Artspace Unveils Virtual City Wide Open Studios

The arms reach up from the foliage in a surreal way that seems both playful and unsettling. The disembodied nipples they may be throwing around seem almost like eyes, ready to blink. As the title of the piece — Garden Party 8 — by artist Lori Petchers suggests, it’s supposed to be fun. But it goes deeper than that, too. Most of all, it feels like a new discovery, which is what City Wide Open Studios is all about.

Petchers is among the hundreds of local artists whose work is on display starting today as the annual month-long City Wide Open Studios gets underway.

This October, the annual extravaganza known for occupying unpredictable spaces is taking on its most ambitious venue yet: cyberspace.

City Wide Open Studios, which in past years has moved around the city, from the old Hamden Middle School to the Goffe Street Armory to Yale’s campus in Orange — to say nothing of also taking place in dozens of studio spaces in Erector Square, West River Arts, and elsewhere — is going online this year (save for scheduled studio visits) in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The riotous breadth of work, and Its thoughtful presentation, mean that participants can find the same sense of surprise that characterized past CWOS events, even if it’s from your own couch. The chance to still visit artists in their studios can offer the same sense of connection that a long chat in a gallery did in past years. And Artspace’s moving of the gargantuan CWOS to a virtual space signifies the ways that the institution continues to adapt to help keep the arts scene supported in the new environment that’s still forecasted to be our reality for the foreseeable future.

Artspace closed its doors in mid-March, and safety concerns meant that the gallery postponed the opening of its most recent exhibit, ​“Revolution on Trial,” which runs until Oct. 17.

“There’s no question that we were affected by Covid-19 because we had to cancel our main fundraiser in April,” as the gallery was still closed and gatherings were impossible, said Lisa Dent, Artspace’s artistic director. ​“But since then we have secured other funding support, and that has made us stronger.” Artspace also made staffing changes and cut its budget. ​“But it means we can continue,” she said. ​“Artspace was already just a half-million dollar institution. By being one of those institutions that didn’t get too big, too fast, we are actually stable.” The organization applied for and received PPP support. It also got support through the New England Foundation of the Arts and Public Allies, which operates an Americorps program.

By summer staff felt comfortable opening the space and ​“Revolution on Trial” — about the legacy of the Black Panther trials and protests in New Haven — safely, and did. ​“We were really happy to be in a situation where we felt like we could open the doors to give the public something to do and still keep people safe,” Dent said. With ​“We definitely had visitors come through who were able to take their time and learn about New Haven’s history, ask us some questions, and ask questions of each other and the exhibition.”

Dent began her job as the artistic director of Artspace in May, replacing longtime director Helen Kauder. The timing of it, she said, is not as awkward as it may first appear. ​“People have been really supportive and gracious, and often talking about how difficult it must be, but in some ways it helped give me some time to learn more about New Haven and Artspace, and get to meet people virtually,” she said. ​“I don’t know that I’m dealing with any more than a lot of people are having to deal with right now.”

Dent even sees a silver lining to some of the programming for ​“Revolution on Trial” that was made virtual. She believed that some of the participants in the discussions ​“could ask questions that maybe they would have been uncomfortable asking in person,” she said. She has also received a lot of feedback from the New Haven community about what Artspace means to them that, she said, will help her ​“make clearer decisions for what it can be in the future.”

“How will we be committing to local artists?” Dent said, was a question she got a lot. ​“I suspect that some of that is from the fact that I’m new to New Haven” — she moved here from Portland, Ore., where she served as artistic director of the gallery Converge45 — ​“and an assumption that I would be more interested in what’s going on outside of New Haven than in New Haven.”

But, Dent said, the turn of galleries toward nurturing the arts scenes in their immediate areas is part of a greater trend. ​“There was a lot of conversation with the previous leadership about the shift to supporting local artists,” she said. ​“That comes out of a push nationally … placing more emphasis on local opportunities, rather than having to do everything that NYC is doing, or bringing NYC artists here.” At the same time, she said, ​“when you look at the exhibition history of Artspace over the years, it has been an exciting blend of pairing New Haven artists with artists around the world.”

