Community

Green Street Celebrates Homecoming/Family Weekend in Style

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On behalf of the Green Street Arts Center of Wesleyan University, we invite you to participate in a weekend of engaging and exciting events.

Dine & Donate: A Delicious Fundraiser
Friday-Sunday, October 22-24
Support the arts simply by dining on Main Street! Download, print, and present this coupon to your server at one of the following local restaurants and they will generously donate a portion of your bill to Wesleyan’s Green Street Arts Center.

Esca Restaurant & Wine Bar
Fiore II Italian Restaurant
Mikado Japanese Cuisine
New England Emporium
Puerto Vallarta
Thai Gardens Restaurant
Typhoon Thai Cuisine

Green Street Open House
Saturday, October 23 | 2-4pm
FREE
Green Street celebrates Wesleyan Homecoming/Family Weekend in style. Join us for Salsa, West African Drumming and Dance, visual art projects for the whole family, and a spectacular performance by the popular band Buru Style! Enjoy tours, refreshments and a special pre-registration discount if you sign up for a Session Two class before you leave. Light refreshments will be served.

Sunday Salon: Hawaiian Nationhood and Indigenous Rights
with Professor J. Kehaulani Kauanui
Sunday, October 24 | 2-3:30pm
Suggestion donation: $5
This talk will address the outstanding Hawaiian independence claim and the persistent issue of sovereignty facing the Kanaka Maoli (indigenous Hawaiian) people. Come learn more about how the U.S. government came to acquire Hawai`i and the spectrum of political activism relating to self-determination and nationhood.

For more information on any of these events or to reserve your seat call 860-685-7871 or email us at gsac@wesleyan.edu. Information about these and all of our programs and offerings can be found on our website: www.greenstreetartscenter.org.

We hope you will join us this weekend and thank you, in advance, for your support of Wesleyan University’s Green Street Arts Center.

Tell us! What restaurants will you be going to?

Keeping the Beat: Green Street Encourages Life-Long Students

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A Note of Thanks

Thank you to everyone who attended our Opening Evening on September 10th; the night was a great success and we enjoyed meeting new friends and seeing familiar faces.  We’d like to thank Michael Roth, Wesleyan University President, Sonia Mañjon, Wesleyan University Vice President for Institutional Partnerships and Chief Diversity Officer, and our incredible Green Street Advisory Board members and Wesleyan Trustees who joined in the festivities and showed their support for GSAC.  We hope you all experienced some of the great offerings, like the salsa workshop, West African Drumming and Dancing, and family art projects.  Green Street is fortunate to have fantastic advocates like you.  Buster and Paola, two of our supporters, have shared their Green Street experience with us below.

Keeping the Beat

Green Street Arts Center is an essential part of our lifelong learning process.  Buster and I are both teachers. He teaches fourth grade at Macdonough School in Middletown and I teach sixth grade at Sunset Ridge Elementary Academy for Arts and World Languages in East Hartford. He is a Middletown native and I live in Glastonbury, which makes for a convenient commute to Green Street for both of us.  Last spring, we participated in the West African Drumming: Djembe Orchestra class led by expert instructors Jocelyn Pleasant and Aaron Greenberg, who teach with humor and patience. We not only practiced drum technique, but also learned about the various rhythms and cultures of West African countries with our diverse, energetic, and good-natured classmates.

In addition to expert instruction and welcoming classmates, another key feature of the Green Street Arts Center is its partnership with the greater Middletown community.  As a culmination to our drumming course, many class members joined the instructors and younger Green Street students to perform at a community festival celebrating the arts open to all.  For a novice musician such as me, performing a public concert for an intergenerational audience was thrilling!

Buster and I always look forward to Green Street’s new course offerings because they stretch our minds and rejuvenate our spirits.  In the future, we hope to explore Salsa dancing, creative writing, martial arts, and of course, more drumming.

Thank you, Green Street Arts Center for helping us stay bright and lively!

Sincerely,

Paola Maina and Buster NelsonFall Catalog Cover
Submitted by Paola Maina and Buster Nelson, Green Street students and After School support staff

If, like Paola and Buster, you are interested in staying bright and lively through one of Green Street’s offerings, view our fall course catalog here.  To become a member and receive great discounts at Green Street and partner organizations around the state, email gsac@wesleyan.edu or call (860) 685-7871.  Click here for all of the membership benefits. We look forward to hearing from you.

