Arts, culture group to host pop-up gallery on Green

BRANFORD — The nonprofit behind a new pop-up gallery for Shoreline artists plans to expand onto the Branford Green for one Saturday this month with a fall arts and crafts marketplace.

The event, hosted by the Branford Arts and Cultural Alliance, will feature the work of around 50 local painters, sculptors and other artists, many of whom already have their works on display at the BACA gallery across the street, which opened in June.

The marketplace will be held Sept. 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 1011 Main St.

While BACA has hosted similar craft showings during its first six years of operation, board member Gerry Casanova said that this year will be the first time the event will be staged under a big-top-style tent set up on the green.

The tent is being made available for the market free of charge by the Friends of the James Blackstone Memorial Library, which plans to use it the following weekend for a book fair, Casanova said.

“It’s a perfect time of year and a perfect venue,” Casanova said.

Plans for an additional performing arts event that Friday night, which Casanova described as a “three-ring circus,” were scrapped due to the organizer’s concerns about the ongoing spread of COVID-19 in Connecticut.

Works of art will be on sale both under the tent and at BACA’s pop-up gallery on Main Street during the event, which will also feature live music, “make-and-take” activities, and an opportunity for patrons to meet the artists, who mostly hail from the surrounding area.

“There’s a lot of talent in the

Shoreline area. It’s really amazing,” Casanova said.

Frank Carrano, president of BACA, said the group hopes to raise money from the event to support an arts enrichment program for Branford Public Schools students.

Last year, due to the pandemic, Casanova said the nonprofit’s signature fall event was a public exhibition that invited local artists to paint 80 doors lined up and displayed along Main Street in October. The doors were later sold to benefit an arts scholarship at Branford High School.

While organizers do not have an estimate for attendance at this year’s marketplace, Casanova said that they hoped it would be similar to last year’s “very well-attended” exhibition. The event is free.

For information, visit branfordarts.org.