Do you want a specialty cocktail to enliven our upcoming Stand By Me virtual arts celebration? Look no further! West Concord Wine & Spirits is selling the ingredients for The Umbrellini, a specialty cocktail that celebrates The Umbrella! 

By Monica Chen

For Sue Appel, community engagement has played a large role in her life for many years. And when she found herself with some more free time, that volunteer spirit led her to The Umbrella. “When my children were young, I was involved in many different volunteering roles in my community,” says Sue. “When it was time for me to go to work full time, I stopped most of my volunteering. Now that I am retired from my professional work, I can get back to my volunteering work.”

Dozens of Online Arts Classes on Offer

#StayHome #StaySafe #StayCreative has been the mantra at The Umbrella Arts Center ever since the order to close non-essential businesses. Since then, we've been rigorously planning and building infrastructure to continue serving our mission: to enrich lives; inspire creativity, learning, and personal growth; and build a vibrant community through the arts.

On Tuesday April 23, 2020, while on Covid-19 shutdown, Umbrella Studio Artist Lonnie Harvey gave a special, detailed demo of water-based ink on rice paper print technique from her temporary studio on the Cape.

Due to COVID-19, ArtWeek 2020 has been reconceptualized as a virtual festival, #ArtWeekAtHome, running from Friday, May 1 - Sunday, May 10.

The Umbrella Arts Center encourages people staying at home to get keep creative and share what you're doing through social media with us by tagging #DiscoverYourArts and #ArtweekAtHome. We will also be hosting multiple online activities, where possible, consistent with what we had planned for ArtWeek. 

The Umbrella's Artcubator program awards studio space to visual artists for short-term projects throughout the year. Established and emerging artists alike benefit from the input of a creative community of more than 50 artists in the iteration and innovation of their ideas. Visiting artists can belong, experiment and establish leveraging Umbrella studio space, shared workshops and exhibition space.

In navigating the tumultuous waters of the COVID-19 crisis, The Umbrella Arts & Environment program has turned to online platforms to carry on the community’s annual Earth Day celebrations. One of  these traditions is the Earth Month Gallery Exhibition, which showcases works from artists near and far on selected themes relating to Earth Day. With The Umbrella currently closed to the public, this year’s exhibition, Freshwater and Our Watersheds, is a virtual gallery.

Since the start of the Covid-19 lockdown, Kathy Warren, Volunteer Coordinator for The Umbrella, has been working with a team of volunteers throughout the region to create artfully crafted masks to share with The Umbrella staff and wider community.

Over the course of the first week, the volunteers – including skilled quilters and fiber artists -- crafted approximately 70 masks, many in richly decorated fabrics.

In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Musketaquid Earth Day Festival & Parade, we're pleased to share the documentary, Musketaquid - a Tale of Art and Nature. 

Interviewed by MacKenzie Colton

Mary O’Connell first got involved with The Umbrella through taking acrylic painting classes with Joy Buell. She studied art in school and has been seeking to reconnect to her studies now that her kids are older. She continued her involvement by volunteering to usher for the productions at The Umbrella.  

Can you explain your volunteer work?