For Dent, ​“Revolution on Trail” was a case in point. It focused on New Haven’s Black Panther trials and protests, but ​“The Black Panthers are a national organization with international connections,” she said. ​“Some of the artists were brilliant at making those connections,” digging into the history of the city while also finding ties to places outside it.

City Wide Open Studios represents another way that Artspace supports local and regional artists, and ​“my understanding from a lot of artists is that it’s the only time that they would earn any money from their artwork” — particularly during CWOS’s Alternative Space Weekend, held in past years at the Goffe Street Armory and more recently at Yale’s office campus in Orange.

The loss of CWOS as a large-scale, in-person event, and moving it online, allowed Artspace to think more broadly about what it meant.
​“How can we actually help these artists learn how to earn income throughout the year?” Dent asked. Part of making CWOS work online was about helping artists set up their own online presence through personal websites and social media. ​“We can go back and forth about whether you should purchase work you haven’t seen in person,” Dent said, but ​“why shouldn’t artists be able to earn income that way as well?” CWOS also set up the possibility that interested buyers could see works that caught their eye in person by scheduling studio visits.

In talking to participants about past CWOS events, ​“people also said how fun it was — seeing the crowd of people gave them some sense of the joy that looking at artwork was bringing,” Dent said. That sense of communal art appreciation can’t be replicated during the pandemic. ​“But at the same time I think it’s appropriate that this year we’ve had to figure out ways to enjoy ourselves and have fun,” she said. Dent herself went a few studio visits recently. ​“I ended up leaving energized and rejuvenated. It’s just different,” she said.

She is also looking to the possibility that the shift to a much more online presence might yield some innovations that will be added to future CWOS seasons, after the pandemic is over. ​“We are really going to want to hear from the artists at the end of the month to see how it was for them,” she said. The same goes for audience members. ​“I’m very curious to see what we learn and what might continue to be incorporated,” she said.

From the presentation on its website, Artspace appears to have adapted plenty already. The very user-friendly site allows viewers to quickly take in much of the range of the over 200 artists participating in CWOS this year, and to dive into the work of individual artists with ease.

The New Haven-based Phoenx’s digital photography, from NYC to Spain to Amsterdam, seems at times almost hyper-real.

Liz Pagano’s jewelry pieces have the qualities of small, weathered sculptures.

Maria Morabito’s aptly named sculptures play with a sense of scale; one can easily imaginer her compelling shapes to be microscopic, man-sized, or as a tall as a pine.

And Nichole Bricker’s work uses a keen sense of sarcasm, from the shapes of her visuals to the titles she gives them, to make statements designed as much to simply make us stop and think as to change our minds.

Dent is sanguine about Artspace’s future. ​“I actually feel like we’re in a good place,” she said. She added that ​“people need to understand that … we need to take care of our public institutions.” Many in the New Haven arts scene have gotten that message. ​“If they regularly can contribute, if they regularly show up for us, we’ll be fine.”

“We have to protect what we know is part of a healthy ecosystem in the city, and that includes all of the cultural organizations in the city. What are we doing all this work for, if it’s not then for us to be able to enjoy ourselves?” she added.

Dent is already looking forward to what Artspace can become in the future, as a place that helps artists continue to develop their practice artistically and financially, with perhaps more stress on the former. ​“I’m interested in focusing on some of the original ideas of what an alternative space is meant to be,” she said. ​“If the goal for someone is to connect with Artspace so they can earn income, rather than explore new ideas and challenge themselves and experiment — I want them to be able to earn income, but it’s the challenge and ideas that are the driving force behind it.”

City Wide Open Studios runs virtually at Artspace through Oct. 30. Check the CWOS pages of individual artists for the chance to arrange studio tours and see the pieces in person.