Welcome to the Blackstone Valley Art Association webpage! We have been supporting arts in the Blackstone Valley since 1957. Our main gallery is in Uxbridge; we sponsor numerous shows, events, and workshops throughout the year. This website provides hundreds of pages on local art shows, art events, field trips, workshops, museum visits, and much, much more. We even have a lending library. We are warmly inclusive of all levels, backgrounds, and abilities. Feel free to contact us with any questions!
This Uxbridge gallery is supported in part by BVAA member dues, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and by ValleyCAST. The space use is kindly donated to us by ValleyCast, the community outreach department of Open Sky Community Services. Open Sky uses this space for special-needs client activities during daytime weekdays. They allow the BVAA use of the space – and its gallery walls – on evenings and weekends. We actively support their inclusive mission. All are welcome to all of our events and activities!
Worcester Center for Crafts, in collaboration with ValleyCAST, has invited BVAA artists to exhibit in their Community Gallery for their annual event Hot Night in the City!
This amazing artistic event draws in crowds of 3,000 people. Our artwork would be featured down the main hallway of the center. It is a prime opportunity for visibility and sales!
When: June 28 to July 25, 2026
Where: Worcester Center for Crafts 25 Sagamore Road Worcester, MA 01605
Each BVAA member may exhibit up to three art items. All forms of media are warmly encouraged – paintings, mixed media, photography, textiles, sculpture, and more.
Entering the Show Thanks to a kind donation from ValleyCAST, this show will be FREE for BVAA members to enter. ValleyCAST will cover the cost of the prizes and ribbons for us. Thank you, ValleyCAST!!
Note that as this is a non-BVAA-gallery show YOU CAN ENTER PIECES THAT HAVE BEEN IN PREVIOUS BVAA SHOWS. You shouldn’t enter any piece which was in the 2024 or 2025 Hot Night in the City show. Select the works which you feel best represent you!
Artwork can be any size. That being said, please contact us first if you plan on bringing anything over 20″ x 30″ in size. We need to arrange for space for those separately.
All art must be family friendly and properly wired for hanging. Our hanging system does not work with saw-tooth or triangle hangers. If you are new to preparing art for shows, read our page on How to Mat and Frame a Photo. You may choose to have your artwork listed as not for sale.
All art items which are entered are displayed. There is no “pre-selection” process where some are accepted and others are rejected. If you submit artwork, and it is family-friendly and wired properly, it will be part of our show.
Submissions To submit your entries use our BVAA Online Submission Form. The deadline to submit your online details is midnight on Saturday, June 27, 2026 . Work must be dropped off at the Worcester Center for Crafts on Sunday, June 28, 2025 from 10am to 1pm. Please do not bring in art to the gallery at other times. All work which is brought in will be displayed (as long as it is properly wired and is family-friendly).
We plan on arranging / labelling the show on Sunday, June 28 as work is being dropped off starting at 10:00 am. Please don’t be late! If you are unable to bring your work on that date, please contact us to make other arrangements.
As this show will not have a reception, and is not in our gallery, there will be NO commission on sales. The artist gets the full amount.
Judging Judged for monetary prizes to be determined. Thank you ValleyCAST!!
Opening Reception In lieu of an opening reception, everyone is invited to attend Hot Night in the City on Friday, July 17, from 4:00-9:00 pm. This is a free event.
Pick Up Sunday, July 26, 2026, from 10am to 1pm at the Worcester Center for Crafts. If you aren’t able to make that, please contact us for other arrangements.
Talented artist Randy LeSage will be joining us again for a FREE amazing printing hands-on workshop! Randy teaches at the Worcester Art Museum and we’re joyful to have him back. We had a blast with our last monoprint workshop back in 2015. We still talk about it!
Monoprinting means printing in a way which can’t be reproduced exactly again. This is different from ‘traditional’ printing. In traditional printing, when an artist for example carves a block of wood, inks it, and presses a piece of paper to the design, that print would be reproducible. You simply re-ink the carved block and put down another piece of paper. In comparison, monoprinting is a one-time-only print. The act of making the print alters the original.
