HCC, Girls Inc. Team Up for Downtown Community Arts Celebration
HOLYOKE — Holyoke Community College (HCC) is co-sponsoring a community arts celebration at the Race Street Gallery in downtown Holyoke on Saturday, May 5 from 2 to 7 p.m., featuring the artwork of Holyoke youths alongside that of nationally known ceramic artists and printmakers. The event, titled “Celebrate Arts and Community,” will include demonstrations, hands-on activities, interactive workshops, and food.
“We really want it to be a community celebration,” said HCC ceramics instructor Adero Willard, one of the event organizers. “It’s really about creating a connection between HCC and the Holyoke community through the arts.”
Arts instructors and students from HCC have been working with groups of girls from Girls Inc. of Holyoke to create ceramic sculptures for the event based on the themes of immigration and migration. Artists Daniel Ricardo Teran and Ahrong Kim from Philadelphia, Salvador Jimenez-Flores and Nora Valdez from Boston, and Cynthia Consentino, an adjunct professor at HCC, will be in the gallery to display and discuss their work.
“We chose these people because their work all deals with some kind of cultural exploration, cultural identity, or personal narrative,” Willard said.
Jimenez-Flores will be leading a printmaking workshop using a modified tortilla press from 3 to 5 p.m. And visitors can sit at a spinning wheel and try their hand at making their own ceramic bowl through the Pots on Wheels truck, which will be parked outside the gallery on Race Street.
The event is being co-sponsored by Florence-based Plunge Arts, Pots on Wheels, Girls Inc., and HCC, with a grant from Mass Humanities.
