Invasion of the student artists

NORTHAMPTON — Young artists from JFK Middle School and Northampton High School will have their chance to shine in May as two city galleries exhibit their work.

Starting May 4 at the A.P.E. Gallery, a tradition continues of hosting an annual exhibit of a range of work from NHS students in grades 9-12, with special senior displays curated by students who have completed the NHS Honors Art program.

The overall exhibit is curated by NHS teachers Louise Martindell and Zoe Sasson and features drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, mixed-media and ceramics. A reception takes place 5-8 p.m. on May 12 during the city’s monthly Arts Night Out, with a performance by the NHS Jazz Workshop.

Meanwhile, Hosmer Gallery at Forbes Library will host the first exhibit by JFK art students, opening May 2; a reception also takes place May 12 from 5 to 8 p.m. The work, in a range of mediums, is curated by art teachers Emma Mendoker and Michelle Mallory.

 

Celebrating a unique chapter of local history

NORTHAMPTON — The David Ruggles Center will host its annual Founders Day Symposium May 6 to mark a key chapter in Florence history, and to honor a late professor and scholar who helped found the W.E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The symposium, which takes place at the Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity from 1 to 3 p.m., includes a presentation by guest speaker Lydia Moland, associate professor of philosophy at Colby College and author of a new biography of 19th-century writer and abolitionist Lydia Maria Child, who lived in Florence in the late 1830s and early 1840s.

In addition, attendees will pay tribute to John H. Bracey Jr., the activist, author and UMass scholar who died in early February. Erika Slocumb, a former student of Bracey’s, will speak about his influence on her and many others.

The Founders Day Symposium recognizes the creation of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Florence in 1842, an organization and living experiment in “radical equality” among races, genders, religions and social classes.

Additionally, from 10 to 11 a.m., Professor Moland will lead a “weed pulling” at the Lydia Maria Child Garden in the Grow Food Organic Community Garden, the same Florence land once worked by Lydia Maria Child. A further tribute to John Bracey takes place at the Ruggles Center itself from 3:30 to 5 p.m., with light refreshments.

Events are free but donations to the Ruggles Center are appreciated.

 

Art in the Hilltowns

CUMMINGTON and WILLIAMSBURG — Northampton can’t hog all the art headlines.

In the Cummington Community House Gallery, Wynne Llewellyn will be exhibiting a variety of prints and collages May 1-31. Llewellyn, who studied calligraphy before moving into painting and mixed media art, uses a delicate touch to create semi-abstract tableaus that can have a hint of Japanese woodblock prints.

Llewellyn says she works “in mixed media, usually pencil, pastel, acrylic, collage to create abstract paintings which evoke landscape, townscapes or lost civilizations.”

And at the Meekins Library in Williamsburg, Chesterfield resident Matt L. Barron is showing photos of rural U.S. post offices that he’s taken over several decades, a subject he first explored during family vacations when he was a kid.

His exhibit includes photos of distinctive offices from New England as well as New York, Delaware and Virginia.

Barron notes that rural post offices, aside from often being located in old houses, mill buildings, and other unusual structures, have long served as centers of community and news for small towns — and as such, they connect rural residents to the larger country.

“Nothing denotes rural character more than the pile of firewood stacked on the porch of the Plainfield, Massachusetts post office,” he writes. “You can’t get more Norman Rockwellian than the Taftsville, Vermont post office located in Watson’s Store that proudly sells local cheddar cheese.”

His exhibit runs through the end of May.

 

The spaceship is landing

WILLIAMSBURG — Some additional art will be on tap outside the Meekins Library this Saturday, April 29, when Chesterfield metal sculptor James Kitchen brings in one of his newer creations, “Steampunk Spaceship,” to celebrate National Library Week.

The spaceship is a sort of metal geodesic dome whose interior can be viewed through one side; inside is a giant red steering wheel surrounded by interlocking gears and shafts taken from old farm equipment and other sources.

Kitchen, a history buff and a big reader himself, says his goal is to spark more interest in reading among children.

The event begins at 1 p.m. and includes food and music, with Kitchen on ukulele and Dave Abbott on tuba. Special guests include Dave Christopolis and Josh Wachtel.

 

Seeking western Massachusetts artists

EASTHAMPTON — CitySpace is renewing its Pay It Forward program, inviting artists and organizations to apply for free use of the Blue Room, the performance and incubator space in Old Town Hall.

Pay It Forward provides access to the Blue Room for rehearsals, performances, and events from July to December. Artists can also apply for stipends for public performances hosted in the space.

Pay It Forward was introduced in 2022 to give artists and groups short-term residencies in the Blue Room, but CitySpace president Burns Maxey says the program now offers longer stays “to better reflect the needs of the performing arts community.”

“Providing access to space is the key ingredient of this program to nourish creative projects in Western Mass,” Maxey added.

Pay it Forward is open to all artists and organizations based in Hampden, Hampshire, or Franklin counties. Priority will be given to those who identify as Black, Indigenous, and artists of color or low-income artists.

Applicants may apply at cityspaceeasthampton.org/pif through May 12.

 

Coming together through music

AMHERST — The choir of First Church, along with Mak’hela, the Jewish Chorus of Western Massachusetts, will join forces for a May 7 concert at First Church to celebrate songs from different religions and work by Felix Mendelssohn.

Separately, Mak’hela, led by Elaine Broad Ginsberg and accompanied by Jamie Goodnow, will perform songs from the Jewish tradition, and the First Church Choir, led by Richard S. Matteson, the church’s minister of music, will offer songs from the Christian tradition.

“Together We Sing: A Multicultural Concert,” which begins at 2 p.m., will also feature three choruses from Mendelssohn’s “Elija,” on which the groups will sing together.

A $15 donation is suggested at the door. A reception will follow the concert.

— Compiled by Steve Pfarrer

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