Free to all GALA Members. New artists, first class is free

Saturday, July 9th

Saturday, August 27th

10:00 - 12:00

May and June Critiques will be held in GALA's Art Gallery at 135 Front Street in Winchendon. A great way to receive feedback from your artists friends. Come and bring up to 3 pieces of your artwork to share with the group.

You may bring a treat to eat, we will serve coffee & tea

Janet Dupuis will help guide us during our get together.

Mark your calendar!

Email Janet to let her know that you will be joining us at Jandu516@gmail.com.

Come join us with coffee, tea, cookies and laughs. Together we can achieve our goals.

The art of Chuck Heidorn is currently on display during regular business hours at

Heywood Hospital

Center for Wound Care

242 Green Street

Gardner, MA 01440

Coffee and Critiques sessions resume once monthly on the THIRD THURSDAY from 10-11:30AM, weather permitting. These gatherings will be held at the Keene Senior Center, 70 Court St., Keene, NH. Host is Alicia Drakiotes for the KSC. Bring your in progress work or come for inspiration!

For further information email: adrakiotes@aliciadrakiotes.com

As a service to the patients of the Center for Wound Care at Heywood Hospital, GALA has been displaying member art in the waiting room for more than 15 years. We will be contacting artists for the following schedule: May-June; July-August; September-October, and November-December. Three to 12 pieces can be accommodated in this space. Multiple artists may join together to create a theme or display at the same time. Please contact Vicki at Surroundings Gallery & Custom Framing, 978-630-2340.

“Especially Colors,” explores the theme of color and how artists respond to, interpret, and play with brilliant colors. It includes both the Central Mass chapter and the Monadnock Pod of the NH chapter of the WCA. In this first joint exhibition, the show’s brightly colored works will be on display until July 23, the Cunningham Gallery at the Jaffrey Civic Center.

The exhibit delves into underlying themes related to color. How does the artist use that color to suggest rich inner meaning: of life, relationships, and the things that surround us? Color can inform the relationships between the shapes and figures of the works. Joan Hanley, from Jaffrey, uses the bright complementary colors of red and green to emphasize an abstracted couple on their cell phones. Her green figures pay no attention to each other, absorbed as they are texting on their phones, their chairs separated by a wide swath of red. One wonders what kind of relationship remains when people self-isolate so completely.

In contrast, the work of Rindge artist Susan Wadsworth emphasizes the environment pulling people together through color and shape. Many of these works derive from a trip west in 2005 with her three children. We see them silhouetted against the Pictured Rocks of Michigan with deep green and blue water. In Emerald Pool, Yellowstone, they look beyond the beige dirt to the bright blue of the geyser waters. In the bright orange Gates, they hold onto one of the huge sheets of orange created by Christo in NYC in 2005.

Joanne Stowell of Ashburnham, MA has an even more personal take on motherhood. Her series of pregnant images focuses on the assorted colors and textures of women’s bodies and the toll taken by the pressure of full pregnancy. The stretch marks differ from figure to figure, and the paintings are fascinating in their abstraction of light, shape, and texture.

Catherine Judge, from Fitchburg, uses rounded shapes as well, but these branch even more abstractly into her Risen series, showing the dance of divine energy within our everyday experiences. These works have dark vertical bands on the sides, with rounded seeds and bursts of golden and pink flame-like forms pressing outwards and up, creating a sense of promise and power.

Also working with rounded forms are the nestled still life paintings of Christine Regan David. In this photo/mixed media series, Citrus Maxima is a fine example. We see a pear-shaped lemon placed in a hand-painted crate that serves as both stage and frame for the still life. Each crate/box has bright acrylic colors that complement the object therein: for example, a pink box and yellow citrus, with more variations within the series.

Ruth Nelson also ventures into close abstraction with forms that are based in realism. Her Volcano is a color-enhanced photograph of a rusty wheelbarrow bed. The original image looked rustier and less fiery and included the fissure and cracks. She utilized Photoshop saturation to get the saturated, fiery quality. The maroon and cream Lace Curtains is based in rusty flashing, but the image is so detailed and abstracted that viewers lean in to study it more closely.

