Second Saturday Art Gallery hop in Beacon

Want To Sponsor This Art Gallery Guide?
Learn About Sponsor Opportunities

July 11 - Beacon is still on pause…

It’s a somber time, full of reflection but also action. Still dealing with the COVID pandemic, the country finds itself in a reckoning for racial justice, reexamining systems and traditions and practices that disproportionately benefit white people. We’re listening, and learning, and working to amplify the voices of those who traditionally haven’t had a seat at the table.

New York has been doing so well with bringing down the COVID illness rates as we move through the phases of reopening, that it feels like we’re creeping closer to The New Normal. But it’s no time to let our guards down. Phase 4 means that indoor establishments are still restricted. Most galleries are quite small and adequate ventilation continues to be an issue. So once again, the usual Main Street vigor of Second Saturday art happenings will be muted.

That doesn’t mean nothing is going on, though. If you’re heading out to a protest (hey look, here’s another one!), get inspired to make your own sign with the chalk art created and/or shared by Moraya Seeger DeGeare (@tomyoldracistearth). Other local art happenings:
• No. 3 Reading Room and Photo Book Works has placed works from Beacon artist Edwin Torres in the large storefront windows, inviting safely distanced viewing.
• Clutter Magazine Gallery has an actual live, in-person opening of several smaller shows! Follow their rules and be safe. (Alternately, cruise through their Instagram to see their most recent art exhibitions.)
• Mother Gallery is hosting a walk-up window art piece, conceived of by one person and actualized by many. Details for all shows in their listings below.
In arts news you might have missed (you’re forgiven; there’s a lot going on)
• Beacon artist Stanley Lindwasser has passed away.
• As official champions of the local arts scene, BeaconArts has stayed active, sharing info about grant/financial relief programs for people working in New York’s arts industries, and hosting conversations with local artists.

Taking precautions to protect their staff and visitors, most galleries remain closed. But there’s still plenty of art. Some venues (especially Dia and Mother Gallery; see specifics with each listing below) are taking their exhibitions global - like, to the World Wide Web. Scroll down to the venues, starting with Dia, for details on any online exhibitions we’re coming across.

Our Second Saturday Art Gallery Guide is sponsored by No. 3 Reading Room and Photo Book Works, at 469 Main Street, down toward the east end of Main Street near the Story Screen Beacon Theater. Owner Paulette Myers-Rich has set up a new exhibit in the storefront windows, and is still showing the previous artist online. Peruse it at your leisure!

Do you have an art opening coming up? Tell us about it: Drop a line to editorial@alittlebeaconblog.com with the who/what/when/where, and include a representative photo, to be considered for inclusion in this Guide. 

Second Saturday 101

Second Saturday is a lively day into night in Beacon, and is a celebration of Beacon's galleries, restaurants and other businesses on the second Saturday of every month. Dan Rigney, former president of BeaconArts (the organization who encouraged this movement to happen over a decade ago, and who still heavily promotes the events) says: “Back then, Beacon was one of the last places people outside of town thought to go on a Saturday night. Now Second Saturday has become a part of the fabric of Beacon. It’s such a part of it, many galleries have their opening events on other Saturdays, so that they get two big crowds each month.” Second Saturday provides a great reason to walk Main Street and beyond, and explore the events going on around town. It's always a pleasure to dine your way through Beacon, so turn to our Restaurant Guide to help you puzzle out where to eat and drink as you explore special exhibits and happenings.

What to Know About This Guide:

• This Guide includes gallery and art showings that may be hosted in a gallery or in a shop or restaurant.

• Many of these shows run through the current month, so check back often if you are on an art hunt.

• Closing times posted here are for Second Saturdays only, and may not reflect regular Saturdays. Always call an establishment directly for current hours, offerings, or any other questions.

• Parking can be found on side streets, on Main Street, and in municipal lots. Click here for A Little Beacon Blog’s Free Public Parking Guide, with pictures and cross streets!

• Share your way through Second Saturday by using #2SAT, the hashtag created by BeaconArts, and tack on #beaconny or #SecondSaturday if you have room in your tweets or Instagram postings.

• If you are a gallery and have something special to add, please email editorial@alittlebeaconblog.com.

Late-Night (After 9pm) Spots to Eat and Drink: 

July 2020: Check these places, and others in our Restaurant Guide, to see who’s offering takeout. 

• Bank Square 129 Main St.

• Chill Wine Bar 173 Main St.

• Meyer’s Olde Dutch 184 Main St.

• Max’s On Main 246 Main St.

• Baja 328 328 Main St.

• Quinn’s 330 Main St.

• The Towne Crier (bar only) 379 Main St.

• Oak Vino Wine Bar 389 Main St. (call first to see if cheese plates and dessert are still being served!)

