Village Art Room / Imagination Station: a Concord Treasure!

If you have not visited Village Art Room yet, now is the time! There is so much happening and the ways Margot Kimball and her volunteers are spreading joy and art to our community will inspire you and warm your heart.

Margot Kimball has been an active member of the West Concord art community for over 20 years making, displaying and selling art, teaching and organizing public art projects. Margot started the Village Art Room in the studio that she’s had for nearly 20 years with the excess art supplies and equipment that she amassed over my lifetime. “I believe that community is formed and ecology is improved when we share resources.”

The new resource space “Imagination Station” is open for business! Come by and get new and up-cycled art and craft supplies and inspiration. You’ll feel like  a kid at a candy shop  – dozens of bowls filled with colorful art supplies are waiting for you and just what you need to feel inspired!Take peak at the video of the new Imagination Station!

Looking for ideas of activities during April vacation week? Imagination Station is a great spot to stop & get ideas for fun art projects.April Vacation Week hours:Saturday, April 17th – Saturday April 24th: Open 1 to 5pm (closed Sunday)

Maker Space:

For $15 per person, you can work in the maker space during open hours. Just 4 people at a time. Masks required!! Purchase an art kit or supplies at Imagination Station and then go to the back of the room. More supplies and lots of equipment are available in the maker space.

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People can buy supplies, new and upcycled, and art kits AND they can go in the maker space in the back and sit down and make stuff. Up to 7 people all together in the room. AND, if we have enough volunteers, during decent weather, we plan to have a table in front.All purchases and your donations of supplies support our community art outreach program, ART for ALL.

Do you know about Art for All?

Art for All is the community outreach program of the Village Art Room. Their mission is to strengthen the community by building connections through creative projects for everyone, regardless of circumstances, based on the belief that we believe that the making, sharing and experiencing art improves the lives of individuals, and of our community.

The Art for All program is mostly volunteer run. The primary goal is to foster real, face-to-face community, and our fabulous team of volunteers, teachers and staff has helped us succeed. We welcome others to join us.

Learn more about Art for All in this video: Creating Community Connections

Here are a few of the other many things Village Art is doing:

Art Scramble

The West Concord District Cultural Committee commissioned Artists Create Change Together, ACCT, to make a 3 by 6 ft painting in celebration of West Concord and bluegrass music for Art Week, 2019. The painting was then reproduced as 288 3 x 3 images. Over 200 people, in and around West Concord, reproduced the squares onto 6 x 6 inch tiles, producing a 6 x 12 foot painting.The composite painting and the original painting was revealed on Saturday, May 4th, as a part of Art Week 2019, just before a bluegrass concert hosted by the Concord Conservatory of Music at the West Concord Union Church.The original painting of Art Scramble, of people and places in West Concord, can be seen in the display window of the West Concord 5 and Dime.Here is a quick video made by MMA on the topic of the Art Scramble 2 (in progress) murals.

Our Local Farms: a community created mosaic mural

The West Concord Cultural District has directed and promoted the Our Local Farms mural to develop a sense of history and identity, while also bringing beauty to the cultural district of West Concord. Six artists of the Village Art Room and of ACCT, (Artists Create Change Together) at the Umbrella Community Art Center made a paint and photo montage  that celebrates farms and farmers present and past in the vicinity of West Concord.

The montage is being made into a 6 1/2 by 11 1/2 foot mosaic outdoor mural comprised of 299 6 x 6 inch squares. Each square is painted by members of our local and extended community. The mural is being carried out by the Art for All program of the Village Art Room and largely completed. Sections of this mural will go up in the windows of local stores. A location for the final piece has not yet been decided.

Wonderful Wednesdays: Sadly, not available due to Covid 19. Adults and teens are welcome to join us at the Art Room on Wednesdays between 12:45 and 2:15. You may come as a volunteer, or to work on the current public art project, or to join the project of the day which is designed for the people from Minute Man Arc for Human Services who have a variety of cognitive disabilities. If you come to work on a project the fee is pay-as-you-can, $5 to $15 suggested.

Pandemic Memorial Heart

It is difficult to grasp how many people have passed from this world due to Covid-19, and most of them without the usual opportunities to be in the presence of loved ones during those last hours, days, and sometimes weeks. Making hearts to represent those lives, and contemplating the vastness of their numbers evokes a sense of awe. We hope this exercise and the art piece created will bring some solace as well to those left behind. Who knows, maybe the project brings solace as well to the many departed souls.