JOIN THE WEST SPRINGFIELD ARTS COUNCIL

The West Springfield Arts Council is one of 329 local cultural councils working in partnership with the Mass Cultural Council to award grants to qualified individuals and organizations for projects that benefit the community. Grants range from $100 to several thousand dollars.

Cultural programs include everything from field trips to lectures, festivals, puppet shows, art classes, and dance performances.

Annually, the West Springfield Arts Council seeks online proposals for community-oriented humanities and science programs. Council members consider each proposal that is submitted and determine the applicants that successfully meet the funding criteria established by the Mass Cultural Council.

The West Springfield Arts Council holds meetings in the Rotary Room of the West Springfield Public Library - usually the third Monday from 6:00 pm to 7:45 pm. - to review current projects and to plan new initiatives.  All meetings are open to the public.

Arts Council minutes, agendas, and links to news & updates, are posted online on the West Springfield website.

West Springfield Arts Council Membership Requirements are posted on the Mass Cultural Council website.

To apply for the West Springfield Arts Council, complete the West Springfield Request for Appointment for Volunteer Boards/Committees Google Form - https://forms.gle/3mddc5AYDT8kNUqh8

We welcome new members! 

Contact the West Springfield Arts Council via email at artscouncil@tows.org

The Survey Results Are HERE!

Survey Results ~ Now Posted on the West Springfield Arts Council City Website

Thank you to all who completed the West Springfield Arts Council Community Input Survey. 

The results of this survey will inform the FY23 MA Cultural Council Grant Cycle details for the West Springfield Arts Council.  

On September 1, an online link to apply for grant funds - will be posted on the MA Cultural Council/West Springfield Arts Council webpage.

Sunday, August 14 ~ Sevenars Concerts announces 20th Sparkman/Noble concert

 AUGUST 14th at 4PM

 Final Concert of Sevenars Music Festival’s 54th season

The Sparkman Trio, clarinet, piano, bass guitarJudith Lynn Stillman, piano

Photo: The Sparkman Trio, PC Jon Crispin| Photo Credit: Courtesy of the artists

Location: Sevenars Academy, just off Rte. 112 at Ireland Street   ("Acoustic gem, idyllic setting." - Berkshire Eagle)

Town: South Worthington, Massachusetts

Date: Sunday August 14, at 4PM 

Phone number: 413-238-5854 (please leave a message for return call) 

Website: www.sevenars.org 

Admission:  by donation at the door (suggested $20 - please include the word "suggested!)  - including refreshments

 Sevenars is delighted once again to present as its season finale one of its traditional favorites, the Bob Sparkman Trio, in what will mark the 20th annual performance of jazz duos/trios from these special musicians!! The duo of clarinetist Bob Sparkman and pianist Jerry Noble gave over a decade of memorable Sevenars performances starting in 2002, but with the addition of bass guitarist Kara Noble (also Jerry’s wife), it has increased its range as an outstanding trio, and (having skipped a pandemic year) this concert will mark their 20th!

 

The Sparkman-Noble collaborations are known to many in the area as uniquely glowing, brimming with the mutual love and admiration that has grown through years of making music together. Bob Sparkman is, in the words of pianist-composer Clifton J. ("Jerry") Noble, “a living representative of jazz history - he has learned, loved, and promoted this music for decades and has played with some of the finest practitioners of the art - it's in his soul and he lives and breathes it" Speaking for his wife bass guitarist Kara Noble and himself, he adds, "Kara and I feel honored to make music with such a profound, positive force for good in the music world, and there is no more comfortable, appropriate, and exciting place to do that than Sevenars concerts.”  Their usual favorites include treasures like Stardust, Sweet Georgia Brown, Honeysuckle Rose, Avalon, Pennies from Heaven, Rose Room, and Frenesi, as announced from the stage in their inimitable bantering style.

 

Clifton “Jerry” Noble is a sought-after composer of works performed internationally, as well as having been the incredibly versatile staff pianist for Smith college and music reviewer for the Springfield press. He has enjoyed more than twenty years of jazz collaborations with clarinet wizard Bob Sparkman, and together they have attracted devoted fans of their concerts and numerous coveted CD recordings.  

 

Bob Sparkman is a national treasure who honed his golden clarinet phrasing while playing with The Jazzmen, The Bourbon Street Six, the Gotham Jazz Band, Fats Waller’s trumpeter Herman Autry and other greats.

 

Bass guitarist Kara Noble, as Jerry’s wife and longtime musical partner, adds her special insight into his compositions, as well as her own inimitable touch in the group improvisations!

 

Admission is by donation (suggested $20) and refreshments are free. Because this trio invites celebration in the spirit of the great Jazz Age, some friends of Sevenars in flapper garb will be serving special "Mocktails" - don't miss the fun!

 

This 2022 project is supported in part by the Cultural Councils of Acushnet, Agawam, Billerica, Charlemont-Hawley, Chesterfield, Buckland, Everett, Gardner, Huntington, Lee, Middleborough, Middlefield, Montgomery, Revere, Russell, West Springfield, Wilbraham, and Worthington,  local agencies which are funded in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment of the Arts.

Sunday, August 7 at 4 pm ~ Judith Lynn Stillman and Friends

 AUGUST 7th at 4PM: Judith Lynn Stillman and Friends

Judith Lynn Stillman, piano

Rachel Braude, flute; Charles Dimmick, violin

Photo: Judith Lynn Stillman | Photo Credit: Courtesy of the artists

Location: Sevenars Academy, just off Rte. 112 at Ireland Street   ("Acoustic gem, idyllic setting." - Berkshire Eagle)

Town: South Worthington, Massachusetts

Date: Sunday August 7, at 4PM 

Phone number: 413-238-5854 (please leave a message for return call) 

Website: www.sevenars.org 

Admission:  by donation at the door (suggested $20 - please include the word "suggested!)  - including refreshments

Judith Lynn Stillman, internationally renowned pianist, composer, artistic director, and filmmaker, has been hailed by the press as “an artistic visionary” and as “a consummate artist," by Wynton Marsalis (with whom she recorded a Billboard Top Ten Sony album).  Winner of countless awards, she has performed worldwide including at Marlboro, Tanglewood, Aspen, Voice of Music (Israel), and Ravel Academy (France), while also teaching at prestigious conservatories from Prague to Beijing. She is currently the Artist in Residence and Professor of Music at Rhode Island College. She brings to Sevenars exciting trios and duos with sought-after musicians Rachel Braude (flutist), member of the Grammy-winning Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Charles Dimmick, violinist known for his "stellar performances” and "technical and artistic virtuosity” (Portland Press Herald). Rachel and Charles (who happen to be married and raising a budding musician) are in high demand as soloists and chamber musicians, as well as both performing with numerous orchestras, including the Portland Symphony and the Rhode Island Philharmonic where Charles is concertmaster. Together this piano-flute-violin ensemble brings a dynamic program including music of Cui, Ibert, and Beeftink, but with special emphasis on female composers including Bonis, Chaminade, Price, Bacewicz, Lili Boulanger, and Judith Lynn Stillman's own composition, "Poet As Immortal Bird" for spoken word and piano - don't miss them!

 

This 2022 project is supported in part by the Cultural Councils of Acushnet, Agawam, Billerica, Charlemont-Hawley, Chesterfield, Buckland, Everett, Gardner, Huntington, Lee, Middleborough, Middlefield, Montgomery, Revere, Russell, West Springfield, Wilbraham, and Worthington,  local agencies which are funded in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment of the Arts.