Title Slide: Artworks Gallery, Connecticut Dance Theatre, Consortium for the Arts
Date1978
MediumPhotography; color slide on plastic in cardboard mount
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineGift of Robert Gregson
CopyrightCopyright held by the Connecticut Historical Society. See object file for copyright transfer forms.
Object number2015.99.2.108
DescriptionSlide for Thursday is a Work of Art presentation with the names of contributing organizations Artworks Gallery, Connecticut Dance Theatre, and Consortium for the Arts.
Collections
Label TextThursday is a Work of Art was a public art program in downtown Hartford that took place for eight weeks in the summer of 1977 and 13 weeks in the summer of 1978. Every Thursday, people who lived, worked, shopped, and socialized in the city were confronted with public performance art that changed each week. The art was sometimes political, often controversial and confrontational, and was meant to inject some life into the city center. It was created by Sidewalk, Inc., an offshoot of the Knox Foundation (a Hartford-based non-profit), and was funded by Knox, the federal Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), and local corporations, including United Technologies.
CETA was a federal law that provided money to train unemployed people for public service jobs, and in 1977 and 1978, the state of Connecticut received $3 million from CETA to employ people in the arts.
For two summers, Sidewalk, Inc. relied on CETA funding to bring its irreverent “art attacks” to people in Hartford, challenging them to interact with the city in unusual ways. The program was both loved and hated – the Hartford Courant covered it extensively, seemingly delighted by how silly and interactive it was, and simultaneously published letters to the editor in which people decried it for being trivial and making a mockery of one of its sponsors, United Technologies. In 1979, the CETA money had all but dried up, and United Technologies declined to renew its support of Thursday is a Work of Art.
NotesSubject Note:CETA was a federal law that provided money to train unemployed people for public service jobs, and in 1977 and 1978, the state of Connecticut received $3 million from CETA to employ people in the arts.
For two summers, Sidewalk, Inc. relied on CETA funding to bring its irreverent “art attacks” to people in Hartford, challenging them to interact with the city in unusual ways. The program was both loved and hated – the Hartford Courant covered it extensively, seemingly delighted by how silly and interactive it was, and simultaneously published letters to the editor in which people decried it for being trivial and making a mockery of one of its sponsors, United Technologies. In 1979, the CETA money had all but dried up, and United Technologies declined to renew its support of Thursday is a Work of Art.
Artworks Gallery (1976-2008) was the exhibition space for the Asylum Hill Artists Cooperative. It occupied 94 Allyn Street from 1976 to 1994 before moving to 233 Pearl Street.
Connecticut Dance Theater (1975-?) was founded by Mary Giannone and Akiva Talmi and operated in and around Hartford.
The Consortium for the Arts at 15 Lewis Street was formed by 18 independent arts organizations in the Greater Hartford area in 1978. It received CETA money to provide 74 administrative jobs at its member organizations. Pola Eisenstein was its director.
Status
Not on view
Haris Gusta Guya
2011 November 4
Raquel Figueiredo
2005 June 19
