The arts community is working hard to turn around Bridgeport”™s image through community development. Some might think of the area as a place where crime has filled the void manufacturing left. But for the arts, it”™s the place to be.
“Bridgeport”™s been in transition for a while,” said Marianne Brunson Frisch, executive director of the Bridgeport Arts + Cultural Council (BA+CC). “But it”™s poised to take off.”
Now with the help of two state grants, the BA+CC launched two large-scale art projects July 12 to get people excited about coming downtown and the arts.
B2 features free art and cultural programming, such as live music, dance and play performances, every second Thursday of the month; City Canvases Bridgeport is a 12-week-long project where digital shorts are projected on buildings every night this summer.
“We know from all the economic development studies and reporting that it takes great art to make great places; and that great places create great jobs,” said Kip Bergstrom, deputy commissioner at the state Department of Economic and Community Development. “So we created the Connecticut City Canvas project to spur public art in our cities ”“ art that makes our places more vibrant and inviting.”
With roughly $1 million in funding, seven cities received the City Canvas grant, including Stamford, Hartford, New Britain, New London, Torrington, and Waterbury. Each will construct public art pieces such as a mural or mosaic. Bridgeport received $158,000 and Stamford received $150,000 to illuminate the transportation center for MTA Metro-North and Interstate 95 travelers.
In Bridgeport, Adger Cowans, whose 30-second film will be shown in September, said he felt the canvas project was the first “large and important” project that has been done to revitalize the community and get people downtown.
“It”™s a large canvas (on the side of a building) instead of a small canvas in a gallery,” Cowans said. “The public gets to see it.”
Cowans, an artist in his 70s, said he moved from New York City to Bridgeport four years ago to “slow down” after he read a magazine calling for artists to move to the area and revitalize it.
“I felt like that approach was right,” he said. “I really like Bridgeport and how they”™re empowering artists who help the community.”
Joe Malfettone, another artist whose film will be shown July 19, said he felt the programming would not only bring people out, but change their perspectives, too.
“It changes one”™s perspective of reality by getting them out of their box, seeing that the world is more creative and nurturing than they might have thought before,” Malfettone said. “But that would only come from them actually viewing the arts.”
Malfettone lives in Trumbull and was born in Bridgeport.
In his film, “I am Bridgeport” ”“ showing July 19 ”“ Malfettone doesn”™t necessarily answer what Bridgeport is, but instead shows the city from many sides.
“(It”™s about) breaking down the limit,” Malfettone said. “Instead of seeing it as one thing, you see it as many things… A broader perspective, a rounded format, instead of seeing it as just flat.”
