Six CreativeGround Profiles We Love: December 2023
Six CreativeGround Profiles We Love...
Ending the Year with This Season's Spotlight Six
Posted 12/18/2023
At CreativeGround, we look for any reason to spotlight the folks behind each profile! What better way to end 2023 than to celebrate a few more people and places and their contributions to New England's diverse creative economy.
See how these profiles use CreativeGround to support their creative work. But don’t stop there. Take a deep dive into their respective profiles and learn about these wonderful representatives of our creative economy network.
Ball & Socket Arts
Based in Cheshire, CT
Ball & Socket Arts is designed to be a local and regional gathering place fostering discovery, engagement and creativity through a broad range of creative arts programming. Located in Cheshire, CT on the campus of a former button factory, Ball & Socket Arts opened the Workshop Gallery in Building 3 in October 2023 with Rites of Passage.
Bondeko
Based in Portland, ME
Bondeko is the unlikely collaboration of neighbors in Portland, Maine’s migrant community: an Albanian crooner, a Guinian drummer, a French singer-songwriter and a Latin musician from Texas. The result is a mix of hypnotic Roma melodies, festive Cumbia rhythms, Malenke anthems, relentless Balkan tempos, peppered with heart-warming waltzes and maybe even a lullaby in Portunhol if the vibe is right.
Joel LaRue Smith
Based in Milton, MA
Joel LaRue Smith is a pianist and composer who has toured extensively, performing jazz, classical, gospel and Afro- Caribbean repertoire, throughout the U.S., Europe, Africa, Asia, Central America, and the Caribbean. As the recipient of the 2019, Boston Foundation, Live Arts Boston grant, six Meet the Composer grants, as well as the George and Ira Gershwin Award from ASCAP, Joel was the 2022 Inaugural MacJannet Artist- in Residence for the Tufts European Center in Talloires, France.
Creative Guts
Based in Epping, NH
Creative Guts is a nonprofit with a mission of awakening creativity within people of all ages by curating an environment for connection, collaboration, and the opportunity for gutsy creatives to share their stories with the world. Founded by Laura Harper Lake and Sarah Wrightsman in 2019, the interview-style podcast, which is still Creative Guts’ signature program, dives into the hearts of creatives of all kinds, and examines how creativity connects us with the world around us.
Rhode Island Latino Arts
Based in Central Falls, RI
Rhode Island Latino Arts (RILA) is dedicated to promoting, encouraging and preserving the arts, history, heritage and cultures of the Latino communities of Rhode Island. RILA manages La Galería del Pueblo, the state's only Latino gallery and cultural hub. La Galería is an arts cooperative that provides a space for connections and artists exchange during Rhode Island Latino Artists Network (RILAN) regular gatherings, events and activities.
Marlboro Studio School
Based in Marlboro, VT
The Marlboro Studio School is an all-levels arts program offering hands-on instruction in a variety of craft and fine art media, with a focus on ecologically sound, environmentally-friendly techniques and processes. With week long residencies, weekly classes, demonstrations, lecture series and onsite gallery, it is located on the former Marlboro College Campus now known as Potash Hill in beautiful rural Vermont with state of the art facilities and nationally recognized instructors.
Did you know that finding profiles by cultural districts, designated creative zones and more has never been easier? Check out our new site feature: Search by Designated Arts Communities.
Looking to share the spotlight with your fellow creatives? Nominate a profile you love to get the spotlight treatment.