In our Summer Newsletter and elsewhere it was reported that through the efforts of our Connecticut State delegation the GNBAA was placed in the budget of the State of Connecticut to receive $100,000 in funding. The grant is considered �Directed Local Funds� and is administered by the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.  In the Autumn Newsletter I detailed that a portion of these funds were being used to make the position of our Executive Director full time. It was always our intention, and also that of our legislators, that the bulk of the money would be regranted to our member arts organizations.

Giving away money is easy. Doing so responsibly, however, requires some effort. I am happy to report that a $70,000 grant program has been established. The requests for proposals went out in early December; the requests for funds are due in the Arts Alliance office by February 15. Individual awards will not exceed $5,000, nevertheless, it is almost certain that the amount of funds requested will exceed available revenues. A special committee has been established to review all the proposals and make the hard choices. The two most important criteria the Committee will use to make funding decisions are the impact of the funding on the community and its impact on the organization. We plan to notify all who made requests by late March. Checks will be sent out in early April.

I am very grateful to our Executive Committee who did all the planning for this program with input from and the full approval of our Board. I look forward to announcing the grant recipients in our Spring Newsletter.
 

Thanks to a grant from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism and the National Endowment for the Arts, the GNBAA recently hired Kate March as an Arts Outreach Associate. In addition to working with our member arts organizations, the GNBAA has made efforts to reach out to four other constituencies in greater New Britain: arts organizations in Berlin, Plainville, Newington, and Southington; members of minority communities; individual artists; and businesses. We have already met with some success in each of these areas.

Shawn Bryant, our American Saving Foundation intern during the summer of 2006, accomplished much of the research necessary to begin efforts in earnest including finding over 30 arts organizations in surrounding communities.

Regarding outreach to minorities, the Alliance partnered with the Art League of New Britain to promote the League�s last exhibition featuring works by a variety of accomplished artists of Latin heritage. Lisette Velasquez, GNBAA Board member, translated the Another Friday poster for the opening of this show into Spanish; Mary Saunder with the Spanish Language Center on Cedar Street assisted with distribution. February is Black History Month, and the GNBAA will be promoting the New Britain Symphony Orchestra�s celebratory concert and art exhibit in CCSU�s Welte Hall. We will also be cross promoting the co-current exhibition of Charles Ethan Porter: African-American Master of Still Life at the New Britain Museum of American Art. As written up elsewhere in this newsletter, the Polish American Foundation of Connecticut and the Polish Society of Artists recently joined the ranks of GNBAA arts organizations.

The opening of the Downtown Gallery in April, 2007, brought about a new opening of communication with individual visual artists and of support for them. This is expected to grow especially with the Hicks Artists Cooperative with its first floor gallery poised to open across the street early in 2008.

Our outreach to the business community has thus far focused on sponsorships for the Downtown Gallery and for our First Annual Autumn Tour of New Britain Historic Homes. Our goal is to be as helpful to businesses as they are to us. Kate March�s position is only temporary but there are several avenues available to ensure that our outreach work will continue to enhance our support for the arts in our area.
 

Downtown Revitalization Continues to Gain Momentum
by Donald Courtemanche, New Britain Downtown District Executive Director

The New Year is here and 2008 is shaping up to be one of the most prosperous years yet for the New Britain�s Downtown! In February we look forward to the opening of Hardware City Tavern, a full service restaurant and bar at 136 Main Street, right next door to Hole in the Wall Theater. Later this spring we look forward to the long awaited opening of the Hick�s Artist Cooperative at 66 West Main Street. This is the first artists� work space housing to be built in downtown New Britain. This summer the Rao Building luxury apartments will come online at 160 Main Street with yet another full service restaurant and bar on the ground floor. NewBrite Plaza continues to evolve into a vibrant retail destination with the addition of A.J. Wright, Save A Lot food store, and a yet to be announced well known furniture store anchoring the plaza.  While all of these developments are taking place, Mayor Stewart�s Downtown Revitalization Plan is being implemented with the centerpiece being Arete Development Group�s plans for additional downtown housing, retail space, and parking. Keep your eyes peeled for announcements regarding downtown streetscape improvements, additional on-street parking, and the proposed Public Safety Complex!

