November brings new gallery spaces, small works with big ambitions, artists exploring identity and heritage, and enough holiday markets to make big-box shopping entirely unnecessary.
Here’s what’s happening across Central Massachusetts’ visual arts scene this month.
Juniper Rag, a project run by Michelle May and Payal Thiffault, has been running online exhibitions of regional and national artists for years now, with occasional bricks-and-mortar productions in borrowed spaces. Now they have real digs on the second floor of the Crompton Collective. Their newest installation, “Collector’s Edit,” celebrates the gift of art, with gallery hours Wednesday through Sunday.
The Printers Building is chock-full this month. At ArtsWorcester, the annual members’ Small Works exhibition offers more than 200 pieces no larger than 10 inches in any direction for your delight, exploration and holiday gift-giving. In the East Gallery, Andi Pickler’s saturated, jewel-toned paintings, Drinks On Me, bring us scenes and portraits from lesbian bars across the U.S. — including Worcester’s own now-famous Femme. (Opening reception Saturday, Nov. 14, 2-5 p.m., with after-party at Femme; exhibitions run through Dec. 13.)
On the third floor, a partnership between ArtsWorcester and the Greater Worcester Community Foundation showcases this year’s Assets for Artists fellows — 10 Worcester County artists, in all disciplines, who have just completed a six-month fellowship. Their pursuits include flamenco, poetry, embroidery, mixed-media installations, music, drama and more. A public gallery reception takes place Friday, Nov. 20, 6-8 p.m., and a live performance event (free, RSVP required) on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 6-8 p.m. (Through Dec. 13.)
On the seventh floor, at Crocodile River Music, “This Is Your Archive,” created and curated by Haitian American artist Lynn Thibault, brings together stories, reflections and photographs of Worcester residents alongside works from local artists and community members. Most recently manager of community relations at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, this is Thibault’s last contribution to the Worcester art scene before she relocates to a new future in Rwanda. (Public celebration Friday, Nov. 6, 6-8 p.m.; on view until Nov. 13.)
For one month only: Tim de Christopher at the Worcester Art Museum’s Open Door Gallery. De Christopher began his art career in 1977 while living in New York’s Lower East Side and attending Cooper Union. Now best known as a stone carver — his gargoyles, figures and carvings can be found from New York City to his home in Turners Falls — this “maximalist” retrospective brings together his stone carvings, paintings, prints and drawings, along with his “legacy of creativity, humor, and gift for elevating the everyday.” (Through Dec. 6.)
At the JMAC, Mexican interdisciplinary artist Flor Delgadillo curates “Raices de Amor,” a six-artist exhibition running Nov. 3-22. An opening reception and a performance — with poetry and burlesque — take place Wednesday evening, Nov. 11.
Ongoing at the Fitchburg Art Museum: Elisa Hamilton: “Heirlooms,” a vibrant series of colorful, energetic abstracts reflecting on a handcrafted quilt she inherited from her great-grandmother, and celebrating how family artifacts carry our most enduring memories. If this weren’t enough, Kaleidoscope, FAM’s stunning collection show in celebration of its centennial anniversary, remains on view as one of the most important Central Massachusetts art events of this decade. If you don’t believe me, believe The Boston Globe. (Both through 2027.)
No need for any big-box shopping as we get ready for the holiday season. Nov. 27-29, Thanksgiving weekend, brings us the annual Holiday Festival at the Worcester Center for Crafts, three happy, evergreen-scented days with more than 50 of the region’s finest vendors of craft, gifts, jewelry, homewares and other delights.
And on either side of that weekend, we have an exciting new venture: the Worcester Holiday Market at the downtown Mercantile Center, running for two weekends, Nov. 19-22 and Dec. 3-6. Organized by Pulse Magazine, festival pro Tina Zlody and other friends from the stART on the Street days, this new event should bring no end of handcrafted goods, gifts, home decor, gourmet food items, wearables and wellness products.
The second weekend coincides with the city’s Holiday of Lights festival, with light displays, music, ice skating and more on the Worcester Common.
Even funkier is the Worcester Artist Group’s Coal Train Express Winter Art Market at the White Room, Dec. 3. Perhaps there will be another Airing of Grievances?
Last calls: “Inherited Echoes” at the Harold Stevens Gallery at WCUW, an exhibition of U.S.-based artists with Central American roots (closing Nov. 14); sculptures by Bayda Asbridge at the Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery at Worcester State (closing Nov. 21); and an absolute must-see: Queens, Gods, and Devotees: Selections from the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art at the Cantor Gallery at Holy Cross, featuring Massachusetts’ own Imo Nse Imeh among some of the biggest names in Black art (closing Nov. 24).
Juliet Feibel is executive director of ArtsWorcester. The Art of Worcester is her monthly, opinionated and decidedly non-exhaustive look at galleries, museums, artists and visual arts throughout Central Massachusetts. Sometimes a roundup, sometimes a closer look, the column explores the people, places and ideas shaping the region’s arts scene. Reach her at juliet@artsworcester.org.
Have an exhibition, performance art event, craft show or other arts happening you’d like to share? Send tips and announcements to Worcester Guardian editor Charlene Arsenault at carsenault@theworcesterguardian.org.
