Stone Soup Worcester

Thursday May 24
6:00
Stone Soup Gallery

My Worcester is the theme for Thursday’s gallery opening at 6:00. Five talented students from Cara Philp’s after-school proogram will have their original street photographs on display in the Soup Gallery until June 23rd. Stay posted for Stone Soup open hours when the gallery will be open to the public. All are welcome to the big event on Thursday.

All these with no staff, no big funders, all volunteers and member groups chipping in, many generous individuals. Not a complete list, add your items as comments!

Stone Soup Accomplishments
First 5 Months

Renovations:
• Built a functional kitchen for Food Not Bombs and all the member groups “COOKs” (permitted, pro electrical and plumbing work)
• Opened up space in 2nd floor front room by removing partition
• Scraped, patched and repainted Worcester Roots Office walls and ceiling
• Renovated Blue room on 2nd floor, making lead-safe and attractive walls
• Patched plaster on the 3rd floor
• Sanded floors on first floor
• Cleaned and remodeled basement for Earn-A-Bike shop and Graphics Shop
• Patched and repainted entrance way and common area walls for the gallery
• Fortified and installed shelves in the room that is now the Firecracker lending library

Events organized by Stone Soup Collective (not including dozens of events hosted at Stone Soup organized by member groups “COOKs”):
• Opening event January 27th, 2007 with several local performers, food, games for kids, tours, etc.
• 2 School Vacation Camps (coordinated by Stone Soup School) with activities for over 30 kids, most from immediate neighborhood
• Open House event April 21st, 2007 with puppetry, gallery opening, live music, food, tours, film showing + more.
• Neighborhood Earth Day clean up of King Street and Stone Soup play area lot on Oread Pl

Groups who have used the space for larger events:
• Stone Soup School (fundraising party: live music, multimedia DJ)
• Food Not Bombs (benefit show)
• EPOCA (celebration cookout)
• Worcester Roots Project (Bike Lead Away event with puppetry, international speakers, neighborhood soil-testing bike ride)
• Tertulia Julia de Burgos (Spanish-language creative sharing space, monthly gatherings)
• Step It Up/Sustainable Worcester (banner making)
• Worcester Immigrant Coalition (banner making, outreach central)
• Worcester Earn-A-Bike (yearly membership event, DJ, auction, bike games, food)
• Worcester Peace Works/ad-hoc anti-war group (banner making media event)
• Worcester Indymedia (Authentic Journalism a Conversation with Al Giordano)

Community Resources offered at Stone Soup:
• Firecracker lending library
• Meeting / performance / event space
• Worcester.Indymedia.org free ($ and software) public computer with internet soon to be several machines
• Bike workshop provided by Earn-A-Bike
• Soil testing provided by Worcester Roots Project
• Gallery for visual artists of varied experience and mediums
• Graphics Shop with full service screen printing set up
• School Vacation /summer camps and educational experiences for kids
• Community kitchen
• Networking space for activist and community organizations