Dan Deutsch

Poet. Host. Educator. Actress. Activist. Sports fanatic.

Is there a better word to describe Brittana Tatum than Versatile? She would most certainly say “no,” and here’s why.

In the theater industry, it is common to call people who excel at acting, singing and dancing, “triple threats.” In Tatum’s case, her passions lie within poetry, hosting open mics, and educating. It all started with one fateful open mic at The Russell in downtown Hartford. What started as a Myspace name, “Versatile Poetiq” ended up becoming her stage name and how she’s known in arts scenes around the region. “Poetry has taken me places I never thought it would,” and it all started with spoken word, according to Tatum. “Versatile” doesn’t only describe everything she does; it has a lot to do with her identity as a Queer, Black woman who grew up in the suburbs. After a brief stint a prestigious acting school before she could write complex sentences, she started playing basketball. Tatum eventually got recruited to play basketball at college, but she felt pulled towards her artistic side.

Just two days after her Russell debut, Tatum performed at an open mic hosted at the former Tapas Restaurant in Downtown Hartford. It was there that she met a few other like-minded artists that would soon join her growing circle of influences and inspirations, including TangSauce, Zulynette, and DJ Stealth (aka Assad Jackson). As for hosting, it ended up being something she simply fell into doing, as a result of meeting the right people at the right time.

One of these people is Khaiim Kelly (aka Self-Suffice), who eventually became one of her closest friends and mentors. After subbing for Kelly at an open mic at City Hall, she was asked to host a dance battle at Heaven Skate Park, which quickly became one of her favorite events to host. Stars continued to align for Tatum after Kelly invited her to be a Teaching Assistant for a Civic Engagement class at Charter Oak Cultural Center. For the past decade, she’s been an educator there as well as Arts for Learning CT, a nonprofit organization dedicated to arts integration and engaging kids of all ages and abilities in learning through the arts.

Black Ink walking across the Paper Saluting Success
White out the Black mistakes enslaving his Progress
A Colorless world, a colorless Rainbow, a colorless disaster
So I speak of holding Black White as the Story Happily Ever After

(excerpt from the poem “Black White,” by Versatile Poetiq)

Tatum didn’t just stop at writing and performing, hosting, and educating. This past February, she starred as hustler and gambler Can in “Daisies on Harlem’s Doorstep,” written by Sharece Sellem at the Norwich Arts Center, directed by Rob Esposito and Briana Dawson. More recently, she’s been hosting “The Corner,” a bi-monthly open mic produced with Kamora’s Cultural Corner, Connecticut’s only Black LGBTQI Community Center. Every session includes a community poem, where each participant writes two lines in response to the previous two lines, and that is part of what keeps Tatum excited and inspired about being a community-minded artist.

Yet even artists sometimes have a non-artistic hobby they pursue on the side. For Tatum, that’s sports. “I could probably work at ESPN,” she said. Her love of sports truly runs the gamut – from basketball and football, all the way down to the Little League World Series. Did we mention she’s a foodie as well? There is something truly poetiq about being versatile.

– Dan Deutsch, Marketing & Communications Manager
GHAC

If you live in Hartford, or take some time to explore the city, there’s a chance you’ve seen the work of Lindaluz Carrillo.

Carrillo, an urban pop artist who specializes in graphic design, explores alternative typography by incorporating elements of urban lifestyle, pop culture, and hip-hop into messages of self-love, empowerment, and activism. From commissioned murals at Parkville Sounds, Impact Academy and Barbour St to the more ephemeral at Heaven Skatepark, Carrillo’s work stands out among the rest, featuring bold letter styles written in both Spanish and English.

Art has been a part of Carrillo’s life since she was very young, collaborating on murals with her elder artistic counterparts. She enjoyed the process and bonding over the act of creation, and it became something she wanted to continue on her own. She started off in the local arts community trying to get her voice heard, and as she’s grown in experience and notoriety, younger artists have been looking to her as an artistic/community resource.

