Art Everywhere Weekend

Every November, venues around Hartford host artists for one weekend. Experience varies by location.

For the first time, 1429 Park Street offered up one floor for a mix of live music and dancing after hours, effectively extending the viewing time for artwork at this site. This is where dancers were painted as part of the performance, where a loud droning filled the mostly unfinished second floor. People wrote and drew in chalk on the floors. It was intended as an immersive experience; some got into it, others let this be their social hour, and kids dove into paint and what looked like fake snow, taking “immersive” literally.

Venom Vintage on Whitney Street promised to be just as edgy, but if you were hoping to see live graffiti art at the time advertised, you would have been out of luck. There was some pre-existing work on the walls in the store and in back. On one side of the space, visitors were encouraged to add doodles to a “zentangle art wall.” You could look at the secondhand clothing store as being art hanging on the racks, but hold off on getting excited about that. The store owner, Dina Brass, says the future of Venom Vintage in this location is uncertain; according to her, the building owner has a problem with the graffiti at the space. It has been approximately one year since Venom Vintage relocated to the West End from Park Street, almost on the West Hartford line.

Colt Gateway, nearly unrecognizable inside from how it looked a few decades ago — no more walking down hallways with smashed windows — remained popular, but not overwhelmingly so. Continuing with the theme of increased visitor participation this year, a photography studio offered free headshots during Open Studio Hartford weekend. Another artist encouraged visitors to take old recipe cards. Cliff Janssen demonstrated how he makes his crafts, carving wood on site.

ArtSpace has been for some the one-stop shop, with several floors of artists set up in studios and hallways. It has long since outgrown this space, with halls so packed with shoppers that the creations are hard to view. Putting most of the non-building resident artists in a different location would ease up on the congestion, making this seem less like a mall and less likely to drive away those who feel claustrophobic and overheated quickly. More attention could be given to resident artists, and even those who can share studio space for the day.

Union Station has been a better, more airy place for local artists not showing off their own studios to set up. This site has the bonus of providing a surprise experience for people who would otherwise be staring at the ceiling, waiting for their train or bus to arrive. A few more booths could be added and still allow for vendors and visitors alike to maintain personal space.

Another alternative would be better use of 30 Arbor Street. Hallway space is not used at all in this building, which also hosts fewer studio spaces, making for a less claustrophobic experience to begin with. Here, people were able to shop boxes of yarn and other craft supplies, check out a maker space, and tour the Hartford Flavor Company. Some non-studios (re: just offices) could be used for artists for the weekend if the tenants were on board with letting the public view their spaces.

One of the weirder juxtapositions was at Trinity College on Saturday. Some totally unpretentious, low-key Fifth Year Fellows had their work crammed into one part of the “Seniors Studio,” while outside, Homecoming Weekend was taking over the rest of campus, red cups and sweaty bodies everywhere.

The biggest disappointment was the Hartford Dada Art Show at Capital Community College. This exhibit opened a week before Open Studio Hartford weekend, but multiple trips to the gallery space from opening through the weekend yielded the same result: locked doors, lights off. There were no signs viewable from the street indicating hours. After some inquiry, it was discovered that I was not the only person to notice the inconsistent access to the gallery. The hours for the gallery are now set at Mon-Fri 9-5, Sat 9-1. This show is supposed to continue through November 28th.

Noticeably missing from most of the nearly two dozen venues: lunch options. One studio in ArtSpace routinely sells doubles, but with just one, the wait is always long. Majorca, at the edge of town, is a restaurant that served as a venue for Open Studio Hartford. This year, Cugino’s — new to 283 Asylum — offered free appetizers after 4 on Saturday. A short walk could take care of this food issue for visitors in Downtown and the West End, but sites like Oak Hill Art Studio and Colt Gateway were harder to navigate with only cookies and candy as snacks. It would probably be a logistical nightmare, yet extending the shuttle service to include limited lunch and early dinner stops along a few major avenues, could be a neat addition to the weekend. A few food trucks outside of Colt would do the trick too.

Even with a few hiccups, Open Studio Weekend continues to be a draw, and for good reason. If you missed this, the website lists all participating artists.

Other venues: Hartford Weaving Center, Connecticut Historical Society, Passage Gallery, Real Art Ways, Arbor Arts Center, The Dirt Salon, Kempczynski Gallery and Studio, First Presbyterian Church, Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Hartford Public Library, Connecticut Convention Center, Maurice D. Robertson Photo Arts, and multiple sites on Pratt Street.