Arts Weaving Orleans Together

25 April, 2025 – ORLEANS, MA – Nine days filled with poetry, theater. live art installations, exhibits, music and workshops. Orleans Cultural District wants there to be something for everyone during Arts Week Orleans.

Arts Week Orleans from 18 to 26 April is jam packed with exhibitions, tours, concerts, poetry and workshops. This year is the second time Orleans Cultural District is organizing the event. JoAnn Del Negro, Chair of Arts Week Orleans says they deliberately aimed for as broad of a repertoar as possible. She says most of the workshops have been sold out.



"It's been wonderful. The community has just been so giving and thrilled really," Del Negro says.

And speaking of community, on the village green Orleans Eco Art has decorated the trees with bracelets, and surrounded by them is Sarah Thornington from Yarmouth. Thornington describes herself as an artivist, saying she uses her art as activism. She invites the community to come to the green to help weave local current history, one piece of marine debris at a time.

"I just wanted to have an event where the community could get together and weave, kind of like an old time sort of quilting bee where people come together, they create a little art, they talk," says Thornington.

"But in this case, what we're weaving with is all marine debris, all things that have been picked up off of our local beaches. In the times that we're living in, I think one of the most important things that we can do is to come together as a community."

The Cultural District aims to bring culture and art to Orleans and support creative businesses.  Many people feel that art events cultivates a sense of community pride, according to a study by the research organization Americans for the Arts. Such events generated almost $30 billion

in taxes to communities across the US in 2022. Attendees also tend to go out to restaurants and shop at local stores, contributing to the local economy.

"We chose this week specifically, it was a jam packed week because it was Easter, it was Patriots Day, Earth Day, and school vacation. We knew families would be here, we knew grandparents were having their grandkids here," says Del Negro.

"By doing that we'd also be bringing businesses traffic. So we try to bring things to the town that further the mission of culture and art, but also further influx of revenue to the town.

On Saturday, April 26th, Art Week Orleans goes out with a slam.

"We are ending the entire week's events with what we call the story slam. It's from The Mosquito, which is created in P-Town by Vanessa Vartabedian," says Del Negro.

"And you get to stand up if you have a true story. Five minutes, no notes. And our theme is Fresh Starts and New Awakenings. So you can take that theme any way you'd like to. And that's gonna be at the Town Cove Tap House, which is the greenhouse section of Snow's.  And we're gonna have food truck there. So that'll be a really fun event from seven to nine."

You may also like:

Sarah Thornington's Marine Debris Art

For More Information:

Arts Week Orleans