Monoprinting is very creative and freeing!
Our April 2026 monthly meeting is open to the public. It will be held on Tuesday, April 21st, 2026 from 6:30-9pm.
Location: BVAA Open Sky Uxbridge Community Gallery 5 South Main Street Uxbridge, MA 01569
The space is fully handicapped / disability accessible with no stairs. It is immediately next to a large free parking lot.
This meeting and workshop is free and open to the public. No experience is necessary. The fun of our workshops is that we all try new things we’ve never done before.
Our meetings cover BVAA organization business from 6:30-7:00pm (-ish, sometimes we end the talking part earlier). Then we transition into the workshop part of the evening. Feel free to come for whichever part interests you the most. In general, our monthly meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month unless otherwise announced.
All are welcome – this workshop is open to BVAA members and non-members. Feel free to bring along a friend! We’d love to see you there to try some new things and explore your creativity!
Artist’s Statement
Randy LeSage is an artist and teacher. He works in printmaking, drawing, painting and mixed media. In the area of printmaking, he enjoys methods of etching, relief block, collagraph, lithography and monotype. Monotype offers him the chance to work in ‘painterly’ approaches, freeing up printmaking through its spontaneity.
Randy has exhibited in various venues in New England, including the Worcester Art Museum, the Fitchburg Art Museum and Creative Connections in Ashburnham, MA.
Randy currently teaches at the Worcester Art Museum and has taught at Framingham State University, Clark University and Worcester State University.
To learn more about Randy LeSage and his art, visit:
Lisa Shea did a two-hour video workshop on Gelli plate monoprint printmaking back during the Pandemic, when the BVAA was creating art-from-home videos. This video explores the basics of monoprinting.
Featured image: Night Rain at Koidzumi by Utagawa Hiroshige, Worcester Art Museum
Enjoy fun casual photography with other photographers! Join us on Friday April 24th 2026 from 2-4pm for our photography stroll at the Worcester Art Museum! All levels of photographers warmly encouraged to participate. This event is open to the public.
Non-photographers are welcome to join us to walk around and enjoy the exhibits. We all appreciate the artwork while we’re there.
Note that because we are holding this month’s gathering at the Worcester Art Museum, YOU MUST PAY AN ENTRANCE FEE TO THE WAM. That entrance fee is $22. You can find discount or free tickets at many local libraries. Check with your libraries to find an inexpensive way to get into the museum. If you are an individual served by Open Sky, talk with Open Sky about being sponsored for this event. You pay that entry fee directly to the museum when you arrive.
We will meet inside the Worcester Art Museum by the Roman mosaic / entrance to the Chapter House at 2pm. BVAA President Lisa Shea will provide a brief introductory discussion of ideas for taking photos in an indoor setting. Then we will explore the museum from 2-4pm. You can roam on your own, stay with the group, and ask questions whenever you wish. Feel free to come early or stay late!
Please be sure to RSVP to join the group so we know to wait for you. If you’d like help, let Lisa know what type of cellphone or camera you plan on bringing. Lisa can then send you a PDF of ideas to get you started. If you don’t have access to any cellphone or camera, we have a few we would be able to lend for the afternoon.
Let us know if you have any questions! And please make sure you research your Worcester Art Museum tickets beforehand. That way you can get discount tickets from your local library or from Open Sky (if applicable) to save on your entrance fee.
Whether you participate in the field trip or not, please consider then sending in a few of your green-themed photos to participate in the free ValleyCAST virtual art show. This show has a deadline of April 30th, 2026!
Congratulations to the winners of our 2026 “Local Beauty” community art show! This show was held from Feb 28th to April 4th 2026. It was open to all local artists. This was a voter’s choice show, meaning every visitor could cast one vote for first, second, and third. Here is the tally of the winners!
First Place: Ava Jack “Grafton Gazebo” acrylic painting
Second Place: George Hancin “River Bend Farm #2” oil painting
Third Place: Dave Skillins “Edge of Rice City Pond” cut paper
Honorable Mention: Charlotte Foley “Cormier Woods” photography
Honorable Mention: Dave Skillins “First Day of Spring” pen and ink
Honorable Mention: Lindsey Gay “Sunset Drive through Uxbridge” gouache and pen
Thank you to everyone who voted and participted in this show!
