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!
Celebrate the beauty of the Blackstone Valley in Massachusetts! Our “Local Beauty” community art show is open to ALL forms of art – photography, watercolors, acrylics, oil paintings, pastels, printmaking, sculpture, and more. The topic is our local Blackstone Valley in Massachusetts. We eagerly look forward to seeing local landscapes, architecture, visions, and interpretations of:
Do you have a photo of Purgatory Chasm in Sutton? A watercolor painting of the Millville canal lock? An abstract interpretation of Worcester City Hall? We’d love to see how you interpret this topic!
This show is FREE to participate in and is open to all community members! You don’t have to live in a listed down to participate. The image itself needs to somehow represent one of those towns.
When: March 1nd to April 5th, 2025
Where: BVAA Open Sky 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.
Participation is open to the public. Each participant may exhibit up to three pieces of art.
Entering the Show 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. 3M stick-on hangers are notorious for falling off – please don’t use those. If you are new to preparing photography for shows, read our page on How to Mat and Frame a Photo. Please also check out our Show Terms and Conditions
All art which is entered is 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. You can have your art listed with a price for sale, or you can have it Not For Sale if you wish.
Submissions To submit your entries use our BVAA Online Submission Form. The deadline to submit the online label information is midnight on Saturday, March 1nd, 20254. Work must be dropped off on Saturday, March 1nd, 2025 between 10am and 3pm. Please only bring artwork in on Saturday – the staff in the location during the week do not handle artwork processing. All artwork which is brought in will be hung (as long as it is properly wired and is family-friendly).
Please indicate on your label which town each image represents. We’ll be using that information to create our town-specific slideshows, explained below.
Judging This show will be a community choice voting. Every person can vote for a first, second, and third place. Winners will be announced at the reception.
Video Slideshows
In addition to the in-gallery experience and the traditional full show video walkthrough, we will also do town-specific slideshows as part of this project. We’ll create a slideshow of the images representing Uxbridge, the images representing Grafton, and so on. That way people who are interested in art from a particular town can easily find it.
Reception The reception for this show will be on Friday, April 4th, 2025 from 5-7pm. Prizes are usually awarded around 6pm. Winners will receive ribbons and certificates.
Pick Up Pickup of the art is on Saturday, April 5th, 2025, from 10am to 3pm. If you aren’t able to make this date, please contact us for other arrangements. Please do not stop by the gallery during the week to pick up art – the weekly staff are not able to process the art items.
Ask with any questions! We look forward to seeing your entries!
To get inspired, here is our Local Beauty show from 2024!
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!
The Blackstone Valley Art Association is honored to have exceptional photographer Al Weems present at our January 21, 2025 meeting!
Al is a master at the use of lighting, on composition, on values, and on using photography to engage the viewer. Our gallery is currently hosting the Anything Goes photography show. Al will answer any and all questions about the photos in the gallery and also talk about what makes a compelling image.
Location: BVAA Open Sky Uxbridge Community Gallery 5 South Main Street Uxbridge, MA 01569
This meeting and session is free and open to the public. No experience is necessary. The fun of our workshops is that we all learn 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 learn some new things and explore your creativity!
Congratulations to the winners of our 2025 Anything Goes photography show! This show ran from January 4, 2025 to March 1, 2025 at our Uxbridge Community Art Gallery. Thank you to everyone for participating in this show!
First Place / Neil Rosenberg / “Pipe Dream” The judge loved the sharp focus, the use of shadow and light, and the composition. Neil took this photo using black and white film. He then scanned the negative and adjusted the image’s hue to bring forward the top two pipes to add to its dimensionality. Neil Rosenberg Photography
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Second Place / Lisa Shea / “Barely Fitting at the Panama Canal” The judge liked the composition, the graphic nature of the lines, and the way the eye moved around the image. Lisa used her Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra cellphone. She took this photo standing on the glass-walled balcony of the cruise ship, shooting straight down. Her aim was to show in a two-dimensional way the relationship between the ship, the sliver of water, and the rails on land. You can see her toes in the bottom center. Lisa Shea Website
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Third Place / Brent DeWitt / “Dogs At Rest” The judge liked the composition and how the eye moved around the image. He liked the sense of story, causing a viewer to think about the scene.
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Honorable Mention / Sue Gomes / “It’s the Real Thing” The judge liked the use of color, the unusual presentation of the image, and the composition. Sue took this image with a Motorola phone camera and then posterized it in Photoshop.
