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Lowell Open Studios this weekend
The annual Lowell Open Studios event will take place this Saturday and Sunday from 11 am until 5 pm each day at various venues around the city. Open Studios is a great opportunity to check out the local art scene and to support the artists working in our community. Almost all of it is inside, so if the predicted rain cuts down on your outside activities, use the extra time to visit Western Avenue Studios or one of the other sites involved in the event. For more details, check out the Lowell Open Studios website.
Saturday at 2 pm – I tried to visit but every single parking space in the lot and along the length of Western Avenue was taken. I would have parked at the Stoklosa School and walked back, but didn’t have the time today. I’ll be back tomorrow, but from the looks of it, this year’s Open Studios is already a huge success.
WAS always feels so close and yet so far away by car.
I wish the city would treat us all like big boys and girls and re-connect Western Ave with Dutton St. We can avoid getting our cars hit by the train (I hope!) If the real issue is trains idling on the tracks there, why are they allowed to do that over a canal anyhow?
Hey guys . . . you can park downtown and ride the free shuttle to Western Ave! Shuttle stops are at the Visitors Center parking lot, at Appleton Mills and at Western Ave. The kids trying to keep order in the parking lot at Western Ave counted 1100+ heading into the building between 11 and 5 yesterday . . . and they were still coming at 5! A lot of people who have never been to Lowell before, let alone to Western Ave.
Corey, we’ve been trying to get Western Ave opened again for a very long time. A snowball has a better chance in an unmentionable place. Western Ave. on the other side of the tracks was abandoned by the city for the development of Dunkin’ Donuts. Every time we try to get the railroad’s attention about a grade crossing another barrier goes up . . . that pile of railroad ties that is being stored alongside the tracks wasn’t always there. And of course during the winter all of the snow from the Dunkin parking lot gets dumped there as well.
To some extent I think that our relative isolation at Western Ave. has worked to our advantage, because we are cut off from downtown we have had to focus on doing things ourselves rather than being dependent on the city’s downtown initiatives. We’ve started working with Acre neighborhood groups and I am hopeful that we can develop strong neighborhood ties. We already have reeeaaalllly good relationships with Broadway Pizza and Lowell House of Pizza and anyone else who can figure out how to deliver to Western Ave on the days when the Mill City Catering truck doesn’t come at noon or when we are working late to prepare for a big event!