Linda Greenwood, leader of the Monadnock Pod, also uses photos as the basis of her work. In this show, she is playing with the basis of flowers: from irises to bleeding heart to honeysuckle, emphasizing the color basis of each flower with wrapped paper on each side.

For artists Marilyn Wyzga, Fauvism and abstracted collage are the inspiration for the colorful landscapes she is exhibiting. The exhibit also features the three-dimensional work of Deb Caplan: with strong dark figures contrasted with bright linear, textural clothes in green, purple, and red. These carry a beach and swimming theme, although they are paused in complicated motion more than traditional sunbathers might expect.

All programs are free and open to the public. An adult must accompany children. Inclement weather cancels outdoor programs. Reasonable accommodations available upon request. Wheelchair accessible. Please follow all current COVID guidelines. Visit Mass.gov/COVID for more guidance. For more information call 413-863-3221 or visit: https://www.mass.gov/locations/great-falls-discovery-center; or email janel.nockleby@mass.gov. The Great Falls Discovery Center is located at 2 Avenue A, Turners Falls, MA 01376. Parking is free at the municipal lot on Second Street.

Explore the natural, cultural, and industrial history of the Connecticut River Watershed in our dynamic exhibits. Next to the Canalside Rail Trail, the center includes the Great Hall exhibit gallery, restrooms, and drinking water. Wheelchair accessible.

Ongoing through August 2

Enjoy a story, fresh air, and exercise! Join us on the grounds of the center for a FREE series of self-guided StoryWalks® featuring children’s picture books. Follow the path to book pages posted along the route. Wonderful stories await! This month features Dear Treefrog by Joyce Sidman for ages 4-7, and anyone seeking connections with wildlife. The StoryWalk® Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and developed in collaboration with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. Story Walk® is a registered service mark owned by Ms. Ferguson. This StoryWalk® is provided by Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Interpretive Services.

Friday, July 15, 10:30—11:30 a.m.

For ages 3-6, accompanied by an adult. Discover more about our wildlife neighbors who share our home in the Connecticut River Watershed. Program includes a story, activities, and a craft. Activities are indoors and outdoors. Meet in the Great Hall courtyard or in the Great Hall, depending on the weather. Our topic on July 1 is eagles, and on July 15 it is frogs. Siblings and friends welcome.

Friday, July 8, 7:00—9:00 p.m.

The Coffeehouse is back! Join us this summer season in the Great Hall for four concerts featuring local talent to support the Great Falls Discovery Center. Just Fine Thank You band plays electric-ukulele driven arrangements of songs ranging from country to jazz standards to punk rock. Refreshments available. Sliding scale suggested donations all support educational programming at the Center. Discovery Center and store open during intermission. Additional concerts will be August 12, September 9, and October 14.

Ongoing, July 15 — July 27

The Montague Parks & Recreation Summer Camp 2022 presents Summer Fun Week, with a focus on amphibians. Come see local young artists’ interpretations of frogs and more!

Saturday, July 23, 10:30 a.m.—12:00 p.m.

Discover nature through story, poetry, and art in our series of FREE Art Naturally programs. Using words and images, instruction and techniques help you create an art piece inspired by the natural world to take home. For adults, teens, and children ages 6 and up (accompanied by an adult). Meet in the Great Hall. All materials are provided. The series continues next month!

Ongoing, July 30 — August 30

Hippocrates’ timeless maxim implies that food we ingest can strengthen or weaken us, cure and prevent illness. This exhibit in the Great Hall features Leonore Alaniz’ imprints that capture the anatomy and life force of edible plants. They grow wild and are cultivated in local farms. Includes works by other artists and poets and a reception on Saturday, August 13 with medicinal treats. Also, later in August, you can see a plant printing demonstration and attend an intergenerational art activity.