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Honorable Mention / Bob Evans / “Pollution” The judge liked the use of light and dark values, the movement of the smoke, and the crisp focus on the main point of interest. Bob used a drone to capture this shot of a location in Millbury. Several of you asked what kind of a camera can mount on a drone! Bob Evans was kind enough to send along these details: Hasselblad Camera. Image Sensor: 4/3 CMOS, Effective Pixels: 20 MP. Lens: FOV: 84°, Format Equivalent: 24 mm, Aperture: f/2.8-f/11, Focus: 1 m to ∞, ISO 100-6400, Shutter Speed, Electronic Shutter: 8-1/8000 s. Bob Evans Photography
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Honorable Mention / Michael Backunas / “Sinking Ship – Quabbin Reservoir” The judge liked the use of light, the composition, and the range of values in this image. He liked the soft gradient of the sky. Michael Backunas Photography
About the Judge – Al Weems
Al Weems is a visual artist born in Fall River, Massachusetts. He received a BA in Psychology from U Mass – Dartmouth. For several decades, Weems was a corporate and commercial photographer with a focus on environmental portraiture. He now concentrates on fine art portraiture with a practice that seeks to elevate the ordinary.
Weem’s work has been included in numerous exhibitions including shows at the Providence Art Club, the Newport Art Museum, and the Art League, Rhode Island. He presented a solo exhibition at The Providence Art Club in January of 2020. His work has been published in the Providence Journal, the Worcester Telegram amongst others and his images have been featured in The New England Catch and Providence & Rhode Island Chef’s Table cookbooks. He lives and works in Sutton, Massachusetts.
Our 2024 Free Community Art Show was live in the autumn of 2024 in our Uxbridge Community Art Gallery. This show was free to participate in and was open to all community members. Voting was done through “people’s choice” where each person could vote on a first, second, and third prize winner.
The votes have been tallied! Here are the winners of our community show!
First Place: Steady Gaze / Lynne Randolph / Pastel $300
Second Place: Street in Paris / Melissa Beyer / Watercolor $225
Third Place: Fractured #2 / Leslie Breault / Acrylic $1800
Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who participated in this show!
You can watch the entire walkthrough here. Note that most of these art items are still available for purchase, so contact us if you’re interested!
The Blackstone Valley Art Association is sponsoring the 13th Annual Anything Goes Photography Show – this show is open to the public! Prints from all styles of digital cameras, film cameras, cellphone cameras, point-and-shoots, SLRs, cyanotypes, and other photo-related artwork are warmly welcome!
When: January 4 to March 1, 2025
Where: BVAA Open Sky 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.
Participation is open to the public. Each participant may exhibit up to two photos. These will be judged for cash prizes.
Entering the Show The entry fee for the main show, open to all styles of photography, is $15/2 pieces for BVAA members and $20/2 pieces for non-members. The theme is wide open. You can submit a portrait, landscape, still life, abstract, seascape, you name it. Your imagination is the limit.
Photos 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 photography must be family friendly and properly wired for hanging. Our hanging system does not work with saw-tooth or triangle hangers. 3M stick-on hangers are notorious for falling off – please don’t use those. If you are new to preparing photography for shows, read our page on How to Mat and Frame a Photo. Please also check out our Show Terms and Conditions
All photos 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. You can have your photo listed with a price for sale, or you can have it Not For Sale if you wish.
Submissions To submit your entries use our BVAA Online Submission Form. The deadline to submit the online label information is midnight on Saturday, January 4th, 2025. Work must be dropped off on Saturday, January 4th, 2025 between 10am and 3pm. Please only bring artwork in on Saturday – the staff in the location during the week do not handle artwork processing. All artwork which is brought in will be hung (as long as it is properly wired and is family-friendly).
If your submission features an unusual technique, for example you’re using a medium-format film camera or another unusual setup, please add notes in the submission form. We’d love to put those details onto the label. Our show visitors love to learn about unusual styles of photography.
We will arrange and label the show on Wednesday January 8th, 2025 from 5-7pm.
Judging The judge for this show will be announced at the reception. We generally do not announce the name of the judge before drop-off so that artists enter their best images overall, without attempting to ‘target’ a specific judge.
The judge is Al Weems.
