The National Park Service is using $224,648 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to finish an ongoing project that will improve the Artist-In-Residence (AIR) Program at the Weir Farm National Historic Site.

Construction began on November 17on the interior of an old garage that, in past eras, existed to serve the needs of property caretakers. NPS officials anticipate it will be completed by mid-February in 2010, leaving the garage as a converted art studio that will support the professional or personal work of artists who participate in the AIR program. 

Linda Moery, the Project Manager, who holds weekly conferences on the subjects of budgets and schedules, indicated that it is progressing smoothly and on track.

Initial augmentation of the exterior took place during a separate, earlier stage around this time in 2008, without any connection to the stimulus bill. Its implementation was a main objective stated by NPS in its General Management Plan, along with the creation of the AIR program.

The plan was originally published in 1995, five years after Weir Farm was designated an historic site, and the AIR program was established in 1998. Finances were obtained during the second half of the past decade through a combination of grants, such as the Department of Interior's 'Save America's Treasures Grant' and 'Centennial Initiative,' and fundraisers held by the Weir Farm Arts Center, the non-profit that runs the AIR Program.

For the Arts Center, the timing of the stimulus was a boon because it curtailed what would otherwise have been a long, arduous effort to raise the money.  It happened somewhat like a perfect storm: the passage of ARRA came at a point between two phases of a project that was shovel-ready and to which the government was already committed.  Almost three billion stimulus dollars were appropriated to the DOI, thirty percent of which has since been directed to construction projects.

Linda Cook, the NPS Superintendent at Weir Farm, explained that the action stimulates the economy through immediate, though temporary, employment for contractors. 

The two contracts were both awarded to Watermark Environmental, Inc., a company based in Lowell, Mass. that specializes in coordinating construction projects, but many of the responsibilities have been subcontracted to businesses in Wilton, according to Cook.  One example was Faesy-Smith, an architecture firm on Route 7 that drew up the design based on an illustration by Manhonri Young, one of the original residents on the farm who contributed to its artistic legacy. Cook estimated about 15-20 jobs have been made available during this four month period.

The AIR Program offers housing with time and space to work for 12 painters throughout the year in exchange for providing education and art to the public.  Linda Cook said that the issue of visitor access to the studio has not been decided yet.  She stated that it "will have a public component," but that its purpose will be to service the artists first.