NCAC Grants Mean New Signage For Three Projects
Three grants have been announced by Newtown Cultural Arts Commission, each to help local groups create or replace signage on public locations.
Paula Brinkman was awarded a grant to replace the current coroplast signs at the Doors of Newtown in Fairfield Hills with four new metal signs to be placed in the planters at each duplex. The grant includes water-based polyurethane for each of the eight doors as part of the upkeep needed for outside art.
EverWonder Children’s Museum received a grant to create uniform signage at its new home at 11 Mile Hill Road.
The Peck’s Lane location closed as of May 31. Museum staff is hoping to be fully in the new location by June 23. The new space will increase EverWonder’s location from 6,500 square feet to 10,000 square feet.
The grant was applied for by EverWonder Executive Director Meredith Christos.
The museum typically welcomes 100 visitors each daily. It hopes to triple that number in the new location.
Town & Country Garden Club received the third NCAC grant, which was applied for by Jane Sharpe.
This grant will be used to place a bronze plaque on the sculpture within Traffic Island 2, located at the intersection of Queen Street and Glover Avenue.
The garden club maintains Traffic Island 2, as well as Traffic Island 1, at Queen Street and Church Hill Road; and Traffic Island 3, Glover Avenue at South Main Street.
The plaque will let visitors know that the sculpture at TI2 is the work of local artist Ethan Currier. The sculpture, which Currier named “Flintstone Gearbox,” was installed in September 2019 during a makeover by the club of the small space.
EverWonder received a grant of $1250, which is NCAC’s limit for a single grant, according to NCAC Chair Laura E. Lerman.
“The requests for funds from Paula Brinkman and Jane Sharpe were low enough, in total, that we could award both of them grants and not exceed the $1,250” that is annually awarded to a Newtown-based group, club, or arts organization that enriches the cultural life of the community, for a total of $2,500 in grants.
In naming the recipients of the recent grants, Lerman said she and others on the commission were “especially pleased that we have reached creative communities, eg, the garden club community, that we haven’t heard from before.”