Welcome to our Summer 2026 issue,
With hundreds of story options to choose from each issue, the reality that we can’t cover everything is always personally disappointing; we look at every email sent to us and try to share as much of the information as possible through our magazine, Artscope Online at artscopemagazine.com as well as on our social media pages on Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky while perusing the same looking for story ideas.
Nothing helps us more in that department than receiving a request for coverage a few months prior to two shows opening with a variety of images and information on the artists and their work. Jackie Reeves, whose “Larger Than Life – Drawings In Time” is showing at the Cape Cod Museum of Art and reviewed here by Lee Roscoe, and Jan Lhormer, whose “Earth and Sky” oil paintings can be seen through mid-August at the Art Complex Museum, which Sawyer Smook-Pollitt visited along with the “Under Construction: America at 250” outside sculpture exhibition that will remain on view through August 2027.
Exhibitions tied to the 250th anniversary of the United States are omnipresent; Lexie Gondek found the three-part “Framing American Democracy” collection at the Wadsworth Atheneum of Art in Hartford unexpectedly impactful and thought-provoking, especially when combining art and artifacts from Connecticut’s history with more recent works.
The shows, Gondek writes, “reveal a nation defined not by a single story, but a complex network of voices, experiences and competing ideals… At a moment when America is preparing to commemorate its 250th anniversary, the Wadsworth Atheneum of Art offers something more meaningful than a celebration, an opportunity to reflect on the promises, contradictions and ongoing work of American democracy.”
Rania Matar’s work has demanded coverage throughout Artscope’s history. J.M. Belmont reports on why her latest exhibition, Where Do I Go? (لوين روح), at the RKG x SEA-DAR Project Space in SoWa Bostonthat’s overseen by the Robert Klein Gallery on Newbury Street, is a perfect chance to see a collection of 20 years of her work, much of which covers Matar’s reflection on the Lebanese Civil War, in one setting. Her striking “Rhea S., Piccadilly Theater, Beirut, Lebanon (#1)” photograph graces this issue’s cover.
In the early stages of planning this issue, Heather Stivison wrote that she’d be going to the “Alex Katz | Out of Sight: A Drawing Survey” exhibition at the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, noting that, “Drawing is my true love, so seeing this drawing exhibition (the first anywhere in more than 30 years) is definitely on my bucket list.” Knowing that we don’t always have the opportunity to cover shows in northern Maine, I inquired if she’d have time to visit the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland to consider their Will Sears, Bianca Beck, Abbey Williams and Marc Swanson solo shows; when she wrote that they were “great,” we had a solid block of reviews in the books.
Grace Hopkins has assisted us endless times in our coverage of the Berta Walker Gallery in Provincetown; in this issue, Laura Shabott“Cornered” Hopkins to talk about her own artwork and current “Circuits” exhibition at the gallery, the effect of being raised by artist parents and continuing the traditions they passed onto her.
Noting that he was “An icon on the Seacoast,” Linda Sutherlandenthusiastically set out to preview fellow Portsmouth, New Hampshire resident Richard Haynes’ “Learning to See” exhibition at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, writing, that Haynes is “a 77-year-old artist who stands out in a myriad of artistic expressions — photography, drawing, painting,” who, if you weren’t aware of him or his work before reading her piece, you’ll hopefully investigate afterwards.
While in Brattleboro — which has a tremendous First Friday Gallery Walk — also stop by Mitchell•Giddings Fine Arts to see its “Rona Lee Cohen: Carrying On” exhibition. Longtime gallery owners Jim Giddingsand Petria Mitchell told Artscope’s Elayne Clift that, “Cohen is a rare artist who responds to our abrasive, kinetic world with simplicity and humor.” And we could all use a bit of that these days, can’t we?
Another pleasurable one-day trip is Concord, Massachusetts, where, along with its ties to American history and wonderful shops and restaurants, its Main Street is the home of Three Stones Gallery, currently showcasing the works of Allison Mitchell, Timothy Dunnbierand Jill Goldman-Callahan. Madeleine Lord explores each of their work as well as other artists featured in the show.
As always, we encourage you to map out a few art wanderlust roadtrips of your own. Marjorie Kaye provides a taste of gallery-walking through Western Massachusetts while Carolyn Wirth explored the latest exhibitions at the Fruitlands Museum and their related installations at properties overseen The Trustees of Reservations at Crane Estate and Beach, Moose Hill Farm, and Rock House Reservation, three landmarks you may have meant to stop at in the past but definitely have a reason to do so now.
Wirth also reviews the 2026 Danforth Annual Juried Exhibition at the Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University. Always one of my favorite shows of the year for its combination of continuing artist storylines and introducing new artists to a museum audience, it also includes a series of Sunday afternoon talks by participating artists that provides opportunity for insight into the creative process and to network with others in the regional art community.
Summer is a time for big tents and big festivals. As part of her profile of the Wickford Art Association in Smithfield, Rhode Island, Suzanne Volmer previews the Wickford Art Festival on July 11 and 12. Similar upcoming events include the 23rd Annual South Coast Artists Open Studio Tour which takes place on July 18-19 and August 15-16 at over 70 locations in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The Art Drivejuried studio tour goes through Dartmouth and Westport, Massachusetts on August 7, 8 and 9.
The Guilford Craft Expo hosts 175 artists and makers on July 17, 18 and 19 in Guilford, Connecticut while in Newfane, Vermont, the Rock River Artists Open Studios Tour takes place on July 18 and 19. In New Hampshire, the League of N.H. Craftsmen’s 93rd Annual Craftsmen’s Fairruns from August 1-9 at Mount Sunapee Resort and later that month, the Nashua Area Artists’ Association’s 73rd Greeley Park Art Showreturns August 29-30. Incidentally, that was my first arts festival that I attended in support of my late stepfather, acrylic nature artist Gabriel Prancan.
Ami Bennitt returns with the start of her second series of #ARTSTAYSHERE reports, with a look at the “Faces, Places & Spaces” exhibition at the Somerville Museum that documents the organization’s efforts to keep artists in their workspaces and those workspaces from being purchased and converted to non-art-related purposes. While the show focuses on art space advocacy efforts in Massachusetts, they serve as a guideline to any community looking to preserve and develop their spaces.
Mosaic Lowell and the Greater Lowell Community Foundation recently released “Creativity as Economic Infrastructure: Understanding Lowell’s Creative Economy,” a report that examined the scale, diversity and economic impact of Lowell’s arts, culture and creative industries. The report found that “Lowell’s creative economy supported nearly 4,000 direct jobs and generated approximately $364 million in direct annual revenue to the Massachusetts city in 2023. Altogether, the sector includes more than 1,100 creative establishments ranging from independent artists and cultural nonprofits to culinary businesses, manufacturers, designers, media companies, salons, galleries, festivals, and public institutions” — those people and places we’ve strived to assist throughout our 20 plus years.
Which leads me to, once again, stressing the importance of, should you go to an exhibition, museum or gallery that you’ve read about in Artscope, letting those venues know that you learned of the show through our magazine. Since our first issue, we’ve followed an optimistic model that if we do our role in the promotion of artists and shows, that those who benefit from our efforts will, in response, support us through advertising or listing in our magazine. Similarly, those of you who have subscribed to get Artscope Magazine delivered to you in the mail or via purchasing digital online access to our issues and stories are playing an invaluable role in our continued ability to promote the arts in New England.
With great appreciation,
Brian Goslow, managing editor