Willimantic CT — A collaborative partnership between Eastern Connecticut State University, the Town of Windham, and various arts and nonprofit organizations such as Kerri Gallery, Burton Leavitt Theater and AccessAmerica, has led to a grant from the Connecticut Commission on Arts’ Arts Leadership program to support “My Windham.” The goal of this collaborative public arts project is to turn Willimantic’s Main Street, from the mills to Town Hall, into an alternative arts exposition during spring 2015.
The My Windham project seeks submissions of art or creative artistic proposals from any artist in any discipline — painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, film and video, animation, music, dance, poetry, spoken word, theatre and performance art. Submissions will be accepted from Aug. 15–Nov. 15, 2014.
A group of professional art jurors will make selections from the submissions and the results will be exhibited and performed in the downtown area within participating businesses, in their storefronts, gallery spaces and theaters, public parks and parking lots from April 26–June 3, 2015.
Art Professor Gail Gelburd of the Visual Arts Department at Eastern Connecticut State University, will curate the project with the assistance of Eastern students, volunteers from AccessAmerica and anyone else in Willimantic who wants to be a part of this event.
Windham hopes to further define itself as an arts community. It already is a unique blend of history—Victorian homes, the thread mills, and the Revolutionary War origins of the town’s infamous “frog” icon—and cultural innovations such as the famous Boom Box parade on July 4, the Third Thursday Street Fest, and other cultural and artistic expressions. Willimantic’s diversity, youthfulness and off-the-beaten-path soul continue to attract new businesses and more people to its downtown.
What’s Windham to you? A river town? A railroad town? A college town? An arts town? Is it one yet? Can it become one? The My Windham project seeks to explore and answer their questions. Find out more at http://www1.easternct.edu/gelburdg/. Submit works or proposals of work to artimages@my.easternct.edu. You may also contact Gelburd at gelburdg@easternct.edu or through the Visual Arts Department at (860) 465-0197.