The Ol’ Ball & Socket
Ball & Socket Arts, Cheshire
June 2025
Connecticut museum visit #548.
Remember when men would refer to their wives or girlfriends as “the ol’ ball and chain?” I’m sure plenty still do, but not in my orbit.
Men can be such dorks.
I’m a dork, but a different kind of dork. I’m out here taking my sons to little art galleries to open them up to new experiences and perspectives. But cool new experiences and perspectives. After all… skateboards! So this is what I do: take my boys to the ol’ Ball & Socket when we’re free from the ol’ ball and chain.
Ball & Socket was a working factory for almost 150 years, from 1850 until 1992. This place was a vital, local manufacturer, supporting generations of families in the area. Immediately upon acquisition of the property, Ball & Socket Arts sought inclusion on the state historic register.
They say that they are, “in the process of transforming this former industrial space into an environment of discovery, learning and community engagement.” Rad.
The original factory was a two-story, 4,350 square foot, wooden framed building built along the Farmington Canal and the recently completed New Haven and Northampton Railroad. The company bought sheet brass in narrow-width rolls and performed all the fabrication operations to create buttons.
The company expanded over the years – and then scaled back. When the Ball & Socket Manufacturing Co. ceased operations in 1994, many machines that were acquired in the early 1900’s were still in use, including eight presses made by E. J. Manville Co. of Waterbury, 6 presses made by Waterbury’s Draher Machine Co., several Waterbury-Farrel eyelet machines and 12 Baird presses. By that time, all had been fitted with individual electric motors, powered by an on-site electrical generation plant.
If it sounds like this place is ripe for an interpretive history museum of sorts, you’re my kind of people. That is apparently in the works, along with other additions and programs.
Anyway… skateboard art.
Calvin had recently taken up skating and a couple of his friend are quite good. I guess the charge to the artists here was simply “do something interesting and creative with a skateboard.”
Many sports incorporate art, from ice dancing to diving to… skateboarding. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a sport with more of an artistic bent than skating.
The gap between sports and art is wide mainly due to preconceived notions. Fine artists often find themselves compelled to defend creation of utility items which are termed as craft as if it is in any way a genre of lesser importance. Likewise, sports equipment is usually not associated with fine art. In a complex world where a case can be made for all forms of creation to be connected through artistic as well as economic means, what better than the motif of a simple toy like a skateboard to form the basis of inspiration for a group of contemporary artists?
The materials are diverse as is the aesthetic of each participating artist.
Yeah, ok. I like my explanation better.
I’ll shout out the featured artists: Paul Baylock, Alan Bisbort, Tamhja Coe, Michaela Gorski, Deborah Hesse, Chelsea Marti, Mike Mindera, Sarah Nguyen, and Rashmi Talpade. One of these names jumps out at me: Alan Bisbort. Local writer, artist, provocateur, I remember reading Bisbort’s “Hartford Advocate” columns every week, without fail. Good to see him still doing his wildly divergent things.
The exhibit was fun and funky and it’s always interesting to see what artists come up with when given very loose direction around a unifying theme. Perusing the gallery’s website when writing this page I was struck by how active they are. The exhibits change out very frequently and they all seem worth checking out if you’re nearby.
We wandered a bit of the property and found an impressive photographic mural of all things Cheshire. I’m excited for what’s to come here down the road.
The complex includes much more than the art gallery, but is a work in progress as I write this. As the world around us crumbles, it’s always great to find these oases that foster creativity and community as much as possible. I wish Ball & Socket all the best, and I’ll certainly return if and when they incorporate a history museum here.
Ball & Socket Arts
CTMQ’s Museum Visits
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