Feel free to contact the Downtown District at any time for more information.  We also invite you to stop by the Visitors� Center at 117 West Main Street for information on New Britain arts and downtown businesses, and to check out our featured exhibits at the Downtown Gallery!

PAF and PSA Join Forces with the GNBAA
by Stephen Hard, GNBAA Executive Director

 Director

The Polish American Foundation of Connecticut (PAF) and the Polish Society of Artists recently joined the Arts Alliance. This brings to 39 the number of arts organizations formally affiliated with the Alliance. The PAF was founded and incorporated in 1996. Their mission is to serve the community by improving access to social services, educational and career opportunities for immigrants, Polish Americans and others, and by promoting Polish cultural heritage and inter-ethnic understanding. The maintenance of a vibrant cultural and educational center is an important component of their vision for their organization. Many members of the GNBAA are familiar with the home of the PAF, the Sloper-Wesoly House on Grove Street in New Britain. The Alliance�s Another Fridays have been held there many times. The Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra has its offices at the Sloper-Wesoly House and is one of the Foundation�s most successful and oldest programs. The PAF also offers music scholarships.

The Foundation�s home, the Sloper-Wesoly House, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Making this beautiful facility available to numerous community organizations and activities is another service the Foundation performs. In recognition of this service to the community, the Foundation was recently designated to receive State funds for the restoration of the exterior of the building so that it can continue to serve as an inspirational location for the community to work and recreate.

The Polish Society of Artists (PSA) is a program of the PAF. The Society holds regular exhibitions in the Sloper-Wesoly House. In addition to the opening receptions, the Sloper-Wesoly House is open to the public for viewing the exhibitions on Thursday evenings. The most recent exhibition opened on January 5 and features works by Christine Arena. The Society was also recently exhibited in New Britain�s City Hall. Individual members of the Society have exhibited in many other venues including Tanya Wolski at the Downtown Gallery and Beata Trefon at the Art League. New Britain is well known for its vibrant Polish community. The Polish American Foundation of Connecticut and the Polish Society of Artists are determined to strengthen and promote the strong cultural component of Polish heritage. The GNBAA is pleased to help in this worthy endeavor.

Consumer Culture Garden at NBMAA
by Paula Bender, NBMAA Communications and Marketing

The New Britain Museum of American Art is featuring EAT, an artists collaborative, in an interactive NEW/NOW exhibition through Feb. 24, 2008. The EAT collaborative, including Lee Cherry, Pat FitzGerald, Ted FitzGerald, David Millsaps, and Amanda Robertson, team up together to create The Consumer Culture Garden, an interactive installation that includes projected animation, digital sensors, and an artificial environment. The EAT collaborative explains that the NEW/NOW piece simulates a Japanese koi pond where fish emblazoned with advertising interact with the viewer. The animated fish change in appearance and behavior, engaging the viewer visually while delivering advertising messages.

�Advertising is ubiquitous,� the collaborative notes. �The lines between art, commercialism and entertainment are increasingly blurred.� EAT�s installation hopes to provoke some important questions: What impact does consumerism have on our perception of what is beautiful? At what point do we lose awareness of the pervasiveness of advertising in our lives? How does advertising change our perception of what is art and what is not?

The EAT collaborative came together to create a visual metaphor that explores how consumerism affects the collective aesthetic.  The group consists of educators, animators, advertisers, and technologists.  The EAT collaborative members are from North Carolina; several of them have studied at the North Carolina State University College of Design.  The project is an on-going collaboration that uses cutting edge technology and design to address contemporary issues in culture.

Another Fridays 

Another Fridays

Another Fridays

January 18 @ the Downtown Gallery 4:30 � 7:30 p.m.

The fifth exhibition of the Downtown Gallery will feature Inedible Sweets by Melanie Carr and Recent Works by Thea Ciciotte. Our Another Friday will be the opening reception for this exhibition. Melanie Carr Eveleth is well known in the New Britain arts community. In addition to her many years on the Arts Alliance Board and her remarkable work with exhibitions at the Art League, she is currently employed by the New Britain Museum of American Art. Home Tour fans may remember Melanie and her husband Chip�s home across the street from the Museum. Her current artistic efforts are focused on revealing the potent visual attractiveness of candy and other sweets. Her �Inedible Sweets� demonstrate powerfully how much pleasure these things bring even when we can�t eat them. Not being able to eat what Melanie presents to our eyes is expected to provoke a variety of responses and that�s the point and also the fun of it.

