2021 Season
Join us for Artful Streets 2021 in Brattleboro at Gallery Walk—
where Downtown Brattleboro Alliance + Human Connection Projection get creative together!
Artful Streets invites everyone to be part of the art-making and sharing, creating experiences of participatory arts and social engagement, designed to be inclusive of our diversity—age, gender, race, culture, identity, ability and experience. Artful Streets is agile, designing for “the gaps”—spatially and programmatically—and focusing on human interaction and expression. We’ll do this by occupying interstitial spaces throughout town with Pop-Up Art Stations during Gallery Walk. Each month Pop-Ups will feature local cultural artists and organizations, offering activities based on a theme.
may 7: What’s the Word?
After a long year of separation, we’ll honor and celebrate one another with words through art, poetry, games and love notes. Write a note to someone or something you’ve missed. Learn to write a Haiku. Share what you value most in a word. Learn the Abenaki word for things you see every day. Write a postcard to our beautiful Connecticut River.
jun 4: Let’s Move!
Let’s shake off the long year in our homes, and dance, circus and move in the streets. Learn a few moves or a whole new dance. Bring your sweetie and tear it up at one of the pop-up dance floors. And try your hand at some accessible circus tricks.
july 2: Step Up to the Mic
Do you have an original song, poem, short story, or joke you’ve been dying to try out on an audience? July is your month! We’ll have mics setup at three locations in downtown Brattleboro, each with its own theme. Arrive early to sign-up for your spot in the lineup and stick around to share in our town’s creative riches.
aug 6: Game On!
Are you ready to take your gaming prowess out into the streets? We’ll have some of your favorite oversized board games around town. Sign up to play bananagrams, chess or exquisite corpse. Have an idea for a game? Bring it along and try it out on some willing players.
sep 3: Technicolor Town
Let’s make Brattleboro colorful! Have you ever had an idea of how to make a spot in our downtown more vibrant, engaging, playful and just plain cool? Use lighting, chalk and reused materials to create a splash of color in your part of town. Turn up the technicolor at 6 Artful Streets stations around town and “Bling” it on, Brattleboro!
oct 1: Eye See You, Brattleboro
Together let’s tell the bigger story of the people and places of our town. Through all media, let’s create a collective self-portrait of Brattleboro. Paint, photograph, write, perform, or install your lens. And come and see Brattleboro through the eyes of others we live amongst.
Stay tuned for “A Moveable PLACE”
With an eye on inclusion, our downtown streets are not inviting to everyone—whether it is the friction of distance, accessibility or a feeling of not belonging. To address this we are seeking funding to design and build A Moveable PLACE that brings programming to all parts of Brattleboro. We hope to introduce A Moveable PLACE as a roving arts engagement venue at Gallery Walk and then use it as a powerful year-round community resource, contributing to spatial equity. Moved into place by DBA’s truck, AMP will instantly make a public gathering space in any neighborhood. It will be designed for many functions—performing, exhibiting, learning, making, etc. It’ll include a Toolbox to make a “place” anywhere in our town—traffic cones, chalk spray paint, planters, etc. With diversity, equity and inclusion as the north star of Artful Streets, we will make AMP available to town and neighborhood initiatives based on an equitable rental scale with sustainability as our only financial goal.