A majority of Region One students reported experiencing stress, anxiety or worry at least some of the time during the past year, with about one in five saying they felt that way “almost always” or “always”.
Most Region One students say they feel safe at school, have a trusted adult in their lives and are confident about their future. At the same time, significant numbers continue to report stress, anxiety and, in some cases, thoughts of self-harm, according to the 2025 Youth Voices Count Survey released Wednesday, Feb. 11.
The districtwide survey of students in grades 7 through 12 was conducted in May and June and gathered responses from 422 students — a 75.4% participation rate. The findings are used to guide prevention efforts and student support strategies.
Superintendent Melony Brady-Shanley said the results show both strong support systems and rising emotional strain among students.
“For the most part, our kids feel like they have a trusted adult in their life, whether it’s a school member, a family member…that they trust, that they can speak to,” Brady-Shanley said, noting that was a very positive finding.
However, “I think the one thing that stands out for me is, you know, the amount of anxiousness that our kids are feeling.”
Conducted by Weyland Smith Consulting, LLC, a Wethersfield-based firm specializing in youth behavioral health research, the survey measures student perceptions related to mental health, substance use, school climate, bullying, social media and other behavioral indicators.
Strong safety and support indicators
The survey found high levels of connection and safety among students.
More than 94.6% said they have at least one trusted adult they can turn to. Similarly, 94% reported feeling safe in their community, and 88.6% said they feel safe at school. More than 92.4% said they know how to get help if they need it. About 73.8% said their life is headed in a positive direction, and 79.7% reported confidence in their future.
“It is very positive, you know, I think anytime we can say that that percentage of kids have a positive outlook, and they, you know, have hope about where they’re going, that’s a great thing,” Brady-Shanley said.
Ian Strever, principal of Housatonic Valley Regional High School, said the survey remains an essential planning tool.
“This report and its predecessor, the Developmental Assets Survey, have always been incredibly useful tools for assessing not only our students’ risk-taking and social behaviors, but also how we support them through school programs and the larger community of Region 1 town services,” Strever said.
Stress, anxiety and emotional health indicators
Despite the positive indicators, emotional strain remains a concern.
More than half of students in grades 7 to 12 — 57.1% — reported experiencing stress or anxiety “some of the time” in the past year. Another 14.5% reported feeling stress or anxious “almost always” and 6.5% reported feeling that way “always.” Only 21.8% reported feeling stress free.
About 18.3% said they felt sad or hopeless for two consecutive weeks during the past year.
Brady-Shanley said these findings reflect what teachers have been seeing in recent years.
“You know, if we were to go back 10 to 15 years, I don’t think that we would be seeing the percent of anxiety that we see right now,” she said. “I think there are two main triggers: COVID-19 that did not help anyone, with social isolation. And I think number two, social media has had a huge influence on kids’ anxiety.”
The survey also found troubling data: 15.4% reported thoughts of self-harm in the past year, 7.8% reported engaging in self-harm behavior and 9.8% reported having considered suicide in the past 12 months.
Brady-Shanley said these figures highlight the importance of support systems, and are being taken very seriously.
Speaking of the suicide figure, she said: “Any number with the exception of a zero is concerning.”
The percentage considering suicide was highest among grades 7–8, where 10.9% considered it, compared to 9.2% for grades 9–12. Among students who considered suicide, 23.1% said they made a plan, and 13.8% reported attempting suicide.
Brady-Shanley said the district has implemented annual training programs to help staff recognize and help students with mental health issues.
“Part of what we’re doing is giving staff the tools to be able to recognize when a kid is in crisis.”
She added that the district recently secured funding to continue three additional social workers at the elementary school level.
The goal, she said, is to ensure schools are prepared to respond quickly when students show signs of crisis.
At Cornwall Consolidated School, Principal Leanne Maguire said the middle school findings are particularly concerning.
“The survey results for our 7th and 8th graders are particularly startling. When we see that 94% of middle schoolers in our region have experienced anxiety in the past year — and that [nearly] 11% have considered suicide, while 20% of those have reported self-harm, it moves beyond a ‘trend,’ and into a call for immediate action. These aren’t just statistics; they are the daily lived experiences of our students.”
Maguire said she will ask town officials to support expanding the school counselor position to full time.
Early access to smartphones and screen use
Most students receive their first smartphone between the ages of 11 and 13, with social media accounts typically beginning between 12 and 14.
