Watertown Cultural Council Awards Grants to 20 Local Groups

The Watertown Cultural Council is pleased to announce its grant recipients for fiscal year 2017, awarding over $9,200 in grants to 20 organizations to support music, art, and science programs serving Watertown audiences from families, preschoolers and K-12 students to adults and seniors. FY2017 Grant Recipients:

Arsenal Center for the Arts, Black Box Series, workshop, performance, and post-performance Q&A session for Watertown students
Belmont World Film Festival
Carole Smith Berney, The Birds and Bees: How We Love Them, Why We Need Them at WFPL, Charles River, and local gardens
Cunniff Kids News, Watertown Splash, and Raider Times, student reporters to attend local theater performance, conduct interviews, and write reviews
Delvena Theatre Company, Murder a La Carte at the Watertown Senior Center
Flat Earth Theatre, Silent Sky at the Arsenal Center for the Arts
Friends of Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Meet the Instruments concert with Mary Bichner & the Planetary Quartet
The Genocide Education Project, educational guides for Watertown High School
Gore Place, The Art of Puppetry performance and workshops
Lowell Elementary School, Family Math and Technology Night
Mark Chester, The Faces of America: Teaching Tolerance
New Repertory Theatre, sold-out run of Fiddler on the Roof
Palaver Strings, interactive workshop and performance for WMS and WHS students whose special needs fall under the autism spectrum
Powers Music School, A Musical Story Program at the WFPL
Revels RiverSing
St. Stephen’s Armenian Elementary School field trip to Wheelock Family Theatre
Watertown Art Association, Elemental Forces: Water, Earth, Air and Fire
Watertown Family Network, intergenerational presentation of Seuss on the Loose
Watertown Middle School, Museum of Science traveling physics program to visit 8th grade
Watertown Public Arts and Culture Committee, Public Art and Culture Kit: An Idea Book for Watertown and Developers

“This year’s WCC grant recipients highlight the range of interests and experiences within our community,” says Jonathan Hecht, State Representative for Watertown and Cambridge. “In what has become an increasingly divisive political climate, I’m pleased and proud to share this news of community efforts spanning music, theater, science, and history designed to inform, entertain, inspire, and draw people together.

Watertown Church Hosting Holiday Art Show & Sale

Looking for unique, one-of- a-kind gift items this holiday season? Saturday, December 3, 2016, members and friends of the First Parish of Watertown announced they will host their annual Holiday Art Show & Sale. The hours are 11 am to 4 pm at the First Parish church, 35 Church Street in Watertown Square. More than 18 artists and crafters, along with the church’s youth group, will showcase a wide array of fine arts and crafts. Included will be paintings, photography, pottery, candles, jewelry, woven items and more.

Center for the Arts in Watertown Reveals Its New Name

To honor the remarkable generosity of the Center’s major donor family, the Board of Directors with support of the Membership charter, are pleased to announce that the Arsenal Center for the Arts has been officially renamed:

The Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts

In 2000, Watertown businessman and philanthropist Charles Mosesian stepped forward with a generosity of spirit and an acknowledgement of the importance of the arts, made a remarkable $1-million-dollar gift that helped launch the Center’s building campaign. It was this sentiment that inspired others to join in the effort that has created the wonderful community of arts and artists we’ve come to know. With the continued support from the Mosesian Family Foundation for more than a decade, the Center’s new name will honor this ongoing generosity in memoriam of the late Dorothy and Charles Mosesian. “With great pride in what we have accomplished over the last ten years, we are invigorated by this opportunity to continue opening doors to excite and inspire diverse audiences and artists to create, appreciate, participate and grow through the arts” said Executive Director Roberta Miller. The Center will roll out its new name over the course of the next few months – giving a fresh look and feel to the quality programming and vital arts education offerings the community has come to love and depend upon.

One Woman Show Comes to Arsenal Center for the Arts Nov. 4 & 5

One Drop of Love, a multimedia one-woman show exploring the intersections of race, class and gender in search of truth, justice and LOVE comes to the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown November 4 and 5, the center announced. One Drop of Love is written and performed by Massachusetts native Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni. This extraordinary one-woman show produced by Cox DiGiovanni, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, incorporates filmed images, photographs and animation to tell the story of how the notion of ‘race’ came to be in the United States and how it affects our most intimate relationships. A moving memoir, One Drop of Love takes audiences from the 1700s to the present, to cities all over the U.S. and to West and East Africa, where Fanshen and her father spent time in search of their ‘racial’ roots. The ultimate goal of the show is to encourage everyone to discuss ‘race’ and racism openly and critically.

Watertown Cultural Council Has Grants for Community-Oriented Projects

Got an event, activity, or community festival that needs funding? The Watertown Cultural Council (WCC) is preparing to allocate grants for 2016 and is looking for proposals for community-oriented projects in the arts, humanities, and science. Applications are due Oct. 17, 2016. Any organization, school, individual, or group may apply for a WCC grant. These grants support a variety of artistic projects and activities in Watertown.

Unique Interactive Art Exhibit Features Artists from Watertown, Colombia

Come to the Watertown Art Association’s first program of the 2016-17 season on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2-4 p.m. for an exciting and engaging multi-media event! Ruth Henry, art activist and musician, along with three visiting artists and curators from Colombia – Adriana Rios, Laura Tobon and Ixia Gonzalez – will present and interactive program unlike anything we have done before! The Innovation Space at the Arsenal Project (formerly Arsenal Mall), 485 Arsenal St., near the Old Navy entrance, will be transformed into an interactive Open Studio. MassPartners of the Americas is a non-profit program that connects artists from North, South and Central America together to create dynamic exchanges.

Four Watertown Artists Decorate Pianos for Art Installation Around Boston

Four Watertown artists have original creations that will be displayed around Boston in the Play Me, I’m Yours art installation featuring 60 pianos decorated by 60 artists. Ruth K. Henry, Ryan Edwards, Olivia Natale and Dawn Evans Scaltero took part in the exhibition. In addition, the head piano tech for the project is Michael Wilson of Watertown. Sixty pianos decorated by 60 local artists and community groups are now available in public outdoor spaces in every Boston neighborhood and select Cambridge locations for the public to play and enjoy Sept. 23 to Oct. 10, 2016.