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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T100000
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UID:10007490-1789207200-1789228800@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Stonington Borough Art Walk
DESCRIPTION:Stonington Borough Art Walk returns Saturday\, September 12\, turning the heart of the seaside village into an open-air gallery filled with painters\, photographers\, potters\, sculptors\, jewelers\, textile artists\, and other makers from around the region. \nThe free event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.\, with artists stretching from the entrance to the Borough through its Water Street shopping district and toward Cannon Square. Water Street will close to vehicle traffic for the event\, allowing visitors to walk between artist tents\, shops\, restaurants and other activities throughout the village. \nThis year’s Art Walk also shares the Borough with Porchfest\, a new live music event presented by La Grua Center from noon to 4 p.m. The two events take place simultaneously but are separate programs\, giving visitors the option of moving between visual art and live music throughout the afternoon. \nAn Art Show That Takes Over the Borough\nThe Art Walk has grown considerably since its creation\, developing from a local arts event into one of Stonington Borough’s major annual gatherings. \nOrganizers expect more than 60 artists for 2026\, with exhibitors working across a broad range of media. The event’s artist selection includes ceramics and pottery\, illustration\, jewelry\, mixed media\, painting\, photography\, printmaking\, sculpture\, textiles and woodworking. \nRather than concentrating everyone in a field or conventional festival grounds\, the Art Walk uses the Borough itself. \nArtist tents and tables begin near the head of Water Street and continue through the commercial district toward Cannon Square. Shops\, courtyards and other spaces along the route become part of the event as visitors make their way south through the village. \nThe format creates something closer to a walking arts district for the day\, with the existing Borough businesses remaining part of the experience rather than sitting outside a separate festival enclosure. \nA Curated Show With Artists Selected for the Event\nThe artists aren’t simply vendors who reserve spaces. \nThe Art Walk uses a juried selection process\, with applications reviewed by a committee that includes artists and members of the Stonington Borough Merchants Association. Organizers consider the quality\, creativity and originality of applicants’ work. \nAbout 125 artists typically apply\, according to the event’s 2026 artist information\, with approximately 60 selected to participate. \nThat approach is intended to keep the emphasis on original fine art and craft while maintaining a mix of artistic styles and media. \nThe resulting show ranges from traditional painting and watercolor to photography\, textiles\, sculpture\, woodwork\, acrylics and other forms of handmade work. \nVisitors can meet the artists directly\, learn about their work and purchase original pieces throughout the day. \nFrom Water Street to Cannon Square\nStonington Borough provides an unusually compact setting for an event built around walking. \nThe artist trail begins near the upper end of Water Street and continues toward Cannon Square\, carrying visitors through much of the village’s commercial center. \nWater Street between High and Church streets has been approved for event use from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.\, along with portions of Wadawanuck Square. \nThat means a street normally shared with cars becomes pedestrian territory for much of the day. \nThe Art Walk has traditionally extended beyond the booths as well. Borough merchants\, cultural organizations and nonprofits have participated in past years with exhibits\, tours\, tastings\, pop-ups\, children’s activities\, scavenger hunts and performances. \nThe exact mix changes from year to year\, but the idea has remained consistent: the Art Walk is meant to involve the larger Borough rather than function solely as a line of artist booths. \nEight Years of Art in Stonington Borough\nThe 2026 event is being presented as the eighth annual Stonington Borough Art Walk. \nThe show is organized by the Stonington Borough Merchants Association and supported in collaboration with the Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce. \nOver its relatively short history\, the Art Walk has attracted artists and visitors from beyond southeastern Connecticut\, with organizers drawing exhibitors and audiences from elsewhere in New England and the Northeast. \nIts setting is a large part of the appeal. \nArt tents occupy a village of historic houses\, small shops\, galleries and restaurants surrounded on three sides by water. Visitors can follow the show down Water Street toward Cannon Square and the southern end of the Borough\, then retrace the route through a completely different collection of booths and businesses. \nBecause artists remain with their exhibits during public hours\, the event also provides an opportunity to talk