A group exhibition

July 28-Aug 28

John Chadis

Margi Smith

Barry Berman

The public is invited to join the artists for the Opening Reception on Thursday, July 28 from 5-7:00

Inner Space Fine Arts

189 Main Street

North Reading, MA 01864

Open: Wednesday 1-5:00, Thursday & Friday 1-6:00, Saturday & Sunday 12-4:00

John Chadis brings his lifelong work in printing to his practice in photography. His forty-year career afforded him the opportunity to collaborate with designers, photographers, artists, and dreamers to create the best visual expressions possible on paper. His personal photographic journey has always been a more deliberate affair. For John, being able to spend time wandering, observing, and capturing light is a gratifying way of slowing the world down a moment in time. Featured: Provincetown Beach Grass

Painting is an intuitive process for Margi Smith. Color and form appear and take shape as the process unfolds. Her work takes on a history and story that is told and shared through the many layers of paint and marks made. Margi’s latest series is influenced by her walks through beautiful small town country roads with dear friends. Margi believes art changes how we see and experience life, it changes our perspectives and makes us feel at a very deep level, sparking our brain so that we pay a little more attention to the world around us as we experience it in richer ways. Featured: Sparking like hot Wires

Barry Berman’s art is inspired by poet Mary Oliver. “Pay attention. Be Astonished. Tell about it.” The lens is Barry’s tool to find beauty, tell stories, and inspire action. You can find him on the beaches, in the mountains, in the forest or on the streets. Everything he sees, you can see too, with eyes and hearts wide open. As Barry’s style and voice evolve, his method of purposeful wandering brings him in touch with life’s beauties, wonders and struggles. Featured: Great Blue Heron

FAM at Home art activities and tips for creating art with children. Create with us from home!

Explore the artistic techniques, concepts, and themes behind Fitchburg Art Museum’s permanent collection artworks through these fun creative projects. Explore the full list of tutorials below. Click here for information on how to best use these resources.

Worcester Art Museum offers online, in-person, and off-site programs that cover a variety of subjects and media. In-person classes are held either in the galleries or WAM’s studios, and have reduced class sizes. WAM is following current CDC guidelines. Online classes are taught through Zoom and are encrypted and secure.

Call or email with questions, to register over the phone, or to request a print brochure!

Phone: 508.793.4333

Email: classes@worcesterart.org

Sponsored by the Monadnock Area Artists Association, the Art in the Park outdoor art show is now accepting artists applications for its 63rd Annual Show to be held in Ashuelot River Park, West Street, Keene, NH on Labor Day Weekend, Saturday and Sunday, September 3 & 4, 2022 from 10 am – 4 pm both days, rain or shine.

New this year, online registrations for all artists! The Requirements and Application Form are available on the Monadnock Area Artists Association website or use the direct link to the application.

The deadline for applications for the same site as in 2021 is May 14, and for all other and new applications the deadline is: July 16, 2022

Fees: Monadnock Area Artists Association members, $100, non-members, $150. For artists interested in sharing a booth, fees are listed in the application. Payment now is through PayPal when you complete the online registration form. Please note: Fees are non-refundable.

All exhibitors are required to have their work on display for both days from 10 am – 4 pm, rain or shine. Artists or a representative must be present at their booth during show hours. Site dimensions are approximately 10' X 10'. Exhibitors provide: tents, weights, display systems, and original artwork. Your booth should be at least 75% framed fine art/photography, or sculpture and only 25% additional products such as note cards, calendars, or bins of matted prints/photographs, if applicable. No nudes due to the City of Keene regulations for Art in the Park.

Security will be provided in the park overnight on Saturday evening – Sunday morning, tents and furnishing may be left up, but all artworks on display should be taken home and re-installed Sunday morning before 10 am.

Media accepted for Display:

Water Media, Acrylic, Oil, Pastel, Colored Pencil, Charcoal, Pen & Ink, Printmaking, Photography/Digital Art, Collage / Mixed Media, and Sculpture.

Judges will award Cash Prizes and Ribbons in Six Categories: (1)Water-Media (watercolor, acrylic, gouache), (2)Oil, (3)Pastel, Charcoal, (4)Pen and Ink, Colored Pencil, and Original Printmaking, (5)Photography/Digital Art, (6)Sculpture, Mixed Media and Collage.

Questions, Please contact:

Art in the Park Committee Member

Liz Winchester-Larson

Submissions are now being accepted through Sunday, July 31.

