transforms into dozens of classmate roles), followed by former sweethearts Peter (Jason Lambert) and Kari (Laura Carden), 1987’s “cutest couple” now bitterly estranged. While the two relive the stings of old betrayals and lost chances, the narrator supplies cosmic contextualization, reminding the audience that individual human drama and the pulse of the universe coexist, as does the non-negotiable progression of time.
This is Firelight Theatre Workshop’s production of The Pavilion, by Craig Wright, an experience both intimate and immersive that encapsulates Firelight’s artistic approach. Nora Fiffer, director (and co-founder of Firelight with Lambert), explains that in choosing or writing a play (they produce published works and devise original pieces), “the audience experience is the first question we ask ourselves . . . how can we redefine what it means to be an audience member?” In addition, Firelight looks for plays that have a “lift,” a magic that resonates at a frequency above the immediate drama. As Lambert puts it, “we are attracted to plays that ask big questions and also acknowledge mystery.”
Fiffer and Lambert, both actors with extensive training and stage experience, started Firelight in 2017. The award-winning company has a home studio/performance space in Peterborough, NH, although many productions are site-specific. From the outset, the theatre’s grounding as a “workshop” has been essential. Being in workshop mode, as opposed to production-centered, gives actors the time and freedom to get to know each other and their space—a space where they are safe to explore, experiment, and reinterpret. The reinterpretation leads to frequent revision—even during the run of a given show—and is a hallmark of Firelight’s process.
This evolution-hungry focus is especially prevalent in Firelight’s devised projects, notably the twelve-episode series “We Were Friends,” performed by Fiffer and Lambert. The series re-imagines the real-life relationship between essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson and journalist Margaret Fuller in contemporary times through episodes performed intentionally out of sequence, so audiences never risk losing a chronological thread. The final show of an episode is never the same as the first, since audience and performer feedback inspire continual adjustments to the script.
Firelight thrives on relationships. Picture an arrangement of concentric orbs—the founders and “embers” (a total of six core company members) at the center, expanding out with collaborators, members/audiences, and the greater community. Each sphere extends lively, loving tentacles into the others, creating feedback cycles and igniting artistic sparks. Firelight recently established a board of directors and has applied for non-profit status, which it should receive this year.
This summer and fall, look for the release of the devised film Dinnertime, directed by Laura Carden, a new iteration of the “Tiny Stories” community project, a fall play, acting workshops, and the final two episodes of “We Were Friends.”— Alix Woodford
PorchFest: The Rhythm of Connection
Saturday, August 26
Black Rock neighborhood, Bridgeport, CT
blackrockct.com
In May 2023, the Surgeon General published an advisory that “raises alarm about the devastating impact of the epidemic of loneliness and isolation in the U.S.,” and, “lays out a framework [to]…advance social connection.” During this era of scarce connectivity, grassroots events like PorchFest are more vital than ever. Taking place in the Black Rock neighborhood of Bridgeport, CT, PorchFest not only sparks connection but is born from the connection residents have to their neighborhood, each other, and music. Meandering from porch to porch and listening to approximately 100 local bands (playing virtually every genre of music), PorchFest populates this walkable hamlet—which features many historic homes—with more than 1,000 people.
The event began in 2016 (after founder Nicole Cassidy experienced Somerville, MA’s PorchFest) and continues to be a neighborhood-centric event. Club owner, musician, and committee member John Torres explains how the event is organized. “Around June 1, people with porches sign up online and share what band will play or, alternately, bands will go online and input what house they will play at. The committee creates the schedule and determines conflicts. For example, if two bands are on a porch at the same time on the same street we tell them and offer solutions.” This year, in addition to schedule coordination and volunteers, the committee is adding more visitor support, including nurses and hydration stations.
