ArtsWestCT is focused on music as it has scheduled Music West Haven Day at Old Grove Park located at Palace St on the first day of Summer, Tues, June 21, from 5 to sundown. Food Trucks will be there starting at 4 — Taste of Grill and Franco’s Fried Dough-licious. The event is free, open to the public, and appropriate for all ages. Participants are encouraged to bring chairs and/or blankets. There is no rain date.
“Make Music Day is a worldwide event, with millions of musicians of all styles, all ages, and all skill levels reimagining their cities as stages, and using music to spread joy to their communities,” a press release from ArtsWestCT reads. “Every kind of musician — young and old, amateur and professional, of every musical persuasion — pours onto streets, parks, plazas, and porches on the same day to share their music and celebrate the start of Summer with friends, neighbors, and strangers.”
In preparation for this, the West Haven Public Library helped gather empty containers to make instruments with more than 100 3- and 4-years-olds at West Haven Child Development Center June 7 and 8.
Director Tammy Theis-Satterlee was excited about the project.
“West Haven Child Development Center has partnered with ArtsWest CT and with The West Haven Early Childhood Council in support of Music and the Arts in our community by working together to bring Make Music Day to West Haven,” she said. “Together, we have developed programming that has been brought into the West Haven Child Development Center that is focused on both visual and musical arts. It is a proven fact that music and arts support brain development, specifically in language, social, and cognitive domains. Music and art are the building blocks to math and literacy! This programming is dedicated to giving the children an opportunity to explore a variety of percussion instruments with a local musician in various ways, practice nonverbal communication skills by using eye contact and other reciprocal social skills, make their own instruments with community artists, and then practice playing their instrument with the musician, Moises Vazquez. Finally, families can then bring their children to Old Grove Park after work where they will then have the opportunity to come together for Make Music Day on June 21.”
Theis-Satterlee said the event is filling a need, heard often in child development circles.
“Parents in our community continuously express their desire to socialize with other parents, which is something that has been lost during Covid. The arts are a natural and gentle way of building community and healing from the wounds that Covid has left on the community. The social interactions that have been witnessed during this programing at WHCDC have been profound. Children communicating with each other and with adults using drums and percussion instruments has allowed all children to have an opportunity to be a part of the fun. Children with autism or who have experienced trauma in their lives can particularly benefit from the arts. ArtsWest CT has proven themselves to be dedicated to providing these kinds of experiences for all of the people of West Haven,” she said.
Multimedia artist Zohra Rawling – a West Haven resident – has been organizing the musicians and will announce the slate next week. ArtsWestCT has secured a donation from Make Music Day International of professional drumsticks and steel pan drum sets for live bucket-drumming at the event.
Learn more about ArtsWestCT and subscribe to receive their newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/908229a46dc9/art-is-blooming-all-around Musicians and venues can sign up for Greater New Haven area events on June 21st: https://www.makemusicnewhaven.org/