On Friday, June 5, the Developing Artist Program, funded through a grant from The Greenwich Alliance for Education, will host a town wide event: “A Walk with Chalk.”
The idea is to make connections one line at a time. Students around town are invited to draw a line as they walk towards their school, a friend’s house, Town Hall or the Boys & Girls Club.
The project is intended to reunite the remote and physical worlds in a safe social distance event, resulting in a community based Social Practice Art work.
The Developing Artist Program has a new website that gives an overview of the work being done and the positive ways it is enriching the lives of members and students around town.
Additional funding for the Developing Artist Program has come from the Connecticut Dept of Economic and Community Development, CT Office of the Arts (COA), and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The program is led by Michael Manning and Ben Quesnel, and was first piloted at the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich.
The goal of the program is to give students a broader understanding of what it means to be an artist and to expose young artists to the possibilities of pursuing a career in this field. This is done by bringing a diverse group of professional studio artists into the school to share their work, practices, and experiences with the students. They also make trips to visit artist studios, galleries, museums and organizations that support and develop the career of professional artists.
Since the start of Covid-19, the program has been conducting virtual interviews and studio tours involving the young aspiring artists at the club.