Clara Wainwright (2001)

WBUR Interview

Learn more about Clara Wainwright through the WBUR series "Visionaries".

Clara Wainwright
Independent Arts and Crafts Professional
Women in Design Award of Excellence, 2001 winner

I have created a number of large and small public celebrations in Boston, including The Great Boston Kite Festival, The Newbury Street Paseo Awards, and the Faith Quilts Project.

I started the Great Boston Kite Festival in 1969, working with my husband Bill Wainwright and several graduates of the GSD. The first First Night was started in 1976 - the last night of the BiCentennial. In 1993 I worked with a number of students at the Muriel Snowden School on Newbury Street, teaching them how to create a public celebration- The Newbury Street Paseo Awards. In response to 9/11, I started The Faith Quilts Project; 28 quilt makers worked with churches, temples, mosques to create quilts which explained their faiths to the wider world. These quilts now hang in places of worship all over Boston and beyond.

These public celebrations have involved children and adults from all the neighborhoods of Boston. Visual artists, musicians, dancers,jugglers, stilt walkers, have come out to entertain the city. First Night’s Grand Procession down Boylston Street invites viewers to join the march to the Boston Common.