Out and About

By Ruth Melville

Five Points Gallery, located in a historic building at the corner of Water and Main Streets in Torrington, has been in existence for less than three years, but it has already played a significant role in the revitalization of the city’s downtown. With its high ceilings and big windows, the gallery is a highly visible, attractive showcase for contemporary art, as well as an anchor in the midst of a downtown that is starting to rebound from hard times and empty storefronts.

Four years ago, the city’s Arts and Culture Commission asked Judith McElhone, an artist and Torrington native, to consult with Artspace Torrington, a group that had organized a small art show the previous summer. McElhone worked with the committee to prepare an empty storefront at 33 Main Street for what turned out to be three very successful exhibitions in the summer of 2012.

This initial success attracted the attention of Torrington Downtown Partners, owners of nine buildings in downtown. With their support, the Artspace committee decided to form a permanent nonprofit gallery dedicated to the exhibition of professional artists and the revitalization of downtown Torrington. Downtown Partners contributed gallery walls, an alarm system and free rent for a year. Five Points Gallery was incorporated in December 2012, and McElhone was named founding executive director. The 850-square-foot gallery was able to expand into an adjoining space in June 2013 thanks to a state grant awarded to the City of Torrington.

Five Points, named after its location at the well-known junction of several roads, had to hit the ground running. The new space, though large and full of potential, was, as McElhone puts it, “a wreck”: the walls were brick, not white; the floor was rotten; and the ceiling tiles were broken. And time was at a premium. Ann Temkin, a chief curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (who just happened to have been born in Torrington), was scheduled to give a talk on August 3.

Stephen Roth, one of the Downtown Partners, oversaw the renovation of the new space, which was completed in little more than a month. Heat, air conditioning, white walls, office space, wiring for a sound system—all had to be put in place. On the day of the event, the only thing missing was chairs. City Hall came to the rescue and offered some of its chairs, and board members pitched in to help roll the chairs on dollies down Main Street.

The gallery was packed for Temkin’s lecture. McElhone remembers people lining up on Water Street down to Main, waiting to get in. It was “an amazing evening,” she says, and the beginning of an ongoing series of lectures, which has included such notables as the artist Eric Fischl and the philanthropist Agnes Gund.

Since that night, Five Points has continued to grow. “We show the best art we can show,” McElhone says. As its reputation has spread, Five Points has attracted applications from contemporary artists all over the country. The gallery, which puts on about 10 shows a year in its three spaces, also hosts artist talks.

Education and outreach are an important part of the gallery’s mission. Modern art can be intimidating, but McElhone says that it’s all about “visual literacy. The arts belong to everyone. We don’t want to be elitist here.” It is source of pride to her that everyone who comes in, whether a high school student, a collector or an artist, is greeted with a smile.

As part of its educational mission, Five Points has formed a consortium with three local colleges: Northwest Connecticut Community College, the University of Connecticut and the Hartford Arts School (part of the University of Hartford). Interns from the schools work in the gallery, and the gallery sponsors exhibitions of consortium students at the Warner Theater.

According to McElhone, “Most of our staff is still volunteer. All of our local interns have stayed on to volunteer with us.” Several of the volunteers are her former art students. “She pulls us in!” exclaims Assistant Director Noel Croce. “Originally I asked if there was anything I could do, and five minutes later I was the volunteer coordinator.”

McElhone is passionate in her belief that “the arts can revitalize the community. Art can change the way people think about themselves and the world.” Since the gallery has opened, new restaurants and other galleries have opened in the city, and the downtown streets have fewer empty storefronts. The gallery is cosponsoring a citywide public art project, scheduled to open next June. The Torrington Yarn Bomb invites people of all ages, genders and manual dexterity to come bedeck the city with yarn in any form—knitted, crocheted, woven or just simply wrapped.

Five Points’ current exhibition, entitled “In and Of the Land, Part II” and curated by Ann Finholt, will be up until February 6. On the night of the opening reception in January, the streets of downtown Torrington were still glittering with Christmas lights, and looking through Five Points’ windows a passerby could see the space filled with light, art and visitors.

The gallery’s hours are Thursday to Sunday, 1–5 p.m., and admission is free. More information is available on the gallery’s website and on Facebook.

Photos by Bruce Frisch.