NEW LONDON — Two months after part of the city was designated as a cultural district, the city’s cultural district committee was ready to begin the project.
Improving the functioning of the downtown area for events, installing artwork by local artists, and expanding the city’s Black Heritage Trail are just some of the things the commission is working on.
A seven-member committee convened last year, but had to first tackle the state’s designation as a cultural district in June. The designation allows New London to use resources from the state’s tourism website to promote destinations and events.
New London is one of three cultural districts recognized by the state. The district area is bounded by several blocks bounded by State Street, Bank Street, and Howard Street.
Rich Martin, owner of The Telegraph Record Shop, chairs the volunteer committee. Another member is Sean Patrick Murray, manager of The Social and The Oasis. Jeanne Siegel, Development Director of the Garde Art Center. La Chale Gillis, local photographer. Lydia Blaisdell Brunner, playwright. Melissa Ford, a community member who has previously served on a city board, and Andrew Camacho, hip-hop artist and non-profit founder of ArtFlame Music Academy.
“It’s a really interesting mix of people and represents the diversity of the city,” said Martin.
Martin added that a city’s identity through art and culture isn’t always recognized.Cultural District designation puts these qualities at the top of the agenda.
“Art is tourism, creating spaces to come back to,” Martin said. “Tourism spending in the state has not always been concentrated in New London.
Martin said the committee received $250,000 in COVID-19 relief funds from the American Relief Plan Act on behalf of the city and donated it to the district.
Some of that money was used to hire a part-time cultural district coordinator, Caitlin Whitehorn, in May to “dot the I’s and T’s” for the commission’s events and assets.
Using the COVID-19 Relief Fund, the committee created an event program grant to support district events where additional funds could be used. Most recently, he supported two of his events at the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival, Sept. 9-11, the revival of the Benedict Arnold Festival at the Floch Theater and the puppet show at the Arm of the Sea Theater at Sanitary Park. I’m here.
The committee met with Mystic-based Kent + Frost Landscape Architecture last week to brainstorm ideas for improving directions and infrastructure in designated neighborhoods for future events. The commission is working with the city to install Big Belly waste recycling bins in the district, Martin said, and a local artist will be paid to paint them when they arrive in the fall.
The commission will also invest funds in an expansion of the city’s Black Heritage Trail, announced in October 2021, offering self-guided tours of 15 different historic sites in the city marked by bronze plaques.
Curtis Goodwin, who spearheaded the city’s transformation into a cultural district, is the trail’s project manager.
Goodwin said the project, which he called the New London Heritage Trail, is entering its next phase, adding indigenous trails with markers centered on pequots. He added that the committee and research team are working to make the trail self-narrating with QR codes to help people navigate the trail.
“We are working on the momentum for next year,” Martin said.
j.vazquez@theday.com
Comments
Post a Comment