Northampton Summer Park Series ready to roll
NORTHAMPTON — For the sixth year, the Northampton Arts Council will host its Northampton Summer Park Series, live music and dancing throughout the summer in Pulaski Park downtown. Admission is free.
The concerts continue a long-held musical tradition that dates to the 1970s. There will be six shows this summer in July, August and September. Shows start at 5:30 p.m. and last until 7:30 p.m.
The schedule include: Friday, July 9: Cloudbelly, Lisa Bastoni & Sean Staples; Friday, July 16: Jake Manzi, Izzy Heltai; Friday, July 23: Editrix, Thee Arcadians; Tuesday, Aug. 3: Priya Darshini, Max ZT; Friday, Aug. 6: Salsa in the Park w/ KomboLoko; Dance instructors: Nector Garcia, Michael Rodriguez, Zamirah Santos. DJ Roger Jr. and the return of the KomboLoko live, playing a Tribute to Willie Colon; and Saturday, Sept. 4: Salsa in the Park w/ Dj Bongohead
Bring sunblock, drinking water, and a blanket to sit on. No pop up tents or chairs with metal legs are permitted on the grass turf at Pulaski Park. For questions contact arts@northamptonma.gov or call 413-587-1069.
Wedding gowns focus of new exhibit at Wistariahurst
HOLYOKE — Wistariahurst will open “Connecting Threads,” on July 8, a new exhibit from the Wistariahurst Textile Collection featuring 15 wedding gowns, stories from the past, and opportunities for visitors to share their own photos and memories. The exhibit will be hosted inside the historic mansion of Wistariahurst, with timed access by preregistration, and also online at www.Wistariahurst.org.
The exhibit will be staged on the first floor of the historic mansion at Wistariahurst. Visitors will be asked to preregister for their visits, and once inside will have the opportunity to self-guide through the exhibit and the historic spaces of the old Skinner estate. Many of the gowns are made of silk produced in the former Skinner mills of Holyoke.
In conjunction with the exhibit, on July 15 at 6:30 p.m, Emily Whitted, textile historian, will give a live, online presentation titled “Marriage and Memory: The Material Meanings of the Wedding Dress.” The event is free and preregistration is live on Wistariahurst’s website.
In addition to the exhibit, Wistariahurst has opened back up this spring with guided garden tours, and various community-based events and programs.
Wistariahurst is an educational and cultural center owned and operated by the city of Holyoke and supported by The Wistariahurst Foundation.
Hilltown 6 Pottery tour on tap for late July
In celebration of its 15th year, the Hilltown 6 potters will be returning to their traditional fourth weekend in July as they welcome visitors back to their studios. The popular Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour offers ceramic artists’ wares for viewing and purchase, along with kiln and studio tours.
The tour, scheduled for July 24-25 in person and online, has earned national recognition as one of the premier craft events in the Northeast, drawing visitors from across the region and beyond. Hilltown 6 celebrates a diversity of expression of this ancient yet contemporary art, showcasing work from functional mugs to sculptural objects, in an array of varied clays, colors, surfaces, and forms.
This year, many guest artists bring fresh variety to the online offerings on view. Visitors can watch a master potter turn a hunk of clay into a beautiful pot or see inside a massive wood kiln and hear how it is fired during the free pottery demonstrations throughout the weekend. Meet the potters and learn about the varying work styles and practices of this talented group.
New this year: For the first time, longtime Hilltown 6 member Michael McCarthy will be welcoming visitors to his own studio in Goshen. And in response to the overwhelming success of last year’s online-only tour, Hilltown 6 members and guest artists will continue to offer their wares online, at the same time that the studios are open to visitors.
Visit hilltown6.com for a list of artists and more information.
Gallery A3 to open with July event
AMHERST — Gallery A3 in Amherst will feature “Inward & Outward” when it reopens in July for in-person visits for its monthly one- and two-person shows.
For “Inward & Outward,” Laura Holland turns inward, to discover still lives amidst domestic clutter in a series of handmade accordion books, while Janet W. Winston looks outward — up and down and across the horizon — to interpret beauty in the land and in constantly changing colors, weather, and movement in oil paintings and monotype prints.
The show will take place from July 1-31 at A3, located at 28 Amity St., 1D.
