NEA Grant Boosts Open Studios

New Haven’s annual ​“Open Studios” festival will have a farther reach and more space to display local artists’ work this year thanks to a $75,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal popped in Tuesday morning to the Orange Street headquarters of Artspace, which hosts the annual October celebration, to join an announcement about the grant — and view current works on the wall about racism and the environment.

Artspace will receive $75,000 from the NEA’s Our Town grant program to better fund the annual Open Studios event — in which artists across town open up their workspaces to visitors, and some exhibit in joint public spaces. Artspace will work with New Haven’s recreation department to provide spaces for artists without studios, bolster advertising and promotional materials for the events, as well as provide honoraria for festival curators and organizers

Artspace Executive Director Lisa Dent said this year’s event will take place over two weekends. During the first weekend, Oct. 21 – 23, the events will be centered around theeast side of New Haven with a kickoff event on the 22nd at East Rock Brewery. The second weekend, Oct. 28 – 30, will focus on the sest side of the city. 

“Rather than being one of the larger studio buildings the entire time, we want to showcase artists and their art in their neighborhoods,” said Dent. ​“We want to focus on the local artists, so young artists that are working and living in Dixwell get into the show. That was really important to us as part of this grant.”

“The bulk of this money and the costs for this event go towards promotional material,” said Dent. ​“We hope to use this money to print maps for attendees as well as provide more advertising and promotion of the event and the artists so that we can get people from all over the city and the state to attend.”

Finally, the grant will also be used to provide honoria to curators and organizers who open up their spaces to artists in different parts of the city to highlight local works. Artspace aims to streamline the process and make accessing space to highlight their work easier for artists.

While Blumenthal was at Artspace to celebrate what’s to come, he also got a taste of current art on exhibit. Dent and Laurel McLaughlin walked the senator through different worked on display.

They showed him New Havener Joseph Smolinski’s Climate Repository (above), a piece crafted from a felled tree on the New Haven Green. Smolinski relied on salvaged materials to show that it is possible for society to be sustainable. Different parts of the tree hold 3D printed representations of the environment, including broken glass.

He also saw Smolinski’s Mourning Sun, which consists two panels of coal that was collected from coal ships that ran aground or spilled coal on New Haven and Connecticut beaches. While the coal is currently black, it has begun to oxidize and become semi-silverish glass.

“This is a beautiful art space, and it’s really impressive what you’re all doing to extend art throughout the city,” said Blumenthal. ​“This is an incredibly important usage of NEA and federal funds so that people can have easier access to art in their neighborhoods and are able to go into their communities and appreciate local art and local artists.”