Talented artist Shelly Eager is coming back to the Blackstone Valley Art Association for another amazing demo! You might recall the demo Shelly did for us back in 2023 on the way color, lightness, and other changes to your painting can greatly alter its mood. Now Shelly will be providing another set of wonderful tips for any painter in any medium.
Shelly will demo how doing two beginning procedures can help ensure the overall painting process goes much more smoothly. Shelly will also show how to paint more quickly and freely, helping you to create a painting which is full of life. These techniques will work with any style of painting.
Our March 2026 monthly meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 17th, 2026 from 6:30-9pm.
Location: BVAA Open Sky Uxbridge Community Gallery 5 South Main Street Uxbridge, MA 01569
The space is fully handicapped / disability accessible with no stairs. It is immediately next to a large free parking lot.
This meeting and workshop is free and open to the public. No experience is necessary. The fun of our workshops is that we all try new things we’ve never done before.
Our meetings cover BVAA organization business from 6:30-7:00pm (-ish, sometimes we end the talking part earlier). Then we transition into the workshop part of the evening. Feel free to come for whichever half interests you the most. In general, our monthly meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month unless otherwise announced.
All are welcome – this workshop is open to BVAA members and non-members. Feel free to bring along a friend! We’d love to see you there to try some new things and explore your creativity!
To learn more about Shelly Eager and her art, visit:
Happy 10th Anniversary to the collaboration of the Blackstone Valley Art Association and the ValleyCAST organization! We are so proud of all we have achieved together in these past ten years, and we look forward to an amazing future of creativity, art, and inspiration!
Extraordinary Director of ValleyCAST Cristi Collari first contacted the Blackstone Valley Art Association in August 2015. Cristi was in charge of the Heritage Gallery at the Whitin Mill in Whitinsville, Massachusetts. Inspired by our artwork, Cristi asked if we would like to hold our annual Fall Show in the Heritage Gallery space. We enthusiastically agreed!
That first art show, our BVAA 58th Annual Fall Show, was held in November to December of 2015.
We had a great turnout at the Whitin Mill and loved working with Cristi Collari.
The collaboration worked so well that Cristi asked us to host our 4th Annual “Anything Goes” Photography Show at another gallery she oversaw – the ValleyCAST gallery space at Alternative’s location at 5 South Main Street in Uxbridge. We joyfully agreed and set that up for Jan 13th – Feb 29th, 2016.
At the time we were holding our monthly meetings at the Northbridge Senior Center. The main other show being held in the Uxbridge gallery space was the fall-winter “Tapestry” community art show. BVAA members participated heavily in this show. For the 2016 Tapestry Show, our members won first and second place.
We added a new show to our cycle – the “Show of Hands” anything-but-photography show, to serve as a counterpoint to our “Anything Goes” January show. We held this in Uxbridge in August-September 2017.
Our wonderful shared experiences led to the delightful collaborative idea – that the Blackstone Valley Art Association would become the primary gallery manager of the 5 South Main Street location and use this space as our Home Base! We announced this on August 20, 2017!
Over the years Alternatives became part of the larger Open Sky group. ValleyCAST has maintained its commitment to arts, culture, and inclusivity! ValleyCAST is the Arts & Culture arm of Open Sky Community Services.
Thank you to Cristi Collari for reaching out to us back in 2015, and for all her support, encouragement, and inspiration in the ten years since! We treasure you!
Here is how to learn more about all that ValleyCAST does. ValleyCAST’s mission is to foster a creative and engaged community in the Historic Blackstone Valley that is inclusive and supportive of all people with and without disabilities.
Talented artist Bev Tinklenberg has a solo show at the Charlton Public Library for the month of March 2026! The show is located in the main foyer area. Stop by any time the library is open to enjoy Bev’s artwork! Bev is one of our instructors – contact information is below these images.
Spring is a fresh beginning in the world of art! Come out and participate at our spring Milford TV Art Show! This art show is open to all current BVAA Members and is FREE to participate in.
