Jennifer Almquist
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Project SAGE's solemn vigil
Oct 09, 2024
Natalia Zukerman
To mark the start of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Project SAGE held its annual community vigil on Tuesday, Oct. 1, at Community Field in Lakeville. Project SAGE is a community-focused organization dedicated to supporting, advocating, guiding and educating victims of relationship violence through a range of services and outreach programs.
A large group of people gathered quietly in the center of the field where they were handed packets of red sand. Red Sand Project, created by artist and activist Molly Gochman, is a participatory artwork that uses sidewalk interventions and earthwork installations to encourage people to reflect, connect, and take action against the vulnerabilities that contribute to human trafficking, modern slavery, and exploitation.
“We pour sand into sidewalk cracks to draw attention to issues we often overlook, like intimate partner violence, exploitation, and sexual assault in our own communities,” explained Kristen Pratt, operations manager at the Red Sand Project. “So, as you’re pouring the sand into the cracks, think about what vulnerabilities might be present all around you in your own community. How can we open our eyes and deepen our awareness a bit more? How can we remember the ones we are honoring tonight as we go forward?” Pratt instructed.
After filling the sidewalk cracks around the park with sand, the group reconvened to hear opening remarks from Project SAGE’s executive director, Kristen van Ginhoven. “Thank you for taking time out of your day to join us in honoring those who lost their lives to domestic violence in Connecticut in 2023,” said van Ginhoven. She went on to explain that Project SAGE is part of a larger coalition of eighteen sister agencies across Connecticut (known as Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence or CCADV) all of whom are dedicated to creating social change and ending interpersonal relationship violence for all.
Virginia Gold, Project SAGE’s director of client services also spoke. “We are gathered tonight to remember 26 lives that ended this year in Connecticut. Each individual was the victim of someone who decided to use the power of brute force to silence their voice forever,” said Gold. She went on to offer a hopeful reflection of resilience.
The group then lit battery operated candles and walked along Main Street, “as a visible, collective symbol,” said Gold. “The lights we carry honor both the lives that have been lost as well as all of us who still work and hope for change,” she added. Slowly and contemplatively, the group processed to Project SAGE’s office on Porter Street where a poem was shared in English and Spanish before the names of the 26 victims of Domestic Violence were read aloud. After each name was read aloud, names of victims aged 2 to 83, the group was instructed to respond in unison: “We remember their name.”
The list of names was followed by a moment of silence after which, Pastor John Nelson, who serves on the Board of Directors of Project SAGE, offered closing remarks. “In the silence we hold, we remember the pain and loss. We remember those who have borne the injury of violence in their bodies and in their spirits. But we remember also our commitment that no one will be left alone. We remember our determination to demand an end to violence. We remember our resolve that violence will not define us.” Inviting the group gathered to stay for refreshments and reflections, Pastor Nelson offered, “We can move forward from silence to community, to the resolute practice of compassion, even to the celebration that we will share, so that tomorrow we may return invigorated to continue the good struggle for justice, for healing, and for hope.”
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Provided
Now in its 8th year, The Clay Way Studio Tour is an annually held event featuring some of Connecticut’s best potters. Twenty six artists will show their work among nine studios.
The Tour takes place in Litchfield County Connecticut and Wingdale, New York Oct.19 and 20 from 10 a.m to 5 p.m. Potter and organizer Jane Herald explained the origin of the tour.
“Clay Way was the brainchild of a potter named Linda Boston, who started it with Alison Palmer about eight years ago. Originally, they aimed to gather a following for potters in the Woodbury area. For some reason it didn’t take off there, but the response was enthusiastic in the Northwest Corner. So here we are,” Herald said.
The tour is free and a great way to enjoy a weekend in beautiful Litchfield and Dutchess Counties during peak fall foliage season. The tour will take place rain or shine.
“Clay Way is a cooperative effort by the nine host potters and their guests. Ann Heywood and Jane Herold have been chairing it the last few years. By inviting guests to show with us we are able to offer a wide range of pottery in a fairly concentrated area. Quite a few regular attendees make a weekend of it, and go to all nine studios,” Herald explained.
Regarding the abundance of potters in the area, Herald said,
“Rural areas have always attracted potters, in part because they are able to afford properties that can be adapted to workshops and studios. A number of the potters on the Clay Way Tour fire wood kilns, which requires a team effort, which has probably contributed to the growth of a pottery culture here. Some of us use locally found materials including kaolin and limestone. And there’s a pottery supply shop right in Sheffield, Massachusetts.”
As to the role Clay Way Tour plays in promoting clay arts and the regional arts community in general, Herald said,
“A number of our exhibitors teach classes in the area, or host workshops, in addition to wood firing. There is a huge interest in learning to throw. I get asked about classes at least once a week at my showroom in Cornwall. I’m very happy that 5 Points Arts Center (an arts space in Torrington) now has a well equipped pottery studio where I can send people. Drew Montgomery teaches classes at his studio in Wingdale. Alison Palmer hosts about 12 workshops a year at her studio in Kent, bringing people from all over to teach and participate. The benefit to the communities extends to local inns and restaurants as well. The northwest corner is beginning to be known as a welcoming place for potters. We hope this can extend to other craft-based businesses as well.”
As a potter herself, Herold makes pots that are “useful” including dishes.
“But holding food is not what makes them useful. The most important task of a useful pot is to generate caring. Most of modern life does not generate this emotion. Things many of us think of as useful or even essential – cell phones, automobiles, computers, fast food, microwaves – don’t generate real caring at all. We could live very well without many of these things. But we can’t live good lives at all if we are callous and uncaring. Being indifferent, unconscious, unawake is not something that you can turn on and off at will. We must either find ways of living that encourage awareness or face a loss of sensibility that is likely to seep into all areas of our lives.”
The Clay Way Studio Tour is free and takes place rain or shine, much of it outdoors if the weather cooperates. For more information including examples of each artist’s work and a printable map, go to: www.ClayWay.net
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New art exhibit comes to Hunt
Oct 09, 2024
Patrick L. Sullivan
At the opening of her art show, “Modes of Travel,” at the David M. Hunt Library, artist Shaari Horowitz was asked, in essence, “What’s new?”
She directed the questioner to a set of four paintings of starling murmurations, the phenomenon in which thousands of the birds swoop around in whirling, changing formations.
Horowitz said she recently had the chance to see the starlings in action from a kayak near Old Lyme.
Having witnessed the phenomenon, “I had to paint it.”
The show also features vintage tins that once held pipe tobacco, lozenges, or other goods repurposed by Horowitz.
Horowitz will run a workshop at the library Saturday, Oct 19, 10 a.m. The show runs through Oct 25.
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