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05/12/2021 09:17 AMThe Clinton Arts Council (CAC) has announced a new monthly show titled Live from Jules + Thom, which will next air on Sunday, May 16 at 7 p.m. The show will highlight the arts and culture found in Clinton and along the shoreline.
The new show will be livestreamed each month from the Jules + Thom coffee shop and art studio, which opened in Clinton in 2019 at 153 Glenwood Road in Clinton. Each broadcast will last one hour and according to press release from the CAC will highlight a “Clinton restaurant, moments in history, a Connecticut coffee roaster, storytelling, a custom Jules + Thom coffee drink, a Sculpture Mile artist, other visual arts, and most importantly, a local charity.”
The May 16 show will feature local musician Miguel Torres and poet Jody Scott Kaplan. The Clinton-based charity Families Helping Families will also be profiled this week. To tune into the show, visit the Families CAC Facebook page at Facebook.com/TheClintonArtsCouncil. The livestream will begin at 7 p.m.
Live from Jules + Thom premiered last month on April 11 and CAC President Steve Van Ness said the response was overwhelmingly positive.
“The response was really good. It’s a good way to promote the arts and culture of Clinton especially to others on the shoreline. I think it can really help the town,” said Van Ness.
The arts council is a nonprofit group formed two years ago with a goal of promoting all the different mediums of art that can be found in Clinton from music to sculptures to poetry. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic live events with big audiences had to be scrapped, which left a hole the CAC was eager to fill.
Van Ness said that one day he was in Jules + Thom getting his coffee when the idea struck him to do a livestreamed show from the shop.
“Besides being a great coffee shop, it’s also a great little arts studio and the arts council has even had meetings there sometimes,” Van Ness said.
Additionally, Van Ness said the Glenwood area surrounding the shop is home to a lot of local artists, which adds to the ambiance.
By doing the shows virtually, Van Ness said it’s a way to connect with people using the vibe of live shows, but with the COVID precautions of keeping people at home. Van Ness said the CAC decided that Sundays at 7 p.m. is a time when most people are likely at home relaxing, and thus more likely to tune in to a show.
As regulations lift and life returns to normal, Van Ness said he thinks the show will be able to have an in-person audience, too.
“We’ll eventually hopefully do a hybrid event like Saturday Night Live where we have a small audience there in person in addition to the livestream broadcast,” Van Ness said.
Asked for the goal of the event, Van Ness told the Harbor News, “My goal is to grow it to hundreds of people watching at once.” The first broadcast had about 40 people tuned in by Van Ness pointed out that was with very little promotion done as the CAC wanted to make sure all the kinks were worked out.
Van Ness also said that he hopes to draw in viewers outside of Clinton who may be curious what Clinton and the surrounding towns have to offer.
“Hopefully we can showcase all of Clinton’s arts and culture,” said Van Ness.