Our town’s thriving visual arts scene includes 2 major institutions: MoCA|CT, and the Artists Collective of Westport.
How did they get there?
In part 3 of this 4-part series, “06880” culture correspondent Robin Moyer Chung explores the history. Click here to read her first story. Click here for the second piece.
After the Westport Arts Center became MoCA\CT, many members felt abandoned by the very board cobbled together to support them.
They felt that their Riverside Avenue gallery had been exchanged for a grander “regional culture center,” straddling the Norwalk border.
One member says, “All of us were shocked and upset by the relatively sudden decision by the Westport Arts Center, after 50 years, to divorce themselves from the very artists who were the heart and soul of that organization from day one in 1969.”
Early Westport Arts Center logo.
Being kicked out of their gallery, however, was not new to the WAC.
In the early 1980s, fewer students in Westport rendered unnecessary the Greens Farms Elementary School building. WAC paid $1 a year for the space.
In exchange, WAC paid for its upkeep.
A WAC board member at that time recalls, “The town only took care of the roof in that building. Everything else was our responsibility. So we had to deal with a rather ancient boiler. We painted walls and we did everything to make it look nice.”
The WAC rented classrooms to artists as affordable studio spaces, at $80-100 a month. Members would wander to other studios to spark ideas and share techniques.
Artist Sue Sharp, in her Westport Arts Center studio.
One of the first artists to rent space was Herz Emanuel. His sculptures and drawings are on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Whitney, an the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
He worked in the same space that — more than 25 years earlier — had been his son Adam’s 3rd grade classroom.
Other artists at the WAC included Howard Munce and Miggs Burroughs.
Sculptor Herz Emanuel, at work in his studio.
Pianist Heida Hermanns donated about $500,000, to turn the gymnasium into a 200-seat performing arts space for the Theatre Artists Workshop, and symphonies and orchestras. Named Artur Holde Hall, after her husband, and designed by architect Arthur Rothenberg, it was also used for visual arts exhibitions.
Jason Robards read “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” surrounded by works by Paul Cadmus, the controversial Weston artist whose works are now in the collections of the Whitney, Met and many more institutions.
Artur Holde Hall, as exhibition space.
The WAC was funded by studio rentals, ticket sales, and donations.
Best of all, the school superintendent — brightly, warmly, with a signed agreement — guaranteed their lease through 1999.
In 1992, executive director William “Clancy” Thompson told the New York Times, “I have never seen a model like it. I know of theater companies and ballet companies sharing facilities, but not a community of artists such as this, such fine performance space in a town with the wisdom to make the building available. It’s’ an unusual combination of factors, filled with promise.”
The center thrived.
Westport Arts Center, by a resident illustrator.
Until 1996 when the same superintendent broke the lease, and demanded that WAC compliantly leave the premises. The town schools were now packed with students.
Instead of building another school, officials decided to renovate this one.
Greens Farms School, as the Westport Arts Center.
Greens Farms School had been WAC’s home for almost 20 years.
However some parents — many of them new to Westport — were upset that artists were populating school space that could belong to their children.
A then-WAC board member says, “They thought the Arts Center was full of frivolous housewives with all this money to burn, who wanted to become painters so they could rent from us.”
In fact, some of those “frivolous housewives” included Anne Chernow, a lithographer with works at the Met, and artists like Marianne Rothballer and Judy Kamerschen, well noted for their work in juried exhibits and shows.
Still, according to an accomplished WAC member, “We became pariahs. It was really horrible. People would come to exhibitions and grab anybody they realized was part of the board or an artist and tell us, you know, you’re not very nice people.”
How did the artists respond to the loss of their home? That’s part 4 of this series. Much of this information comes from a WAC film, produced by Katie Hacala and 4th Row Films.
I got my polio shot in the gym at Greens Farms School in 1955. It was in the evening and I was in line next to Robin McCoy. Also in that gym, Father Looney used to say Sunday Mass as St. Luke’s Church was being built. We used to sit in the bleachers when attending Mass. I think the school was built in 1927.
It’s interesting to read how the controversy over the use of the Greens Farms School is viewed from the perspective of four decades—especially in light of former Superintendent of Schools Kelleher’s passing.
Here’s a link to an article by James Lomuscio from that time:
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/20/nyregion/in-westport-the-arts-v-education.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
It was an amazing asset to the community. We attended many events, concerts, open studios, etc. A huge loss when it was precipitously shut down.
It’s worth noting here that the Greens Farms Elementary School was designed by well-known Westport architect, Charles E. Cutler. He also designed the downtown triangular building that long-term Westport residents refer to as the Westport Bank & Trust building (which later became Patagonia). Cutler also designed many Westport residences and town buildings.
Two Community Gardens and an Art Center. The lesson here is that if the BOE wants it, it’s theirs for the taking. Nothing else matters. It’s a disgraceful attitude toward those whose property taxes already support an incredible school system for those who directly benefit.