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12/26/2023 11:20 AMThe Clinton Arts Council (CAC) has launched a new website aimed at promoting the arts in Clinton as well as a new winter film series.
Anyone interested in Clinton’s artistic and cultural endeavors can now visit www.experienceclinton.com for new content and a continuously updated events calendar.
CAC President Steven Van Ness said that the site contains videos from different hosts in fields such as visual arts, culinary arts, performing arts, and spoken word art that will be updated monthly with new content.
The site was initially set to launch in the summer, but Van Ness said the CAC wanted to ensure that the site had content that would drive people to the site.
“We needed more, constantly changing content,” Van Ness said. Currently, the site has a calendar showing events into March and videos highlighting Chow Restaurant, poetry, and spoken word readings.
The website was partially funded with funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), though Van Ness said the project came in under budget. “This was made possible by the grant that the CAC wrote to the town when the COVID-19 ARPA funds became available. Clinton and a few other shoreline towns proposed giving 1% of the ARPA funds to the arts, which the town did. The initial cost to build the site working with an agency in New Haven came in under budget at a little under $4,000,” Van Ness said.
The idea for the site, and especially the calendar, came from a survey done by the CAC that showed residents and nonresidents had one common gripe: nobody has any idea what goes on in Clinton.
“When we were working on the ARPA grant, we did a survey to learn what was the number one thing Clinton residents were frustrated about regarding cultural events in Clinton; the number one answer was “no one knows what’s going on in town” there is no one place to find it” this was true of people from other shoreline towns when asked about Clinton,” Van Ness said.
To fix that, Van Ness said he hopes that people become regular visitors to the site and that event organizers will upload content to help keep people up to date.
“We need everyone in Clinton over the course of the next year to learn about the site, start using the site, go to the site to find out what is going on, self -upload or be in touch with us to add events we might miss, watch their fellow Clintonians on the videos, learn more about the culinary options in town,” Van Ness said.
First Event
The new Winter Music Film series is one event that Van Ness said the CAC is eager to show off. Over the course of the next three months, the CAC will be presenting three acclaimed films on music.
“Our goal is to present as wide a diversity of films and music genres as possible and create presentation opportunities for regional filmmakers to generate greater exposure and feedback for their work,” Van Ness said.
On Saturday, Jan. 6, at 7 p.m., the CAC will feature a screening of Sloane: A Jazz Singer, which tells the story of one of Carol Sloane, an unsung hero of 20th-century jazz. The event will feature a talk-back session with jazz aficionado and owner of the Side Door Jazz Club, Ken Kittchings.
On Saturday, Feb. 10, the series will feature a screening of Carlos: The Santana Journey, a film about the rock and roll superstar.
On March 16, the series will run three short films and a talk-back session with filmmaker and Connecticut native Kolton Harris.
Tickets can be purchased in advance by searching “Clinton Winter Films” on Eventbrite.com. The cost is $5 for students and $10 for everyone else. All three shows will be at the theater in the Andrews Memorial Town Hall in Clinton.
Van Ness said there were several reasons the CAC is excited about the new series.
“We wanted to create programming that was a series format that could be repeated each year and grow in size and cultural impact for the town year after year. We also want and need to increase the amount of programming in the town’s beautiful art deco theater in Town Hall, continuing to introduce more people to the venue," Van Ness said.
“Finally, the talk-back sessions after the films create an art in education programming element that is unique that engages the audiences,” Van Ness said.