Event committee member Catherine Conroy shares that many call PorchFest Christmas in Black Rock: “That’s not meant to assign any religion to it, but to many people here, music is their religion,” adding, “Black Rock is a tightly woven community of artists, musicians, and those who support them; and the grassroots effort to put on a free, public event like PorchFest is made joyfully by everyone in that community.” PorchFest is enthusiastic to now partner with Torres’ nonprofit, Park City Presents, which will provide logistical support that Conroy feels will “keep the event sustainable while keeping its grassroots spirit alive and well for years to come.” — Terri C Smith
Lynn Museum/Lynn Arts
Lynn, MA
lynnmuseum.org
The Lynn Museum/Lynn Arts is an unexpected gem tucked in the bustling midst of the former shoe capital of the world. Driving through the adjacent streets is an adventure. Large, colorful murals decorate the nineteenth century brick walls surrounding the Lynn Common, a generous park in the shape of the sole of a shoe. Adjacent to the museum itself is a gated garden with many old growth trees.
Kelly Slater’s solo show at the Museum, Old Growth from the Northern Berkshires to the North Shore, has made ample use of this garden resource. She and her friend, landscape designer and horticulturist, Laura Eisener, offered a series of three workshops in the spring, and the resultant art works are exhibited in a gallery adjacent to Slater’s exhibit.
A variety of work, from printmaking to accordion books is on display. She and Eisener began with intentional “no fail” techniques, working with pencil, watercolor crayons, and sponges. A striking piece by Beverly De Vico features a bold diagonal red branch with dots of foliage created by a cotton ball dipped in paint.
Montse Pulomares created an accordion book of trees and flowers of different seasons, moving from bare branches to blooming flowers. Text from vintage gardening books is interspersed with collaged paper in a 3-D tour of nature.
In one workshop, Eisener presented locally collected twigs and cones. Slater used a pinhole camera technique, asking students to make a miniature drawing which they then expanded. Joanie Allbee created a full page of a graceful curved pine cone with a pale green watercolor background.
Several accordion books, incorporating collage, are totally delightful. Lily Anshewitz, 8 ½ years old, created a 3-D underwater world. Madeline Anshewitz’s book features a tiny blue bird on a bush, with an arc of red lines indicating birdsong. Zendaya Mandragour composed a complex book with collage, and humorous pencil drawings of a koala bear, a snake, and other animals inhabiting a jungle, forest, swamp, and a desert.
Situating these workshops in the generous space of the historic Museum was a brilliant idea of Slater’s and museum director, Doneeca Thurston. A visit to the Museum and its surrounding multi-ethnic restaurants and shops makes for an absolutely entertaining and enriching day.
— B. Amore
Portland’s Murals
Portland, ME
portlandmaine.com/mural/
Summer is here! People are outside again and traveling. If you’re heading to Maine, a must-stop is the city of Portland which has always been a mecca for artists and writers. Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born and raised here as was author Stephen King.
In recent years, Portland has become known as a foodie’s delight with restaurants helmed by James Beard Award-winning or nominated chefs. With all the things to see and do here—trolley rides, walking tours, and historic houses—there are a few you should simply not miss, including a self-guided tour of Portland’s murals. They are big and beautiful with no restrictions on colors. Artists employ every hue imaginable and then some. All are eye-popping.
There are more than 40 murals peppered around the city, with the majority found at the Old Port where there are several clusters, and in the downtown area. They are even on bus stop shelters and, if not already, they will soon beautify the city’s less-than-lovely green traffic boxes.
The murals are the brainchild of Portland Downtown, a nonprofit organization. In his email, executive director Cary Tyson shared with Art New England that “a few years ago, Portland Downtown started a murals program and commissioned the murals on the Flask Lounge and Cumberland Avenue. Both are by artist Jared Goulette. Hugh McCormick’s Design Co. created the mural on the Free Street Restaurant.” McCormick describes the work as a take on the “Buy Local” message—it’s an image of overturned shopping bag with items spilling from it. “We have just announced our Mural Grant Program where Portland Downtown is charged with stimulating a thriving, vibrant, and sustainable downtown community,” he adds.
