The village of Willimantic, part of the town of Windham, will launch an exercise in creative placemaking this week with “My Windham Project.” The walkable stroll of a one-mile stretch of the village’s main drag features artworks created by artists with a connection to Windham, as well as performing arts and historical events.
“Willimantic has a reputation of being funky and artsy. We don’t want to become too gentrified, but there have been some economic downturns, and arts is a proven way to revitalize a community,” said Gail Gelburd, an art professor at Eastern Connecticut State University in town and the project director of “My Windham.” “We may not have too many venues, but why not turn other spaces into alternate art spaces?”
Gelburd herself printed a black-and-white photo collage on sturdy white canvas and wrapped it around an abandoned gas station on the Whitewater Park property, where a cotton mill used to be. “I chose the building specifically because of contamination on the site,” she said. “I wanted it to be like a Chinese landscape painting: you scroll around it, walk around it, contemplate the landscape.”
Down the hill from Gelburd’s collage, on a chunk of the former foundation of the cotton mill, is a charming cluster of sculptures of frogs and a tadpole by Belinda Gabryl. Gabryl’s work also can be seen on a storefront on Main Street, of 17 frogs of ceramic, concrete and Fiberglas.
Willimantic already is known throughout the state for its creative placemaking, in the form of the wonderful bridge across the Willimantic River decorated with 11-foot-tall bronze frogs sitting on top of spools of thread. The Thread City Crossing’s whimsical design tells two stories of historic Windham: its former dominance as a premier thread-making center, and a 1754 incident involving frogs descending on the town looking for water during a drought.
Green painted frog footsteps on the sidewalk lead the way from storefront to storefront, to see the “visual poetry” of Edmond Chibeau, sculptures by John Byrne, oils on canvas by Andy Jones, steampunk designs by Elisha Sherman, Buddhism-inspired mixed-media works by Tenzin Wangchuck and paintings by Bill Dougal, Nicolas Khan and Emily Kohn in the library.
Kerri Gallery at 861 Main St. in a hub of sorts, showing work by Gelburd, Imna Arroyo, Afarin Rahmanifar, Tom Hebert, Kathryn Myers and Cynthia Guild. In Jillson Square is a seemingly Christo-inspired installation by David Fenn, in which Fenn wrapped a boulder in red plastic and wound yellow jump rope around it in the form of a slingshot.
MY WINDHAM will be on exhibit until June 6. The grand-opening reception, with music, dance and a sneak preview of the vaudeville show “Vaude-Willie” is Thursday, April 30, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Bellingham Auditorium in Town Hall, 979 Main St. A map of all venues and a listing of all events is on mywindham.org.