“The younger generations are what builds culture and what keep it sustainable,” Carrillo said. “I can see the impact that my work has.” She wants her work to encourage others to expand on what they’re doing. Creating art with her community is essential to her creative process. In addition to surveying a space for a mural commission, she builds relationships with the people dependent on the space to write the story of her future work. She narrows down ideas with the client, and strives to make the process a combination of structure and freeform.

A mural artist in her own right, Carrillo has always valued collaboration as a crucial part of her artistic process. One of her recent projects, “You Are Loved,” is a group effort with Fernando Garcia, Mina Echevarria, fellow typography artist Matt Godzik and Angela Godoy. Carrillo knows these artists through many different means, but it meant even more to work with Godoy on this particular project, given they went to the same arts-focused high school and college. Carrillo also collaborates with artists outside of the visual medium. For a while, she shared a multidisciplinary studio space in Parkville with two other Hartford-based artists: Jasmin Agosto, curator and producer with SageSeeker Productions, and recording artist Brandon Serafino.

These days, Carrillo is creating. For her, the pandemic has allowed more time to explore ideas. Instead of working on a client’s time, she is diving deeper into her own ideas in both a creative and critical sense. However, working with clients and other artists is something that can’t come soon enough.

(photos c/o Lindaluz Carrillo)

– Dan Deutsch, Marketing & Communications Manager
GHAC

Every artist’s path is different. For Rebecca Maloney, it took some time away from home to feel the warm embrace of Hartford’s artist community upon her return. After graduating art school, she felt called to her grandmother’s attic after her passing, where she found boxes of old magazines. It was from this collection of magazines that came material for her first solo exhibit.

After a stint out west, Maloney returned to the Nutmeg State and started holding her own painting and mixed media workshops, based on her experiences participating in similar workshops elsewhere. More recently however, she’s placed a heavier emphasis on mixed media for her personal portfolio.

“While playing with materials, you’re learning about them,” said Maloney. Learning about interactions between materials is essential to her discovery process. Maloney is more interested in stepping away from the formal aspects of the result, rather than working towards a specific goal. The juxtaposition of methods and materials leads to future uses of both in different contexts.

Mixed Media is a highly experimental medium, but it doesn’t have to be high concept. For Maloney, her primary form of artistic expression is much more improvisational; each layer not only builds upon the other, but also inside every layer is a lesson about that particular material and how it interacts with other materials. Maloney also enjoys collaborating with people and sharing ideas. This becomes particularly helpful in her work with ActUp Theater, a Hartford-based theater company that explores social justice issues and current events in its productions.

Upon returning to the Hartford area, she was recruited to help with set design for the company. She was (and remains) excited for the challenge, for creating an entire production aesthetic and working with a production crew is a very different process than working alone in one’s studio…and that’s what she loves about being an artist – “not having something and then suddenly having something” – she’s inspired by spontaneous existence. For Maloney, working with ActUp ignites a different part of her brain, allowing her to see creativity in different ways.

The relationship of an individual to its surroundings is something Maloney takes very seriously: her role as a community-minded artist. If you follow her on any of her social media accounts, you’ll see not only her own work, but a variety of work and resources she shares from other accounts, local and otherwise. Having a community-oriented mindset holds you more accountable to figure out what resources you have and how to use them to make a community better.

When the pandemic crisis hit our own community, Maloney became one of many artists who continue to share their own work along with others’, as well as resources and virtual experiences. Maloney partnered with Diana Aldrete, a professor of language and cultural studies at Trinity College, on #ArtUnQuaratined, a month-long workshop dedicated to art journaling they broadcast on Instagram live through May 2. Yet with all of this sharing, she isn’t putting as much pressure on herself to create, and that’s something that can apply to any artistic medium or job. Maloney is giving herself permission to not overload, which is something we should all consider.

(photos c/o Rebecca Maloney)

– Dan Deutsch, Marketing & Communications Manager
GHAC

On March 18^th, grantmakers from across the globe came together to discuss how they are reacting to the COVID-19 crisis.  This open conversation revolved around two prompted questions.