Portland Downtown has set up strict rules for the artists: they have to be local, show samples of their work, and apply by filling out an application giving a detailed description of what the finished mural will look like. Applications are reviewed by Portland Downtown and Historic Preservation.
These murals are precise works of art by professional artists. No two are the same, and each reflects the neighborhood or area it resides in.
— Frances J. Folsom
Cold Hollow Sculpture Park
Enosburg Falls, VT
coldhollowsculpturepark.com
In 1970 when sculptor David Stromeyer and his wife, Sarah, purchased a 200-acre former dairy farm in the Cold Hollow Mountains of Vermont, ten miles from the Canadian border, they had a desire to preserve the land while utilizing it to support the practical needs that creating large scale abstract works in steel requires. Through hard work and dedication during the ensuing years this creative couple, Sarah is a dancer and writer, earned the respect of their rural neighbors. They formed a symbiotic relationship with a local farmer who mows the fields surrounding the 70 sculptures that sit across six different meadows in what is now Cold Hollow Sculpture Park. Founded in 2014, the park is open to the public for self-guided tours on a seasonal basis.
In 2018 the Stromeyers incorporated as a non-profit. Their vision stated on their website, “The relationship between art and nature ignites the visitors’ imagination” has never wavered, yet their programming has evolved to meet the demands of growing public engagement. Fueled during the last few years when COVID restrictions sent people outdoors seeking the freedom of movement and inspiration that nature offers, these same restrictions allowed Cold Hollow to expand.
At the start of 2023, that institutional growth included hiring native Vermonter Chloe Vogt as full-time executive director. Having first served as the park’s programming and visitor services coordinator prepared her to take on the challenge of director. In a recent article in the St Albans Messenger, Vogt said her favorite work at Cold Hollow is a 20-foot tall, bright orange and blue, kinetic sculpture with the letters that spell JOY stacked one on top of the other. “It’s kind of like a little wink at what we’re trying to do, which is to spark joy.” Titled What More Can I Say? The piece was one of several added to the park in 2021.
The 2023 season opened in June with five events scheduled under the theme Amazing Makers. This is the third and final installment in Cold Hollow’s “Makers” series which started in 2021 with Why We Make Things followed in 2022 with How We Make Things. The Amazing Makers in this summer’s program have brought an international flair to rural Vermont. Texas-based, Nigerian multimedia artist Olaniyi Akindiya ARIKASH is this year’s artist-in-residence. His art is “driven by current social issues integral to human development, but with no easy answer.” Artmaking is serious business yet when asked about his hopes for the summer ARIKASH admits, “I want to have fun. I want to learn about the community of people who live in the surrounding area of the Park, I want to share my experiences and to collaborate with the community and to see what outcome work of art will surface.” During his residency, ARIKASH will create a temporary installation in the park, inviting families to participate in a performance and workshop on July 29.
The other four exciting makers include: Fabiola Méndez, a Puerto Rican cuatrista, educator, and composer who integrates folkloric, jazz and Latin music; Aaron York, a celebrated Wabanaki artist, educator, and owner/founder of the Red Child Studio of Fine Wabanaki Arts; Hanna Satterlee, an interdisciplinary dancer and choreographer who is founder of the Vermont Dance Alliance; and Juan P. Hinestroza, a Fulbright Scholar and professor of fiber science and apparel design at Cornell University. There is something to bring a little joy to everyone this summer at Cold Hollow Sculpture Park.
— Cynthia Close
lakes gallery at chi-lin since 1981
Laconia, NH
thelakesgallery.com
Nestled in the New Hampshire mountains, by Lake Winnipesaukee and Lake Winnisquam, the lakes gallery at chi-lin resides in a restored 1780s farmhouse. Owner Suzanne Lee has designed an innovative space for exhibiting unique artists from a range of backgrounds, combining established and emerging, local and international, with a focus on bringing Asian artists to the region. The Gallery also features beautiful gardens for guests to rest and recharge in before or after experiencing the art inside.