“I would love to see the access to social media going to like 16 and above,” Brady-Shanley said. “I think the little brain of a 12- to 14-year-old is not ready to handle the very adult world of social media.”
Currently, more than 97% of students reported having a social media account prior to age 16, according to the study. Nearly 90% had smartphones before reaching 14 years of age.
Approximately 58% of students said social media helps them feel connected. At the same time, about one-third reported difficulty stopping scrolling, and roughly 25% said they felt left out at times because of social media.
Substance use remains below state, national levels
High school students in Region One continue to report substance use rates below Connecticut and national averages.
For the month prior to the May 2025 study, 10.7% reported drinking alcohol — roughly half the statewide rate of 21.1% and the national rate of 22.1%. Marijuana use was reported by 8.1% of students, compared with 14.7% statewide and 17% nationally. Meanwhile, 7.4% reported vaping, lower than Connecticut’s 11.5% rate and far below the 16.8% national figure. Cigarette use was low at 2.9%.
“Fantastic. I think it speaks to what parents are teaching their children at home. It speaks to what we’re, you know, encouraging from the school perspective,” Brady-Shanley said. “Kids do listen when their parents talk to them about this kind of stuff.”
Strever said the high school has seen measurable progress.
“One of the most encouraging takeaways from the 2025 report is the continued downward trend in substance use among HVRHS students. When comparing this data to the 2023 report, we observed a notable decrease in 30-day vaping rates, which dropped from 10 percent to 6.9 percent. We also saw slight declines in the reported use of alcohol and marijuana. These shifts suggest that prevention education and the healthy choices being made by our student body are trending in a positive direction.”
Bullying still present
While bullying remains present, the survey suggests it is not pervasive for most students. About 39.4% said they have never been bullied, and 43.5% reported having been bullied at some point — but not within the past 30 days.
Still, 10.3% reported occasional bullying in the week prior to the survey, and 6.8% reported frequent or near-daily bullying in the three weeks leading up to the study.
While bullying remains a concern, the vast majority of students did not report recent incidents.
“So I think 40% of our kids reporting that they’ve never been bullied is honestly … a strong number,” Brady-Shanley said.
She said adult intervention appears consistent when incidents occur.
“If adults are seeing something, they’re not just passively letting it go by,” she said. “I think you’ll see that more frequently at the younger levels. You know, high schoolers tend to be a little bit more reserved with their requests, sometimes for assistance, yeah.”
The most common forms of bullying were name-calling, rumors and social exclusion.
High school sexual behavior and communication
Among high school students, 48.4% reported having talked with a parent or guardian about birth control, sexually transmitted infections or delaying pregnancy.
Brady-Shanley said this number needs to be higher.
“Parents need to talk more to their kids and I need that number to be 100%,” she said. “We want our kids and our families having conversations about their children’s physical health and ultimately their mental health. Kids listen when their parents talk.”
Brady-Shanley said the survey ultimately reflects both progress and ongoing work.
She said the district will continue reviewing the findings with administrators and staff, using the data to guide prevention programs and student support services.
“For the most part, our kids feel like they have a trusted adult in their life,” she said. “But we still have some work to do.”
Riley Klein contributed to this article.
D.H. Callahan
Cheers! The Revolutionary Whisky Series at Ten Mile Distillery, each named for a significant battle of the American Revolution, celebrates America at 250.
In December 2024, the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau officially established the Standard of Identity for American Single Malt Whisky. It was the first new classification in more than half a century, creating new possibilities for American distillers. One of the distilleries taking advantage of this new landscape is Wassaic’s Tenmile Distillery. It is well positioned to make history because Tenmile has always honored traditional whiskey-making practices.
Single malts are often associated with Scotch whisky. Perhaps that’s why, years before the new standard was adopted, Tenmile hired Shane Fraser, a Scottish master distiller with 30 years of experience at some of Scotland’s most prestigious distilleries. Fraser began designing the distillery from the ground up. Alongside owner and general manager Joel LeVangia, he emphasized time-honored traditions, favoring hands-on craftsmanship over the increasingly automated methods used by larger producers. When it comes to making the best whisky possible, Tenmile believes in learning from the past. That philosophy extends beyond the distilling process.