                What changes are you currently rolling out?
                What changes are you considering?

These questions resulted in the overarching topic of “What can we as grantmakers do to make the lives of our grantees easier?” There were many different ideas and some grantmakers shared steps they are taking to alleviate the strain their grantees are facing. 

Some foundations and organizations have had the capacity to create emergency funding, see a comprehensive list at https://covid19freelanceartistresource.wordpress.com/#FUNDING

Besides the creation of new funds grantmakers are looking at their current grant portfolios and reevaluating the processes in place.  Changes to requirements, deadlines and applications are being made to meet the needs of grantees and granting organizations.     

While all of these items address the short term needs of grantees, grantmakers are also thinking about the long-term and what their organizations grants are going to look like over the course of the next year. Will they increase funding, will they have to decrease funding, will there be more operating support, more program support?

These are all issues that the Arts Council is currently addressing. We have already extended the Summer Hartford Events Grant deadline to April 17^th, and are having one on one discussions with our grantees on how we can support them during this time of uncertainty.

SOURCE

There is no doubt that collaboration and creativity are intertwined.

For her most recent group show Relics | Remnants at the Farmington Valley Arts Center (FVAC) with fellow Artist-in-Residence Trae Brooks, multidisciplinary artist Ying Ye not only found inspiration in Brooks’ work (and vice versa), but she relied on the help of her family, friends, and professors.

Ye commented about how it’s rare to see a six-month program like their Artist-in-Residence program. The mere space/facility sharing the artists experience gives them the additional advantage of skill-sharing and mentorship across disciplines and career-levels. As an alumna of Hartford Art School with degrees in both Painting and Sculpture, she has found a considerable amount of peace in another discipline: Ceramics.

The availability of facilities at FVAC allowed Ye to use her imagination and truly create multidisciplinary yet installations. She incorporated her art school foundation with new Ceramic work in her installations, Eating Pickles Together in the Reproduction of the Home and Speak from the Ground as part of Relics | Remnants. By mixing clay with modeling paste to create a canvas “lip,” Ye mimicked the crack in a clay pot. She also included micro-installations in the gallery windows using tiny pots she made in the FVAC ceramic studio. 

Ye’s statement about the Chinese government-mandated demolition relocation is illustrated in Speak from the Ground. The vessel, housing a small screen video of Ye forming bubbles under water (mimicking the fermentation process) is meant to preserve tradition, culture, and identity within the walls that are cracking and falling down around it.

Apart from the political, Ye’s work is also very much about language, communication, and embodiment. Ye is inspired by her own experience as a Chinese immigrant, working in her family’s restaurant. For this reason, she is very attuned to taste and smell, which is why her other installation in this show centered around the act of sharing a meal.

While her father provided a few dishes, it was mostly Ye who prepared different fermented dishes for reception guests to enjoy as part of the installation. The relationship between food and identity is prevalent throughout Ye’s life, and it was brought to the forefront in this show.

Ye has actively continued to pursue this relationship in her work, picking up catering shifts for inspiration and serving as a Sculpture technician at her alma mater. Ye has plans to apply for other residencies, internships, and eventually grad school.

(photography: Chris Herrera)

– Dan Deutsch, Marketing & Communications Manager
GHAC

The New Britain Industrial Museum turns 25 this year. Our mission has not changed much since 1995; we collect, preserve, and share the stories of inventors, innovators, and objects — all made in New Britain.

The New Britain Industrial Museum’s collection primarily comes from folks who used to work in one of the city’s factories. Their donations come with their stories: shelves of coffee percolators from a former supervisor at Landers, Frary & Clark (better known by their brand name, “Universal”). Overflowing containers with strapping tools made by Stanley Works, brought in by a former Stanley employee. Fafnir ball bearings of all sizes from Museum founder and former Fafnir VP of Engineering, Horace B. Van Dorn III. Their memories inform the stories we tell visitors from around the world, and make objects relatable.

