Banners, Festivals and Arts Education

The foreground shows a lamppost banner promoting the 3rd Thursday Streetfest, a citizen-created festival that happens once a month and draws up to 10,000 people to Main Street. More than anything else in town, it represents the participation of a true cross-section of the community's ethnic, racial, cultural and generational diversity.

The lamppost banners also provide a public exhibition for community-based pubilc art -- designed and created by members of the community.

In the background is the arts magnet school, which is housed in the Capitol Theater, a former Vaudeville theater that has been dramatically renovated. In addition to being the school's performance center, it also serves as a great community space. Recently, the Windham Arts Center launched the Willimantic Cinema Project at the Capitol Theater. The reopening of this space to the public has linked that past and the present, with stories such as the young woman who recently brought her aunt across the state to see a movie at the theater because her aunt remembers having her first kiss in that theater more than 50 years ago.

Windham Garden on the Bridge - Over the Willimantic River

The old stone arch bridge crosses the Willimantic River behind the former mills. The bridge itself has been tranformed by community members into the Garden on the Bridge, saving the historic bridge from being torn down. The river is at the heart of another citizen-driven project, the Willimantic Whitewater Partnership, which aims to recapture the river and increase public access, restore the environment along the river, and spur economic development through river-centered activities.

Windham Mills Buildings

Formerly the American Thread Mill Company, which was known throughout the world for the thread it produced. Buildings have been recently renovated for arts, housing and commercial space. The commercial space still remains somewhat underdeveloped, while the arts space and housing is full.