Green Street’s New Mural Brings The Community Together

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“It’s fun.  It’s different.  We’re starting with nothing and making something beautiful.” – Gary Cain, volunteer

Green Street is surrounded by revitalization this summer.  More than 5 neighboring houses are being remodeled, gardens are being planted, and across the street at St. Vincent DePaul Place, the community is coming together to bring color and meaning to the North End.

In 2009, Green Street partnered with Citizen’s Bank to put a mural on the corner of Green and Main Street.  With this success, Green Street and mural artist Marela Zacarias were eager to continue beautifying the community.  When Ron Krum of St. Vincent DePaul Place expressed interest in the project, funding was secured from Lego’s Children Fund and the design process began.

In preparation for the project, Marela held four educational workshops for Green Street students in which she discussed the importance of murals.  Ron then gave the kids the background of St. Vincent DePaul Place and its impact on the community.  It was obvious that the students had been inspired; at the next mural meeting, there were dozens of design ideas.  The final mural design is a culmination of Green Street student drawings, St. Vincent DePaul Place’s vision, and Marela’s artistic guidance.

It’s not just the familiar images of North End landmarks that make this mural a community collaboration; St. Vincent de Paul volunteers Gary, Bill, and John have been working tirelessly alongside Marela throughout the painting process.  These three men, all with their own story, have come together to give something back to the community and, in doing so, have formed friendships.  This dedication has inspired Marela to include their faces in the mural to give the community a stronger sense of ownership.

Marela sees the Community Mural Project as an act of kindness, something to show community support.  “That corner is the corner where hardship lives,” she says, “and the fact that we’re making that corner, specifically, beautiful and colorful and full of hope, is bringing healing to the community.”

If you are interested in supporting and helping our community revitalization efforts please contact us at (860) 685-7871 or gsac@wesleyan.edu

Submitted by Lisa Bruno, Development Assistant

A Community Gathering Around Internationally Inspired Art

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For those who love art and gathering with new friends, Green Street hosts A Trio of Solos, a community event featuring three local artists with amazing talents.  You can enjoy live music from Ceol Go Maidin (formerly The O’Rourke’s Irish Session Band), fabulous food, and art on display and for purchase.

Meredith Arcari, Susan Aranoff, and Jennifer Theokary will fill three of Green Street’s spaces with their paintings, printings, and jewelry.  We invite you to fill the rest of the space with other community members as we kick off our summer session in style.

"Shining Orchestra" by Meredith Arcari

These three dynamic artists are all friends of Green Street and the Middletown community.  Meredith’s stunning paintings are based on photographs that she has taken during her travels around the world.  In an expressionist style, she uses exaggerated colors and gravitates toward small, special moments such as the orchestra playing at 2am in her father’s town of Sepino, Italy.

Susan is a proud resident of Middletown’s North End.  Much of her work features a linoleum block entitled “Sitting.”  This block reflects the constancy of self and the reality of change and impermanence.  Susan explained this saying “I can sit the same way, in the same place, everyday for a hundred years and the ‘I’ who is sitting is constantly changing and is never the same for very long.  I have printed “Sitting” over 100 times and no two will ever be the same.”

Jennifer is a designer and Computer Aided Design artist who creates unique wearable objects (see picture above).  Her recent work is inspired from her experience living and working in the Muslim country of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Jennifer’s work shows how cultural differences, religion, and Islamic architecture become inspiration for decoration and creation of wearable sculpture seen through a westerner’s eyes.  All of her works will be available for sale at this event.

This combination of fascinating artists, great entertainment, and delicious food is sure to make A Trio of Solos an unforgettable event.

"Sitting" by Susan Aranoff

We hope to see you there!

A Trio of Solos
Thursday, July 8, 2010
7-9pm
Regular Price $8; Member Price $5

For tickets call (860) 685-7871 or email gsac@wesleyan.edu.

Submitted by Rachel Roccoberton Griffin, Administrative Assistant