Yale Bulletin and Calendar

June 21-July 19, 1999

Volume 27, Number 34

Downtown program will add local flavor
to International Festival of Arts & Ideas

A kaleidoscope of music, art, theater and dance that celebrate the creativity of Connecticut artists and the richness of New Haven neighborhoods and cultures will be offered along Orange Street in "Downtown," a mini-festival taking place Saturday and Sunday, June 26 and 27, as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.

Yale is a major sponsor of the free, two-day celebration.

Performing artists from throughout Connecticut will showcase their talents in Downtown; those featured were selected by neighborhood and community juries.

There will also be visual art installations along Orange Street that are the culmination of residencies by Connecticut-based artists with neighborhoods and cultural groups in the New Haven area. The resident artists have been working collaboratively since April to design and create a visual or multidisciplinary project that is inspired by the neighborhood group's history and cultural heritage.

The Downtown program will take place noon-6 p.m. both days. Performing artists will be featured on two stages: one on the Federal Plaza and another at the Hall of Records (both sites are located on Orange Street between Elm and Chapel streets). Visual installations can be viewed along Orange Street.

Among the performing artists are Amy Gallatin & Stillwaters, a quartet whose music includes folk, country, bluegrass and swing; a 10-piece salsa band known as Vinny & Ray; the improvisational dance troupe Kathryn Kollar & Company; the Mystic Paper Beasts Theater Company, which will present a puppet show based on Hans Christian Anderson's "Snow Queen"; solo classical guitarist Robert de Marco; the rock group Splice; rap artist Aaron Jafferis; the TNT Jazz Band; and Big Bad Johns, which performs a mix of roots, rock-a-billy and punk music. Also performing will be Laxical Daisy, Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez, Strictly A Cappella, the Phil Rosenthal Bluegrass Band, Anne O'Meara Heaton, the Connecticut Gay Men's Chorus, Holy Smoke, Azure, HACHA and Bassology.

The resident artists whose visual installations will be on display and the neighborhoods or community organizations in which they served their residencies are: Liz Bermel, Fair Haven neighborhood; Alice Stewart, Dwight neighborhood; Nelson Ford, Dixwell neighborhood; Crystal Emery (assisted by Janet Stoner), West Rock communities; Graciela Quinones-Rodriquez, the Philippine American Association of Connecticut; Victor Smith, the Jamaican American Movement; Peter Haller (assisted by Winfred Rembert), Newhallville/Highwood neighborhoods; Edmund Comfort ("B'Wak" -- assisted by Frankie Zambrano), Hill neighborhood; Jane Gross (assisted by Tyrone Washington), Hamden Community Group; Carey McDougall, Sister Cities Organization; and Diane Bilal, Connecticut Alliance of Native Americans.

The Downtown event is one of many special highlights of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, which is expected to draw some 100,000 visitors to New Haven. Featuring musicians, performance and visual artists, puppeteers, acrobats and dancers from around the world, the festival is being held at various sites in New Haven and on the Yale campus. For further information on the festival, see the May 31-June 21 issue of the Yale Bulletin & Calendar, call 1-888-ART-IDEA or visit the festival's website at www.artidea.org.

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