CCHAP Eastern European Bus Tour, 2008
Date2008 April 19
Mediumborn digital photography
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.548.15-.17
DescriptionPhotographs of the Eastern European Bus Tour visiting Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Broad Street in New Britain on April 19, 2008.
(.15) Tour group visiting the interior of Sacred Heart Church.
(.16-.17) Tour group visiting the exterior of Sacred Heart Church.
NotesSubject Note: The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Institute for Community Research collaborated with Manchester Community College (MCC) on a cultural tourism project in 2004-2008. Each year, three or four day-long bus tours visited cultural events and artist studios in ethnic communities living in different parts of the state as a way for new audiences to experience and meet Connecticut’s ethnic and occupational communities. Project goals included 1) expanding awareness of unfamiliar art forms and heritage tourism assets, 2) encouraging access to little-known ethnic or occupational communities, 3) creating audience and artist interactions, 4) stimulating sales and commissions of traditional arts and foods, and 5) developing new partnerships with community organizations and artists. The tours were developed and led by the Connecticut state folk arts program director, Lynne Williamson along with artists from each community. The partnership with MCC ensured that the tours were advertised in the Credit-Free Catalogue each semester. Audiences for the tours were primarily members of the Older Adults Association, a core audience for MCC’s Credit-Free courses. (.15) Tour group visiting the interior of Sacred Heart Church.
(.16-.17) Tour group visiting the exterior of Sacred Heart Church.
Each day-long bus tour included a visit to folk artists’ studios or shops to observe them producing or selling their work, while engaging with visitors in discussions on the history of their communities and the background of their art form. Tours stopped at related landmarks and/or restaurants in the artists’ neighborhoods, or attended a local community festival. The artists and community groups visited gave insightful presentations on their cultures and artistic traditions. Each tour included a traditional dinner or lunch where visitors could sit down to eat and talk with the artists and community members. CCHAP received an NEA Challenge America Cultural Tourism grant for a pilot series of bus tours in 2004. Subsequent project funders also included the Greater Hartford Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.
On April 19, 2008, a tour of sites important to some of Connecticut’s Eastern European communities visited Meriden, New Britain, and Terryville. First stop was at the studio of traditional iconographer Marek Czarnecki who demonstrated and discussed his work in creating icons and statue restorations. He served a typical Polish Easter Table with butter lambs, babka, and other traditional foods for the season. The tour then traveled to Broad Street in New Britain, commercial home of the city’s large Polish community, for a walking tour of Broad St. Polish shops, Sacred Heart Church, and a Polish lunch and stops at local shops. The final stop visited Terryville to see the remarkable icon screen at St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church and meet resident priest Father Paul Luniw, a remarkable pysanky maker of etched and dyed Ukrainian Easter eggs.
Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for this event.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
Daniel Boucher
2008 March 8
2000 November
