$25K grant to Norwalk Art Space funds artists
NORWALK — Fairfield County’s Community Foundation granted the Norwalk Art Space at ADK House $25,000.
Darcy Hicks, the Norwalk Art Space’s educational director, said the grant will fund the space’s Resident Artist Program, which costs over $100,000 yearly.
Fairfield County’s Community Foundation did not provide comment.
Hicks said the grant “goes a long way to supporting” the program. While the grant doesn’t fully fund the Resident Artist program, Hicks said it’s $25,000 that the Norwalk Art Space doesn’t have to worry about.
It’s just going to make a big difference in what we can do for the community, and especially the children in Norwalk as well as greater Fairfield County,” the educational director said.
The Norwalk Arts Space provides free art programming and classes to local youth to create a “sanctuary where young minds explore, local artists thrive, and the community gathers to celebrate our children and the magic of expression,” its website said.
Part of the free youth programming comes in the form of classes that the resident artists teach. It’s part of the resident program, Hicks said.
The artists get to develop
curricula for the classes they teach in subjects of their choosing, Hicks said,
noting that when the artists get to choose the subjects they teach, it fosters passion and creativity.
“The things you love are the things that you teach best,” Hicks said.
In an application process that opens in the spring, the Norwalk Art Space will generally select four resident artists who will earn a free studio for a year that they can access 24 hours a day.
This May, the Norwalk Art Space will welcome a new class of resident artists.
“They get to have a three month art show, a group art show which really introduces them to the community, and creates a space for them to make connections,” Hicks said.
While the resident artist program and shows, by extension, connect the residents to the greater art community, Hicks said the program connects the residents to each other.
“Their friendships and relationships are also really important because they’ve got their four studios right near each other, very close on the lower floor,” Hicks said.
She said 24-hour access to the studios is also integral to the artistic process.
“I’m 57, so I go to bed at 10 o’clock,” Hicks said. “I get there in the morning and I can smell the paint and I go into their studios. I’m like ... ‘someone was here until 5 a.m. This paint is still wet.’”
The Norwalk Art Space at ADK House is located at 455 West Ave. and offers free classes and admission year-round.