When photographer Ricardo Barros arrived in Fitchburg, Massachusetts in June 2023 after living in the Princeton, New Jersey area for 43 years, one of the first things that he noticed was how many unique individuals strived to help and empower others in the community and how much of its architectural history remains from the industrial era. The images featured in “Ricardo Barros: Off the Hill: Portraits from the Fitchburg Community,” on view through March 31 at the Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio Library at Fitchburg State University, all have multiple layers to them, from the person being captured to the accompanying scene around them. Barros’ process isn’t just to go and photograph someone. “I learn about the people and conjure up an image to make of them,” he said. “My Fitchburg portraits shine a light on people who deserve to be seen,” said Barros, who I describe as a documentary … [Read more...] about FITCHBURG CAPTURED

King Richard the Lionheart! King Arthur! Shogun Toranaga! Genghis Khan! Sunjata Keita from Mali! Joan of Arc! All fighting battles, conquering tribes, marching to Crusades! They all wore armor to protect themselves from death or mutilation. The exciting new galleries at the Worcester Art Museum display many examples of armor made from 2000 BCE until the widespread use of guns and cannon. But it is the armor of the western Middle Ages (approximately 500 to 1500,) a period now romanticized in novels, theatre, films, comics, videos and Dungeons and Dragons, that brings this period to modern life. The galleries are filled with armor and battle equipment, head to toe, everything from helmets to foot gear. Weapons include swords, lances, hand cannons, katana, poleaxes and more. Three suits of armor from different cultures, Western European, Islamic and Mughal India greet the visitor holding … [Read more...] about THE HIGGINS LEGACY REFORGED

The current exhibition at Burlington City Arts (BCA) addresses that universal human emotion — grieving, after experiencing loss of the irreplaceable love that centered one’s life. The day I viewed the show, I was still processing the loss of a very dear friend who had died the previous day and with whom I often discussed the general community malaise that has so filtered down to every aspect of our lives. Both of us lived long enough to have felt the devastation of political upheaval abroad and in the US, so that sense of sorrow was nothing new. Both of us also have experienced personal tragedies — the loss of a parent, a partner, an adult child’s choices gone awry, cultural discrimination and as what comes with age — the diminishing horizon of our dreams. The eight artists in the show open up this very personal space that houses pain and longing. Instead of feeling vulnerable and … [Read more...] about IRREPLACEABLE LOSSES

“Unspoken Resilience,” a multi-disciplinary exhibition on view at the University of New England (UNE) Gallery in Portland through February 7, assembles works of the Deaf community and its friends in the aftermath of a horrific 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. One-fifth of the shooting victims belonged to the Deaf community. This exhibition expresses its need to mourn, to console and to demand changes in the treatment of a population with recognizably distinct interpretive needs. The show assumes an audience mostly ignorant of Deaf culture and its forms of communication. It is particularly directed to students at UNE entering the caring professions. The exhibition and materials spotlight the Deaf community’s visual sophistication and highly developed linguistic competence as well as how they differ from the expectations of the hearing, English-speaking public. Almost 1 million … [Read more...] about SEEING VOICES HEARING GRIEF