Downtown Millville Merchants Association Organized

May 30, 2008

During the winter of 2008, a group of downtown Millville merchants and other business people met informally to discuss what they might do – together – to spur the growth of the city’s Glasstown Arts District. They were concerned that the unique vision of those who had brought the District into being a decade ago had not been focused on its ultimate objective: to recreate Millville’s downtown, especially High Street between Broad and Main, as a genuine cultural center dedicated to the region’s fine and performing arts.

The City of Millville and the Millville Development Corporation have been tirelessly working to create the economic and regulatory business conditions necessary for an art colony to flourish. Today, the Glasstown Arts District has scores of artists working in diverse media, with galleries and exhibition spaces in which to show their art.

What has been absent from the downtown is a showcase – not only for Millville’s own artists, artisans, and serious musicians, but also for those of the Delaware Valley. Art cannot survive in a vacuum. Only when it is allowed to engage with the productions of artists living in different landscapes – pastoral, rural, urban, even industrial – can it grow.

To foster that growth – and at the same time to encourage the development of our entire downtown business community – the businesses listed below are organizing The First Annual Millville Arts, Antiques & Music Festival, Sunday, September 7, 2008 on High Street, from Broad to Main, Millville:

The Artist House

Bogart’s Books & Coffee

Graphicus Communications

Isabelle’s Studio

J. B. & M. E. Studio

The Levoy Theatre

South Jersey Aids Alliance

The Vintage Rose Tea Room

The Wheaton House

An Impassioned Few Can Make A Difference