Why New Britain? It was not fated to be a manufacturers’ mecca. No rivers? No water power. No water power in the early 19th century? No industry. Innovation: new ideas, methods, and devices. Frederick T. Stanley purchased the village’s first steam engine, and the boom began. More people could work on more machines to produce more hardware.

One intriguing thing I have learned since I started talking to machinists (who come to tour the Museum and see New Britain’s wares) almost daily: machinists are critical observers and streamline their process at every possible moment. Their creative problem-solving leads them to innovate. This is important to conceptualize: every worker holds the potential to make significant change. With a workforce as robust as New Britain’s, you can imagine the impact every person in the city could have.

This has been our goal for all of the New Britain Industrial Museum’s 25 years: you see the impact generations of innovators had in shaping New Britain’s legacy as you walk through the exhibits. That makes it easier to put yourself in the inventor’s seat. What do you want to change, and how would you do it?

If they could make waves in 19th century New Britain, I bet you can today.

Sophie Huget
Director, New Britain Industrial Museum

Visit the New Britain Industrial Museum!
59 West Main Street, New Britain, CT 06051
Admission: $5/adults, $3/students & seniors
Open Wednesday 12-4, Thursday & Friday 2-4, and Saturday 10-4.
Free hours every Saturday morning from 10-12.
www.nbindustrial.org
860-832-8654

– Dan Deutsch, Marketing & Communications Manager
GHAC

We’re proud to award funding to 10 Greater Hartford organizations through the spring Hartford Events Grant program, which is made possible by support from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. Recognizing the value that the arts bring communities, this program funds events that honor culture and traditions, build community, energize neighborhoods and support local businesses.

“We are constantly impressed by the quality and quantity of what the Arts and Culture community contributes to our region,” said Greater Hartford Arts Council CEO, Cathy Malloy. “The Hartford Events Grants give us the opportunity to invest in organizations that truly make a difference by bringing people together through arts and culture, and making a significant impact on the quality of life in our city.”

A panel of community volunteers evaluated proposals based on the strength of the artistic focus of the event as well as its alignment with the Arts Council’s community impact goals. In total, 10 grants were given to local organizations, including:

Women Composers Festival of Hartford
Project: 2020 Women Composers Festival of Hartford, March 19-21, 2020
The Women Composers Festival of Hartford celebrates women composers through scholarly presentations, workshops, and performances. The 2020 festival will feature a world premiere composition by Melika Fitzhugh performed by Craft Ensemble.

Trinity College
Project: Trinity College International Hip Hop Festival, March 27-29, 2020
The annual festival, in its 15^th year, is a student-run event that seeks to celebrate hip hop music and culture from around the world.

Hartford’s Proud Drill Drum and Dance Corp.
Project: 5^th Annual East Coast Explosion, June 2020
The East Coast Explosion is the Drum and Dance Corp.’s annual Stomp the Violence drill, drum and dance competition. The event is designed to celebrate nonviolence, connect with civic leaders and the local police department.

To see a full list of recipients, please visit LetsGoArts.org/Recipients.

– Dan Deutsch, Marketing & Communications Manager
GHAC

2019 was an incredible year.

1000

free Summer Times newspapers passed out at Summer in the City events

190

free music lessons provided by local musicians on Make Music Day

150

organizations supported through funding and professional resources

97

grants given to support arts organizations, events and projects in our region

40

pop-up performances through Hartford Live! in August and September

As we look forward to a new year, here’s a look back at a few of the things we loved about last year and what we’re excited about in 2020. Be sure to follow us on social media for even more news and updates!

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

#letsgoarts | #makeartpossible

Was there ever a more fun celebration of the arts than The Art Social?

On Thursday, October 17th, 2019, supporters, arts leaders, artists, and community members alike gathered in the comfortably contemporary Atrium at The Goodwin in Downtown Hartford for a one-of-a-kind event. Formally known as Big Red for the Arts, the Arts Council aimed to put a new twist (with a new season) on our annual fundraiser. 

