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By Keith E. Jacobson
As part of the New Year’s Needham celebration, Sam Sannie sculpts
ice on the Town Common as Carolyn Fanning and her childr...
 Happy New Year's, Needham
By Steven Ryan
Mon Dec 31, 2007, 10:41 PM EST
Needham - Needham ushered in 2008 in style, with its first-ever New Year’s
Eve celebration packing halls throughout town and leaving folks with smiles on their faces.
The celebration, dubbed New Year’s Needham, apparently drew more people than expected. Admission buttons, which were
for all events and went for $5 apiece, sold out at one point at the First Church of Christ, Scientist, one of several venues.
“We are signing brochures instead of selling buttons,” said Debbie Winnick of the Needham Cultural Council,
who manned the door at the First Church of Christ. “The energy around town is really exciting.”
Louise Miller and Jean Connolly, co-chairwomen of the Needham Cultural Council, have spent a year organizing New Year’s
Needham. Folks who came out to enjoy the festivities said their hard work paid off.
“We’re so excited to be celebrating New Year’s with [our daughter],” said Jen Dowd, of Millis,
referring to her young daughter, Lilly. “The fact is with a 2 1/2-year-old, you can’t go into town [Boston] and
do late-night stuff. I like the fact we can do something local.”
Dowd, who grew up in Needham, stood in the gazebo at Memorial Park with her daughter and her husband, Sam, as performers
in the distance played with fire. The Dowds didn’t venture close to the performance since the crowd was already three-people
deep. Fathers hoisted their children on their shoulders to watch the demonstrations, as trained professionals twirled or threw
into the air staffs or swords ignited with fire, temporarily leaving a spectacular trail of light in their midst.
“Please don’t try this at home,” one of the performers announced before the show.
If there were any worries, a fire truck was stationed nearby.
Usually quiet in the dead of winter, downtown Needham came to life, with children playing in the Town Common. The kids
were waving mini “Star Wars” light-sabers and glow-in-the-dark rings and running around the Circle of Peace statue.
In the center of the Common, ice sculptures depicting birds and one resembling a tower stood stoically in the midst of all
the commotion. Carved at the top of the tower was the year 2008.
Before the fire performance, a group of parents and children marched to Memorial Park from the Town Common in a “Grand
Masquerade Procession.” Some got into the spirit of the masquerade, wearing a variety of masks, including a thrifty
individual who simply cut eyeholes into a paper plate.
But the New Year’s Eve festivities extended well beyond the procession and the fire performance. Throughout the afternoon,
folks attended events all over town, including Irish step dancing by the O’Shea-Chaplin Academy of Irish Dance, a performance
by the Charles River Ballet Academy, square dancing demonstrations by the Great Plain Squares and a variety of concerts.
The duo Kirsten & Dave performed folk, bluegrass and pop music at the First Church of Christ, doing both original tunes
and cover songs, with several children dancing in the aisles as they played “Brown-Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison.
“It was a good crowd,” said Kirsten Manville, half of the duo. “A lot of people were singing along.”
Richard and Sally Malast, of Dawson Drive, along with their 12- and 14-year-olds, already took in the Kirk Family Band
and Kirsten & Dave by the time they were hanging out at the Memorial Park gazebo during the fire performance. They hope
to make New Year’s Needham a family tradition, as long as their children are onboard.
“I think it’s a great concept,” Sally Malast said. “We used go to Boston when the kids were little
for the indoor events [during the day], but they have outgrown that as a draw.”
The Malasts were planning to see pop musician Juliet Lloyd, a Needham schools employee, later in the evening and folk singer
Thea Hopkins afterward. They said their kids planned to hang out at the Plugged In concert, which featured teen bands from
the town’s Plugged In program.
“They’ll go on their own; I don’t think we’re invited,” Sally Malast joked.
Steven Ryan can be reached at sryan@cnc.com.
ARTS
Needham to fire up a new year
By Denise Taylor | December 6, 2007
When Jean Cronin Connolly pipes up about New Year's Needham, she says,
the reaction is always the same: "Eyes light up."
"The feedback has been amazing," said Connolly, who has spearheaded the yearlong volunteer-run effort to establish what
will be Needham's own First Night-style celebration. "I tell people about all the events we have planned, and they always
smile and say, 'You mean I don't have to go to Boston this year?' "
With New Year's Needham boasting 10 hours of live performances - such as dance, storytelling, music, and magic, as well
as three art exhibitions, a massive ice sculpture, mask making, square dancing, ballroom dancing, and a parade - Connolly
is safe in answering that question with a resounding yes.
