the Pulse - culture beat: "stART in the Street" festival planned

"stART in the Street" festival planned

September 29 “party” to showcase work of local artists

By Jessica Singer

On Sunday, September 29, local artists and performers will gather to showcase their work at a community-wide arts event. The Worcester Street Festival, called “stART in the Street,” is the brainchild of a group of local artists, formerly the Artists Advisory Group, who now call themselves the Worcester ARTists, aka wART. The group has been working hard to support the creation and growth of the Worcester Arts District, and hope the street festival will focus attention on the fledgling district, showing the community the broad range of talent local artists have to offer.

The Worcester ARTists are not the only ones involved in the festival. The City of Worcester, Worcester Artists Group (WAG), the Arts District Task Force, ARTSWorcester, and many other local organizations and businesses are collaborating to make the street festival a reality. The Worcester Youth Center, the Performing Arts School, and the Hope Coalition have also agreed to participate.

Gary Dusoe, a member of both WAG and wART, stresses the fact that there is really no one person or group in charge of the event. This, he says, is what makes the project so exciting. “Everybody is really coming together for this,” Dusoe says. “It’s a real great collaborative effort.”

The hope is to get as many people involved as possible, and an official call to artists has been extended to gather participants. Local artists of all kinds are invited, including poets, dancers, musicians, and visual artists. wART expects possible participation from the Bohemian Latin Stand, visual art from the Art Well, music from Dusoe himself, and musical (including rap) and visual art from kids at the Worcester Youth Center and the Hope Coalition. Other artists who have already agreed to participate include glass bead workers, potters, and poets.

StART in the Street will take place outdoors in the Arts District on Main Street, giving people the opportunity to experience the arts community firsthand. With the city’s cooperation, the street will be blocked off between Chandler and Wellington, and two sound systems and two stages, one smaller stage and one main stage, will be set up for the day. The entire event will be free for both artists and audiences. From noon until 5 pm, there will be street theater, dancing, graffiti art, interactive activities, spoken word, and music of all kinds, including, hip hop, folk, and rock.

“In the street. That’s where it has to begin, and it has to be the artists that do it. Let the artists step up to the plate now.”

– Gary Dusoe, spokesperson, Worcester Artists Group

With activities like chalk art, balloon hat making, tile projects, clowns, and face painting targeted towards a younger audience, the event promises to be a fun-for-all-ages block party.

Dusoe envisions roaming artists and vendors selling their wares, while street performers and musicians are seen on every corner. “The possibilities are unlimited,” he says. “We’re only limited by the amount of people who include themselves.”

Christine Proffitt, the city’s Cultural Development Officer, has been working closely with the artists on plans for the Arts District and stART in the Street. Proffitt considers the project “a wonderful success story in terms of needing to participate in making the Arts District a reality.” Although the support from city administration has been infinitely helpful, Proffitt stresses that “it’s the artists doing it, not City Hall telling them to.” Local artists initiated the project because they wanted to do something actively themselves to promote their own arts community. “Converting buildings takes time,” Proffitt admits, “but programming is something artists can have more control over.”

Gary Dusoe agrees that enthusiasm for the Arts District really does have to start with the artists themselves, right “In the street. That’s where it has to begin, and it has to be the artists that do it. Let the artists step up to the plate now,” Dusoe says, commenting that the festival is an opportunity to “let the community see the possibilities. It gives the community a chance to see what the artists can actually do.” And, of course, fun will be had in the process. As Dusoe predicts, “I think this is gonna be one real party.”

The Worcester ARTists encourage anyone and everyone to participate in the festival, and also to come to wART meetings to plan this and future art happenings. The group normally gathers once a month at the Bijou Cinema. For more information on wART meetings or on attending or participating in the festival, call WAG at 508-579-1574 or email Anne Rainey at raineyram@aol.com.