This summer, Lee is exploring new ways of curating and exhibiting multi-media exhibitions. She aims to bring forms of art that are often under-appreciated, especially poetry and photography, into the fine art world. By curating a two-part summer show, Capturing Beauty, that pairs artists of different backgrounds and media together, she has created a space for different art forms to intertwine. Each pair of artists has been asked to approach one concept from their own perspectives, in addition to showing a few of their own individual pieces.
Each part, the first in July, the second in August, features five pairs of artists and includes sculpture, painting, poetry, photography, and more. Themes and concepts vary across the pairs. Oil painter Gay Freeborn and poet Sarah Audsley address the theme of coming to the light after a dark period. Iranian poet Ala Khaki and New York-based abstract artist Alice Garik examine the experience of immigration and starting over in a new culture. Photographer Sage Sohier and president of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire Melanie Chicoine explore the reality of being a refugee in New Hampshire and New England. These are only a few of the amazing artists and concepts bringing innovation and joy to visitors at the lakes gallery at chi-lin this summer. — Autumn Duke
Andres Institute of Art: Sculpture in Nature
Brookline, NH
andresinstitute.org
It would be easy to drive right past the entrance to Andres Institute of Art, across from Granite Gas, near the old Brookline Depot on Route 13 in Brookline, NH, with no idea that, behind the parking lot and welcome center, twenty miles of trails and a bounty of sculptures wait to be discovered.
The Institute and sculpture park sit on the site of the former Big Bear Mountain Ski Area, a property bought by engineer/entrepreneur Paul Andres in 1996. In Brookline, Andres met fellow resident and internationally acclaimed sculptor John Weidman. An art-championing partnership began, and within two years, they co-founded the non-profit Institute.
Since 1999, the Institute has held an annual International Bridges and Connections Sculpture Symposium. Inspired by Weidman’s experiences with European symposia, it’s the first of its kind in the U.S. At Andres, each invited artist selects a site on the property and completes a sculpture in three weeks, while receiving training that emphasizes technique and safety—vitally important, given a single piece can weigh several tons. Today, Andres is home to over one hundred works by artists from forty-seven countries.
The wooded trails are an oasis of natural beauty. And with the inclusion of Weidman’s pieces and those of symposium sculptors, the place is wondrous—ripe for contemplation and discovery. The works are integrated into the environment, tucked into often intimate, and sometimes stunning, natural surroundings, surprising visitors as they turn a corner or come upon a clearing. At the summit sits the sculpture studio, where there’s a good chance of finding Weidman at work. The trails are open year-round, dawn to dusk. (Andres president, Gail Bloom, describes the sculptures in winter as appearing to “grow from the snow.”)
Scheduled events at Andres include concerts and the symposium Closing Ceremonies with artist talks (this year’s on October 8). Meditation walks are also in the works. A Familiar Place, a book on Weidman’s life as a sculptor, based on meticulous records and memorabilia curated by his wife Nadiya, is due out this year. — Alix Woodford
The Connecticut Art Trail
Envisioned as a collaborative effort to highlight the state’s role in the history of American Impressionism, the Connecticut Art Trail has mushroomed over the years to better reflect the diversity of its cultural institutions. The Trail today has 23 members who oversee a total of 90,000 objects—everything from minerals at The Bruce Museum to plaster casts at the Slater Memorial Museum. A $35 individual membership in its passport program amounts to a $150 value including savings from museum admissions, discounts, gifts, and other benefits.
For Carey Mack Weber, president of the Connecticut Art Trail and the Frank and Clara Meditz Executive Director at Fairfield University Art Museum (FUAM), the fact that the Trail has become incorporated as a 501(C) (3) nonprofit, reflects the partnership’s increased opportunities for grants and for building upon its marketing opportunities, including the Trail’s redesigned website and the passport itself, which now comes with room for visitors to keep a journal of their experiences.