"There's nothing like this anywhere else in this area," said Connolly. "So we're expecting we won't just get a big turnout
among Needham residents, but families from nearby towns are likely to choose to come here as well."
The festivities, to run from noon to 10 p.m. Dec. 31, will take place in downtown Needham within walking distance of one
another, and a free trolley provided by Wingate Healthcare will run during peak hours.
Similar to First Night Boston's system, participants must purchase a $5 button to gain admission to indoor events. A number
of Needham restaurants have further sweetened the deal by offering 10 percent dining discounts to button-holders throughout
the month.
"It's amazing how many people wanted to help out with this once we got the word out," Connolly said. "We had performers
coming to us, volunteering to participate. We had venues offering up their space. A really great designer in town, David
Linde, donated his time to create the banners, flags, and buttons. The DPW is going to hang lights and plow. The
Police and Fire departments will be present as needed. All the selectmen have helped in some way. This has really been something
people have been sinking their teeth into."
The spark started with Connolly and the 14-member Needham Cultural Council, which she cochairs with Louise Miller.
Three years ago, the then-six-member council decided to move beyond its original mandate, which was to administer local arts
grants funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
"We all decided to make it a priority to be proactive in the community," Connolly said. "We conducted a survey and found
that residents wanted communitywide cultural events. They wanted to know more about arts already available in Needham, and
they wanted to bring in new performers to Needham as well."
So Connolly and crew set out to do just that. First, they recruited eight additional members for the Cultural Council.
Then they formed NeedArts, an umbrella group for Needham-based cultural organizations. In turn, NeedArts created a website,
NeedArts.org, with an events calendar and hosted its first production, a winter concert last year. Then, in June, they put on the first
Spring Arts Festival, with plans to make it an annual event. And now, after a full year of planning, they're rolling out New
Year's Needham.
"We're really hoping to start a tradition here," said Connolly, 53. "This is the first time we're doing it, but everyone
is so excited that I'm sure it will be an annual event."
Unlike some dreams that start big but become shrinking realities, New Year's Needham started out modestly but has steadily
grown to include more than 30 performances in more than 10 locations.
Among those performing in the daytime are storyteller Johanna Sweet, the O'Shea-Chaplin
Irish Dancers, children's musician Nan Donald, classical duo the Jacobs Brothers, and acoustic
duo Kirsten and Dave.
"Then, from 5 to 7 p.m.," Connolly said, "everyone can come to the Common, where they can eat roasted chestnuts and drink
hot cocoa, look at the ice sculpture, and get ready for the Grand Masquerade Procession, which we hope everyone will participate
in.
"The parade will culminate in the fire performance by Dragon Trybe and the Olin Fire Club, which should be really spectacular."
Evening events include performances by cellist Robert Rivera, singer and songwriter Thea Hopkins,
alternative pop artist Juliet Lloyd, Longwood Opera, local teenage bands, and the Needham Community Theatre,
as well as a "Wizard of Oz" screening and pajama party.
"We always envisioned it taking place in several venues, but we had no idea we'd have so many," Connolly said. "We always
envisioned several different performances throughout the day and evening, but, again, we had no idea we would produce something
so elaborate and comprehensive. It just really grew into something that was, 'Wow, this is going to be huge. This is going
to be worthy of note.' "
Key to the organizing was meticulous planning and the divvying up of tasks among the council members, Norman Abbott,
Noreen Burdett, Sally Dempsey, Suzanne Heffernan, Caryl
Johnson, Alice Kelleher, Kathleen Leahy, Claire Messing,
Anne Munstedt, Kathleen Rowe, Suzanne Saevitz, and Debbie Winnick,
as well as Miller and Connolly.
For 12 months, they have systematically tackled the enormous number of tasks required to stage such a large event. They
acquired approvals and permits, studied safety requirements, recruited performers, dealt with insurance, conducted publicity,
printed brochures and maps, raised funds (they started with only a $500 Cultural Council grant), hired vendors, and conducted
community outreach.