In addition to a live auction (hosted by WFSB’s Scot Haney) of unique arts experiences, we invited some of our program partners and grantees to exhibit and perform their work.

New Charter grantee Queen Ann Nzinga Center started off the evening’s programming with a medley of hits that had the crowd going wild.

Arts & Wellness grantee Southington Community Cultural Arts exhibited beautiful scarves, drawings, and paintings done by students in their All Access Art program, which connects adults with intellectual disabilities with their community by providing creative skills training in order to produce meaningful income and enhance their quality of life through the creative process.

Dan Liparini, who has performed for Arts Council programs on several occasions, brought two fellow Hartt School graduates to form a jazz trio to provide a soundtrack for the entire night, and audiences were wowed by a long-form collaboration with The Dance Collective.

Art on the Streets participant Bri Dill was painting the entire night! In addition to abstraction, Bri works with alcohol ink to create an interactive experience using color theory and emotion.

(L to R: Steven Greenspan, Jeff Verney)

We also celebrated two honorees of our inaugural Arts Inspiration Award: Jeff Verney, Chairman of the Board of Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and United Technologies for their dedication to transforming their community through art!

Another new Charter grantee, Spectrum in Motion Dance Theater Ensemble, closed out the night with a special performance.

In addition to supporting the arts in a wonderful space, guests were treated to delicious hors d’oeuvres, small plates, desserts, craft cocktails, and a donut bar by Chef Tyler Anderson and the team at Porron & Piña.

The Art Social was made possible by a group of generous donors, to whom we owe endless thanks: Voya Financial, Stanley Black & Decker, Cantor Colburn, LLP., Hartford Hospital, Hinckley Allen, Lincoln Financial Group, Robinson + Cole, Grunberg Management, The Goodwin Hotel, Porron & Piña, United Bank Foundation, and Connecticut Innovations. 

With The Art Social happening in under two months, we wanted to take a moment to highlight just a few of the reasons you should join us for the event (in addition to showing your support for arts and culture in greater Hartford, of course!)!

1. We’re in the center of it all in downtown Hartford at The Goodwin Atrium.

One of Hartford’s architectural highlights now turned into a destination for locals and tourists alike, The Goodwin will be this year’s home to the big event. Guests can also look forward to a one of a kind culinary experience curated by award-winning Chef Tyler Anderson and his team.

2. Celebration of Innovation, Collaboration, and Inspiration.

What exactly are you supporting when you purchase a ticket for The Art Social? Here are just three examples of the arts programming your dollars support:

• Arts + Innovation: You may have seen Bri Dill, founder of Art.Lab on Pratt St. work her magic with alcohol ink over the summer for Art on the Streets. On October 17th, you’ll have a chance to take it home!
• Arts + Collaboration: Two of our city’s premiere performing arts entities will partner up for a special performance at The Art Social: jazz guitarist extraordinaire Dan Liparini (along with fellow Hartt School of Music and Brookyln-based alumni Alex Tremblay and Eric Hallenbeck); and The Dance Collective, a professional contemporary dance company that centers work by female choreographers.
• Arts + Inspiration: Southington Community Cultural Arts (SoCCA) All Access Art program provides adults with intellectual disabilities connection to their community, creative skills training, and meaningful income. Works from SoCCA will be on display and the program teaching artist will be in attendance.

3. Join us in honoring local heroes!

We’re excited to announce the inaugural Arts Inspiration Award, honoring an individual (Jeff Verney) and an organization (United Technologies Corp.) that share our commitment to using the power of the arts to create a stronger community. The recipients demonstrate extraordinary leadership and dedication to supporting the arts and seek to inspire others to join their efforts.

Our biggest fundraiser is back with a new twist, and we’d love for you to see what we’ve done with the place. RSVP by October 3 at LetsGoArts.org/Social

#MakeArtPossible