Thea Wilcox Ciciotte and her husband David resided for some years in a snazzy apartment (which, unfortunately, was not on the Home Tour) on the third floor of the Eveleth home. During this time Melanie and Thea bonded not only as friends but as artists. Their works showed mutual influence especially since they both were experimenting with fabric. Exhibiting together was Melanie�s brainchild. Since the Ciciotte�s moved to West Hartford Melanie and Thea have not paid close attention to one another�s work. Part of the interest of this exhibition will be to sense the ways in which the two artists continue to relate to one another in their work and then the ways in which they have diverged. If you are unable to come to the opening reception be sure to stop by the Downtown Gallery in the New Britain Visitors� Center (117 West Main Street) before February 22 to see what promises to be a wonderful experience. The Visitors� Center and Downtown Gallery are open Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. or by appointment.
 

February 8 @ the Chen Gallery at CCSU 4:30-7:30 p.m.

This Another Friday will be an opening reception for Happy Days, Sol. This exhibition will feature works by Sol Lewitt and his artist assistants: Linda Abadjian, Daniel Collin, Spiro Koulouris, Glenn Lavertu, John Paul Lavertu, Brendan Mulcahy, and Thea Wilcox. If you have not been to CCSU in some time, the parking situation for Maloney Hall where the Chen Gallery is located could not be more convenient and it�s free! The garage located at the corner of Stanley Street and Ella Grasso Boulevard is right next to Maloney Hall and directly connects to it on one level.
 

March 14 @ New Britain Youth Museum Downtown
4:30-7:30 p.m.

This Another Friday will be the opening reception for The New Britain Youth Museum�s latest exhibit, From the Back of Beyond: The Travels of Dr. Elizabeth Cunningham and Gertrude Bridge. The exhibit features a look back on the travels of two of the Youth Museum�s most notable patrons. It includes photographs, journal excerpts, and personal objects gathered along these trips. The exhibit will focus on areas such as homes, children, and food as seen through the eyes of the two women. These focus areas will also reflect the similarities and differences found in cultures throughout the world. The New Britain Youth Museum Downtown is located at 20 High Street behind the Library. There is abundant free parking.
 

Dancing at the Art League
by Stephen Hard and Kate March

NoeMarch Dance Company (NMD) has been named company in residence at the Art League of New Britain. NMD is a modern dance and film company based in Connecticut and New Jersey. Performing throughout the tri-state area, NMD focuses on nurturing the individual artistic voice. Artistic Directors Kate March and Jessica Noe specialize in developing multi-medium dance projects which combine cinematography, photography, theater, and experimental sound with modern dance choreography. With each new project Kate and Jessica seek artists who are willing to introduce a new energy and commitment to the creative process thereby allowing for organic art making. In addition, NMD holds workshops for people of all ages and skill levels, focusing on modern dance technique, improvisational skills, dance composition, and the use of film as a choreographic tool.

Kate was elected to the Board of Directors of the Art League and has been named Performing Arts Program Director. She is organizing monthly collaboration events and music/dance/poetry performance series along with weekly classes.  Visit  www.alnb.org for more information.

According to Kate, �Art grows out of an environment. Exploring various sites allows dancers to respond and move in unexpected, meaningful ways.� Also important to the artistic process is the filming of the improvisational site-responses in order to offer lasting images that evoke a feeling specific to that site. NMD is on the Web at: www.noemarchdance.org.
 

HITW to Perform The Book of Days
by Barbara Gallo, Hole in the Wall Theater Company

Another Fridays

Another Fridays

An ill wind blows through Dublin, Missouri, leaving murder in its wake and churning up the political corruption and religious hypocrisy that lies just below the town�s all-American surface. Hole in the Wall Theater�s presentation of Pulitzer Prize-winner Lanford Wilson�s Book of Days, is being directed by Steve Liskow and produced by Jim Nason. Wilson�s dark parable of small-town corruption mixes lust, lies, and greed to create a noir version of Our Town.