D.H. Callahan
In late 2025, in anticipation of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the distillery introduced its Revolutionary Whisky Series. The collection features 57 unique expressions, each with its own combination of barrel types and aging periods, and each named for a significant battle of the American Revolution.
LeVangia sees the series not only as something collectible — a hallmark of the international craft distilling world — but also as an opportunity to educate. Most Americans learn about the Revolution in high school U.S. history classes, but LeVangia wanted to go beyond familiar stories such as Washington crossing the Delaware or the famous command to wait until soldiers could see “the whites of their eyes.” Each bottle helps tell a deeper story.
To bring those stories to life, Tenmile has gone the extra — dare they say, 11th — mile. Tom Bouldin, Ph.D., serves as the distillery’s historian. He consults on the series, helping LeVangia and Fraser connect each expression to an appropriate battle of the American Revolution. He also leads Tenmile’s lecture series. While some of Bouldin’s talks explore the history of popular music, his primary focus is the battles of the American Revolution.
With each new release, Tenmile hosts an intimate evening of history and whisky tasting. Centered on Bouldin’s meticulously researched lectures, the events often spark broader conversations about the battles, the people who fought them and what those events still mean today. It’s a style of promotion rarely seen today. Although the distillery and its grounds are stunning, these gatherings are not designed as Instagram photo opportunities. Instead, they bring together a small group of people eager to learn from the past while tasting something new.
That is what the Revolutionary Whisky Series — and Tenmile Distillery as a whole — is all about: learning from history while forging its own.
D.H. Callahan
Belinda Sinclair
Sinclair’s show explores the ways women have been practicing forms of magic for centuries, and there is plenty of history to tell.
Belinda Sinclair is the kind of magician who impresses people who don’t like magic. Her tricks are mind-boggling. Her stories are captivating. And if she picks you to write your name on a card, get ready to be wowed. Repeat attendees of her shows, of which there are many, take almost as much delight in watching new jaws drop as they do in seeing an illusion reach its astonishing conclusion.
Since the summer of 2025, Sinclair has been baffling local audiences at the Hughes Memorial Library in West Cornwall, but her magical run comes to a close at the end of August.
For 45 years, Sinclair, a New York City native, has been hosting small, intimate performances in the “Conjuring Room,” her Victorian parlor in Hell’s Kitchen. It’s a place made for magic, with built-in surprises designed to disorient. But the Hughes Library doesn’t have the same potential to perplex. The room is, as the name suggests, a library, with shelves packed tightly with old books. Some of those books, stocked by Sinclair herself, dive into the history of women and magic. That particular topic is the organizing principle of her show.
Today, we live in a world with large-scale magic productions from household names like David Blaine. Penn & Teller and Criss Angel had widely popular television series, while performers like magician and comedian Justin Willman have found audiences on Netflix. David Copperfield, the most commercially successful magician in history, only recently had his 25-year Las Vegas residency cancelled, after allegations connected to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation resurfaced. But very few women, arguably none, have reached the highest levels of fame in the magic world.
Sinclair’s show explores the ways women have been practicing forms of magic for centuries, and there is plenty of history to tell. Her head is simply full of historical anecdotes and interpretations. She seems to know everything there is to know about magic and how, over the centuries, it has been feared and misunderstood.
It’s knowledge she acquired through decades in the world of magic. Sinclair got her start by accident. After graduating from New York City’s High School of Performing Arts, she was hired to entertain a long business conference as a clown. Despite having no clowning experience, she did so well that she was hired for a party on the spot where she was expected to perform magic. She didn’t know a single trick. So she headed to Tannen’s, the legendary Manhattan magic shop that is still open to this day, and asked them to teach her.
She was so captivated by the first trick she learned that she soon began illustrating the shop’s newsletter, the “Trickune.” Soon, she had worked her way into the world of magic. But her trajectory seemed limited. Women in magic were, and frequently still are, relegated to the role of “lovely assistant,” and Sinclair was no exception. She played along, laughing at the bad jokes and flirting with the right men, all the while knowing she could perform better than most of them.
Soon, she stopped playing along. She started developing her own routines. She became increasingly proficient with a deck of cards. She practiced and practiced and practiced. Eventually, the magic establishment took notice of this young magician with the audacity to be a woman.
