Collaborations, connections abound at new Stowe Street gallery, music venue
June 21, 2023 | By Cheryl Casey | Correspondent In a nod to the public artwork that rises up on the exterior of its building, The Phoenix Gallery & Music Hall opens on Stowe Street this Friday, June 23, with its inaugural five-artist exhibit, “Art is Candy,” along with the season’s first Music in the Alley concert.
Principals in the new Phoenix Gallery & Music Hall. Left to right: Anne Decker, T. R. Risk, Joseph Pensak and Anna Black. Photo by Gordon Miller
The commercial space at 5-7 Stowe Street is the new home to the gallery and music venue on the first floor and Waterbury Studios on the second floor. The two businesses are co-owned by married partners Joseph Pensak and Anna Black. Pensak serves as founding director and head curator, and Black, a lawyer at Stackpole & French in Stowe, is also an accomplished painter. Axel’s Gallery and Frame Shop previously occupied the first floor of the building but moved across the street to 10 Stowe St. in March.
The Phoenix Rising mural featuring a design by Jessi Zawicki was installed at 5 Stowe St. in 2021. Photo by Gordon Miller
Both spaces are conceived to accommodate a number of purposes and audiences. Open since November, Waterbury Studios focuses on bringing artists together with a small gallery, rental studios for private art practice, and a common area kitchenette.
Downstairs, The Phoenix Gallery & Music Hall, named after the mural on the side of the building celebrating Waterbury’s “rise from the ashes” post-Tropical Storm Irene, looks to bring community members together. It will be the official home venue of TURNmusic, co-host of the Music in the Alley summer concert series. TURNmusic director, Anne Decker, will serve as co-curator of the music hall’s calendar while also continuing to put on concerts throughout Vermont year-round.
Decker, who established TURNmusic in 2014, worked with Pensak on the production of his 2019 album, “Hallowel,” that he describes as “modern sacred music.” (Pensak’s bio also includes Presbyterian minister, singer and songwriter. Find Hallowell on Bandcamp.). That collaboration eventually led to this new project.
“We enjoyed our work together very much!” Decker said in an email. “Both of us were curious about presenting the arts in the previous Axel's space and thankfully Joseph reached out to develop a partnership,” she continued.explained.
Furnishings inside Phoenix Gallery & Music Hall are crafted by T.R. Risk from reclaimed materials. The venue is Risk’s Vermont outlet for his unique handmade pieces and paintings. Courtesy photo
Excited about sharing the space with other artists, Decker said she thinks this arrangement will offer unique opportunities to support arts and culture in the community. “I love creating programs and celebrating the amazing performing arts talent in Vermont. The Phoenix will give me an inspiring space to do all that,” she said, adding, “I believe our model will work because we are able to access a variety of resources and we are able to offer a wide range of programming and activity.”
In yet an additional collaboration, The Phoenix Gallery & Music Hall will also serve as the official Vermont seller for the work of artist and furniture-maker, T. R. Risk. His craftsmanship can be found in the Phoenix’s counters, tables, and stools, all produced with reclaimed lumber.
To what purposes might a gallery and music hall put such features as counters and stools? One that also contains an old-fashioned soda fountain and candy shop, of course!
Work in progress this week at The Phoenix Gallery & Music Hall setting up in the former Axel's space on Stowe Street. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
No random combination
An undated World War I-era parade photo taken approximately 3-5 years after the candy shop (at right) opened. Photo courtesy the Waterbury Historical Society
Pensak’s longtime interest in place-making and civic factors that contribute to a thriving community prompted him to research the history of the Stowe Street building. “I spent a bunch of time upstairs at the historical society in the municipal building,” he said, quickly learning about the building’s past as a well-respected and beloved downtown business, Concord Candy Kitchen.
Established in 1914 by Greek immigrant Vasily K. Ducas, Concord Candy Kitchen was considered “more than the name implies—a sweet shop and candy parlor with the highest order of cleanliness and service,” proclaimed a 1921 article in The Waterbury Record newspaper. Ducas passed away on June 11, 1951, at the age of 71, and is buried in Hope Cemetery.
This undated photo shows Concord Candy Kitchen when it was owned by the Gilmans. Photo courtesy Waterbury Historical Society (click to enlarge)
Following Ducas’s proprietorship, Concord Candy Kitchen was owned and operated by Elaine and Al Gilman, who added a jewelry and watch repair shop to the space and renamed it Gilman’s Candy Kitchen. Local resident and historian P. Howard “Skip” Flanders remarked in an email, “Old-timers remember the Candy Kitchen. I am too young to remember the Ducases but [I’m] very familiar with the Gilmans and Elaine the ‘Candy Kitchen Lady.’” The Gilmans ran the candy kitchen and jewelry store from 1953 to 1982.
The 1921 Waterbury Record article about the Concord Candy Kitchen concluded with the following sentiment: “Worthy precedents spell progress, and this Candy Kitchen…is a worthy precedent for any Candy Kitchen serving this growing community in the future.”
A century later, The Phoenix Gallery & Music Hall is ready and determined to carry on that heritage. In an Instagram post via Waterbury Studios’ account, Pensak announced they would be resurrecting the soda fountain and candy shop, with “Rookies’ Root Beer and Maple Lemonade on tap as well as a candy counter.”
“Beach Day,” acrylic on wood, by Will Patlove (14 x 14, 2019), is part of the "Art is Candy" exhibition opening Friday at The Phoenix Gallery & Music Hall. Courtesy photo
In brainstorming the vision for the new Waterbury business, Pensak said he penned a “manifesto…as a kind of starting blueprint for our vision for the space,” in which he called The Phoenix Gallery & Music Hall “a ‘general store’ for the arts, both sour and sweet.”
Pensak shared his written vision in which he also appears to playfully engage with the ghost of Vasily K. Ducas (who he refers to as V.K.) in a seeming rivalry across time: “V.K.’s Candy Kitchen, our competitor and bitter enemy, wants you to think they have the best candy in town and we’ve had it up to here with them. … V.K., if you’re reading this: just STOP, you’re not fooling anyone.”
This new combination of art, music, history and a touch of whimsy takes off this week.
Opening on Friday is the gallery’s first multimedia exhibit, “Art is Candy,” featuring the work of Burlington artist Will Patlove, who built and hand-painted the gallery’s new signage along with work by Vermont artists Steve Budington, Athena Petra Tasiopoulos, Will Gebhard, and Frank Tamasi.
Michael Chorney and Freeway Clyde. Courtesy photo
“From my perspective, these artists represent some of the leading voices of contemporary art in Vermont,” Pensak said.
On view through Aug. 18, “Art is Candy” has an opening reception on Friday from 5 to 8 p.m., coinciding with the first Music in the Alley concert (6 to 9 p.m.) with Michael Chorney and Freeway Clyde playing psychedelic jazz-rock. Chorney’s orchestration work on the Broadway musical “Hadestown” won him a Tony Award.