You’d think with all the months of organizing this I’d have spent some time here telling y’all about it. Alas, it is the classic case of the shoemaker’s shoes. So here we are a few days out, Saturday June 20th is the big day. Somehow 100 exhibitors a dozen or so bands and our friends at Post Road Diner, Coromandal, Archie Moore’s, Fountainhead, Rolling Cones, Kettle Korn, Luncheria Valencia, BJ Ryan’s, Tuscan Oven, Fat Cate Pie Co. and YumNuts will be on hand. Over the next few days I’ll be cross posting here and updating the Arts Festival web site. It’s here; www.norwalkarts.org/pip/, a short click away.
The big question everyone keeps asking is why do an arts festival now? In this economy? Well, it’s precisely because of this economy that we decided to reach out to our local creative economy peeps, and put on a show. And what a show it’ll be. One mile of arts, music, food and fun along side the Norwalk River, and in our version of central park, Mathews Park. Two stages, a construction site, a playground, and every kind of artistic endeavor except for fire breathing antelopes are going to be on hand for the very local, very cool event. So come out and support your local painter, sculptor, guitarist, violinist, photographer, designer, chef, film maker, poet, and labyrinth maker. Okay there’s tons more artistic endeavors, and performers of all kinds, but that’s why we say check it out. Or ask questions here in the comments.
But let me spend some time about the local creative economy for a bit. Norwalk is lucky to have great cultural institutions like The Maritime Aquarium, Lockwood Mathews Mansion, Stepping Stones Children’s Museum and the Center For Contemporary Print Making all within a mile of each other. They are our anchor participants in this festival. And we are lucky to have a great multipurpose trail that links these great institutions together. And soon there will be 95/7 and a new way to drive from West Ave into North Water Street. This is Norwalk’s future. One that we want to see germinate the people on the street enjoying a great urban park and an exciting dining and entertainment district. Everything that we’ve sought to do on the Arts Commission has been to engage the pubic with Art and artists with the public. From the art and architecture walks, art in storefront windows, poster contests and concerts, we’ve been actively promoting Norwalk as a thriving cultural scene. Let’s not also forget the historic stuff, whether its Mill Hill, the Norwalk Museum, the Mansion of course, but all the great lectures and tours that the Norwalk Historic Commission, the Norwalk Historic Society and the Norwalk Preservation Trust has put on.
It’s a great time to be exploring Norwalk these days. All of these artists, performers, and cultural institutions exist on donations, member drives, sales and gigs. We’ve been tracking how that has a financial impact on our local economy. And for pARTy in the Park we will be finishing up our cultural assessment survey. Or rather, we’ll be unveiling it. I’ll post the survey link soon, but we want to know what you think about everything arts and culture in greater Norwalk.
I think this is great that this festival is going on. Oyster Shell park and that path have great potential. I assume that construction (drainage rerouting?) is done so people won’t have to walk the length of the park to get between 55 water and the I-95 underpass if they don’t want to?
can’t wait! pray for sun! it will be a lot of fun…
There is still some construction work to be done, but the path will be open by the weekend.
So many great people from so many wonderful organizations have been working together for many months on this project. It’s going to be a great event!
Oh yeah, and we could still use a few more volunteers!
volunteer@norwalkarts.org
I want to thank my ‘sisters’, Jackie Lightfield and Maribeth Becker and the entire Party in the Park Committee, the Arts Commission and all of their recruits for their tireless efforts to organize such a fantastic event.
While there were some frustrations at times, and there will be more, everyone glued together with the same goal and vision.
This event has created a wonderful, positve energy that has resonated exponentially.
We are all looking forward to this and more to come.
So, now, everyone do the NO rain dance!
Well, I’m disappointed that there won’t be any fire-breathing antelopes – but good luck with the weather. And I can’t figure it out – but are these artists SELLING their wares or just displaying? Any jewelry or wearable art? This is for my own shallow, selfish interests.
anonymous 5: I too am disappointed about the lack of fire breathing antelopes, however artists will be selling wares, and there are jewelry artists and wearable art purveyors.
Went to the site to find out who were involved in organizing this event. I’m interested to find out who the group of people are who helped to put this together – I’m sure it wasn’t just the three women named above. Where’s the list of people who spent all those months arranging this? They should all be acknowledged for their input, time, and hard work.
Wond’ring Aloud: Like Battlestar Galactica, we have a fleet of volunteers all pulling together to find earth and land this thing called pARTy in the Park. The Cylons are on our tail, everyone wants to know everything, but the final episode is Saturday, and like all good shows, the credits will roll then. Stay tuned.
The list of people who have worked on this event is huge – and growing by the day! I’m sure that everyone who has been a part of it thus far knows how much their contribution is valued by everyone on the team! It really has been an amazing group of people to work with. I think I’m going to have PIP withdrawal next week…
Website is still a ‘work in progress’.
See you Saturday!
Thanks, Maribeth and Turffie. I’m sure this will be an excellent event, which is why I’m curious to know who helped organize it – I’d like to know if any of my friends or network aquaintances are among them so I can congratulate them for a job well done.
Clicked on your web site listed – beautiful brochure with map, etc. but no date listed. Had to go back to see if it was only Saturday or all weekend. Unfortunately, I will be out of town on Saturday, so will miss the event.
At this point it feels like all of Norwalk has been helping with the pARTy in the Park! In addition to our core committee, we’ve had so much support from the community as a whole. Also, we’ve enjoyed great cooperation from all of the city deparments. agencies, and other involved parties (namely – construction crews ensuring that we have safe access to the site).
If we were to throw names out now, we’d surely be missing someone and hurting feelings. We will definitely do our big ‘thank you’ once we catch our collective breath.
In the meantime, as Jackie said, we’re in the final countdown….
Who is Fat Cate?