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The Valley Arts Council opened a new gallery on Main Street in Ansonia, across from City Hall.
Ansonia officially welcomed the Valley Arts Council to the city during a ribbon-cutting ceremony outside the council’s new gallery at 258 Main St. Tuesday.
Rich DiCarlo, the Valley Arts Council’s president, said Ansonia’s Main Street is undergoing a renaissance as evidenced by new restaurants. The arts will add to the progress.
“We feel really comfortable in our new space,” DiCarlo said in an email. “The city and its people have been very welcoming. It’s actually great to be appreciated and we will go out of the way to reciprocate the gracious welcome.”
The new gallery is a way to get people involved in the council. The space will showcase artists, in addition as a place for artists to pursue their passion.
“Galleries are never a requirement for art councils, but it’s always nice to have one,” DiCarlo said in a Valley Indy podcast published in September. “Life circles around it. It’s going to be a cooperative gallery where everyone will have a stake in it.”
Click here to hear more from DiCarlo in September’s podcast.
Note: The photos in this story were contributed by the arts council. The photographer is Rod Jovanelly, of A Touch of Color Photography and Video.
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Cutting the ribbon on the new place.
DiCarlo and company plan to launch a number of new initiatives, including a new video program “Art Talks,” which will be featured on YouTube and Comcast channel 10.
The council is also planning “ArtWalks” as well as “Art in the Park.” Both involve artists working and exhibiting outdoors, DiCarlo said.
The Valley Arts Council is a nonprofit entity that has managed to keep rebounding after hitting rough spots.
A council-connected “Valley Center for the Arts” in Derby failed to prosper after an extensive renovation of a space on Caroline Street in Derby in 2009.
In 2015, the council opened a new space on Elizabeth Street (near its previous gallery on Elizabeth Street) after hitting a rough spot financially.
The council had been housed in a Derby gallery for about a decade, but the landlord opted to convert that space into a liquor store.
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Ansonia Mayor David Cassetti, left, and Rich DiCarlo, right.
“The past nine years have been very difficult,” DiCarlo said. “We always lost funding, artists and opportunity to the big art councils of the southwestern Connecticut region. But our strength is in our membership. With mere pennies coming in, we somehow managed to stay afloat, through shows, small grants and some sales.”
The arts council enjoys a close relationship with the Ansonia Cultural Commission, the members of which are able to lighten the load for long-time council leaders such as DiCarlo.
DiCarlo thanked Mayor David Cassetti, economic developer Sheila O’Malley and corporation counsel John Marini for supporting the new space.
To contact The Valley Arts Council, 203.516.0822. Click this link to visit the group on Facebook. Click this link for information from the city.
