Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
Issue link: https://wellesleywestonmagazine.epubxp.com/i/92498
living with kids relationships parenting life lessons family matters emotional growth teenage years growing up Arts, Crafts, and Community in Wellesley and Weston ELIZABETH WILCOX writer last october, Wellesley resident and artist Laura Fragasso had an idea. Noticing the empty storefronts in Wellesley, she saw an opportunity to fill the vacant shop windows with local art. "I saw the space and thought, 'Let's be nim- ble, let's be quick,'" Fragasso says. With the support of local property owners, artists, and the town of Wellesley, Fragasso founded the Wellesley Community Art Project (WCAP). Within a year, some 17 exhibitions had been displayed in the town's center and a town, whose artistic community traditionally had lacked the visibility afforded by open stu- dio weekends or large art centers, suddenly had a rallying point. And rally Wellesley did, spawning visual arts initiatives and casting light on an artistic community that, like the artistic community in Weston, could sometimes seem shuttered and isolated despite efforts of local artists and craftspeople to connect. Since then, some suggest, Wellesley is going through something of a renaissance. One driver has been the recently formed Wellesley Women Artisans, a group of female artists whose mission includes bringing a more public presence to visual arts in the Wellesley community. Prior to the establishment of the group a year and a half ago, Wellesley Women Artisans founder and textile artist Abby Glassenberg was not atypical of visual artists in the commu- nity: she sought support for her work outside town lines. 144 Humpty Dumpty by Abby Glassenberg WellesleyWeston Magazine | winter 2012/2013 ABB Y GLASSENBERG