By Bob Bumcrot
The events calendar for Norfolk ArtsWave!, a celebration of the arts scheduled for August 13 to15, will soon be available in a professionally designed guide that will be distributed in Norfolk, throughout the region and on the web at NorfolkArtsWave!.org.
“This will be one singular sensation for Norfolkians and visitors from near and far,” said a member of the task force planning the festival. Another member dubbed it, “Norfolk’s open house.” However described, the weekend promises to give prospective home buyers, business owners and the general public exposure to Norfolk’s natural and cultural riches in a compressed time period.

The idea for the weekend-long celebration originated in a meeting of the Norfolk Economic Development Commission (EDC). The driving force behind the festival is low-impact economic development that builds on the town’s strengths and values. ArtsWave! is also a realization of strategies set forth in the recent Plan of Conservation and Development. “This is the best indirect way to try to build economic activity consistent with our goals and standards,” said one EDC member. “There is no direct way.”
Three literary events planned for the weekend deserve early mention. The Brendan Gill Lecture will be given by Simon Winchester, OBE, whose eighteenth book, “Atlantic: A Biography of the Ocean”, will be published late this fall. Among his best known works are, “The Man who Loved China”, “Krakatoa” and “The Professor and the Madman”, all of which received front page reviews in the Sunday New York Times.
The Battell Memorial Lecture will be given by Edmund Morris, whose book, “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt”, won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and whose other works include, “Beethoven: The Universal Composer” and the controversial, “Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan”.
David Levinson and Emile Piper will be speaking on black history in our area, further detailed in their book, “One Minute a Free Woman: Elizabeth Freeman and the Struggle for Freedom”.
Musical events for the weekend include the Tokyo String Quartet, composer and pianist Joan Panetti, singer/songwriter Suzy Bogguss, Wailin’ Jennys, a performance by Yale music fellows and bluegrass music by Norfolk’s Corey Bush at the expanded Farmers Market.
Norfolk Artists and Friends will hold its annual weekend-long exhibition and sale at the Art Barn, with more than twenty accomplished artists participating. There will also be a welcoming reception for Sam Messer at the library, whose work will be on display throughout the month. Also at the library will be an exhibit of rare first editions from New Directions, the distinguished publishing house founded by Norfolk’s James Laughlin.
For its inaugural year, the festival has received grants from the Town of Norfolk and local foundations and businesses, but more funds are needed to fully achieve the goal of low impact business development. EDC members look forward to a strong response to the funding request found on page four of this issue of Norfolk Now.

Illustration By Mahlon Craft