City is recipient of federal grant; $75,000 to revitalize Main Street.

Byline: Lynne Klaft

FITCHBURG - The seeds of a creative community and economic project were planted early this spring and the city is now a recipient of a $75,000 National Endowment for the Arts Our Town grant for downtown Main Street.

The Main Street Art Project is a collaboration of the city, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg State University and the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission.

The project will feature public art installations and performances in vacant buildings on Main Street.

The artists will view vacant spaces that will be identified by MRPC and decide on the kinds of projects that will best fit the spaces.

School children and community organizations will work with the artists in month-long workshops, creating artworks that will touch upon themes of the city, cultural identity, historic architecture and creative problem solving.

The installation of the public art will be celebrated with a festival that will be planned, coordinated and overseen by Fitchburg State University's Cultural Affairs Director Mary Chapin Durling.

"This is an exciting collaboration to be involved with. One of the ways for a city to be revitalized is through the arts and to get a younger demographic involved. There is new energy and excitement with this project. I'll be working on outreach to the schools and community, the educational component and bringing musicians, dancers or performance artists to the opening night receptions," said Ms. Chapin Durling.

Four art installations will be scheduled seasonally starting in 2013 and will be open to the public for a month.

"This is an amazing opportunity for the city to work with local artists to promote arts initiatives throughout downtown," said Mayor Lisa A. Wong. "The Main Street Arts Project will bring together experienced artists and our public school students to use art to help reinvigorate the downtown area."

Montachusett Regional Planning Commission consultant Jeff K. Anderson helped to identify the vacant store fronts on Main Street and will be meeting with property owners to get permission to use the buildings.

"I think the project will cast new light on the available spaces downtown and allow people to rediscover them, perhaps for new entrepreneurial activities or the continuation of an arts movement. This is just the beginning," Mr. Anderson said.

He also reached out to the Transit Authority, and the agency has agreed to advertise the festivities on its buses.

Fitchburg Art Museum's Marketing and Community Engagement Director Jerry Beck has already seen projects like these succeed.

"We have potential spaces identified and four artists. One of the artists, Nora Valdez, lives and works in Fitchburg. Each installation will be open for a month for the public to view it. We will have docents there to show folks around and answer questions," said Mr. Beck.

Ms. Valdez is an Argentinean artist and educator and will teach the art of stone carving by sculpting several large pieces of granite with Fitchburg youth, creating a permanent environmental public art piece.

The other three artists include sculptor and glass artist Bob Harman of Sandwich, artist and MacArthur fellow Anna Schuleit of New York City and Cambridge's green architect and installation artist Nadya Volicer, who will team with Marblehead restaurateur Heidi Feinstein to create a cafe space with recycled wood and then lead students to invent creative recipes and artistic presentations of organic drinks, edible art-bakery items and healthy snacks.

"Magic will happen," promised Mr. Beck.