Meet Me at the Bench

The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development: Office of the Arts awarded the Milford Arts Council (the MAC) one of only 28 Project Grants for 2020. These grants encourage and support arts-based projects exhibiting artistic excellence aligned with the state arts initiative READI (Relevance, Equity, Access, Diversity, Inclusion).

The MAC’s project grant titled, “Meet Me at the Bench” called for creatives, artists, and craftsmen to  create and install five unique benches re-imagined as artistic and community experiences throughout downtown Milford. These benches are not simply painted or decorated, nor are they temporary figurine campaigns. Instead, The MAC reached beyond its pool of artists to equitably challenge, engage, and hire individuals or groups of: engineers, architects, woodworkers, metal-forgers, tile-layers, masons, craftsmen, artisans who exhibit artistic excellence, ingenuity and inspiration.  Grant Narrative

Bench Locations - See the Walking Map of Downtown showing the bench locations here.

The Five Bench Selections

“To see art outside, up-close, tangible and accessible to so many people is very powerful. To be granted the ability to produce such experiences is immeasurable and very important to our organization’s mission to grow and impact our community through our vision. We couldn’t be prouder or more excited to bring this project to fruition, leading us into our 50th year. The MAC has started planning exciting events to celebrate our anniversary and we will begin to roll them out next year, culminating with a Gala in September. The  bench project is just the beginning!”  - Paige Miglio, MAC Executive Director

A committee of local artists, city representatives, downtown businesses, and service organizations reviewed submissions and matched them to suggested bench sites. Members include

State Senator James Maroney
Milford Alderman Bryan Anderson
Christine Angeli, Director Milford Public Library
Jennifer Paradis, Director BethEl Center
Tracy Bonosconi, owner of LOVET Shop and DMBA Chair
Carol Kuryla, Metro Star Marketing Director