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!
The Blackstone Valley Art Association is sponsoring our annual members-only Fall Show! This show is open to all active members of the BVAA. Entries can include all forms of artwork on any theme. This show will be judged for cash prizes.
When: Thursday, August 27th to Thursday, October 22nd, 2026
Where: ValleyCAST’s Heritage Gallery at the Alternatives Whitin Mill 50 Douglas Road Whitinsville MA
There is free parking immediately next to this building. It is fully and easily handicapped accessible.
Entering the Show The theme is wide open. Any topic can be addressed as long as it is family-friendly. This show does NOT have to be about autumn. The show simply happens in the autumn. 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. While AI and other artists can be used to generate starting concepts for BVAA show artwork, all final work submitted must be wholly the personal creation of the individual BVAA member.
Submissions To submit your entries use our BVAA Online Submission Form. The fee to participate is $8/piece or 3 for $20 for members. You can submit up to 3 pieces. As this is a judged show, you cannot enter anything which has been entered into a previous BVAA judged show (that includes shows both BVAA shows at ValleyCAST as well as BVAA shows at the Uxbridge gallery). The deadline to submit the online forms, so we can make our labels, is end of day August 22nd.
Drop Off of Works Work must be dropped off at the ValleyCAST’s Heritage Gallery at the Alternatives Whitin Mill on Friday August 21st during business hours 10:00am – 4:00pm. If you can’t make that, you have two other options:
Lisa Shea will be at the Sunflower Show reception at the Booklovers’ Gourmet that evening Fri Aug 21st from 5-7pm. Come out to enjoy the reception and Lisa can take your art from you there. That’s at 72 E Main St, Webster MA.
Lisa will be at the BVAA Uxbridge gallery that Sat Aug 22nd the regular 10am – 3pm hours. You can bring your art by the Uxbridge gallery and Lisa will bring that art all in on Monday morning to ValleyCAST.
All work which is brought in will be hung, as long as it is properly wired and is family-friendly. We do not ‘pre-select’ art for the show.
Installation August 25th to 26th, during business hours 9:00am – 4:00pm.
Judging The show is judged for cash prizes. Those cash prizes are based on the money paid in to the show for entry fees. Each show is self-supporting in that sense. The shows don’t add money to the BVAA – the money we take in then goes to the prizes and judge. Generally we award first, second, third, and three honorable mentions. This depends on the number of overall entries.
Artist’s Reception The artist’s reception is Thursday, September 3rd from 5-8pm. This is the final concert series evening! The concert runs from 6-8pm so aim to get there before 6 for easier parking! There is parking both alongside the mill buildings and also across the street in a larger lot. As always with events at the Whitin Mill, PLEASE park in the upper parking lot unless you have mobility issues. There are many people who really need the lower lot for serious mobility issues. If you have mobility issues and can come in with someone to drop you off by the stairs and pick you up there, that would be great. I am also happy to go up after the show, get my car, and ferry people between the plaza and the upper lot.
We will have HUGE crowds for this reception. The finale act is a Fleetwood Mac tribute band. It is well worth attending to meet visitors and discuss your art. I will have name tags available so that you can easily be identified as an artist. There will be a food truck on site. NOTE: We will NOT be providing free food or drink at this concert because it would be challenging to manage the volume of people present and to have free alcohol. No need to bring food or drink. The food truck is pretty tasty!
Pick Up Pick up is Friday, October 23rd during business hours 9am to 4pm and Monday, October 26th from 9am to 4pm. If you aren’t able to make that timeframe, please contact Lisa for other arrangements. She can bring any non-picked-up art over to Uxbridge after Monday, for retrieval there during our regular Saturday 10-3 hours.
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. We’ll have acrylic paint, cyanotype paper, and more! 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!
If you’d like to bring in a few of your works in progress, we’re happy to offer friendly ideas and suggestions on them!
Our summer meetings are casual and drop-in. Come and leave whenever you want, and work on whatever projects you’d like.
Our August 2026 monthly meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 18th from 6:30-8:30pm.
Location: BVAA 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.
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.
