Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections, 2015.196.40.8, Connecticut Historical S…

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Brochure: A 2005 Guide to Connecticut Sugarhouses

PublisherPublished by Maple Syrup Producers Association of Connecticut American

PublisherPublished by Connecticut Department of Agriculture

Date2005

MediumPaper

ClassificationsInformation Artifacts

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

DescriptionBrochure: A 2005 Guide to Connecticut Sugarhouses. Guides to Connecticut Sugar Houses are published annually by the Connecticut Department of Agriculture.

Object number2015.196.40.8

CopyrightIn Copyright

NotesRelated Note: Subject Note: The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Institute for Community Research collaborated with Manchester Community College 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.

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 March 8 2008 a tour focusing on French Canadian/Franco American traditions in Connecticut visited sites and events in Hebron and East Hartford. The tour traveled to the 18th annual Maple Festival that takes place in Hebron, visiting several working sugar houses as well as other maple-oriented activities happening throughout the town. Tour stops included Pierce’s sugar house on Route 66, Hope Valley Sugar House on Hope Valley Rd., booths and vendors throughout downtown Hebron, Country Carpenters on Gilead St., and the Wenzel Sugar House on East St. The tour group then traveled to the East Hartford French Social Circle Hall for a late afternoon French soirée with traditional French music provided by the dynamic fiddler Daniel Boucher and friends, and included a supper of typical French dishes such as tourtiere and sugar on snow, and a presentation by the French Canadian Genealogical Society of Connecticut.

Additional audio, video, and/or photographic materials exist in the archive relating to this subject.

Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.

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