As her reputation grew, so did the challenges she faced. Breaking into the inner circles of magic is no easy task, but Sinclair knew that if she wanted to be taken seriously, she needed to impress the people at the top. The Magic Circle, a prestigious British society whose members have included Penn & Teller, Stephen Fry and King Charles III, evaluates prospective members through a rigorous performance examination that includes required tricks. Sinclair earned a perfect score of 100 out of 100, proving not only that a woman could perform magic, but that she could perform it as well, if not better, than anyone.
As remarkable as her skills are, there’s a lot more to Sinclair than magic. She’s a ceramicist, hypnotherapist, author, game creator, actor and coder. But perhaps most importantly, she’s a teacher.
Sinclair thrives on helping others navigate through whatever obstacles life throws their way. For a time, that meant helping military veterans with PTSD transition to civilian life. She teaches children how to code so they can build their own websites. She works with unhoused children, using magic to boost their confidence. But if she has her way, the most important lesson she can teach is that with the right amount of work and determination, anyone — and especially little girls — can do the impossible.
Richard Feiner And Annette Stover
Renée Fleming, Andris Nelsons and Thomas Hampson.
On Friday, July 17 at 8 p.m. in the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood, two of the greatest American voices of their generation, soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Thomas Hampson, join Music Director Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a performance of excerpts from John Adams’ groundbreaking opera “Nixon in China.” The piece, performed earlier this year in Boston and at Carnegie Hall in New York City, is a highlight of a program that also includes “Meditations on Grace” (2024) by BSO Composer Chair Carlos Simon, and the melodic and technically demanding Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber.
Fleming is internationally celebrated for her vocal and dramatic artistry, as well as for her advocacy for the powerful impact of the creative arts in health. Hampson has long been recognized as one of the most innovative musicians of our time and has received countless international honors for his singular artistry and cultural leadership. Both performed in “Nixon in China” earlier this year at the Paris Opera under the baton of Kent Nagano.
Adams’ “Three Scenes from Nixon in China” is a suite taken from the opera and prepared especially for the BSO performances with Fleming and Hampson in the roles of Pat and Richard Nixon. The suite includes Act I, Scene I, in which the Nixons arrive in Beijing; Pat Nixon’s “This is prophetic” aria from Act II, Scene I; and Nixon’s speech followed by a chorus of toasts and cheers (“Gam bei!”) in Act I, Scene III.
The full opera premiered in 1987 and has become one of the most celebrated works of contemporary American music. As The New Yorker wrote, “Not since ‘Porgy and Bess’ has an American opera won such universal acclaim as ‘Nixon in China.’”
The libretto is based on Nixon’s groundbreaking February 1972 visit to reestablish diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China. The production was controversial at the time: an opera about a recent American president whose resignation was still vivid in the country’s memory. Created by a first-time opera composer, a poet new to opera (Alice Goodman) and a young avant-garde director (Peter Sellars), the piece defied expectations of what a contemporary opera could be.
Yet “Nixon in China” has proved to be something far more than a provocation; it has been hailed as helping to revitalize American opera. It uses realistic scenarios based on recent historical events to make direct statements about big social questions, especially the status of women in history and society. It is also credited with helping to create the subgenre of the “headline opera,” works that refract the mythology of recent real-life events and personalities through the lens of operatic music, words and staging.
Adams’ score is a dazzling fusion of rhythmic vitality and luminous choral textures with the psychological intricacy of character drama. It reflects the composer’s ongoing search, as he has put it, to find “the sacred in the everyday.” The result is a distinctive kind of music theater that transforms historical and contemporary narratives into modern parables in order to explore the tension between public facade and private reckoning, and between human motive and moral choice.
This Tanglewood concert promises to be a highlight of the summer’s music season. It is part of the BSO’s E Pluribus Unum festival, a multiyear celebration that shines a spotlight on American music to explore the country’s history and ideals and to raise critical questions on topics that shape our collective experience.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit bso.org.
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Jack Sheedy
The cast and crew of “Rebeltown: The Musical.”
John Alan Segalla was working in Boston a few years ago, giving historic tours at the site of the Boston Tea Party. Now, as America celebrates 250 years as a nation, the Canaan native is about to debut a new version of his original musical, “Rebel Town,” inspired largely by the Boston Tea Party, the protest that helped launch the American Revolution.
“It wasn’t until I got to Boston and learned the Tea Party story that I fell in love with this moment in history, and I saw the story as wildly compelling and very important, and really a story that was very misunderstood, mistaught in schools,” Segalla said at a recent rehearsal in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, ahead of the show’s July 10 opening.