Here are the sunflower images which will be part of our 2026 Sunflower Art Show at the Booklovers’ Gourmet in Webster, Massachusetts! These are all available for sale. They will be on display for the month of August 2026. Ask with any questions!
Congratulations to the winners of the 2026 Hot Night in the City art show, held at the Worcester Center for Crafts! The show was held from June 28th through July 26th. The main reception was the Hot Night in the City festival which was absolutely amazing! Thank you so much to ValleyCAST and to the Worcester Center for Crafts for all their help with this show.
First Place : Sue Gomes / Photography / “Illumination” $150
Second Place: Carol Frieswick / Oil painting / “Tea Time” $350 Carol helps run a weekly plein air (painting outside) group on Mondays – contact us for more info.
Third Place: Bonnie Frederico / Colored Pencil / “Bluebird on the Feeder” $125 Bonnie teaches adult art classes in Grafton.
Honorable Mention: Ann Wagstaff / Watercolor Painting / “Violet Queen Iris” not for sale Ann generally doesn’t sell her originals, but if you like a piece, let us know and she can make a print or card.
Honorable Mention: Leslie Breault / Acrylic Painting / “Endless Blues 1” $1,500 Leslie always amazes us with her incredibly carefully designed abstract pieces.
Honorable Mention: Young Farwell / Oil painting / “New England Cider Mill” $600 Many of our fellow artists can recognize the two BVAA artists shown in this image of a fun art outing.
Honorable Mention: Lisa Shea / Cyanotype / “Blue” $80 This piece was done on corrugated art paper, creating the vertical ripples in the artwork. Cyanotype is a historic form of photography.
Here are the static images of the artwork from the 2026 Carbon Copies / Fakes and Forgeries Art Show. Please vote for your 1st 2nd and 3rd favorite pieces! The winners are announced on Fri July 31st 2026. You can vote in the comments, by email to info@bvaa.org, or by visiting the Uxbridge gallery in person!
“#1 RAINY DAY VIOLETS” ANN WAGSTAFF WATERCOLOR NFS
Contact us if you’d like to have a print / notecard version of Ann’s painting. The original painting was done by BVAA member Sue Dion and was copied with permission.
“#2 S’MORES GOTHIC” CAROLE PLANTE ACRYLIC NFS
“#3 FLOWERS IN A VASE 1866” LAURA CENEDELLA ACRYLIC $1200
“#4 ARISTID(A) BRUANT” KELLY O’BRIEN ACRYLIC $50
“#5 WHEAT FIELDS AND CYPRESSES” JAYNE SARKISIAN ACRYLIC $200
“#6 GUSTAV KLIMT PORTRAIT OF FRAULEIN LEISER” JUDY MURPHY WATERCOLOR $250
“#7 GUSTAV KLIMT LADY IN GOLD” JUDY MURPHY WATERCOLOR $250
“#8 MIKE GETS A CROW QUILL C1972” MIKE ZEIS PEN AND INK DRAWING $300
“#9 LETS CHANGE THE VISUALS” DEB BOTTOMLEY WATERCOLOR $425
“#10 CAT 1” LISA SHEA ACRYLIC $50
“#11 CAT 2” LISA SHEA ACRYLIC $50
“#12 CAT 3” LISA SHEA ACRYLIC $50
“#13 THE GOLDFINCH” MERILYN ROCKS ACRYLIC $150
Merilyn’s notes: “The Goldfinch” was painted in oil in 1654 by Carel Fabritius, a 32 year old man who lost his life that same year during an explosion in a nearby factory. “The Goldfinch” survived, however. No one knows why he chose to paint it on a 9″ x 13.2″ thick piece of old wood but it can still be seen today in the Mauritshuis in the Hague, the Netherlands. The little bird is tethered to his perch by rings and chain which lend a sadness to his story.
“#14 ON THE WAY TO LANDHOLM FARM” NANCY RUSSELL WATERCOLOR $150
Nancy’s notes: Started with Ryder House by Edward Hopper (1933) that hangs in the Smithsonian. For the purposes of the “Copies Show” I adapted the style to a photograph taken last year on the road near Laudholm Farm Wells, Maine.
