Community Calendar

When Simi Berman begins a painting, she consciously avoids having an idea in mind. This is a deliberate departure from her previous approach as an illustrator, both in three dimensions (clay figures) and in drawing.

Now, in this latter period of her life, she allows spontaneous gestures to lead her where they will on a path of discovery and surprise, walking a tightrope between the conscious and unconscious mind. In the process there is the need to relate and balance alternating with the desire to throw things off a predictable course.

Working with collage, Berman uses a myriad of forgotten bits and pieces that she collects as she goes along; something of interest from the point of view of graphics or texture. She is particularly inspired by fragments of old posters ripped off the ancient walls that she comes upon during her trips to Italy. The urge is to create new life for these old fragments.

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Born in New York City, Simi Berman attended the High School of Music & Art as a music student. She feels that having had no formal training in visual art has allowed her freedom in the creative process.

For many years, her humorous terra cotta wall hangings were sold in galleries throughout the United States. This three-dimensional work later developed into a line of cards and prints with similar themes using watercolor and pen.

In 2000 Berman illustrated two books: At Grandmother’s Table (Fairview Press),and an Italian children’s story, Buon Natale, Natale (Franco Maria Panini). Berman initiated a program at Brooks Memorial Library where children’s book illustrators exhibited their behind-the-scenes work so children could see the actual process involved in creating the illustrations for their favorite books.

In 2003 Berman took a class in Art & Meditation with Barbara Campman (a past Next Stage exhibitor) at The River Gallery School, which changed the course of her path in art, leading to her current, more spontaneous approach. In addition to oils, watercolor and gouache, Berman works with collage, often combining bits of paper and found material with painting.

The Next Stage Gallery is open during events in the theater and by appointment.

William Baczek Fine Arts, in Northampton, Massachusetts is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new oil paintings by Robert Sweeney. The exhibition will be on display from Wednesday, February 14 through Saturday, April 1, 2023. The public is invited to an opening reception with the artist on Saturday, February 18 from 4 to 6 pm.

Artists’ Reception: March 9, 5-7 PM

MARGARET LLOYD:
Ascending and Descending Worlds
Margaret Lloyd is both a visual artist and a poet. All of the oil paintings in the exhibition are concerned with the creation of “place.” At times these paintings dwell more in the realm of abstraction than realism—never before seen, yet they strive to be as organic and palpable as the world we live in.
www.margaretlloyd.net

KATE MARION LAPIERRE
Kate Marion Lapierre creates colorful abstract paintings that can be complete abstraction or expressionist landscapes and florals. Kate has been an illustrator, art educator, and art therapist and continues to draw on those experiences while enjoying the painting process.

LYDIA KINNEY
Lydia Kinney is a painter based in Greenfield, Massachusetts. She graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2014 with a BFA in Painting, and was the recipient of department honors and the 2013 Rob Moore award. Lydia shows regionally throughout New England, often in the Pioneer Valley.

Award-winning artist Nora Krug’s powerful graphic memoir, Belonging: A German Reckons With History and Home, and her most recent book publication, an illustrated edition of Yale historian Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, will be the focus of an exhibition at Norman Rockwell Museum from March 18 through June 18, 2023. Each book takes inspiration from the artist’s personal experiences as well as the events of history through engagement with deep topical research, museum artifacts and flea market finds, vintage photography, oral histories, and personal conversations, with the goal of trying to understand, reckon with, and depict the past in order to take something revelatory and useful away from it.

The Amy H. Carberry Fine Arts Gallery at Springfield Technical Community College proudly presents the 40-year career retrospective of Western Massachusetts artist Dara Herman Zierlein.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Manhattan, Herman Zierlein remembers walking through the Metropolitan Museum of Art after school, getting lost in the painting galleries and sculpture gardens, and daydreaming of being an artist.

A longtime resident of the Pioneer Valley, Herman Zierlein has created numerous political paintings, posters, sculptures, and illustrations since the late 80s. She has written books, been on panel discussions, presented lectures and has exhibited her artwork internationally. Her published illustrations can be found in The Rumpus, Demeter Press, and The Nation magazine, among many. Her first children's book, 'Don't Eat the Plastic,’ published with Olympia Publishers/BumbleBee, focuses on the consequences of plastic pollution on our environment.

The Carberry Gallery is open: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 11am-3pm; Wednesday 11am-6pm, and Saturday 11-2pm

Come enjoy the “Member/Guest Exhibition” at the Gallery on the Green showcasing works by artists who belong to the Guild and their invited guests. Anticipating this annual event, members are continually on the lookout for outstanding artists within their network of friends and acquaintances. The result is inevitably a delightfully rich concentration of talent displayed in prints, drawings, paintings, sculptures, mixed media works, photographs, and fiber art.
Two additional exhibitions are featured upstairs: dynamic mixed media art by a trio of art educators and a solo show of exquisite oil and pastel works by Terre Lefferts. Lefferts’ exhibit, entitled “Effects of the Sun and the Moon,” is grounded in deep reverence for the natural world. She depicts the moody and often dramatic effects of sunset and moonrise in a variety of natural settings. Included are inland scenes, waterscapes, and cityscapes that span diverse terrain from New York to Connecticut, and from the Berkshires to Down-East Maine.
Lefferts’ pastoral and coastal scenes reflect her immersion in her dual residencies in Connecticut and Maine. Originally a dancer with a long professional career, she has always delighted in painting landscapes and still lifes. Her impressive art career includes numerous commissions and frequent exhibitions, including 23 solo exhibitions.
“Three of a Kind: Adventures in Mixed Media” presents a rich grouping of bold, energetic artworks by Amy Goldbas, Jill Pasanen, and Susan Spaniol. All art educators, these artists share the firm belief that creative process in the arts is essential to our well-being as individuals and communities. Working together for several years, they have continued to share a commitment to a dynamic approach. Each artist begins with spontaneous explorations, grapples with the emerging unknown, and celebrates the unpredictable results of their processes. Despite the similarities of their approach, their art offers a rich diversity of works ranging widely in media, size, and content that is both abstract and figurative.
Each artist has a broad and varied background in arts education and related pursuits. Goldbas enjoyed careers as a museum educator designing arts integrated programming before she became the Associate Director for Program Design for the Connecticut Office of the Arts’ Higher Order Thinking (HOT) Schools Program. Pasanen has had a career as a dance educator in the UK and Connecticut, including the Community Division of the Hartt School, CCSU, and Trinity College. A featured artist in several galleries, her work has been exhibited widely in the region. Spaniol’s various careers as an art therapy professor, writer, editor, and therapist have contributed to the depth and maturity of her visual art today. She has exhibited widely in solo shows and national exhibitions, earning numerous awards.
An opening reception is on Saturday, March 18 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. The public is warmly invited to attend this free reception.

Nan Salky and her daughter Helen Murphy will exhibit their art at Anchor House during the month of March. Nan Salky will exhibit new drawings on wood, collage and assemblage. Helen Murphy will exhibit drawings and paintings in gouache. The opening reception takes place during Northampton's "Arts Night Out" on Friday March 10th from 5-9 pm. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 1-6 pm.

Concert organist Nathaniel Gumbs is Director of Chapel Music at Yale University, where he coordinates music for three worshipping communities. Mr. Gumbs will be performing on The First Church's Richards, Fowkes organ. The programme will include music by Bach, Buxtehude, Mendelssohn, and Sowande.

Musical concert presented by Soirée of Western Mass. The event entails live performance with big screen imaging. The focus is on the meaning behind the songs of several great artists of the 20th century such as Frank Sinatra, Helen Reddy, Michael McDonald and others.

This concert is part of our national tour through New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine!