Ball & Socket Arts Turns Factory Into Gallery

When asked to name the cultural hubs of the Northeast, most people would not consider Cheshire, Connecticut a part of that list. A group of enthusiastic artists and supporters of the arts are hoping to change that over the next few years, as Ball & Socket Arts, a complex located on West Main Street right along the Farmington Canal Linear Path, continues its efforts to create a central location aimed at encouraging ongoing creativity and attracting New Haven County residents and beyond to its galleries, performance venue, art education center, and more.

The location has a storied history, originating as the Cheshire Manufacturing Company in 1850, which then became the Ball & Socket Manufacturing Company after merging with a fastener company from New Hampshire. Primarily a button manufacturing plant, it was Cheshire’s largest employer for many years. After it closed in 1994, the buildings fell into a dilapidated state. But three friends — Ilona Somogyi, Jeffrey Guimond, and Kevin Daly — who grew up in Cheshire and worked in the arts in New Haven and elsewhere saw something in them, and started investigating the site in 2011.

“We thought this might be a really, really cool place to have an art center,” said Somogyi, co-founder and now president of Ball & Socket Arts. They thought the idea might not go anywhere due to environmental issues involved with the site. But after seeing a For Sale sign pop up on the lawn, they went on a tour and thought ​“let’s give it a go,” Somogyi said.

They formed a nonprofit called Ball & Socket Arts, using the name the site was already known for. Next came applying for a grant through the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development, which oversees brownfield redevelopment, historic preservation, tourism, and arts and culture. 

“It was like, ​‘oh, that’s kind of like everything we’re doing,’” said Somogyi. ​“I think it’s a very forward-thinking action on the part of the state to take these sites and help people make them something else.” 

“We were so young and naïve,” she said, adding that they had no experience except for being art professionals and working for art nonprofits. (Somogyi works at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale; Guimond at New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center, among other places; Daly is an artist, educator, and curator.) But growing up in Cheshire and ​“knowing the town” helped them as they worked to create their vision. 

They received their DECD grant in January 2012, allowing them to purchase the site. That meant ​“it wasn’t just like pie in the sky, it was an actual thing we now have responsibility for,” said Somogyi. Soon they started involving a lot of people in town, including donors and ​“people stepping up and wanting to be involved.”

“It’s a beautiful thing, it really is, involving people just stepping up and saying I want to be a part of this. It really has been built by a village.”

In 2022 Ball & Socket Arts went from an all-volunteer to a professional organization with state assistance. There has been a board of directors from the beginning, though some members have come and gone — including Guimond and Daly — and there continues to be a group of dedicated volunteers working along with the current staff. Somogyi officially became head of the organization in fall 2022.

The first floor of Building 2 was the first of the five buildings to be renovated and used for retail. It currently houses Sweet Claude’s, an ice cream shop that moved to that location in August 2022. The second floor of Building 2 is near completion and will house Artsplace, a Cheshire town agency that offers art classes for all ages.

“It’s a perfect fit for us in terms of arts education and bringing a lot more artists on to the site,” said Lydia Blaisdell, director of programming for Ball & Socket Arts.

That building also holds the Artcade, a public area on the first floor displaying a mural that will change regularly. Currently artist Nina Chang has a piece there that depicts the Farmington Canal Linear Park, and West Hartford artist Micaela Levesque will be installing her mural there in the next month.

The Workshop Gallery, located on the first floor of Building 3, has also been instrumental in getting more artists to the site. The airy and easily accessible space opened in October 2023 with ​“Rites of Passage,” an exhibition of early photographs — many from the New Haven music scene by famed Elm City-based photographers Tom Hearn and T. Charles Erickson — accompanied by a custom zine by writer Alan Bisbort. Another New Haven-based artist, sculptor Susan Clinard, has an exhibition called ​“Places We’ve Been,” currently at the gallery until April 7. 

The gallery has also had a show called ​“Strange Histories” by Ian Trask, an artist from Maine who uses waste materials in his work, and an open-call art show called ​“Signed, Sealed, Delivered” that asked artists to send in their art on a postcard (which, in the interest of full disclosure, this reporter participated in). They have an active open call for metal artists for ​“The Residents,” a series where artists work with metal from the factory to create creatures that live on the site. Currently there are three creatures living there now — one example of the mission to ​“preserve, transform, and engage.” The shelves that hold some of Clinard’s art in the gallery were made with wood from one of the factory buildings.

“The goal has always stayed pretty consistent,” said Somogyi. ​“We wanted to have a really world-class arts presentation space in this factory. That’s still the goal. It’s similar to MassMOCA. It’s not as big, but you come and there’s some amazing art on display.”

