HOLYOKE — The foundation of the arts scene in Holyoke has steadily grown recently in thanks to efforts from nonprofit Holyoke Art Inc., which is ready to celebrate its one-year anniversary on Friday, Aug. 23 from 6-10 p.m.
The intimate affair will be along the tracks behind the Print Shop on 62 Main St. in Holyoke and will feature live music, hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar, games and prizes. All proceeds will benefit the 501c3 nonprofit organization.
The free event is open to the public.
Print Shop Owner and member of Holyoke Art Jeff Bianchine told Reminder Publishing the group has been “extremely pleased” with its first year and have found themselves helping the community and arts scene in more ways than they initially envisioned.
Bianchine explained as a nonprofit in the city they have been able to work with the city and Mass Development on different projects. He explained for a project currently in the works to activate a vacant lot on High Street, Bianchine was able to offer the assistance of the nonprofit.
“My brain went off after hearing they were hiring somebody to do that. I got worried because I’ve seen this happen so many times where a single person would be hired on a project like that and it would take them just the whole summer to meet the people needed to get anything going,” Bianchine explained as a former employee in the city’s office of planning about him and his team. “We’ve got institutional knowledge about how to get things done in the city.”
The activation of the vacant lot is now making progress with Holyoke Art leading the charge, an example of some of the work they’ve been able to accomplish over the last year.
“That’s where I’ve been extremely pleased is that we found these other sort of win-win situations because it’s a little bit of funding for us. As a first-year nonprofit, we’re not eligible for a lot of grants and things like that so now that we’re coming around the bend, we’ll be able to start applying for more of the traditional and foundational money in the area, so for now, we’ve just been working our tail off to prove ourselves,” Bianchine said.
They hope the space can be used for different arts programming.
“It’s really about the recipe, having this in our portfolio and a little feather in our cap to say okay, what other lots do you want activated because we know how to do it,” Bianchine added.
Bianchine added connections in the city have also strengthened as the shop had recently just received a call from the Mayor’s office regarding last minute banners for an upcoming event. A local sow and stitch program has reached out for assistance and found support from the nonprofit. Being an established resource for the community in these and multiple other ways for the sake of the arts has become bigger than Bianchine could have ever imagined, and he hopes to continue the growth.
“It’s just been sort of me at the Print Shop chugging along for a long time and now to have other people directly on the team has really made the vision of what this is a lot bigger in my own head that I didn’t even realize,” Bianchine said.
He continued, “It takes years for this stuff to get into people’s heads that its here and part of my craziness has been there are points where we could have shut down, but it’s really important for me in Holyoke to show this consistency. These things can come and go but now at this point, Holyoke’s ready for continuity. Holyoke Art is the foundation that makes continuity real because before, there was nothing behind it. Now there’s sand in the sandbox so we can make sure that’s there and it’s not us necessarily driving our culture, it’s us just making sure there’s a support network.”
For the upcoming celebration, Bianchine said he hopes people come out and support Holyoke Art and that the event can help raise awareness of the group and its work. He added the event will be their first attempt of a signature fundraising event.
“It’s really about mingling and we want to talk to people about what the print shop and Holyoke Art has become,” Bianchine said.
