Windows Into Art: A Celebration Of The Arts In Amherst’s Downtown Center

Source: Amherst BID

For the past two years, the Amherst Center Cultural District has received grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council to help support artists and businesses affected by the pandemic closures. In 2020, the COVID-19 Artist Contest provided cash awards to artists competing in categories including 2D and 3D art, Poetry, Music, and Dance. The one grand prize winner was illustrator and artist Violet Kitchen. All participants’ submissions are available to view on the Amherst Cultural District website.  

For 2021, the grant offered a way to use art and culture to help revitalize business centers affected by closures or limitations of the pandemic. Amherst Center will feature the Windows Into Art installation, displaying artwork in the windows of downtown businesses. The installation will run June through August. A local graphic designer/illustrator, Elizabeth Moran (lizmorandesign.org), has created a map of the artists and locations, available at the Visitors Information Center and at an opening celebration on June 27 on the common. A web page on the Amherst Center Cultural District website is dedicated to the exhibit.

Participants in the 2020 Artist Contest and the 2021 Windows Into Art are invited to share their work in person in an artist market on the Town Common at the June 27 Celebration of the Arts event. Applicants to the 2020 contest in poetry, music, and dance have been invited to perform their work on stage and include Karina Dise of Afri(K)que Limited, Dina Stander (Poetry), two local bands (Driving Wheel and the Dan Hales band), and Madeleine Bonn, who will be choreographing and directing performances by Amherst Ballet. Also performing will be recipients of the Amherst Cultural Council grants including the Jeff Gavioli Bad News Jazz Band, Musical: The Musical, and Amherst Ballet performers. The event is free to the public and will happen 12 – 6 p.m. on the Town Common in Amherst Center. 

The Amherst Public Art Commission will be using a portion of the grant funds to launch a pilot program to exhibit art on Boltwood Plaza and has selected Amherst resident Benjamin Cowden as the first artist to display work in the space that previously housed the Poetry Windows. The Commission has renamed the site the Portal Gallery on Boltwood Plaza. The Portal Gallery consists of five small, south-facing windows on the headhouse above Boltwood Garage. Cowden will install work inside the building, which viewers will access by looking through the windows.