Prepared by WAAC Member and Westport Poet Laureate Diane Lowman 

Welcome back to the Westport Local Press’s Westport Arts Advisory Committee’s “Culture Corner.” Each month, the WAAC scours our 33.45 square miles and highlight one of the many artists – visual, written, performance, and other – who call Westport home. These artists create a spectrum of color that shines over town like the rainbows often seen over the Saugatuck, so we have made “color” our theme.

For November, we’ve chosen golden – for the foliage certainly, but also, as the color of gratitude. We celebrate Thanksgiving this month, so it seemed a good time to express appreciation for the vibrant art scene in town, and one of the town’s institutions that so supports our collective creativity: The Westport Library.

Let’s start with the current exhibit. All of the library’s gallery space is currently dedicated to the work of local artist Leonard Everett Fisher. According to their website, “His career as a painter, illustrator, and designer spans over 70 years. The exhibit highlights Fisher’s deep sense of humanity which is conveyed through his unique use of shape, line and color.” The few examples shared here represent only a slice of the exhibit, which is much better viewed in person (runs through January 2, 2022).

I sat down with Bill Harmer, Executive Director of the library, to express appreciation for everything they do to support and promote the arts in our community, and to find out how they approach showcasing all the creativity in town. Harmer acknowledged that since Westport has such a long, rich history of being home to so many visual, writing, and performing artists that he has always considered this a key, critical part of their mission – to recognize, honor, and provide an outlet for all that talent. It figured heavily into the redesign of the space, where three rotating gallery spaces, and state of the art performance and studio spaces afford a publicly visible outlet to myriad forms of expression. He personally promised artists of all kinds that their work would always have a home both physically, and on the programming schedule, at the library.

Many pieces from the town’s own art collection, as well as the library’s own well-loved black and white collection hang throughout the building. During the worst of Covid19, Harmer encouraged his staff to “pivot,” and continue to provide access to the arts to its patrons online. In another pandemic silver lining, this gave birth to a video series, which is still available on their website, profiling over 30 artists-in-residence. 

In creating programming, Harmer says the library works very closely with the Westport Chamber of Commerce to eliminate barriers to artists showcasing their work: the drive-in theatre in the Imperial parking lot, that provided so much safe, fun entertainment to the community at a time when so many other outlets had shut down, as well as the very popular Supper and Soul series, are great examples of this collaboration.

Now that venues can again welcome he public, the library has some exciting upcoming arts events on the docket: they will showcase new musical talent with both a new series spearheaded by Chris Frantz of Talking Heads fame and the The Westport Sessions, produced in the broadcast studios. Artist Charles Joyner, who spent several formative years here in town, will be featured in upcoming exhibits and events. The annual StoryFest celebrates the written word and Short Cuts highlights film. This is only a smattering of the ways in which our local library makes the arts a very important part of their raison d’etre. The best place to keep abreast of their vast offerings is, of course, their website: https://westportlibrary.org

We just wanted to take this month to express our gratitude to all those who create in our community, and to the library for so proactively supporting them.