COURTESY SANDWICH ARTS ALLIANCE
The Sandwich Arts Alliance, a new cultural group, had its official launch at SandwichFest at the end of June.
SANDWICH – A new arts organization has started in the town of Sandwich.
The Sandwich Arts Alliance grew out of a desire for artists to be able to meet and work on projects together.
Joanne Westerhouse, president of the organization, said that since announcing the group earlier this spring, it has grown quickly, with more than 80 members and counting.
Westerhouse first got involved in the endeavor after serving on a town committee to decide what use the town could make of one of its unused historic buildings. She suggested the building could become an arts and cultural center, but town officials did not seem to pick up on the idea.
“I finally figured out that the arts really had no voice in Sandwich. there was no organized group,” she said.
She started out by getting together a group of painters and other visual artists. After the first meeting, the group said they planned to meet monthly.
Westerhouse then went about forming two other groups, one to focus on performing arts and one to focus on literary arts.
The Alliance is now made up of four groups, one each focusing on visual, literary and performing arts, plus a friends of the arts group.
The organization has compiled a database of over 200 artists in the town, but membership is not limited to artists who live in the town of Sandwich, Westerhouse said.
Westerhouse said, a partnership has already developed between the alliance and the Glasstown Cultural District, which is one of four state-designated cultural districts on Cape Cod.
The group is also sponsoring joint programs with the Town Hall Preservation Trust, which organizes performances, movie screenings and other activities in the historic town hall.
The official launch of the alliance took place on Saturday, June 27 at the SandwichFest.