Prize money is based on the number of entries, since the prize money comes from those entry fees. So we won’t know, until all the artwork is in, how much money we have to distribute as prizes. Generally we award first, second, third, and three honorable mentions, depending on the number of entries.
Opening Reception The opening reception for this show will be on Friday, January 10th, 2025 from 5-7pm. Prizes are usually awarded around 6pm.
Pick Up Pickup of the art is on Saturday, March 1st, 2025, from 10am to 3pm. If you aren’t able to make this date, please contact us for other arrangements. Please do not stop by the gallery during the week – the weekly staff are not able to process the art items.
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 is the proposed schedule for the BVAA Uxbridge Art Gallery for the year 2025. Please note that this schedule could adjust or shift based on weather issues or other issues. Please always look for a show’s specific page to get its final details.
“Spring Show” (open theme):- Members-Only Drop-off Sat Apr 5 Reception Fri Apr 11 Pickup Sat June 7
“Series Show” (duo/trio) :- Members-Only Drop-off Sat June 7 Reception Fri June 13 Pickup Sat July 12
“Carbon Copies Show” (forgeries) :- Members-Only Drop-off Sat July 12 Reception Fri July 18 Pickup Sat Aug 2
“Show of Hands” Community (anything-but-photography) :- PUBLIC Drop-off Sat Aug 2 Reception Fri Aug 8 Pickup Sat Sept 6
“Fall Show” (open theme) :-Members-Only Drop-off Sat Sept 6 Reception Fri Sept 12 Pickup Sat Oct 18
Community Art Show (open theme) :- PUBLIC Drop-off Sat Oct 18 Reception Fri Oct 24 Pickup Sat Nov 15
“Great Gifts” (smallish size) :- Members-Only Drop-off Sat Nov 15 Reception Fri Nov 21 Pickup Sat Jan 3
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notes about other 2025 show plans at other locations:
Fall Exhibit at Whitin Mill / ValleyCAST Open Sky Artwork Drop-off: August 22-23, during business hours 9:00-4:00 & Saturday 100:00-1:00 August 27-30, during business hours 9:00-4:00 & Saturday if needed Opening Reception: Thursday, September 4 from 5:00-8:00 (with last concert) Exhibit ends: Thursday, October 23 De-install: Friday, October 24 during business hours 9:00-4:00 & Saturday if needed
Feb – Choco l’Art? Webster library? (checking on availability) Mar – Teen Show virtual Apr – Art-Poetry show in Blackstone library (confirmed with library) Aug – Sunflower art show in Booklovers’ Gourmet Webster MA (confirmed with Deb) Sept – Uxbridge SketchFest virtual show Oct – Macabre Halloween pop-up
This is our seventh annual art-poetry show! This page here explains how the show works, for the artists and poets who are interested in participating.
We are holding this show at the Blackstone Public Library in Blackstone MA for the month of April 2025.
The artists are drawn from our Blackstone Valley Art Association. The poets are drawn from the Sutton Writing Group and the Worcester Writers Collaborative.
Anyone interested in participating please let Lisa Shea know by FRIDAY NOVEMBER 30th 2024 of that interest. Let her know if you prefer a partner you can meet in person or if you prefer to work remotely, staying in touch via email. Also, let her know if you prefer an ‘intense’ relationship where you talk a lot about your works, or if you prefer a more ‘casual’ relationship where each person simply receives the other’s offering and then goes from there. All of these options are fine. We want each team to be happy.
Soon after the names are gathered, each artist is paired with a poet. They form a team for the duration of this project.
Sometime before January 31, 2025, the poet provides the artist with a poem. The poem can be custom-written for this project or it can be a favorite the artist already has written. The poem will be hung in the show on a maximum size of 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper so it should be short enough to fit on that paper at a reasonably sized font. With that being said, the poem can otherwise be as short or as long as the poet desires. It can be a short haiku or a long sonnet.
The artist now has until March 15, 2025 to create a work of art that represents that poem. The art can be a literal interpretation. It can convey the emotion of the poem. It can focus on one aspect of the poem. It is up to the artist to choose how to present their interpretation. That pairing of poem-plus-artwork will be hung side by side at the show.
In parallel:
Sometime before January 31, 2025, the artist provides the poet with a piece of art (a JPG photo of it is fine). Again, the artwork can be custom-created for this project or it can be an existing favorite.
