Friendship Bracelet: Art-In

Friday, February 13, 2009

Art-In

Today's storefrontART Art-In to raise awareness of their Kirkland Ave. Project went on successfully this afternoon, drawing a decent-sized crowd to the alley's portal of graffiti-covered red brick. C3 Program Director Julia Handschuh and project manager Haley Morgan were very thrilled to see so many people in the avenue.

"There's so much excitement," Morgan said. "It's great that people came out even though it's so cold."

While the weather permitted the event to take place, the iced over pavement and general frosty air made for slight discomfort. Unfortunately, the hot beverages they were planning to offer to guests turned from hot tea to luke warm tea rather quickly, but the tea was not the issue, it was the proposals, the ideas, and the taking of action. The organization set up various investigatory stations atop milk crates around the alley, encouraging guests to participate.

One man needed no prodding, as he took to his charcoal and easel to create a landscape of one of Kirkland's corners.

Stations included one with various rolls of colored tape used to box off the alley's preferred artistic endeavors, one urging the participant to create color studies of the space, one for texture rubs, and one with a community journal for scribing Kirkland Ave. memories. In addition to storefrontART's suggested activities, various proposals for future works were presented. One man unfurled a 36-foot painting which he hopes to display or recreate on a building, while previous ideas such as a treasure hunt, projections, and a motion-activated sound installation were fleshed out.

Northampton electronic musician Eric Hnatow eventually showed up to appreciate the space. His enthusiasm for utilizing the space to its fullest potential was obvious, as was his exasperation towards the Iron Horse Entertainment Group after last Friday's High Places show, which he was opening for, was cancelled the day of the show. Hnatow offered ideas of movie screenings on large brick spaces as well as general agreement as the space for quieter musical events, the music portion of which Downtown Sounds owner Joe Blumenthal agrees with according to storefrontART.

"Building owners came out, excited to see everything that was happening," Morgan said. "We raised a lot of blog awareness and had lots of conversations with interested people."

The next phase of the process will take place March 13th, the same night as Arts Night Out and storefrontART's third artHAPPENING. The date will find artists putting their investigations to use, depositing temporary installations, sculptures, and performances in and around the space.