Open Studios celebrates return in EasthamptonDate: 10/27/2021 EASTHAMPTON – After being cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Eastworks Open Studios will return to Easthampton on Nov. 6 and 7.
According to Kim Carlino, an interdisciplinary artist, this is the sixth year Eastworks has hosted this event in its current incarnation.
The event invites artists, nonprofits, musicians, entrepreneurs, and more to open their doors to the public so residents and community members beyond Easthampton can learn more about these people and what they do. For this year’s two-day event, there are over 50 community participants showcasing drawings, paintings, recycled bags, jewelry, clothing, henna, masks, homemade body products, photography, workshops, demos, and much more. The goal is to support these local makers in any way possible.
Eastworks Open Studios, according to Carlino, is a unique multi-use building in the sense that it hosts commercial tenants, nonprofit makers, wellness people, hair salons, and others. The Open Studios event is reflection of this diversity.
“On top of this diverse mix of people opening their doors, it’s really an event,” said Carlino. “Depending on who our tenants are, it really informs the energy of the event.”
In recent years, Eastworks has begun to incorporate live music simultaneously with the event.
This year, BraveSoul Productions has curated three floors of music from 12 to 3:45 p.m. each day of the event. Performers include a mix of local favorites like the Pamela Means Project, Tony Silva, and others.
When people arrive to Eastworks, they will receive a map of the location for live demos and a schedule of the events that are occurring. “People can come and kick off their holiday shopping by shopping local and also be behind the scenes,” said Carlino, adding that ariel yoga demos, clay demos, henna demos, and art demos will be some of the many activities occurring. “I think it’s a really wonderful opportunity for the community to come out and see all these people creating in their space and what they are up too.”
Food trucks like Holyoke Hummus and SunKim Bop, as well as offerings from Riffs & The Hideaway will also be available at Eastworks as options for people to come and check out. The creator of Crooked Stick Pops, who started their business out of Eastworks, will also be in attendance.
“It’s this full event that is very community-minded,” said Carlino. “People really look forward to it. I think it was added to the list of disappointments of cancellations from COVID [-19] last year.”
The difference in this year’s event compared to past years is it will be run by tenants instead of the building, but Carlino said there is very much a collaboration between all parties.
In preparing for this year, Carlino said she, and a couple of other artists who help organize the event, were unsure if people were going to even be comfortable opening their doors to the public again. “We were like, ‘we have to move forward like this is something that will happen, and just keep monitoring it,’” said Carlino, adding that she approached the tenants with honesty about how they will follow protocol no matter what.
Despite the uncertainty, Carlino said that there is a record number of people participating, which was shocking to her. “I think it really highlights this desire to interact and connect,” said Carlino. “It’s interesting that I’ve heard several people move to the building since the pandemic that they knew about Open Studios, and they wanted to be in [Eastworks] because they knew that this event happened, and that lots of people came out for it.”
Carlino, who has been making eco-geometric abstract art for eight years in Eastworks, noted how interesting it was to see so many artists move into the building during the pandemic, and the record number of participants for Open Studios appears to be a direct reflection of that. “It’s pretty cool to see,” she added.
The Eastworks Open Studios event will take place between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on both days. Masks will be required, regardless of vaccination status.
Eastworks is five floors, but the residential floor will be closed to promote pandemic-related protocol safety.
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