The Milford TV Station is an active public location which creates a wide variety of cable TV shows. People come and go quite often. Our gallery consists of the walls of their long hallways. This public showcase gives us the opportunity to make numerous social media posts about the art. The public can then stop by Milford TV any time they are available to see the art and buy it.
This show is NOT JUDGED. It is a publicity opportunity. This means you can bring in ANY art you want, even if it’s been in a previous BVAA show. This is a great chance to get extra art off your walls, out of your basement, and out on public display.
This is a perfect way to showcase art to build your audience and to make a sale. There is no theme – you can bring in any wall-hanging art you wish! Art must be wired in order to hang on the hanging system.
Drop-Off Our show dropoff will be the week of February 23-27, 2026. Milford TV is generally open normal business hours, but call ahead to make sure someone will be there, just in case. Their phone number is 508-488-6445. If you can’t make any of those days / times let our contact Dominique Charest-Ciampa know at Dominique@milfordtv.net and we’ll figure something out.
If you still have art at Milford TV from a previous show, please pick it up during this time. We really need to cycle old art out to have space for fresh art there. Thanks!
Reception The reception for our March-April 2026 Milford TV Art Show will be held on Thursday April 23rd from 5-7pm. There isn’t an award ceremony for this free show – the show is a creative outlet for our artists and fans. Our Milford TV Art Show receptions are wonderful relax-and-talk-with-snacks events! Open to the public! All are welcome to attend!
Show Details for the Artists The Milford TV Station employees create the labels and perform the hanging for us. There is no need to use the BVAA online submission form to indicate what you’re bringing. Simply be sure to label the back of each piece with its title, your name, contact info, and the price. The Milford TV employees need to be able to look at the back of the artwork to know how to label it.
This show is for BVAA members only and is free to participate in.
The Milford TV station does not take any commission on sales. Neither does the BVAA. This is an ideal sales venue, and we do see sales regularly at this venue.
This is a long hallway – bring up to five pieces to represent your art! The items can be any size or shape – Milford has a great hanging system which can accommodate pretty much anything. If you are working in a smallish size which can vertically stack, you can bring up to 10 pieces.
Pickup We’ll figure out a pickup time for sometime in late April 2026, which will then be the drop-off date for the May-June show.
Here are some photos from previous Milford TV Station shows, to give a sense of what the space is like.
The Blackstone Valley Art Association is sponsoring its eighth annual Series Show! This is a fun, creative art show which celebrates the magic of creating artwork in a series.
This show is for all BVAA members to participate in. You can submit two or three artwork items as your series. They can be related to each other in any way that you wish. It’s wholly up to you to define the theme of your series.
Maybe they are all shades of blue. Maybe they’re all landscapes. Do they all involve triangles? Cows? You can mix your artwork styles. Do one photo, one sculpture, and one watercolor painting. Explore your creativity!
When: June 6 (dropoff) to July 11, 2026
Where: BVAA / Open Sky Uxbridge Community Art Gallery 5 South Main Street Uxbridge, MA 01569
There is a TON of free parking immediately next to this building. It is fully and easily handicapped accessible.
Each BVAA member may exhibit a single series of two or three art items. These will be judged *as a series* (i.e. one prize for a whole group) for cash prizes. Note that you CAN submit items which you’ve submitted separately for judging before. This time they’ll be judged as an entire series. Also, when you submit items to this show as part of a series you CAN then submit them separately for a future show as individual items. This here is a fairly unique show in that we’re judging the art items as one coherent “group”.
Entering the Show The entry fee for this show is $20 for two to three pieces. Note that you can’t submit just one item. This submission needs to be 2 or 3 items which relate to each other. The art items can be presented in one overall frame if you wish, as in a triptych frame.
Artwork can be any size. That being said, please contact us first if you plan on bringing anything over 20″ x 30″ in size. We need to arrange for space for those separately.
All art must be family friendly and properly wired for hanging. Our hanging system does not work with saw-tooth or triangle hangers. If you are new to preparing art for shows, read our page on How to Mat and Frame a Photo. Please also check out our Show Terms and Conditions. This includes all details including the 25% commission for any sales of exhibit artwork in the gallery. You may also choose to have your artwork listed as not for sale.