The pandemic inspired The Trail’s institutions to invent creative ways to weather challenges. For museums like FUAM, a decision to focus on online programming proved fortuitous, and people worldwide are flocking to its site to learn about its exhibitions and attend lectures. Ditto the Florence Griswold Museum, which delved into new forms of art criticism that have made its traditional holdings accessible to new audiences.
The pandemic also spurred creative thinking about new ways to draw visitors in. The opening of trails at Hill-Stead Museum or the ability to walk The Artist’s Trail in Old Lyme, have inspired visitors to step inside and learn more. Connecticut may not have museums or historical societies
in each of its 165 towns, yet one must feel it comes pretty close.
Many of these institutions are addressing omissions in their exhibition schedules by focusing on works by people of color, as well as by women whose roles have been overlooked. Currently, the Mattatuck’s: Blurring Boundaries: The Women of American Abstract Artists, 1936–Present, delves into women’s roles and contributions as members of American Abstract Artists; another at the William Benton Museum of Art, Encounters with the Collection: Celebrating Art by Women, has unveiled works by women in a rotating exhibition that continues through July 2024. In Their Elements: Women Across Media, the first ever that has been curated by a FUAM undergraduate, draws upon the museum’s growing collection and reflects the institution’s ongoing efforts to collect works of art by women, people of color, and LGBTQIA artists.
Expect teasers for two upcoming shows along the Trail that are sure to draw crowds this fall—one at FUAM that will focus on the art of Arthur Szyk, a renowned WWII-Era human rights advocate and longtime New Canaan resident; the second, a major survey of Modernism in Connecticut will enliven the Bruce’s new galleries. Both are “must sees” and they, along with other exhibitions and events, may be accessed on The Art Trail’s new and improved website.
It’s an embarrassment of riches, for sure. — Kristin Nord
Words in the Woods
Throughout Vermont
vermonthumanities.org
People have long looked to both art and nature for inspiration and solace. Now, visitors to Vermont can experience the joy of combining both. This summer, Vermont Humanities, in collaboration with Vermont State Parks, continues their summer program Words in the Woods, bringing local regional poets to state parks throughout the Green Mountain State to read from their works in the beautiful outdoors on Saturdays throughout the summer.
Linda Quinlan will read at Elmore State Park on July 15. Quinlan won the “Wicked Women’s” poetry award and was named Poet of the Year in Wisconsin. She has a published book of poetry, Chelsea Creek. Monica Ferrell will take the green stage on July 22 at Lake Shaftsbury State Park. She has taught fiction and poetry at the MFA programs at Columbia University and Bennington College and is the author of one novel and two books of poetry. August 5 will find Bianca Stone at Branbury State Park. Stone is the author of collections What is Otherwise Infinite, The Möbius Strip Club of Grief, and Someone Else’s Wedding Vows. She collaborated with Anne Carson on the illuminated version of Antigonick. On August 12, attendees at Osmore Pond: New Discovery State Park can hear the words of Tokyo-born Michiko Oishi. Oishi’s bilingual collection of Haiku/Tanga Red Fish Alphabet, co-translated by Judy Chalmer, was published in Tokyo, while her book Deepening Snow was published in Montpelier. Finally, on August 27, prolific poet, author and former
Olympic fencer Geza Tatrallyay will read at Silver Lake State Park. Tatrallyay has published fifteen books and is releasing a thriller in August and a murder mystery set in Vermont later this year.
Vermont Humanities is a community arts non-profit organization dedicated to bringing the creative arts to the people of Vermont. True to this mission, Words in the Woods events are free to attend, with pre-registration available online. Visitors to the parks are welcome to join these events at any time. With events on different dates around Vermont throughout these next two months, there are plenty of chances to attend. Experience the magic and joy of the spoken word and the lush beauty of Vermont in the summertime. —Autumn Duke