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Posts Tagged ‘nancy shohet west’

Dollhouse Show

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on July 25, 2014| 2 Comments »

Years ago, when I was expecting, I learned the baby would be a girl. My husband and I went right out and bought a beautiful dollhouse built by a teenage boy we read about in the local paper.

Recently, Nancy Shohet West wrote in the Boston Globe about a new dollhouse show. My husband said, “If you go, see if you can find someone who can repair dollhouses.” (Suzanne’s needs a face lift.)

But we didn’t read the article carefully. The show featured art works from artists contemplating the resonance of “dollhouse.”

Note the foreclosed house with a Banksy on an exterior wall (above it, the only entry by a male artist, with tiny soldiers), the Japanese-inspired house, and the 1950s domestic fantasy house, below. It was a fine show, but I didn’t find anyone to repair Suzanne’s dollhouse.

The exhibit was in a renovated warehouse where artists have studios and where there also is shared space for entrepreneurs. The business space is called the Wheelhouse, and it features a common area for eating and relaxing, small offices with names on glass doors, small conference rooms — and lots of art.

I was surprised. The last time my husband and I were in that building we were taking a stretch class with a classmate of Suzanne’s, and the Bradford Mill was so rickety one expected the staircase to collapse at any moment. Times change.

The dollhouse show is up until August 28. Read more about it here.

dollhouse-with-a-Banksy

 

Japanese-dollhouse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1950s-domestic-fantasy

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Art and Music Festival Today

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Photo: Daniel Balter
Moby Disc, a creature sculpted from 6,000 CDs salvaged from landfills by Fireseed Arts.

Central Massachusetts is getting its own arts and music festival this weekend in Devens (what used to be the military base Fort Devens).

Nancy Shohet West writes at the Globe, “During her years as a university student in Austin, Texas, Monica Hinojos witnessed firsthand the way the city’s iconic festival, South by Southwest, grew meteorically from a music festival with 700 participants in 1987 to an amalgam of music, film and interactive media that drew 25,000 people to this year’s gathering in March.

“So it’s understandable that when Hinojos took up the reins as executive director for 3Rivers Arts, a Groton-based nonprofit whose mission is to support local artists and the arts while spurring the creative economy and enriching community life in the towns in and around Central Massachusetts, she arrived with grand visions.

“One of those visions will materialize this weekend in the form of ‘The Nines.’ The multistage music and arts festival’s inaugural edition kicks off Saturday at Willard Field in the Devens property off Route 2.

“Hinojos concedes the scale of the event might seem a little bit outsized for the normally low-key performance scene in the Nashoba Valley, but she says it is time to start building up local cultural offerings — and that’s why she’s choosing to do it with a bang.

“’ I had a vision of a music, film, multiart festival, modeled on South by Southwest,’ Hinojos said. ‘We want to provide a platform for artists in Central Massachusetts by which we can elevate their work. We have some world-class artists out here. My vision is to amplify their presence so that others throughout New England and the world can see it.’ …

“ ‘In the end, we found a little bit of something for everyone,’ she said. ‘Most of the musical performers are nationally touring, emerging acts …’

“Identifying local artists appropriate for the event was the job of 3Rivers Arts art director Christopher Cyr, a Rhode Island School of Design graduate now living in Pepperell. One of the studios he chose to highlight was FireSeed Arts of Framingham, known for its ‘art with a repurpose’ mission and focus on eco-design.

“ ‘We call it locally harvested trash,’ said Daniel Balter, a cofounder of FireSeed Arts. ‘We try to bring awareness to the role of repurposing trash as art. The Nines festival is a perfect opportunity to provide platforms for local artists, and create some great things.’ ”

“Gates open at noon; the music begins at 1 p.m. and will continue until 11 p.m. … www.theninesfestival.com or  800-653-8000. Children under 10 admitted free if accompanied by parent or guardian. ” More.

Photo: Colm O’Molloy for the Boston Globe
Monica Hinojos of 3Rivers and Benjamin Jachne of Great Northeast Productions are co-sponsoring The Nines music, comedy, arts festival in Devens.

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Saving the Five and Dime

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 2, 2013| 2 Comments »

The West Concord 5 & 10 is a crammed-to-the-gills, family-run institution, the place you go for what used to be called notions and sundries — and for anything you have tried and failed to find anywhere else.

But the 5 & 10 may be on its last legs as a result of long-term changes in shopping patterns and the collapse of a supplier that gave credit.

A cash mob was organized for today, and the faithful turned up in droves, promising to spend at least $20. Whether the show of loyalty can save the business for the family remains to be seen, but it must have warmed the cockles of their hearts.

Nancy Shohet West’s article Thursday in the Globe West helped to get the word out:

“According to [store manager Chris] Curtis, his main supplier, Arrow Wholesale Inc. in Worcester, which had provided quirky inventory to small, dime-store-type businesses all over the country for generations, went out of business. That loss, coupled with the decrease in business facing small neighborhood shops everywhere, as more consumers flock to malls, super­stores or online, was draining the lifeblood out of the West Concord 5 & 10.”

Organizer Polly “Stadt said she and her 13-year-old daughter, Emma Hill, agreed that this was awful news. Browsing the shelves for inexpensive, amusing, or useful items was a tradition not only among adults in the community but among children Emma’s age as well. They decided something had to be done, and then Stadt remembered a tactic to save a local business that a friend in Texas had told her about: a cash mob.

“In a cash mob, according to the website www.cashmob.com, committed supporters ‘come together to shop in a locally owned establishment to support their favorite local business and support the area economy. Each ‘mobber’ spends an agreed-upon amount, usually $20.

“Stadt and her daughter said they decided a cash mob was just what the West Concord 5 & 10 needed, providing an influx of money and, more importantly, bringing attention to its plight. They talked to Curtis, chose a date — the first Saturday in March — and started putting out the word: Emma on Facebook, and her mother by e-mail and word of mouth.”

Now I’m just hoping we didn’t strip the shelves so customers in the weeks to come find nothing to buy.

More about a wonderful store and about how social media may help save it.

saving the 5&10

West Concord 5&10

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Little Women

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Twenty years ago I helped out on what local people jokingly refer to as the Concord Passion Play: Little Women. It’s performed every 10 years by the Concord Players because (a) author Louisa May Alcott lived at Orchard House in Concord and (b) she was a founder of the theater group that became the Concord Players.

Kate Clarke is directing the show this year, and she just got some great publicity in the Boston Globe.

“ ‘Preparing to direct the play, I started to do some research and was fascinated to discover just how meaningful the book is to so many people,’ Clarke said.

“ ‘Even the rock star Patti Smith wrote in her recent memoir that “Little Women” was what made her feel as a young high school student that she could be an artist. It motivated her to go to New York and become a performer. I started thinking, “Good Lord, Jo March is everywhere! Why do people find her so compelling?”

“ ‘That’s the question I’ve been tackling with this group of actors. Yes, it’s about the Civil War era, and the societal restrictions that females were under at that time. But the fact that the book’s popularity has endured reflects what compelling characters these young women were.

“ ‘This story is so uniquely Concord and yet reaches far beyond the boundaries of Concord, just as it is a story about the 1860s that also brings up a lot of contemporary issues,’ Clarke said.” Read more.

Here’s photo by Jon Chase for the Boston Globe. Pat Kane, an incredible costume designer, is in the middle. (I don’t think she remembers, but the first time she worked for the Concord Players was when I sought her help on a one-act I directed, Stoppard’s After Magritte.)

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