directly with the people who created the work rather than simply browse finished pieces in a gallery. \nPorchfest Adds Live Music to the Afternoon\nThis year brings an important addition to September 12 in Stonington Borough. \nPorchfest\, presented by La Grua Center\, will place musicians at locations around the Borough from noon to 4 p.m. \nPerformers representing multiple musical genres will be stationed at several locations stretching from the Viaduct near the entrance to Stonington Borough toward Cannon Square. \nAlthough Porchfest and the Art Walk are taking place together and complement one another\, they are separate events. Visitors coming primarily for the Art Walk will encounter live music as they move around the Borough\, while those attending Porchfest can browse the artists between performances. \nThe CT Beacon is covering Porchfest separately with its own event guide and performance information. \nA Full Afternoon in the Borough\nWith Art Walk beginning at 10 a.m. and Porchfest joining it at noon\, September 12 is shaping up as an unusually busy Saturday in the Borough. \nVisitors can arrive in the morning to browse the artists before the music begins\, or come during the afternoon when both events are underway. \nThe Art Walk itself remains free to the public. \nOrganizers have also designated Sunday\, September 13 as the inclement-weather date should conditions prevent the outdoor event from taking place Saturday. \nFor six hours\, the usual trip down Water Street becomes something different: dozens of individual galleries assembled for a single day\, with the artists themselves waiting beneath the tents. \nEvent Details\nEvent: Stonington Borough Art Walk 2026\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nTime: 10 a.m.–4 p.m.\nLocation: Stonington Borough\, Connecticut\nArt Walk Route: Water Street through Cannon Square\nArtists: More than 60 participating artists and makers\nArt: Ceramics and pottery\, illustration\, jewelry\, mixed media\, painting\, photography\, printmaking\, sculpture\, textiles\, woodworking and more\nAdmission: Free\nAlso Happening: Porchfest\, noon–4 p.m.\, presented separately by La Grua Center\nRain Date: Sunday\, September 13\, 2026\nOrganizer: Stonington Borough Merchants Association \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nExcerpt\n  \nMeta Description\n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown. \nURLs: \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/stonington-borough-art-walk/
LOCATION:Stonington Borough\, Water Street\, Stonington\, 06355\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Stonington-Borough-Art-Walk-b.jpg
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SUMMARY:Stonington Porchfest
DESCRIPTION:Stonington Porchfest makes its debut Saturday\, September 12\, turning porches\, lawns\, courtyards and other outdoor spaces throughout Stonington Borough into a collection of intimate stages for an afternoon of live acoustic music. \nThe inaugural Porchfest runs from noon to 4 p.m. and is free and open to all ages. Rather than gathering everyone around a single stage\, the event invites visitors to walk through the Borough\, discover musicians along the way and move between performances at their own pace. \nPorchfest is being held in conjunction with the annual Stonington Borough Art Walk\, which begins two hours earlier at 10 a.m. and brings more than 60 artists to Water Street and surrounding courtyards. The two are separate events\, but together they create a full afternoon of visual art and live music stretching through the Borough. \nStonington Gets Its First Porchfest\nPorchfest takes a familiar neighborhood feature and gives it a different purpose for a day. \nInstead of building stages\, organizers place musicians on existing porches\, stoops\, lawns\, driveways and courtyards. Audiences walk from one location to another\, stopping for a song\, a set or an entire performance before continuing through the neighborhood. \nThe idea has spread widely since the first Porchfest was organized in Ithaca\, New York\, in 2007. Communities around the country have since created their own versions\, with each shaped by the streets\, musicians and neighborhoods hosting it. \nStonington’s version arrives particularly well suited to the Borough’s geography. \nIts narrow streets\, historic houses\, small yards\, gardens and courtyards are concentrated within a compact peninsula that can be explored on foot. Instead of separating performers from the community on a festival stage\, Porchfest puts the music directly into those surroundings. \nAn Afternoon Designed for Wandering\nThere is no single Porchfest concert to attend. \nThe idea is to wander. \nPerformers will appear at outdoor locations around Stonington Borough between noon and 4 p.m.