At an Artist Forum Online, on Thursday, July 15, at 7:30 p.m, Holland and Winston will talk about their work and invite conversation and questions. The event is free and open to the public, with pre-registration at gallerya3.com.
Work by GK Khalsa and Tom Morton will be featured in August.
Summer of music by Mohawk Trail Concerts
Mohawk Trail’s 2021 Summer Concert Series will be held outdoors in three locations this summer, in Montague Center, Shelburne Falls and Charlemont. All concerts are free; bring your own chair.
The schedule in July includes:
Fourth of July Jazz and Juggling, July 4, 4 p.m. (Rain date is July 3, 4 p.m.), Charlemont Federated Church, on the East lawn. Performers include John Clark, horn, with Andy Jaffe, piano, and Marty Jaffe, bass, with Rob Peck, Juggler.
Pianist Jiayan Sun on Saturday, July 10, at 5 p.m. (rain date is July 11, at 5 p.m.), Charlemont Federated Church, on the East lawn. (Jiayan and the Steinway will be inside the Fellowship Room, with all the windows open.)
Masako Yanagita, violin, and Estela Olevsky, piano on Saturday, July 17, at 5 p.m. (rain date is Sunday, July 18, 5 p.m.), Charlemont Federated Church, East lawn.
The Hirsch-Pinkas Piano Duo with Sally Pinkas and Evan Herssch, on Saturday, July 24 (rain date is July 25, 5 p.m.), Charlemont Federated Church, On the East lawn
Tinky Weisblat, Diva of Delight and Clifton Jerry Noble, piano, on Saturday, July 31, 5 p.m. (rain date is Aug. 1, 5 p.m., at Charlemont Federated Church, on the East lawn
Pousette-Dart Band to play the Worthington Golf Links
WORTHINGTON — The Worthington Golf Links will host Jon Pousette-Dart and his band for one night only in western Massachusetts on Aug. 26.
The Worthington Golf Links, at 113 Ridge Road, has been steadily expanding its summer concert series in recent years and is fast becoming a must stop for regional and local bands. With this season’s Pousette-Dart show, the Links is establishing itself as a venue of choice for top tier acts.
Tickets for the show are available online at worthingtongolfclub.com/events. All tickets are $30, plus a processing fee, for lawn general admission. Blankets and lawn chairs are welcome. No outside alcohol allowed. Food and adult beverages will be available for sale.
Sevenars Concerts announces its 53rd anniversary
Sevenars Concerts Inc., is excited to announce its 53rd anniversary season (1968-2021) of summer concerts. The music festival, held at the historic Academy concert hall in South Worthington, was once named by Time Magazine as “one of the best small music festivals in the USA” and stays close to its roots, pairing professional musicians from the Schrade and James families with other nationally and internationally known artists in an intimate idyllic setting near a rushing brook.
The academy is located at 15 Ireland St. just off Rte. 112. Concerts will take place Sundays at 4 p.m. from July 11-Aug. 15. For information, call 413-238-5854, or visit sevenars.org.
Admission is by a suggested $20 donation at the door. This summer’s lineup include:
Sunday, July 11: Sevenars 53rd Anniversary Opening Concert.
Join members of the Schrade and James family of musicians, the heart of Sevenars, in opening the 2021 season and marking the gradual emergence from Covid lockdowns and quarantines!
Due to pandemic travel and health issues, there will be just three family musicians for this year’s opening of piano and cello music — Rorianne Schrade, Lynelle James, and Christopher James — but with some novelties in store, there will be no lack of variety.
Sunday, July 18: The Elm Chamber Ensemble, with two Sevenars returnees, violinist Joel Pitchon and cellist extraordinaire Volcy Pelletier. They will be joined by prize-winning Georgian-born American Yelena Beriyeva.
Sunday, July 25: Jiayan Sun, piano, in All Beethoven
Sunday, Aug. 1: Taconic Chamber Players in Music of Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Jessie Montgomery, and Stephen Dankner
Sunday, Aug. 8: Alexis Walls, violinist, and Lynelle James, pianist.
Sunday, Aug. 15: The Bob Sparkman Trio, a jazz collaboration of clarinetist Bob Sparkman, pianist Jerry Noble, and bass guitarist Kara Noble.