Segalla wrote most of the script during 2020, hoping to produce it by 2023, the Tea Party’s 250th anniversary. He finally mounted a version of the show in Stockbridge in 2024. It ran a bit long, he said, so the current iteration is more compact, running well under two hours.
The musical focuses on the lives of carpenter William Grey (played by Segalla), his wife Sarah Grey (Emma Robertson) and apprentice Peter Slater Jr. (Ryleigh Fillio), with appearances by historical figures such as Paul Revere (Chris Vecchia), Samuel Adams (Ryan Mascilak) and John Hancock (Christopher Boswell).
The action follows the clandestine meetings of the Sons of Liberty as they plan the bold destruction of British-taxed tea in Boston Harbor, culminating in Paul Revere’s storied ride, featuring a mechanical horse designed by technical director Ronald Piazza. According to the show’s website, “As rebellion turns to revolution, the cost becomes deeply personal: families are torn apart, loyalties tested, and the line between heroism and sacrifice begins to blur.”
The show is directed by Actors’ Equity member Michael Siktberg, who has worked at Bucks County Playhouse, Sharon Playhouse, the Ogunquit Theatre among and other venues during the past 20 years. He said, “I originally agreed to do this because of John, because of my love and respect for him and our growing friendship.”
He said he sees parallels between events of 250 years ago and today, noting “how they echoed the themes of our lives now.”
The participants in the Tea Party thought they would make a difference. “What is fascinating to me,” Skitberg continued, “is that they really tried to do it peacefully, they really tried a statement without bloodshed.”
But it didn’t work. King George III retaliated with the Intolerable Acts, ultimately inspiring the Declaration of Independence and the Revolution.
Rebecca Gardner, assistant stage manager, said the show could be thought of as the “Hamilton” of Boston. “It’s not Hamilton’s Revolutionary War story; it’s not ‘1776’; it’s another story of that era, which hasn’t been told before,” she said.
Emilyn Bona, also an assistant stage manager, said she has known and worked in theater with Segalla since high school. Even though she now lives in Albany, she said she jumped at the chance to work on Segalla’s latest creation.
Segalla is a Dramatists Guild member and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater from Russell Sage College. He has toured nationally as Jack in “Magic Tree House: Soars with Reading.” He co-authored a farce, “Moral Dilemmas of the Modern Day Vampire,” which was produced Off-Off-Broadway and in New England. He has performed extensively and received numerous awards, including the New Hampshire Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for his performance as Don Armado in Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost.”
“This is not a musical that’s taking any political side, left or right,” said Segalla. “It’s meant to be a unifier, and it’s meant to be something to educate and to remind people that this moment in history seeded the Declaration.” He said he hopes it will inspire “a renewed sense of pride in the earliest American values of what we wanted to be, a renewed sense of spirit in what we could become: that shining city on a hill.”
“Rebel Town: The Musical” runs July 10 through 19 at the Kathleen E. McDermott Auditorium, Monument Mountain Regional High School, Great Barrington, Massachusetts. For tickets and more information, go to www.rebeltownthemusical.com.
Natalia Zukerman
Community mural design by Macayla Muzzulin will be painted by volunteers on July 11 in Franklin Plaza in Torrington.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 11, Five Points Arts in Torrington will host a community mural project celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary. Volunteers of every age and artistic ability are invited to help paint a 20-by-6-foot mural designed by artist Macayla Muzzulin. The mural will be completed in one day, transformed from a numbered outline into a permanent public artwork along the river in downtown Torrington.
“We firmly believe art is for everyone,” said Five Points founder and executive director, Judith McElhone. “It’s so great to be able to do this with such talent, and with Launchpad artists, volunteers and staff there to help.”
A recent graduate of the Hartford Art School, Muzzulin is one of Five Points’ Launchpad artists, an initiative that provides shared studio space and professional support to emerging artists. About two dozen artists work from studios above the downtown gallery, where they have access to facilities, mentorship and a creative community.
Muzzulin’s connection to Five Points began long before she became a professional artist.
“She’s been with us since she was 14 years old as a volunteer,” said McElhone. “I knew her skill level and that she would be perfect for this.”
