Natick Teen Center looking for student artists
The Natick Teen Center is a drop-in program open to middle and high school students living in Natick or attending Natick schools. As Teen Center members, students can take charge of their afternoons in the gym, game room, and outside on the fields, where they can hang out with friends, do homework, play games, and more.
Traffic experiment in Natick could get artsy
Natick Center Cultural District and the Public Art Committee seek proposals for Traffic Calming Public Art projects at the intersection of Rt. 27 and Rt. 135 for $500–$1,200 stipends. The application deadline is Jan. 15, 2021, and projects may include street paintings and murals that are bold and bright in design while still being respectful of the place.
Natick installed traffic calming posts earlier this month.Any artist—amateur, professional, or art and educational institutions—willing to meet the requirements of the call for artists can apply to paint a traffic calming section. Participants from art educational institutions may consist of students, faculty, and alumni.
Proposals should be positive, original and colorful and may reflect the immediate environment; the character or culture of the Town of Natick; the history of the area; community pride; creativity; or other themes.
A jury will make selection recommendations, and final approval will be made by the Public Art Committee and Natick’s Select Board.
Why Natick is excited about traffic calming
Natick has installed flexible white poles around the Rte. 27/Rte. 135 intersection in Natick Center as part of an experiment in traffic calming supported by a $25K state Shared Streets & Spaces grant that also enabled Natick to put in place temporary outdoor dining lanes in town.
Traffic calming is an urban design strategy that aims to slow down or reduce car traffic to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists. It is founded on the idea that streets are a key element of the public realm and should be designed to create a sense of place for people to work alongside cars, but not be dominated by them.
Film screening: Neither Wolf Nor Dog—sponsored by Bacon Library & Natick Historical Society
There will be a free virtual screening of the path-breaking film Neither Wolf Nor Dog between Sunday, November 15, and Sunday, November 22.
On Sunday, November 22, at 2pm, the Bacon Free Library and the Natick Historical Society will co-sponsor a free virtual conversation with the filmmaker, Steven Lewis Simpson.
Sign up for links to watch the film and join the conversation HERE.
In the 2016 film adaptation of the best-selling Native American novel by Kent Nerburn, a white author gets sucked into the heart of contemporary Native American life in the sparse lands of the Dakotas by a 95-year-old Lakota elder and his sidekick. Once known as the great unmade Native American novel in Hollywood, Neither Wolf Nor Dog has sold around half a million copies worldwide. The novel is acknowledged to successfully bridge the gap between white America and the Native American worlds.
The film runs for 1 hour and 50 minutes, and is generously sponsored by the Bacon Free Library and the Natick Historical Society.
EVENT: Film screening, Neither Wolf Nor Dog
DATE: November 15 – November 22
SIGN UP LINK
EVENT: Virtual conversation with the filmmaker, Steven Lewis Simpson
DATE: Nov. 22, 2020
TIME: 2pm
SIGN UP LINK
Natick’s latest Adams Street art project being dedicated on Nov. 7
Natick resident, business-owner and artist Ginger McEachern’s UnconVENTional Garden, which has transformed an unsightly vent on Adams Street into a work of art, will formally be dedicated at 1pm on Saturday, Nov. 7.
The garden joins other colorful displays, including the butterfly installation, in this alley.
This project was selected as a finalist for the Natick Center Creative Placemaking Call for Creatives 2019 – For The Love of Natick.
McEachern is the owner of Five Crows Gallery and Hand Crafted Gifts in Natick Center. She is also a member of the Natick Center Associates’ Board of Directors as well as Natick Center Cultural District’s Public Art Committee and Creative Placemaking Advisory Group.