All art items which are entered are hung. There is no “pre-selection” process where some are accepted and others are rejected. If you submit artwork, and it is family-friendly and wired properly, it will be part of our show.
Submissions To submit your entries use our BVAA Online Submission Form. The deadline to submit your online details is midnight on Saturday, June 6, 2026. Work must be dropped off on Saturday, June 6, 2025 between 10am and 3pm. Please do not bring in art to the gallery at other times. All work which is brought in will be hung (as long as it is properly wired and is family-friendly).
We plan on arranging / labelling the show on Wednesday, June 10th starting at 6:30pm. We’d love to have you join us! Please contact us in case we change the date or time.
Judging Judge to be announced. We do not pre-announce judge names.
Reception The reception for the show is Friday, June 12th from 5-7pm. Invite family and friends – all are welcome!
Pick Up Saturday, July 11, 2026, from 10am to 3pm. If you aren’t able to make that, please contact us for other arrangements. Please do not pick up art on other days from Open Sky personnel. We’ll help you figure out a time that a BVAA person is present to handle the pickup.
The Blackstone Valley Art Association is sponsoring its annual BVAA Spectacular Spring Show – this is our 68th year! The show is open to all BVAA members. If you’re not yet a BVAA member, now’s the time to join us!
When: April 4 to June 6, 2026
Where: BVAA / Open Sky Uxbridge Community Art Gallery 5 South Main Street Uxbridge, MA 01569
About the Show: The Blackstone Valley Art Association celebrates its 68th year with its annual Spectacular Spring show. This open-themed extravaganza features the very best artwork from its diverse membership. We explore stunning black and white photography, soaring landscapes, delicate watercolors, swirling acrylics, precisely detailed oil paintings, and much, much more. Our members range from teens to retirees, from those just starting out to award-winning Putney Painters. We warmly invite you to our opening reception where you can enjoy insightful conversations with the artists and infuse inspiration into your life!
Entering the Show The entry fee for the Spectacular Spring show, open to all styles of artwork, is $8/piece or $20 for three. You can submit up to three pieces. The theme is wide open. You can submit a portrait, landscape, still life, abstract, seascape, you name it. Your imagination is the limit. Because this show is judged, you cannot enter anything which has previously been submitted for a BVAA judged show. It’s fine to enter works which have been in non-judged BVAA shows.
All artwork must be family friendly. Any hanging artwork MUST BE properly wired for hanging. The gallery will not accept non-wired wall-hanging artwork. If you are new to preparing hanging artwork for shows, read our page on How to Mat and Frame Artwork. Please also check out our Show Terms and Conditions
Submissions To submit your entries use our BVAA Online Submission Form. The deadline to submit the online form is midnight on Saturday, April 4th, 2026. Work should be dropped off that Saturday, April 4th from 10am to 3pm. All work which is brought in will be hung (as long as it is properly wired and is family-friendly).
We will have a sign-in sheet. Please make sure you sign your art in so we can track what is in the gallery.
The show will be hung on Wed, April 8th from 4-6pm. We’d love to have you come participate! Hanging is easy and fun now that we have the wall hanging system. It’s all about figuring out which artwork styles go together.
Judging This show awards cash prizes based on the number of entries received. The judge for this show is to be determined.
Opening Reception The opening reception for the show is: Friday, April 10th, 2026 5-7pm
There’ll be music, fun, and lively conversation! Bring a snack to share – just how creative can you get? Lisa might bring her ladybug-tomato-on-mozzarella! That is nice and springy!
Please invite family and friends – all are welcome!
Viewing Hours Mondays through Saturdays 10am-3pm. If coming during the week, note that Open Sky uses this space for their work with clients. Call ahead to make sure someone will be there.
Pick Up Pick up for this show is:
Saturday June 6th, 2026 10am-3pm
If you aren’t able to make that, contact us for other arrangements. Address any questions via our BVAA Contact Information
Ask with any questions! We look forward to seeing your entries!