“#15 DREAMING OF ROTHKO” LYNNE GALLUZZO ACRYLIC NFS
Please vote on your choices for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. The winners will be announced on Friday July 31st 2026 at the show reception!
July is extremely busy for the Blackstone Valley Art Association! We just finished our huge Hot Night in the City festival appearance at the Worcester Center for Crafts. THANK YOU to all the artists who helped with that! And now this is the next two weeks!
Print this for your fridge! Save it on your phone!
Ask with any questions – all details should be here on the BVAA.org website!
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. We’ll have acrylic paint, cyanotype paper, and more! 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!
If you’d like to bring in a few of your works in progress, we’re happy to offer friendly ideas and suggestions on them!
Our summer meetings are casual and drop-in. Come and leave whenever you want, and work on whatever projects you’d like.
Our July 2026 monthly meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 21st from 6:30-8:30pm.
Location: BVAA 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.
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.
Have fun learning how to take photos of animals! Join us on Friday July 24th from 10am to noon for our photography & urban sketching workshop at the Green Hill Park Farm! Free! All levels of artists, photographers, and friends warmly encouraged to participate. This event is open to the public.
We will meet at the Green Hill Park Farm, past the entry gates at 10am and then again at 10:30am. If you miss us either time, just look in the farm – it’s not big – for a person in an orange BVAA hat.
Photographer Lisa Shea will provide a brief introductory discussion of ideas for taking photos and sketching in an outdoor setting. Then we will explore the farm until around noon. You can roam on your own, stay with the group, and ask questions whenever you wish. Feel free to come early or stay late!
If you’d like camera 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, let us know ahead of time. We have a few we would be able to lend for event. It’s fine to just show up without registering if you don’t need equipment.
Whether you participate in the field trip or not, please consider then sending in a few of your animal photos to participate in the free Blackstone Valley Art Association virtual art show. This show has a deadline of Friday, July 31st, 2026! Email up to 5 photos to slideshow@bvaa.org to participate. All are welcome! Free!
Our Tenth 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 26th, 2026. 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 one or 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. Please submit sunflowers intended for sale :). The 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 buyer’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 Thu July 30th and Fri 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. Also, Deb uses a hanging system quite like our Uxbridge gallery system. Try to wire pieces if at all possible. Sawtooth hangers don’t really fit on her hooks. If you can only use a sawtooth, add a loop of wire on it so there’s more space (in the loop) for the hook to hold the art.
Public Reception Our sunflower show Artist’s Reception will be on Friday August 21st from 5-7pm. Please plan on attending! Invite family and friends! Share the news!
Pick-Up Pick-up for the show is Saturday August 29th from 12 noon to 5pm. If you can’t make it, let Lisa know and she’ll get your art for you. Please leave your art in the show through Sat Aug 29th. We are doing heavy publicity for this show and want to make sure all art is available wholly through that ending date. Some people wait until the last minute to buy. We’ve had multiple people buy art on the morning of the pickup date! Also, we create a video at the end to promote any unsold art, so people know it’s available.
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 is a great show opportunity for all artists! The Pearle L. Crawford memorial library in Dudley, Massachusetts has a gorgeous meeting room with an easy-to-use hanging system. You can slide the art supports left or right. You can slide the hooks up or down on the hanging support. The system has about 26 hanging units and you can double-stack or triple-stack on them if you need to.
This is a free opportunity. You can have art in the room for one month. You are responsible for all installation and take-down.
This view begins as you look into the room facing the far end. Then it turns to the right in each image, to show you each view in the room.
Here is the same meeting room after Lisa Shea installed her cyanotype art show. Note that Lisa taped her labels to the bottom of her art, so that the labels were NOT attached to the walls. Labels should NOT have prices – people can contact you for more information, and you would handle any sales privately.
The librarians created the posters for the door based on Lisa supplying an artist’s statement.
Here is the view of the room from the hallway. When you first enter the library, this room is immediately to your right.
Be sure to contact the library if you’re interested in showcasing your art in this room!