Book of Days opens with a nod to Thorton Wilder�s �Stage Manager� when the twelve person cast, acting as a chorus, sets out the mundane particulars of a town dominated by a cheese plant, a fundamentalist church, and a community theater. An out-of-town director (the play�s lone outsider) holds auditions for a production of George Bernard Shaw�s Saint Joan.  Ruth Hoch, the cheese plant�s bookkeeper and the wife of its innovative manager, wins the title role.  Then all hell breaks loose.

In the early hours of June eighth, a tornado roars through Dublin and Walt Bates, owner of the cheese plant, is found dead.  The town sheriff accepts that Walt�s death is a freak accident, but Ruth suspects murder. Inspired by her playing of Joan of Arc, Ruth launches a one-woman crusade to see justice done � and discovers just how unwelcome the truth is in a town that prefers the illusion of decency. Don�t miss it!

GNBAA Web Presence Going to the Next Level

Another Fridays

Another Fridays

The Arts Alliance has been continually working to improve its Web presence to keep pace with an increasing preference for online information gathering. Establishing links to all our arts organizations and the posting of the Marketing Collaborative electronic calendar have been the most significant changes over the last several years. Part of the funds from a grant from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism and the National Endowment for the Arts are being used to take the GNBAA Website to the next level. Two fundamental reorientations are involved.

The first is that the site will be taking on a more �arts consumer� orientation rather than an arts organizational orientation. It presents what our artists and arts organizations offer in terms of what the art loving public wants. In place of a simple listing of the names of our arts organizations, for instance, the homepage has blocks of color categories of arts activities: Artists, Arts Interest Groups, Dance, Galleries, Museums, Music, Theater, and More! These categories correspond with the categories developed for our forthcoming new Arts Directory. Arts organizations and their activities can be listed in more than one category to catch the angle of interest of the consumer. First Church, for instance, will be found under both Music and Galleries, Children�s Dance Theater Connection under Theater and Dance.

The second fundamental change to the site is an interactive orientation. It will be set up to encourage exploration and �User Rating Scales� on some of the pages and an �Arts Forum� will enable visitors to share their thinking on what they are experiencing. The Arts Forum will be an especially effective tool to promote the arts in our area since all of our arts organizations and artists will be able to post information and critiques of area arts offering for the general public to get more in depth information and post their own responses. After review and critique by the GNNAA Board and all our arts organizational representative look for the redesigned site to be posted early in 2008.
 

Choral Club of Hartford Joins the GNBAA
 by Bob Bonato, Librarian and Webmaster

Another Fridays

Another Fridays

The Choral Club of Hartford recently joined the GNBAA. Fred North, Choral Club Music Director and GNBAA Board members, remarked, �I am delighted to help make the �greater� in our organization�s name be more than a word.� The Choral Club of Hartford has had a long and luminous history. It began with the vision of Ralph L. Baldwin, then Supervisor of Music in the Hartford school system on June 13, 1907. The Club was set up to run as a business, which is one reason for its longevity. Numbered amongst its members were businessmen, lawyers, and even a judge. In one hundred years of continuous operation as a choral society Fred North is only the tenth conductor!

The Choral Club has sung in many places: on the Bushnell Memorial stage, at the Lincoln Center for the Arts, Trinity College, the Jewish Community Center, the Sangerbund, Lithuanian Hall, the Wadsworth Atheneum, The Hartford Group Auditorium amongst them. The Club has presented concerts at the Avery Heights nursing home and The Hospital for Special Care in New Britain. Most recently the Club sang at the Cromwell Library. Our singers have contributed to the arts of many communities with their love of singing. They continue the tradition into our 100th season.

The Club is always looking for new members. The Choral Club rehearses Mondays from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the First Church of Christ, 12 South Main Street, West Hartford in the Choral Room. More information about the Club is available by visiting our Website (www.choralclubofhartford.org), contacting our President, Terry Crescimanno ([email protected], 860 827-8050) or just ask Fred.