RUMFORD – Downtown streets will be packed with “extras” late Thursday morning when taping begins for a cable access series on local artists.

About 100 extras are needed for the project, said Maureen Goudreau, the project’s coordinator and the interviewer for the series.

Goudreau, a teacher of French at Mountain Valley High School, has coordinated professional taping in the past with her class.

This time, she has secured a $1,000 grant from the River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition for the Bath advertising company, Briggs ADV, to film people walking toward the Pennacook Art Center, then to supply studio space for the interviews.

Filming will be done from the ground, the roofs of downtown businesses, and from “cherry pickers.”

The actual interviews of four or five local artists will be done in Bath. Video of the downtown Rumford area, including many of the town’s historic buildings, are part of what will become the opening of the “Meet the Artists” series.

Goudreau has hosted a cable-access health care series on the Mid-Coast for about 12 years.

The “Meet the Artists” series is not only meant to promote the arts and artists, but also to bring attention to the River Valley, she said.

Once the extras are inside the art center, they will meet with several local artists whose works now hang in the gallery.

While four or five artists are slated for the first “Meet the Artists” series, Goudreau hopes to find enough funding to make 12 programs, with one shown each month for a year. The first show is expected to be broadcast in October on local cable channels in the River Valley and the Mid-Coast.

Any business that sends two or three people to serve as extras will be named in the credits at the end of each program.

Those who want to be part of the filming are asked to call 364-9972. Anyone under 18 must have signed permission from parents.

Extras are encouraged to wear casual and solid-color clothing. Participants should meet in front of the art center by 11:15 a.m.