20 | SEPTEMBER 17 - 23, 2021 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
CITY LIVING
Paxton’s Ten West Market focuses on local products, hometown hospitality Barbara M. Houle Special to Worcester Telegram & Gazette USA TODAY NETWORK
“Bell Pond Series: Paul Showing Tattoo,” Worcester, 1983 STEPHEN DIRADO PHOTOS
Photographer Stephen DiRado’s ‘With Dad’ to air on GBH Stephen DiRado Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
A professor in the Studio Art Program at Clark University, Stephen DiRado has more than 40 years of experience in the fi eld of documentary photography, fi lmmaking and conceptual art. He is a recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim in 2012 for his decades of documentary work on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. In 2018 he received a Bob and Diane Fund Award for “With Dad,” which documents more than 20 years of his father succumbing to Alzheimer’s. DiRado also was a recipient of four Massachusetts Cultural Council awards, and three from the Massachusetts Artist Foundation. DiRado’s photographs can be found in museum collections from the MFA, Boston to the MFA, Houston; published nationally in a variety of publications including The New York Times, Washington Post, National Geographic, Black and White Magazine; internationally, Geo Wissen
One of the things you notice before you even open the door at Ten West Market in Paxton are the business signs on both sides of the building. Everything from pasta to coff ee and everything in between — names of locally sourced products sold inside. When Darlene and Thomas Walsh of Paxton bought the business three years ago from Jeff and Dr. Bethann Cormier, Darlene Walsh said the couple would maintain the same spirit of the market and at the same time put the couple’s own spin on it. She has succeeded in customizing space inside the small building near the Town Hall (once the police station) to a widely popular neighborhood market and deli. But more than that, Walsh has introduced customers to a number of local food specialties only off ered at farmers markets and small retail outlets. Ten West is more than a shopping
experience, said Walsh, who described Ten West as a little country store that brings people together and gives back to community. “I love that customers help support other local businesses,” she said. “One of my goals from the very beginning was to see that everyone gets a piece of the pie, from the mailman who sells us his maple syrup to businesses like Red Barn Cookies in Princeton and Moeshmallows in Holden. We buy from incredible small batch food producers.” Walsh previously had rented space at Tatnuck Marketplace on Pleasant Street in Worcester before it closed. She said she fi rst fell in love with cooking watching her grandmother who cooked for a living. In high school, Walsh recalled she made “roll ups” for the Italian Festival in Worcester. “Tommy and I were so lucky to have the former owners of Ten West ask us if we had any interest in taking over the business,” said Walsh. “When we reopened the store, I said, ‘Thank you, See MARKET, Page 21
“During Virus Time Series: Brittany and Eric,” Boylston, Jan. 3
Magazine, Vice Magazine, UK DailyMail and Royal Photographic Society Journal. DiRado’s book “With Dad,” published by Davis Publications in 2019, illustrates a loving and changing relationship between father and son as Stephen’s father succumbs to Alzheimer’s. The documentary fi lm “With Dad,” directed by Soren Sorensen in 2020, has won no less than seven national awards and will air on WGBH beginning at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 21. Presently, DiRado is documenting the societal impact of COVID-19 under the title, “During Virus Time.”
Darlene Walsh, owner of Ten West Market in Paxton. ASHLEY GREEN/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