\, creating multiple small listening areas rather than one large audience. \nThe music will emphasize acoustic performances\, allowing the individual settings to remain part of the experience. A front porch can become a stage. A lawn can become a listening room. A courtyard can hold an audience for a set before everyone moves down the street to find the next musician. \nThat also means visitors don’t have to commit to one performer or spend the entire afternoon in one place. \nThey can build their own route through the Borough\, stopping when something catches their ear. \nLocal Musicians Take Over the Neighborhood\nPorchfest is built around local bands and performers rather than a traditional festival headliner. Check out the Porchfest musician roster to find out who’s playing and when. \nThe participating musicians will play short sets at locations distributed throughout the Borough\, with a range of acoustic music planned for the afternoon. \nSalt Marsh Opera is among the local arts organizations participating in the new event\, while Mystic Paper Beasts has also announced plans to rove during the combined Art Walk and Porchfest day. \nA complete performance schedule and location map are expected from organizers\, allowing visitors to choose particular performers or create a route between stages. \nUntil then\, part of the event’s appeal remains built into the Porchfest concept itself: walk through the neighborhood and see what you find. \nFive Community Organizations Bring Porchfest to Stonington\nStonington Porchfest is not the project of a single organization. \nThe inaugural event is being presented through a collaboration among La Grua Center\, the Stonington Borough Merchants Association\, the Stonington Village Improvement Association\, Salt Marsh Opera and the Stonington Cultural District Commission. \nFunding is provided in part by the Kitchings Family Foundation. \nLa Grua Center serves as a natural anchor for the collaboration. The nonprofit arts and culture organization at 32 Water Street has spent years presenting concerts\, exhibitions\, lectures\, poetry and other cultural programs in the Borough. \nPorchfest takes that mission outside its walls. \nInstead of asking the community to come to a performance space\, the performances spread through the community. \nArt Walk Starts the Day at 10 a.m.\nVisitors arriving before Porchfest begins will find another event already underway. \nThe Stonington Borough Art Walk runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.\, bringing more than 60 artists and makers to Water Street and surrounding spaces. \nPainters\, photographers\, potters\, illustrators\, jewelers\, textile artists\, sculptors\, woodworkers and other artists will exhibit their work during the free event. \nAt noon\, Porchfest joins the activity. \nFor the remaining four hours\, someone walking through the Borough can move between artist tents and live performances without having to choose one event over the other. \nThe CT Beacon is covering the Stonington Borough Art Walk separately with its own event guide. \nWhat Makes a Porchfest Different\nA Porchfest isn’t quite a music festival and isn’t quite a neighborhood block party. \nThere are musicians and scheduled performances\, but the absence of a conventional main stage changes the relationship between performer and audience. \nA singer with an acoustic guitar may be only a few feet from listeners gathered on a lawn. A small group can perform from the steps of a house rather than beneath stage lights. People walking past can stop because they hear something they like\, even if they had never planned to see that particular musician. \nThat informality is central to the format. \nThere is no admission gate and no need to remain in one designated festival area. The Borough itself becomes the venue. \nFor Stonington’s first attempt\, that venue stretches through one of southeastern Connecticut’s most walkable waterfront villages. \nA New Tradition Begins in the Borough\nThe September 12 event is specifically being billed as Stonington’s inaugural Porchfest\, making 2026 the beginning rather than the continuation of an established annual tradition. \nWhether it becomes one will come later. \nFor its first year\, the concept is simple: put musicians outside\, give them porches and lawns instead of conventional stages\, and let people explore. \nWith Art Walk already filling the Borough from morning through late afternoon\, Porchfest adds a soundtrack to a Saturday that was already centered on local creativity. \nFrom noon until 4\, following the music may be as simple as walking down the street. \nEvent Details\nEvent: Stonington Porchfest 2026\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nTime: Noon–4 p.m.\nLocation: Porches\, lawns\, courtyards and outdoor spaces throughout Stonington Borough\nAdmission: Free\nAges: All ages\nMusic: Live acoustic performances by local musicians\nAlso Happening: Stonington Borough Art Walk\, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.\nPresented By: La Grua Center\, Stonington Borough Merchants Association\, Stonington Village Improvement Association\, Salt Marsh Opera and Stonington Cultural District Commission\nSupport: Funded in part by the Kitchings Family Foundation\nRain Date: Sunday\, September 13 \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \n\n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/stonington-porchfest/
LOCATION:Stonington Borough\, Water Street\, Stonington\, 06355\, United States
CATEGORIES:Stonington Borough
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