But that was just the start. "None of us are event organizers, so it was eye-opening to see the scope of what we had to
do," Connolly said. "There are so many little details, from finding a venue with wood floors for the dancers to finding a
perfectly tuned grand piano for the classical musicians, and you have to get it all to work on that one day."
The time commitment for all, and especially for Connolly, has been significant. "My husband would say I work on this 24/7,"
said Connolly, a retired teacher and a grandmother of six. "But really it's more like 20 hours a week, or, actually, I guess
lately it's been 40. But it's worth it to me. It takes a lot of work to get something like this started. But once it gets
going, it gets easier each year. And often, once it happens, it's there forever."
New Year's Needham is still seeking volunteers to help during the festivities, and an online auction to benefit the organization
runs through Dec. 31. For more information and a festival schedule, visit NeedArts.org.
westarts@globe.com.  |
New Year's options |
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Venues
Needham
Free Public Library
Needham
Town Hall
Stephen
Palmer Senior Center
YMCA
Charles River Branch
Church
of St Joseph
Congregational
Church
Christ
Episcopal Church
First
Baptist Church
First
Church Christ, Scientist
Performances and Events
Christopher
Bolter - Magician
BYSO
Chamber Ensembles
Charles
River Ballet
Ger
Cooney -Set Dancing
Dance
Fever- Ballroom
Dave
& Kirsten-Folk
Nan
Donald - BagPipes
Fire
Performances – Artist
Great
Plain Squares- Dancing
Harney
Irish Dancers
Thea
Hopkins-Folk
Ice
Sculptor – Artist Event
Kirk
Family Band
Longwood
Opera Company
Juliet
Lloyd-Jazz
Melodius
Funk-Jazz
Needham
Art Association Exhibit
Neeedham
Community Theatre
Needham
Open Studios Exhibit
Needham
Public Schools Ensemble
West
Newton Ceili Band
Needham
Concert Society
Plugged
In Teen Bands
October
Rose- Fiddle
O'
Shea Chaplin Irish Dancers
Quinobequin
Quilters Guild Exhibit
Robert
Rivera- cello
Senior
Songsters
Johanna
Sweet- Storyteller
Christopher
Worth – Family Sing a Long
Christopher
Worth Senior Sing a Long
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A new take on New Year's Eve in Needham
Wed Sep 19, 2007, 12:05 PM EDT
Needham - Fire and ice. Music and magic. This will be a New Years Eve like Needham has never seen before.
At least that’s the hope of Louise Miller and Jean Connolly, co-chairwomen
of the Needham Cultural Council. The woman have spent the last year planning a New Year’s Eve extravaganza spectacular
enough to lure revelers from neighboring towns and even Boston.
“We’ve got dance, we’ve got music, we’ve got storytellers,
we’ve got a little bit of everything,” said Miller.
New Years Needham will also have fire, and lots of it. Three fire-performance
troupes, including a group of Olin College students, are scheduled to perform in Memorial Park, while an ice sculptor will
go to work on the Town Common.
A draft schedule for the event shows more than 30 activities and performers
in nine venues, beginning at noon and run until 10 p.m. Around 5 p.m., a “grand procession” of school and community
groups will march from Town Hall to Memorial Park, where the fire troupes will perform.
Nearly a third of the artists will hail from Needham, including the Kirk Family
Band, Juliet Lloyd and Longwood Opera. There will be a magician and bagpipes in the library, opera and a cappella at Christ
Episcopal, and jazz, Irish and folk music at the First Church of Christ.
“We won’t have fireworks,” said Miller. “People keep
asking me that, but we don’t have that kind of money.”
The Cultural Council is primarily responsible for allocating state grants —
a total of $4,370 in 2007 — to local artists and art organizations that provide a public benefit. But the council has
expanded its scope over the last couple of years, collaborating with other cultural groups under the name NeedArts, to host
popular seasonal events — such as the Spring Arts Festival and the Holiday Gala Concert — using private donations.
“This is really in the last two years that the Cultural Council committee
has really come together,” Miller said.
The council surveyed community members over the three years to gauge interest
in an annual festival. The response was clear: Needham wanted a New Year’s celebration.
“So — never shying from a big party — we talked to NeedArts
and they expressed interest in a First-Night type event,” Miller said.
NeedArts modeled the event after First Night, a public arts festival held on
New Year’s Eve in 131 cities and towns around the world, including seven communities in Massachusetts. Like First Night,
New Years Needham will sell $5 admission buttons that will allow attendees into any event.
