Arts Quincy Magazine

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
Dear Art Patrons:
The return of
the Arts. Ahh,
how long I’ve
been waiting
to splash that
headline across
the front of
our flagship
Arts Quincy
magazine.
It’s been a
year, hasn’t it? But with Adams County
vaccination rates topping 30% as I’m
writing this, and with COVID transmission
at its lowest point since last summer, you
can see arts and culture programming
popping up like sunny little daffodils in
springtime.
Of course, the return of the arts won’t
happen all at once, nor is the return
assured. I join with other community
leaders in emphasizing the need for
continued diligence and masking, and I
hope as soon as you’re able, you take
advantage of our mass vaccination
site at the Oakley Lindsay Center to
protect yourself and those around you.
All of these steps will help arts and
culture reopen safely for our audiences,
participants and volunteers.
The first live event on our springtime
calendar is a marvelous play by Quincy
Community Theatre featuring the
extraordinary actress Jeri Conboy
portraying iconic poet Emily Dickinson.
Audience size will be limited, but
audience spirit, I suspect, will be at an
all-time high.
Live music is also poised for a return.
The Quincy Symphony Orchestra and
Chorus have been recording wonderful
virtual performances that are available
to stream, but they also expect a return
to historic Morrison Theater at Quincy
Junior High School soon.
I’m thrilled to see the Quincy Park
Band making its live music return for
a 73rd season. I play trumpet in this
organization, and I think I speak for all of
our local musicians when I say we are
overjoyed to make music in an ensemble
for a live audience again.
The Historical Society of Quincy and
Adams County has also been hard
at work to prepare both the History
Museum and the John Wood Mansion
for reopening to the public. The Lincoln
Era Log Cabin Village and Dr. Eells
Underground Railroad home are available
for tours. The library has resumed full
services. The Art Center has classes
on its schedule. Q-Fest and Blues in
the District is slated to go forward. We
expect fall favorites like the Folk Life
Festival and Art Fest to be back on the
calendar.
I want to leave this letter to you with an
excerpt from a letter written by Emily
Dickinson in March of 1884. Dickinson
was no stranger to hurt, and this letter to
her friends Louise and Frances Norcross
addresses the pain of the loss of a friend
but the awe and hope that comes with a
new spring. So it goes with the arts as it
reemerges from this pandemic.
Thank you, dears, for the sympathy.
I hardly dare to know that I have lost
another friend, but anguish finds it out.
Each that we lose takes part of us;
A crescent still abides,
Which like the moon, some turbid night,
Is summoned by the tides.
. . . I work to drive the awe away, yet awe
impels the work.
I almost picked the crocuses, you told
them so sincerely. Spring’s first conviction
is a wealth beyond its whole experience.
Your partner in the arts,
Laura Sievert,
Executive Director
Your gift to the arts has a great impact.
Your financial support for Arts Quincy aids a wide range of groups from all areas of the arts and provides art education
programming for 8,500 students! We are able to multiply your generous donation by combining it with other gifts to create
grants that make an impact to 55 partner organizations in Adams County. Those organizations
then create hundreds of arts and educational opportunities that impact nearly 50,000 people
each year! We feel incredibly lucky to be in an area where the role of art and music is seen as
essential in shaping our community.
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