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!
Here are the winners from our 2024 art show held at the Worcester Center for Crafts! Congratulations, everyone!
Congratulations to Young Farwell for first place in our show at the Worcester Center for Crafts “On The Way Home” oil $800.
Congratulations to Al Weems for second place in our show at the Worcester Center for Crafts with his photo “Progress” $350.
Congratulations to Brandi Van Roo for third place with her watercolor “Whitin Machine Works” at the Worcester Center for Crafts art show!
Congratulations to Pamela Gover for an Honorable Mention for “Fish Dinner” oil $425 in our art show at the Worcester Center for Crafts
Congratulations to James Hunt for an Honorable Mention for “Bernat Mill Entrance Uxbridge 2017” photo on metal $750 in our art show at the Worcester Center for Crafts
Congratulations to Susan Johnson for an Honorable Mention for “Village in the Fog” monoprint $125 in our art show at the Worcester Center for Crafts
Here are the sunflower artwork items being submitted for the 2024 Sunflower art show at the Booklovers’ Gourmet in Douglas, Massachusetts. Each BVAA member can submit up to two art items for the show. Deadline to submit is July 28th 2024! We can fit about 18 items in the space.
Note that this online gallery crops the images into a grid – click on an image to see its full shape!
Bing provides a free way to generate AI / Artificial Intelligence artwork on demand. You type in a prompt – a description like “three pink water lilies on a pond in Monet style”. In about thirty seconds, Bing provides you four different image variations on your chosen prompt. Then you can alter your prompt and try again.
In 2024, the BVAA hosted our annual Carbon Copies show which is all about fakes, forgeries, alternative versions of art, and fun explorations. For his submission to this show, Evan Plante submitted what was our first ever AI / Artificial Intelligence submission to an art show. He used the program from Bing (Microsoft). Evan wanted a new version of the classic Mona Lisa, an oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci from around 1517.
So what Evan did was go to the Bing AI Art website:
Evan created a free account with Microsoft. Then he typed in a prompt – a brief description of what he wanted. In 30 seconds, Bing had generated four versions of an image. Evan changed his prompt to better reflect his vision. In another 30 seconds, Bing generated this result (and three others):
As a later test for me, Evan typed in “polar bear flying a kite”. In 30 seconds Bing generated these results:
Here is a video version of the process, to see how this works:
Here is the link to our Carbon Copies show details, to show what our forgeries show is all about.
Many of our artists were intrigued by the AI art submission and wanted to understand how this process worked. I hope this write-up and video help explain the process.
Ask with any questions about Bing / Microsoft AI art or about AI art in general!
Our Eighth Annual BVAA Sunflower Show is the lucky way to enjoy golden beauty! Our Sunflower art show is held at the amazing local bookstore / gift shop / cafe Booklovers’ Gourmet.
Where? The sunflower art show is held at the: Booklovers’ Gourmet 72 E Main Street Webster, MA 01570
About the Show If there ever was a flower which symbolized glorious summertime, the sunflower is the one. Did you know that nearly all of the 70 species of sunflowers are native to North America? They can grow to be up to six feet tall and they even tilt as the sun moves so they always face it!
The Blackstone Valley Art Association is celebrating this sun-shaped delight with a sunflower show throughout the month of August at the Booklovers’ Gourmet in Webster. Come on out to appreciate the artistic visions and explore the shop’s offerings!
Submissions
The JPG email submission deadline for the sunflower show is Sunday, July 28th, 2024. We have limited wall space at the Booklovers’ Gourmet for 18 items sized around 16×20. The art doesn’t have to be exactly that size, but in that general range. Smaller is fine; massive 4′ by 8′ murals will not fit.
What we’ll do is have each member submit two JPGs of artwork via email to info@bvaa.org they’d like to include. If we get too many for the available wall space we’ll do a Facebook vote. All submissions will be in the virtual version of the show.
This show is open to all BVAA members and is FREE to participate in. This is not a judged show – it is primarily a visibility and sales opportunity. We pretty much sell artwork every year we hold this show. Note that Booklovers’ Gourmet is a book and small gift shop. The art that sells tends to be in the $40-$80 range, not the $300-$500 range. That being said, feel free to enter whatever art you’d like that is sunflower-themed. You never know what will catch a visitor’s eye!