Creative commerce at the site has always been part of it as well, ​“a way to get a really symbiotic relationship between arts and commerce,” and they are getting interest from tenants who align with that goal. 

Then there is the goal of making connections, not just within the town of Cheshire, but with other towns in Connecticut, especially along the Farmington Canal Trail and off the highways and bus line. 

“The other part of it is having a space to congregate and meet, to have something that’s off the highways that people can kind of park their cars and spend some time,” said Somogyi. The development of the site had spurred downtown development, especially the West Main business district as a ​“walkable downtown for Cheshire.” And then of course there is that trail.

“Trail site commerce is like a really great idea, having municipal parking in the area, all these things that we don’t currently have, and having that real vibrant bustling downtown around this factory sort of leading things.”

There are plans to eventually have an onsite bike shop that offers repairs and rentals for those trail travelers and a food court to provide sustenance as well, though the area has restaurants in walking distance — there is pizza practically next door.

Building 1, the largest of the five — which will eventually hold that food court — will also be the location of a large-scale art exhibition hall and a roughly 100-seat performance space where music, films and talks will be scheduled. That large hall is full of light and highly reminiscent of a MassMOCA-type space. 

“I think we want it to be really accessible and delightful and high quality,” said Blaisdell about their goal for programming. ​“And I think we’re in this moment where we are introducing ourselves to people, so we want to try a lot of different disciplines and genres … art that anybody can walk into the gallery and find something enjoyable in it” — with a focus on New England artists and Connecticut in particular, with the hopes of encouraging a cross pollination of artists from across the state. 

“I think it’s a real flaw in the Connecticut art scene that there’s such intense divisions amongst the regions, and I think there are great artists in Connecticut and everyone should cross all the borders a lot more,” said Blaisdell. 

Likewise, ​“there’s a lot of preconceptions of Cheshire,” said Somogyi, that ​“I keep bumping up against, which is totally not my experience,” though she noted that culture has not been centered there in the past. 

“Creative economy is real,” added Blaisdell. ​“It’s a huge force in this state, and we should be using it to build up local businesses and create places people want to go and places people want to live.”

Somogyi pointed out the ​“old economic talking points” that associate quality of life and real estate value increases that are ​“totally and intrinsically connected” to arts and culture, as well as the benefits of fixing a building that ​“would otherwise be a huge liability, a public safety and health liability.”

And then there is the simple enjoyment of having a public place where you can sit and soak in the beauty. 

“We’re thinking about public space in a way that suburban towns in Connecticut don’t usually, so there’s going to be cool plazas and places to sit…the kind of places to gather that don’t require you to spend money,” said Blaisdell, who added that she also hopes for it ​“to be like BAM [Brooklyn Academy of Music], where you don’t know what you’re going to see, but it’s going to be great,” said Blaisdell with a laugh. 

“Which will give people reason to keep coming back,” added Somogyi.

While remodeling efforts of Building 1 continue (Ball and Socket just received another grant for roof repairs), programs are ongoing in the spaces that are currently complete, and Ball and Socket is partnering with a location down the street for something new. On April 6, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at St Peter’s Church on Main Street, there will be an artist talk with Clinard that includes a jazz performance by Hank Bolden and friends. On April 13 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. will be the first Ball and Socket Sing Out with Brian Ember. Both are part of the Party in the Pews program at the church every Saturday in April.

Onsite there is a public art project going on right now called The Assembly Line, with Wallingford-based artist Rashmi using images of Cheshire and nearby areas. Free public creation sessions are scheduled throughout March and April and anyone is welcomed. 

“The idea is to get as many people making art and being part of it as possible,” said Blaisdell. 

Add to that plans for Make Music Day in June — which was held on the trail last year due to the parking lot being redone but will be onsite this year — and a summer concert series, as well as more writing workshops (the first, a memoir writing workshop led by author Cindy House, was held Fall 2023, and monthly gallery shows that highlight a diverse array of artists.

And the site and its lore will continue to be a part of it all. Blaisdell spoke about their ​“long-term strategic planning on the history of the site,” and how they received a National Endowment of the Humanities grant that will allow them to do two years of planning around ​“how we tell the history of the site as an industrial center and the lives of the people who work here, and how we can sort of thread that into our identity as an arts venue.” 

“We don’t want to erase any of our history,” she added. ​“We want that to be part of who we are, too.”

According to the Ball & Socket website, there was saying in Cheshire years ago that went ​“sooner or later, everyone works at the button shop.” Perhaps sooner or later, in its remodeled and re-envisioned form, everyone will be creating, connecting, and celebrating there as well. 

For more information about any of the Ball & Socket Arts ongoing programs as well as its history and future plans, please visit their website.