The poet now has until March 15, 2025 to write a poem based on that piece of art. The poem does not need to literally describe the artwork. It can convey an emotion. It can create a story based on the scene. It can be whatever the poet wishes. Again, the poem will be hung in the show on a maximum size of 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper so it should be short enough to fit on that paper at a reasonably sized font. With that being said, the poem can otherwise be as short or as long as the poet desires. It can be a short haiku or a long sonnet.
When each poem and artwork is complete (both in the source and response round), please also send a copy to Lisa so she can update the website with the details. For art, let her know the dimensions of the piece when you send the JPG.
We will work on details like the drop-off / pick-up dates in the coming months.
The reception will be Thursday, April 17th from 6-8pm. Please try to attend – we like to videotape the artist and poet talking about their collaboration!
If anybody has any questions or comments, please let Lisa know. Let her know if you’re interested in participating! You can participate just as one half (i.e. just an artist or just a poet) or as both halves (paired with two different people, one a poet, one an artist).
On Friday, November 15th, 2024, talented artist Scott Nelson will meet with us at the amazingly preserved Olney Cook Artisan Shop in Mendon, Massachusetts. We will meet up at 2pm. The shop is located at 54 Hartford Avenue East in Mendon. It was originally built in the early 1800s. Apparently Olney Cook was a painter!
This workshop is FREE – the public is warmly encouraged to participate! All levels welcome!
Scott will talk with us about how to approach the task of sketching and painting a building. He will discuss lighting, shadows, values, and other topics. He will then do some sketching on site. These skills are useful no matter what type of artwork you’re interested in creating. Some people focus on the sketch itself as a finished form. Others use the sketch as a starting point to then later create a watercolor painting, an acrylic painting, an oil painting, or another form of art.
After our exploration of the Olney Cook Artisan Shop, Scott will return to his home art studio to create a painting, either watercolor or acrylic, of one of the scenes he sketched. He will record for us a section-by-section description of how he approached that project, so we can follow along from home.
We are grateful that Scott’s artistic partner, Lisa Pueschel, will also participate in this project! Lisa will create a pastel work. You’ll get to see multiple approaches to a single building!
Scott Nelson and Lisa Pueschel are the founding artists of the Two Bridges Art Academy. Please take a look at the art class offerings and follow the Two Bridges Art Academy on social media!
Thank you to the Mendon Cultural Council for supporting this art project! And thank you so much to Scott Nelson and Lisa Pueschel for providing their time and expertise in both sketching and painting! You can learn more about Scott Nelson here:
The Blackstone Valley Art Association is honored to have talented oil painter Dianne Panarelli Miller be available to present a portrait demonstration at our November 19, 2024 meeting!
This demonstration will be helpful to ALL artists, even if you don’t use oil paints. Dianne will help us understand how to approach the task of painting, taking into account lighting, colors, values, and more.
Location: BVAA Open Sky Uxbridge Community Gallery 5 South Main Street Uxbridge, MA 01569
This meeting and session is free and open to the public. No experience is necessary. The fun of our workshops is that we all learn 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 learn some new things and explore your creativity!
Our BVAA Members Annual Holiday Party for 2024 will be held on Tuesday, December 17th, 2024, from 6-9pm. We’ll start from 6:00-6:30pm with our discussion of the BVAA’s past and upcoming events. Then we transition into the party time. This event is for active BVAA members.
Our party will be held, as in the past few years, at the Grille 122 in Whitinsville. We will meet in a private room so we can talk, laugh, and have fun!
The room will be set up with round tables so that groups can easily talk with each other, as well as mingle amongst tables. There will be separate checks, so each person can order whatever they want off the menu, as frugal or extravagant as they wish.
Each person can bring one guest.
Please RSVP to us to let us know if you’ll be able to attend. That way we can have the restaurant plan for the number of tables needed.
Yankee Swap Our BVAA Holiday Parties feature a fun Yankee Swap gift exchange. You can participate or not participate as you wish. If you’d like to join in this fun project, bring a gift-wrapped gift of $10 or less in value.
How it works: We put all the wrapped gifts in a pile. We hand out numbers so every person gets a number. Whoever is number 1 chooses a gift, unwraps it, and shows it to the group. Person 2 then unwraps a gift and shows it to the group. Person 2 can keep the gift they chose or swap it with anybody else who has a gift out. It keeps going until the end, at which point person 1 can choose anything they want. It’s a lot of fun :).