Any sales will include a 30% commission taken by the shop. The BVAA takes no commission on this show. Full BVAA terms: BVAA Show Terms and Conditions
Drop-Off The drop-off for the Sunflower Show is Tue July 30th and Wed July 31st between 10am-5pm. Items should be dropped off directly at the Booklovers’ Gourmet shop. If you can’t make either date, contact Lisa Shea and she’ll arrange something. The Booklovers’ Gourmet shop will take care of hanging and labelling the items. Please make sure that the back of EVERY art piece is labelled with your name, the artwork title, its medium, and price. That way Deb knows what labels go with what pieces.
Public Reception Our sunflower show Artist’s Reception is Wednesday August 21st from 5:30 – 7pm. Please plan on attending! Invite family and friends! Share the news!
Pick-Up Pick-up for the show is Saturday August 31st from 12 noon to 5pm.
Theme This show is all about sunflowers! Anything related to sunflowers is fair game. Photography, paintings, drawings, sculptures, mosaics, you name it! Look through the artwork from previous years to see how other artists have tackled this theme.
Here are the submissions we have so far for 2024 –
The Blackstone Valley Art Association is sponsoring our sixth annual “Show of Hands” open art show! The public is warmly invited to participate in this art show! The theme is completely open. Your art can represent anything. This show is open to all forms of artistic expression EXCEPT photography / digital art. It is the counterpoint to our photography-only show in January. We would love to see watercolors, acrylic paintings, oil paintings, sculptures, pottery, mixed media, drawings, pastels, colored pencils, sketches, and other non-photographic / non-digital forms of artwork.
All levels of artists are enthusiastically encouraged to participate. This is a community show.
We award cash prizes!
When: August 3 to September 7, 2024
Where: BVAA Open Sky Uxbridge Community Gallery 5 South Main Street Uxbridge, MA 01569
There is a LOT of free parking immediately next to this building. It is fully and easily handicapped accessible.
Entering the Show The theme is wide open. You can represent ANYTHING with your art. Any topic can be addressed as long as it is family-friendly and is not photography / digital art. 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 wall-hanging items must be properly wired for hanging. Our hanging system does not work with saw-tooth or triangle hangers. If you are new to preparing artwork for shows, read our page on How to Mat and Frame a Photo. Please also check out our Show Terms and Conditions
Submissions To submit your entries use our BVAA Online Submission Form. The fee to participate is $15 for members and $20 for non-members. You can submit up to 2 pieces for that fee. The deadline to submit the online form for labels is Saturday August 3rd at midnight.
Drop Off of Works Work must be dropped off on Saturday, August 3rd between 10am and 3pm. Please only drop off at that specific day and time – it is when BVAA volunteers are at the gallery. All work which is brought in will be displayed in the show (as long as it is family-friendly and, if hanging on a wall, has proper wiring).
Opening Reception The show reception will be Friday, August 9th, 2024 from 5-7. Invite family and friends – all are welcome! We tend to announce the prize winners at 6pm, right in the middle. We award cash prizes based on the amount of entry-fee money the show brings in. All the money that comes in for the show goes right back out to the people who win awards in that show.
Pick Up Saturday, September 7th, 2024, from 10am to 3pm. If you aren’t able to make that, contact us for other arrangements.
Summertime is a busy time for many of our artists, so we keep our summer workshops light and fun.
The workshop will involve Carol Frieswick’s book and card set “The Artist’s Muse – Unlock the Door to Your Creativity”. There are bunches of cards with all sorts of challenges and prompts to get you thinking out of the box with your art. We’ll have watercolors, paper, and brushes on hand. If you have a preferred medium feel free to bring along your own paints, pencils, or camera. We will tackle the creative challenges with whatever we like to work with. Or, heck, if you normally work in one media, try changing over to another to see how it goes!
Our July 2024 monthly meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 16th 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. There is a bathroom.
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 and then go 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 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!
Ask with any questions!
Our meetings are supported in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Summertime is a busy time for many of our artists, so we keep our summer workshops light and fun.
The workshop will involve Carol Frieswick’s book and card set “The Artist’s Muse – Unlock the Door to Your Creativity”. There are bunches of cards with all sorts of challenges and prompts to get you thinking out of the box with your art. We’ll have watercolors, paper, and brushes on hand. If you have a preferred medium feel free to bring along your own paints, pencils, or camera. We will tackle the creative challenges with whatever we like to work with. Or, heck, if you normally work in one media, try changing over to another to see how it goes!
Our June 2024 monthly meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 18th 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. There is a bathroom.
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 and then go 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 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!
Ask with any questions!
Our meetings are supported in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
It’s our sixth annual Carbon Copies show! The Blackstone Valley Art Association is sponsoring a delightfully fun art show all about fakes, forgeries, and parodies!
