WATERVILLE — Red and orange umbrellas – 86 of them – are dangling from a tree in Castonguay Square to help celebrate the visual and performing arts in the city and usher in the opening next week of a poetry exhibit at Common Street Arts and the musical “Mary Poppins” at the Waterville Opera House.
Public works employees used a truck with a lift Wednesday to strap the small umbrellas to the branches as passers-by watched.
“I think it’s great,” said bicyclist Robert Madore, 54, of Waterville, as he stopped to snap photos for his 11-year-old daughter.
Castonguay Square is a center for the city’s arts and cultural hot spots downtown and connects the opera house and Common Street Arts with the historic downtown shopping district and Head of Falls at the Kennebec River, according to Nate Rudy, executive director of Waterville Creates!, which operates Common Street Arts.
He said Waterville Creates! is excited about the umbrella installation, which will be followed in May by a collaboration with Inland Hospital to paint and fly kites at the park at Head of Falls, to highlight the park as a recreation spot.
“Mary Poppins,” directed by Debra Susi, opens April 8 and runs through April 10; it also will run April 15-17. The poetry exhibition also opens April 8, at Common Street Arts, which currently is featuring artwork by local students in kindergarten through grade 12, according to Kika Nigals, program director for Waterville Creates! She also runs Common Street Arts.
The children’s exhibit will continue through Friday. Held as part of Youth Art Month, the exhibit drew 450 people to its opening this month, Nigals said.
“It was fantastic,” she said. “We had families come from as far away as Portland. It was a very proud moment for a lot of the kids.”
“Deadline,” the National Poetry Month exhibition at Common Street Arts, will feature a poetry installation by Mexican poet Juan Manuel Portillo, as well as workshops, presentations and poetry readings throughout April. The opening will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. April 8 and will include a reading of Portillo’s poem in two languages. The opening will coincide with a presentation of “Bla,” Portillo’s new book of poetry.
Amy Calder can be contacted at 861-9247 or at:
acalder@centralmaine.com
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