Call the Library at 978-297-0300 or visit the website for more information.

The Montague Reporter, a weekly community newspaper serving Montague, Gill Wendell, Leverett and Erving, invites local artists to submit designs for a special Wrapping Paper Edition. This special issue of the paper will be printed and sold to be used exclusively as recyclable and unique wrapping paper. The project is also a fundraiser for this independent, non-profit newspaper.

The paper will select seven artists from the Western Mass region to design wrapping paper pages this summer, based on their proposals and samples submitted by September 1. Each artist will be given the space of two full adjacent pages for their design, making a double page measuring approximately 20 by 22 inches. You may design in full color, black and white, or fifty shades of (G-rated) gray. Tattoo artists, comic illustrators, graffiti specialists, painters, street sketchers, kids, photographers, geometry nerds, type designers – all are encouraged to send in ideas for a wrapping paper!

The Wrapping Paper Edition will be printed during Thanksgiving week and sold throughout November and December, online and in stores. Each artist will receive a stipend of $200, thanks to cultural council funding from the towns of Montague, Wendell, and Gill, and the generosity of an anonymous donor. Artists will each receive ten copies of the Wrapping Paper Edition.

Send your contact information and a proposal for a unique wrapping paper design, along with up to three samples of finished work that represents your style (.jpegs please), to features@montaguereporter.org with “Wrap” in the subject line. Proposals are due by September 1, and selected artists will be contacted on Monday, September 12. Finished designs would be due at the end of October.

For more information about the project, contact features editor Nina Rossi at (413) 834-8800 or nalerossi@gmail.com.

Westminster now has a public art gallery open for showings by Westminster artists. "The Little Gallery at Town Hall" is now accepting applications from artists or artist groups who would like to exhibit 2-D work for a month-long show. For more information, visit the Town of Westminster website.

Art Support is a website dedicated to providing support and resources for artists of all types.

The following is just a small list of support provided to artists: Organizations Helping Visual Artists, US Government Art Organizations, State Agencies and Art Commissions, Non Governmental Art Organizations, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Laws Regarding Visual Arts, Artist Consultants, Grants for Artists & Grant Assistance, Artist Health Insurance, and many other legal support and resources for Massachusetts artists.

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Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) and check out the MCC blog ArtSake

The Painter's Keys where you can subscribe to twice weekly letters from artist Robert Genn.

Visit the Arts Marketing Project website for info, ideas, tools and training on marketing art.

Mini Grants for Professional Development are available through NewVue Communities. More information.

Heywood Hospital Wound Care Center  Gardner, MA  (GALA Sponsored Venue)

Contact Vicki Heidorn at  surroundingsgallery@gmail.com  or 978-630-2340

The Townsend Meeting Hall Art Gallery Townsend, MA

Contact Alice Struthers at astruthers1@comcast.net or 978-597-2057

River's Edge Arts Alliance Hudson, MA

The Arts Alliance has quarterly exhibits at the Hudson Town Hall, so if you are interested in a solo exhibit of your work, contact Danielle Moskowitz at (978) 562-1646 or dmoskowitz@upwitharts.org.

Falmouth Artists Guild Falmouth, MA

Post Road Art Center  Marlborough, MA

Levi Heywood Memorial Library Gardner, MA

The Library is always looking for exhibitors to show their work in the Art Gallery. If you are interested in exhibiting as an individual or a group, please contact the Library Director, Kathleen D. Leslie at 978-632-5298 or kleslie@cwmars.org

Workers' Credit Union  Gardner, MA

The West Boylston Arts Foundation (WBAF) is always looking for artists, crafters, or musicians that would like to offer workshops or classes.

There are many ways to volunteer! Please email info@galagardner.org to express your interest in helping out with our organization.

Please send your news "publication ready" to news@galagardner.org. See previous newsletters for example formats and the type of info to provide. We strongly recommend that you include a digital image related to the news as well as your website address & links to any venues. Image filenames should include the name of the artist and the work. Please post your press releases online whenever possible and submit a link.

If you would like your business logo inserted into our monthly newsletter for only $50 per year, contact us at info@galagardner.org.