Carbon Copies – Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
This Carbon Copies show is for all BVAA members to participate in. The idea is to find a famous work of art and then duplicate it! You can duplicate it exactly or you can add your own fun twist to it. You can paint a version of a Roger Fenton photo. You can stage a photo which resembles a Vermeer painting. Maybe you paint Mona Lisa as a cat.
The sky’s the limit!
The submitted artwork doesn’t have to be a painting. You can use digital art to poke fun at a famous photo. You can stage a model to resemble a historical sculpture. You can arrange a photo scene of Legos to mimic a Japanese woodblock. It’s up to you.
Note that the source art needs to be in the public domain. In general that means it needs to have been created before 1928. Art which is under copyright, after 1928, has its rights controlled by that artist. You would need to ask that artist for permission to use their work in any exhibit.
When: July 6th to August 3rd, 2024
Where: BVAA Alternatives Uxbridge Community 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 up to three artworks.
Entering the Show The entry fee for the Carbon Copies show, open to all styles of artwork, is $8/piece or $20 for three. You can submit up to three pieces.
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 is midnight on Saturday, July 6th, 2024. To submit your entries use our BVAA Online Submission Form. Work must be dropped off on Saturday, July 6th, 2024 between 10am and 3pm. All work which is brought in will be hung (as long as it is properly wired and is family-friendly). If you have one, please bring along a printout of each of your source artwork items, so we can hang those alongside your artwork. That way visitors can see what you were working with. If you don’t have printouts, let us know the artist & work title and we’ll track down and print those out for you.
IN ADDITION!!
We would love to feature previously seen fakes and forgeries to be a part of this show! It will let us demonstrate the full breadth of the fun of this process. Any previously seen art items are FREE to participate. They just won’t be judged for cash prizes. Please bring in as many of the previous items as you’d like! The more the merrier!
Judging We are doing this as a PEOPLE’S CHOICE voting! Get your votes in!
Opening Reception The opening reception is at the Uxbridge gallery on Friday, July 12th, 2024 from 5-7pm. Please bring a snack or drink to share! All are warmly encouraged to attend!
To see what the Carbon Copies vibe is about, check out these videos from our previous shows!
Ask with any questions! We look forward to seeing your entries!
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!
Here’s an amazing artistic project opportunity for all of our artists who adore the macabre and spooky side of life!
This is in from the Hopkinton Center for the Arts. It’s NOT a BVAA event. It’s just something that I knew a number of our BVAA members (including me!) would adore working on.
…
HCA is looking for all things weird to be showcased throughout various October 2024 events, including: “The Haunt: Wedding in Deadwoodville”. This is an interactive theater experience that is being hosted by HCA and MetroWest YMCA this October. But we need volunteers to help us bring the event to life (or death, haha)
Join us on June 23rd 2024 at 2 pm to learn how to make oddities and curiosities at your leisure throughout the summer. We are seeking items such as faux taxidermy, horror pieces, antiques, creepy clothing, dark art and more. No experience necessary! We’ll provide snacks!
The meeting on June 23rd will showcase demonstrations of different items that we’re seeking volunteers to make on their own time during the summer. Come join the “Oddities Team”! We’re “dying” to meet you!
For those interested in Plein Air Painting, Marion Buricatu will be holding a session earlier that day. Here is the link:
And finally, if you’re around on Saturday June 15th, the current exhibitor, Joseph Fontinha, will be doing a painting demonstration at 2 pm, following a reception at 1 pm. FREE!
Thank you!
Sandee Buckley Director of Operations Hopkinton Center for the Arts
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 24 to July 26, 2024
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 The entry fee for this show is $8 per piece for up to three pieces.
Note that as this is a non-BVAA-gallery show YOU CAN ENTER PIECES THAT HAVE BEEN IN PREVIOUS BVAA SHOWS. 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 Sunday, June 16, 2024. Work must be dropped off at the Worcester Center for Crafts on Saturday, June 22, 2024 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 Saturday, June 22 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 on or before Wednesday, June 19.
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 by Elaine McKenna-Yeaw, Executive Director of Worcester Center for Crafts and Cristi Collari, Director of ValleyCAST for Open Sky
Opening Reception In lieu of an opening reception, everyone is invited to attend Hot Night in the City on Friday, July 19, from 4:00-9:00 pm. This is a free event, but you are encouraged to RSVP here:
Pick Up Saturday, July 27, 2024, from 10am to 1pm at the Worcester Center for Crafts. If you aren’t able to make that, please contact us for other arrangements.