“It’s a mini First Night,” explained Connolly. “We
just can’t use the word First Night because you have to pay a lot of money(for the rights to use that title).”
More information about New Years Needham, the Needham Cultural Council and NeedArts can be found at www.needarts.org.
Neal Simpson can be reached at nsimpson@cnc.com.
_____________________________________________________________________
ARTS
The Boston Globe
May 31, 2007
In Needham, a cultural connection
By Denise Taylor
They could have left things as they were. For nearly 30 years, the members of the Needham Cultural
Council simply carried out the panel's important -- but limited -- task of doling out state-funded arts grants each year.
But Saturday, the newly energized group takes over Memorial Park with its first annual Spring Arts Festival. And that's just
a taste of things to come.
An online arts calendar for the town is already up and running. Annual New Year's and spring festivals
are in the works. And after that, the council goes for the brass ring: It hopes to open a downtown cultural center replete
with performance space, arts classes for all ages, and a full calendar of events.
The six-member council gained momentum after surveying the town in 2004. Council members wanted
to know how residents felt about arts programming in Needham.
"The response was overwhelming," said council chairwoman Jean Cronin Connolly. "Nearly everyone
knew of some programs and events, but most had no idea how much is really offered here in Needham or how high the quality
is. So they were more apt to go to nearby towns and to Boston than to events right in their own community."
The council was determined to change that. To start, it put out a call to town arts groups to unite
under a new umbrella organization, NeedArts, that would work to promote them all.
The local arts community rallied in response. From the Plugged In Teen Band Program and the Homegrown
Coffeehouse to Longwood Opera and Needham Community Theatre, 20 organizations including the town and town schools signed on.
Now, NeedArts meets regularly to plan joint events like this weekend's festival, which features
a full day of music, arts and crafts exhibitions by members including Quinobequin Quilters and Needham Open Studios, pottery
and painting demonstrations, and craft activities for kids. Expect to hear a booming "Figaro, Figaro, Figaro" as well, with
the Longwood Opera offering selections from "The Barber of Seville," which the troupe is performing three times this weekend.
Meanwhile, the group's online arts calendar, at needarts.org, seems to be generating more interest. Drawing just 200 distinct visitors per month when it launched
in April 2005, the website is now up to 1,200 visitors per month, and David Neves, director of fine and performing arts for
the Needham schools, has witnessed the impact.
"I've noticed an increase in hits to our own school fine - arts website, which is linked to NeedArts.
And more people who are not connected to the school are coming to our events," said Neves.
Other benefits for students are the greater opportunities that come through collaboration. The
Elementary Honors Chorus and Honors Band will both give their first outdoor community concerts at Saturday's festival. But
Neves points out that making sure the kids are keyed into a thriving arts community is another draw.
"We fail as arts educators if once the kids get out of school, they no longer take part. We need
to let them know now what's out there for adults. They need to know that art doesn't stop after school," Neves said.
Connolly has put in countless volunteer hours while spearheading NeedArts. She has plenty of experience
to draw on. A former art teacher, she also published the former magazine ArtsAround Boston and served as director of ArtsFirst,
a nonprofit organization, until retiring in 2005.
"When I looked at Needham, I saw this wonderful town and fabulous community where the arts community
hadn't yet jelled," said Connolly. "Then, with the change in the leadership of the council, we decided we could do more. It's
just a different way of looking at the role" of the local cultural council.
Exploratory talks are underway for the town arts center, which 85 percent of the council's survey
respondents supported.
"I've seen centers get founded in other communities, and it could really happen here," said Connolly.
"Together, we're creating an energy in Needham that wasn't here before."
NeedArts Spring Arts Festival will be held Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Memorial Park, on
Highland Avenue, Needham. Free. Call 781-444-0646 for rain date. Information at NeedArts.org. The Longwood Opera will perform "The Barber of Seville" tomorrow at 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday
at 2:30 p.m. at Christ Episcopal Church, 1132 Highland Ave., Needham. Tickets: $20; seniors $15; $12 students; 10 and under,
$10. Call 781-455-0960 or visit longwoodopera.org.
Needham Times June 6, 2007
Photo by Sarah Gatzke
Colins Bosah, 9, decorates
a mask at the
Needham Arts Festival
on Saturday as his mother,
Denise, helps out.
