Shoreline ArtsTrail Honored With New Haven-Area Tourism Award The Shoreline ArtsTrail has been honored with a 2006 Compass Award by the Greater New Haven Convention & Visitors Bureau. The group was recognized at the CVB's First Annual Tourism Celebration and Compass Awards at the Yale University Graduate Club on September 28. Martha Link Walsh, a cut-paper artist from Branford, accepted the award on behalf of the Shoreline ArtsTrail.

The ArtsTrail was honored with an "Excellence in Partnership" award, which recognizes "two or more partners from different municipalities whose combined marketing efforts resulted in a package, campaign, marketing promotion, etc., which generated increased visitation to the region." A cooperative effort among artists from Branford, Guilford and Madison, the Shoreline ArtsTrail was developed with the Guilford Art Center as a partnership project. Designed to create a destination for residents and visitors and to highlight the work of the many accomplished artists and artisans in the area, the joint program was initially funded through a Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism Partnership grant, with additional funding provided through the tourism committees of Branford, Guilford and Madison.

Shoreline ArtsTrail members include painters, sculptors, jewelers, potters, woodworkers, glass artists, printmakers, fiber artists, photographers, and more. A volunteer committee juries artists into the group, then publishes the ArtsTrail Map of studios and supporting businesses. The Shoreline ArtsTrail and the Guilford Art Center also host an annual Open Studios Weekend, this year to be held on Saturday and Sunday, November 11 and 12, in which artists offer work for sale and present demonstrations at their studios. A reception at the Guilford Art Center on Friday, November 10 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. commences this art-filled event.

"We are thrilled to have received this recognition," says Carol Grave, ArtsTrail volunteer coordinator and a fiber artist from Guilford. "This is the culmination of five years of cooperative effort by an all-volunteer corps, along with our home towns and the Guilford Art Center. While we know intuitively that the arts can be a powerful lure for tourism, our members' guest books prove the point. They report visitors from every corner of Connecticut as well as from New York and Massachusetts. For many, Open Studios Weekend means an annual pilgrimage to the Shoreline."

For more information and to obtain an ArtsTrail Map, call the Guilford Art Center at 203.453.5947, artist member Martha Link Walsh at 203.481.3505, or contact www.guilfordct.com/artstrail.