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AHA! Director Accepts New Position Margie Butler, who has been the Project Director of AHA! for the past 4 1⁄2 years, has resigned to accept the position as Marketing and PR Manager at FirstWorksProv in Providence, Rhode Island. FirstWorksProv is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of the strong arts community in downtown Providence. During Ms. Butler’s tenure, the AHA! Project has received three prestigious and very competitive Adams Grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The AHA! Project has also supported the growth of the New Bedford Open Studios events; initiated a marketing partnership with NewBedford360.com; hosted a monthly cable access TV show with the City of New Bedford; and developed an enhanced program and corporate sponsorship for AHA! Thursday nights. During Ms. Butler’s tenure, the AHA! project has grown to over 40 partners. AHA! is a fiscal agent fund of the Community Foundation of Southeastern Massachusetts (CFSEMA). Ms. Butler first came to New Bedford as an Artist-in-Residence within a program jointly sponsored by Artworks! and UMASS Dartmouth. She later pursued an MFA from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University graduating in June of 2006. Ms. Butler said that her first exposure to New Bedford was actually on the December 2002 AHA! night. She felt welcomed by the community and stayed to make her own unique contributions. “Margie has brought tremendous enthusiasm to the AHA! Project and provided leadership for the arts community during a critical period of growth,” said Lee Heald, Co-Chair of AHA!, “ We will miss her creative energy, but wish her well as she explores new professional horizons.” A transition team has been formed to lead a search for her successor. Serving on it will be Craig Dutra, CMSEM President, Irene Buck of Artworks!, Karrie Vincent of the New Bedford Art Museum, Anne Louro from the planning office of the City of New Bedford Planning Office, and Rob Gould from Cape Arpeggio. Lasse Antonsen, Director of the University Gallery, UMASS Dartmouth, will Chair the Steering Committee in the transition period with Lee Heald stepping off the Steering Committee to serve as the Interim Director. The AHA! Project was formed in 1999 by a dedicated circle of cultural leaders, institutions, downtown businesses and individual artists. Since July of that year, the project has continuously presented its 2nd Thursday events. What originally included 14 venues now numbers over 40 and spans eight galleries, three museums, the National Historical Park, City Hall and The Library, many of the downtown’s unique stores, restaurants and cafes, as well as individual artist studios, a meditation center, several churches, The Bristol Building, The New Bedford Preservation Society and The UMass Dartmouth CVPA Star Store. AHA!’s mission is to collectively promote downtown culture and work towards greater sustainability of the downtown cultural scene and partner organizations. This
past Thursday night during AHA! I had a rare opportunity to get out
of the Tatlock Gallery and walk up the hill to the corner of William
and Purchase Streets. What a beautiful evening it was! Even better than
the fantastic weather was the large numbers of people along the streets.
There were families with children in strollers, young couples and groups
of friends, meeting one another and standing in groups, conversing and
"catching up" as they enjoyed the various entertainments spilling
out onto the streets around them.
Without a doubt, one of the more creative and fun-to-watch events was that produced by Alda Roderiques and Mary Beth Vargas of White Knight Gallery and their resident artists, Arianna Swink and Jenny Newman, better known as Tenacious Lilly Jewelers. Arianna and Jenny are both Umass Dartmouth graduates who have remained after graduation to live and work in the emerging art community that is rapidly expanding in New Bedford. With the help of friends like Bridget Lajoie and Susan Mogan from Studio Six on the second floor of the Cummings Building, they created a series of "live windows", featuring a changing roster of models in a variety of outfits. The window scene changed every fifteen minutes and during each vignette, the models, who looked astonishingly mannequin-like, would change poses when least expected. Many of the younger viewers would exclaim to their parents "Mom, she's alive!" During the intermissions, which gave the models time to change for each scene, high schoolers Jen Vargas, Danielle Wunschel and Zoe Ryan kept passers-by entertained with impromptu mime skits in the windows. Larissa McLaughlin, owner of the newly opened Blush Beauty Bar on Centre Street, did the models' makeup, including one theatrically inspired "mask" design for Jenny Newman. All the models wore jewelry created by Tenacious Lilly and their clothing came from a variety of sources, including their neighbor, The Artificial Marketplace and Celia's Boutique, located around the corner on Purchase Street. Other pieces came from Blue Alvarez who is an independent designer from Foxboro and the fabulous fabric handbags were all from Maruca Design, carried exclusively in New Bedford by White Knight Gallery. Rhonda Fazio, whose business is called Dyer Maker, provided them with beautiful scarves dyed with natural botanicals such as onion skins and indigo. Rhonda, also a graduate of UMass Dartmouth, has established a studio in the Cummings Building, which also houses White Knight Gallery, Artificial Marketplace, Simmons Brothers Motion Picture Company, Solstice, No Problemo and Joe Piper. Adding to the air of excitement was the music provided by the Celtic musicians playing in and outside at Joe Mone's new music store, aptly named "Joe Piper". Joe gives lessons on the various Celtic instruments, most notably the bagpipes, sells instruments and plays with various musicians around the area. Returning to the gallery, I rounded the corner of the Whaling Museum onto Water Street and saw Jarad Nunes and his group from the Youth Repertory doing the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet out of the second floor window of the Tatlock Gallery. Once again I was struck by the enormous amount of creative talent and vibrant energy in this city. So I feel compelled to say--if you haven't been downtown lately, what are you waiting for? Ideas,
Insights, Reality and Vision from At
the core of AHA! Night's mission is the topic of Cultural Economic
Development. Several ideas surfaced and fruitful connections between individuals were made. The importance of weekend business hours (Saturdays in particular) and consistency was discussed. For instance Cafe Arpeggio and Celia's stay open late every Thursday and understand that traffic builds over time. The situation is somewhat different for Stasia Powers and Artful Sinks. She notes that her customers often come from a distance and so Saturday is when they shop. Yet, her customers generally find her on the web or through the home design world. Once they get to her she encourages them to walk around and experience the downtown. Stasia shared that her customers are delighted with what they find here. So, Artful sinks is actually drawing new faces to our downtown on weekends. Another important topic that bubbled up was that of cross promotion -- all the entrepreneurs present quickly began to talk about what they could do together. There were thoughts voiced about how increased downtown foot traffic does not always translating to sales. Still, these entrepreneurs are committed to finding ways to make their business work and decided that cross promoting their businesses would help. Perhaps the most synergistic element was that each entrepreneur's vision for their store centered around service and offering a "specialty" product. This thread of offering unique products and atmosphere, whether it is on the menu or on the clothing rack, seems to be an important marketable point of difference for New Bedford's downtown. The emerging fashions at Calico, the personal touch of Celia's customer relations, the custom hand painted Artful Sinks and the homemade soups and bakery items as well as personality-filled Open Mic of Cafe Arpeggio, are all highly distinctive. You generally will not find these kinds of products and attention to detail in the Mall. And this holds true beyond the four entrepreneurs who took part in this discussion. Just look at The "New-B" International Market that is preparing to open in The Bristol Building. This market is going to be a neighborhood grocery featuring specialty items that reflect the diversity of our city's population - highly unique! And the personal touch of the owners, Jose and Maria Andrade really comes through when you walk in the door. Between this specialty focus, the committed individuals and growing willingness to work together, this panel provided a glimpse at the potential which is now taking root downtown.
Mass.
Cultural Council Awards Adams Grant to New Bedford |
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