Masks were decorated to be work
during Needham's July 4th parade to promote efforts
to organize a "First
Night" style New Years' Eve
event in Needham for 2008.
By Seth Gorenstein
GateHouse News Service
Wed Jun 06, 2007, 03:49 PM EDT
The common sights of Little League games and Needham High School football drills on Memorial Field were exchanged for homegrown
arts last Saturday, June 2, as the field became temporary home to the Needham arts community.
NeedArts, a conglomeration of Needham art and cultural organizations, held its first Spring Arts Festival at the Memorial
Field gazebo. The festival featured art and live music by students and residents, and served as a way to highlight the output
of the Needham arts community.
“This is a pure community event,” said Needham Cultural Council Chairwoman Jean Cronin Connolly. “We
hope people learn more about what’s available in town, and the quality of the arts and visual performing arts.”
The grey, overcast sky and threat of rain didn’t dampen the colorful atmosphere of the festival. Parents, children
and art aficionados walked the square of tents that displayed works of different media, including handmade pottery, watercolor
paintings and collages.
Children dutifully decorated masks with markers and glitter at an arts and crafts station put on by NeedArts. The masks
are to be featured in a float planned for the Fourth of July parade, which will advertise NeedArts’ New Year’s
celebration.
Jacalyn and Ronald Shepherd, founders of the African Baobab project, a nonprofit organization that assists rural villages
in Uganda, displayed photographs of villagers with whom they lived and visited. Jacalyn Shepherd decided to photograph Ugandans
she met because “the people are so photogenic. It’s so beautiful there, like a different planet,” she said.
She hopes the photos will raise awareness of poverty and AIDS in Africa.
The Shepherds’ work drew the admiration of spectators.
“This should be in a museum,” one man said to Jacalyn Shepherd.
Representatives from Needham Open Studios, the Needham Community Theatre and Plugged-In Teen Band Program sat ready to
talk about their organizations to attendees.
Needham-based music groups, including the Needham Elementary Honors Chorus, the Longwood Opera and the Needham High School
Brass Ensemble, among many others, performed on the gazebo throughout the day.
Hayden Spitz and Jacob Nikolajczyk, members of the Needham Elementary Honors Chorus, were proud
of their performance and enjoyed the day’s activities.
“The show went very well,” Spitz said. “It’s fun performing outside.”
Nikolacyzk concurred.
“My favorite part of the day was singing,” Nikolacyzk said. He was also impressed
by an art form he never saw before. “I saw someone painting fish that I liked. I liked how the strokes were thick or
thin.”
Nikolacyzk was referring to the Chinese ink brush painting of Nan Rumf. She held one of many
art demonstrations throughout the day. Her artwork depicting coy and goldfish adorned her demonstration table.
Joan Onofrey, a substitute teacher in the Needham Public Schools, stood in front of her collage depicting Red Sox centerfielder
Coco Crisp and oversaw children — some of them her students — creating their own masterpieces.
Sue Owen, who attended the festival with her daughters, Kiley and Julia, was impressed by the variety of art on display.
“I think [the festival] is fabulous,” she said. “It’s wonderful to gather diverse forms of art.”
Needham Public Schools’ Fine and Performing Arts Director David Neves, wearing an “I Heart Arts” shirt
in the likeness of the famed New York shirts, thought the festival underscored the importance of bringing the Needham arts
community to the forefront.
“Needham is an incredibly rich arts community,” Neves said. “But with everyone so busy, they don’t
know [about the community]. No matter how much you tell about it to them, you need to see, touch and hear things. Today they
can see Plugged-In or the Longwood Opera singers.”
According to Needham Cultural Council member Louise Miller, the idea for the Spring Arts Festival rose from the Needham
Cultural Council attempting to find a way to better showcase cultural organizations.
“We got the idea [for the festival] from the Needham Business Association Street Fair,”
Miller said, referring to the annual event, held the same day, in which local small businesses and nonprofit organizations
take to the streets of downtown Needham to engage the public.
With the Needham Art Association already a feature of the street fair in the past, Miller said
it was a logical conclusion to augment the fair with a separate arts festival highlighting numerous Needham art and cultural
organizations.
“It’s an opportunity to get together and enjoy the culture we have in Needham,”
Miller said.
Seth Gorenstein can be reached at needham@cnc.com.
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