Muzzulin has not created a finished color rendering of the mural. Instead, participants will be working from her numbered design, matching paint colors to corresponding sections. Like many community murals, the artwork will emerge through collective effort rather than individual authorship.
Five Points has expanded steadily over the years. What began as a 740-square-foot summer storefront gallery through the Torrington Arts and Culture Commission’s temporary Art Space Torrington initiative in 2012 has evolved into one of Connecticut’s leading contemporary arts organizations. Today, the nonprofit includes a gallery that has exhibited nearly 1,800 artists and an Arts Center that provides studios, exhibition space and educational programing. This community mural continues that evolution by bringing art beyond the gallery walls and into the heart of downtown, further cementing Five Points’ role in Torrington’s cultural revival.
The project is sponsored by The City of Torrington, Neag Foundation, Jerry’s Artarama in West Hartford and the NWCT Arts Council. For more information, visit fivepointsarts.org.By Natalia Zukerman
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 11, Five Points Arts in Torrington will host a community mural project celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary. Volunteers of every age and artistic ability are invited to help paint a 20-by-6-foot mural designed by artist Macayla Muzzulin. The mural will be completed in one day, transformed from a numbered outline into a permanent public artwork along the river in downtown Torrington.
“We firmly believe art is for everyone,” said Five Points founder and executive director, Judith McElhone. “It’s so great to be able to do this with such talent, and with Launchpad artists, volunteers and staff there to help.”
A recent graduate of the Hartford Art School, Muzzulin is one of Five Points’ Launchpad artists, an initiative that provides shared studio space and professional support to emerging artists. About two dozen artists work from studios above the downtown gallery, where they have access to facilities, mentorship and a creative community.
Muzzulin’s connection to Five Points began long before she became a professional artist.
“She’s been with us since she was 14 years old as a volunteer,” said McElhone. “I knew her skill level and that she would be perfect for this.”
Muzzulin has not created a finished color rendering of the mural. Instead, participants will be working from her numbered design, matching paint colors to corresponding sections. Like many community murals, the artwork will emerge through collective effort rather than individual authorship.
Five Points has expanded steadily over the years. What began as a 740-square-foot summer storefront gallery through the Torrington Arts and Culture Commission’s temporary Art Space Torrington initiative in 2012 has evolved into one of Connecticut’s leading contemporary arts organizations. Today, the nonprofit includes a gallery that has exhibited nearly 1,800 artists and an Arts Center that provides studios, exhibition space and educational programing. This community mural continues that evolution by bringing art beyond the gallery walls and into the heart of downtown, further cementing Five Points’ role in Torrington’s cultural revival.
The project is sponsored by The City of Torrington, Neag Foundation, Jerry’s Artarama in West Hartford and the NWCT Arts Council. For more information, visit fivepointsarts.org.
Lucia Iandolo
Gridley Chapel at The Wassaic Project.
The Wassaic Project will host its first musical act of the season at the Gridley Chapel on Saturday, July 11. The event is free and was made possible with funding from a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Officially opening in October, the Chapel will come alive with the sounds of sinonó, a trio featuring vocalist and composer isabel crespo pardo, cellist Lester St. Louis and bassist Henry Fraser. The group draws on Latin American folk and classical chamber music to create what it calls “poemsongs.”
NYSCA is a state agency that provides funding for artistic projects through grants, including the Support for Artists grant opportunity.
Kasssandra Gonzalez, development and communications assistant at the Wassaic Project, said the program allows the organization to support artists in their current and future projects.
“We really care about supporting artists and sustaining artistic practices,” Gonzalez said. “A big part of that, which no one likes to talk about, is having enough funds to make projects possible.”
The Wassaic Project has received this grant since 2022 to support artists in New York state who are part of its program and need funding for future projects. The grant includes nearly $10,000 in direct support for artists’ creative work and allows the organization to present programming it might not otherwise be able to offer, including the July 11 performance.
Gonzalez said there is a common misconception that accessible arts programming is available only in New York City, and the Wassaic Project continues working to make art available to everyone in the community.
“Wassaic Project continues to be a force for good and remains very focused on community,” Gonzalez said. “The idea behind the suggested donation, and making sure that everything is essentially free, is to let people in the area know they can come here and make this their community space.”
The Gridley Chapel is located across the street from Maxon Mills at 37 Furnace Bank Road, Wassaic. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the performance begins at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free, and guests can RSVP at wassaicproject.org
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