New London Harbour Towers Invites New London Artists to "March Forth"

in collaboration with the opened its doors to the community once again with a second highly successful art show. “March Forth” served to benefit the Hygienic Art Galleries, who receive a thirty percent commission on all pieces sold at the event.

The event is also a great way for people who are curious about living in Harbour Towers to have a closer look at the living space without the pressure of a sales situation. “The more events we have for people to have a firsthand experience with the building, the more comfortable they feel with the space,”  says Tammy Sell, who works in marketing and sales at the condominiums.

Because many potential buyers are those that attend these events, it creates a community that is more interested in the arts and in being part of the greater city.

This show featured 22 of New London’s artists, including a couple of residents of the building, displaying over two hundred pieces of their work spanning the fourth to ninth floors of the towers as well as the ballroom and the community lounge.

The Harbour Towers are a unique art space not only because it is a residential space but because there are 12,000 linear feet of wall space for displaying art.  This means that large solo and group shows that would have been crowded or nearly impossible in any of New London’s other galleries may now have a place to display.

Katia Jirankova Levanti alone took up the entire fourth floor with her eighteen large oil paintings.  She refers to her style of art as “subconscionalism” because she does not preplan composition or color but paints through meditation to produce beautifully rendered figures in fantastic landscapes.

On the sixth floor painter and muralist Carolyn McNeill, who is responsible for some of the Harbour Towers’ murals, displayed several of her dog portraits.  “These are portraits of dogs from the Norwitch dog pound…I try to capture their personality…and let people know it’s a good place to adopt dogs.”

The ballroom with its tall ceilings adds another degree of flexibility to art displays.  Painter Katie Fogg displayed her two mural sized paintings “Naree-pol” (96” x 72”) and “…also goes great on girls” (72” x 96”) on the ballroom walls. In most other gallery spaces these would have touched ceiling and floor or simply not fit at all.

The ballroom has also served as a great space for fundraisers for New London Main Street, New London Land Marks, the Covenant Shelter and the ACLU.

In addition to all of the art on display a few residents opened their apartments to the community including Harbour Towers’ newest residents, James and Sherry Stidfole.  “It’s just great having a space here,” says James, who made the move to Harbour Towers with Sherry after having lived in their home in Quaker Hill since 1970.

They made the move using Harbour Towers’ home trade program where you give your home towards the purchase or one of the units. This makes it easier for people who don’t have the upfront financial backing to make the move.

Shirley Mencerelli does public relations work for Harbour Towers and was its first resident.  “It was really interesting to bear witness to the negativity directed at the towers and then the acceptance…the art shows and other community events definitely helped with that,” she tells Patch. 

“I think a lot of people talk about things being planned for New London and not materializing,” says Anthony Silvesteri, project manager at Harbour Towers. “By inviting people into our halls and showing them what we’re doing adds some credibility.

Harbour Towers hopes to continue their two art shows “Deck the Halls” and “March Forth” for at least one more year. “We can only plan shows up to next year…wouldn’t it be great to see the residents take the show over after that and make it their own thing.”

“March Forth” will be ongoing from March 4th to March 14th.  If you missed the opening reception, make an appointment to view the art by calling 860-444-6969.