• Draught Industries 394 Main St.

• The Beacon Hotel Restaurant 424 Main St.

• The Vault 446 Main St.

• Joe’s Irish Pub 455 Main St.

• Roundhouse 2 East Main St.

• Dogwood 47 East Main St.

• Melzingah Tap House 554 Main St.

Leave all of our Guides open on your phone, because they include addresses and phone numbers. Tap on a phone number to call anyone!

Second Saturday, July 11: Read on to learn about Beacon’s galleries, the exhibitions their artists had planned, and any fundraising efforts each venue has. If you see something that you think we shouldn't miss, tag us on Twitter or in your photos on Instagram (we’re @alittlebeacon on both). Take care of yourselves and one another! Let’s hope this passes quickly. 

NEAR THE TRAIN, BEFORE MAIN STREET

Dia:Beacon - Closed until further notice
3 Beekman St.
Beacon, NY
(845) 440-0100
One of the preeminent modern art museums in the world, Dia:Beacon opened in 2003 in a former Nabisco box-printing factory on the shore of the Hudson River. Take a closer look at Dia:Beacon's giant shapes, piles of glass, grayscale geometry, neon tubes and so. much. more. Dia:Beacon offers complimentary admission with identification to all residents of Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester counties on the last Sunday of every month. Dia:Beacon is free for residents of Beacon, Fishkill, Chelsea, and Glenham every Saturday and Sunday, year-round. (Thanks, Pete Seeger.)
Online: Dia’s website is spotlighting a lot of neat content. A behind-the-scenes series lets us peek into Dia employees’ lives, while an Artist Prompt encourages us to get friendly with our plants.
Hours: Closed until further notice

Mother Gallery
1154 North Ave. (downstairs)
Beacon, NY
(845) 236-6039
Mother Gallery is a co-creative, artist-run, exhibition space located in Beacon, NY. Conceived and stewarded by Kirsten Deirup and Paola Oxoa to foster collaboration, community, and open dialogue amongst all people in the Hudson Valley and beyond.
In Person: Chie Fueki’s Mother Altar is gracing the gallery’s large glass garage window, as a site-specific community-contributed piece. The main work, two shaped paintings on mulberry paper, suggest a veneration. Under them viewers see a growing assortment of objects, meaningful pieces that community members have contributed to the installation. The gallery describes the piece as “a time capsule, or place holder for our intentions and contributions—allowing us to experience some agency and community as we move ahead in this time of pain and uncertainty.” Through August 2020.
Online: Mother Gallery is “showing” online via Future Fair, “a capsule-sized exhibition that is accessible to art lovers of all kinds.” Mother’s spotlighting the works of Alessandro Keegan, Jenny Morgan, and Julia Kunin in Equilibration of the Energies.
In the gallery’s own words: “Our presentation is inspired by Alan Saret's 1978 drawing ‘VINE CASTLE: Equilibration of the Energies’ and its accompanying text: ‘Describe all the relationships in the cosmos you are dreaming about. Include the various consciousnesses, suns, planets, animals and plants. Determine the physics which provide them and the philosophies which guide them in the forms their activities take.’”
Hours: Indoor viewing by appointment (please email paola@mothergallery.art); otherwise closed until further notice

Parts & Labor Beacon
1154 North Ave. (upstairs)
Beacon, NY
(917) 664-8861
This recent arrival to the Beacon gallery scene uniquely pairs works by young or emerging artists with pieces from more-established artists. Writer Alison Rooney and the gallery’s co-founders, Nicelle Beauchene and Franklin Parrasch, explain the concept really nicely in this Highlands Current piece.
In Person: My Way: The Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers and Contemporary Abstractions includes works from six quilters in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, with six nonquilting pieces. The quilters, hailing from “a remote, rural Black community” continue expressing the work their predecessors did, creating patterns and telling stories using vibrant fabrics and repurposed materials, including feed sacks, faded denim, work clothes and remnants. According to Parts & Labor’s press release, “The majority of Gee’s Bend works are ‘My Way’ quilts: their improvisational, abstract imagery and patterning is informed by the particular quilter’s personal vision, rather than that of a guide or template.” The nonquilting pieces also showcase geometries and vibrant colors, tying together the different ways artists in any medium can explore storytelling through the abstract. See for yourself, through Sunday, August 9, 2020.
Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 12 to 6 pm, by appointment. Appointments may be made by texting or calling (207) 460-0768.

THE WEST END
(Close to the train station)

Hudson Beach Glass
162 Main St.
Beacon, NY
(845) 440-0068
This glass studio has been casting functional and sculptural objects for over 20 years - a truly special establishment to have in Beacon. Stop in to find blown-glass objects of all kinds, from lights to bowls to wind chimes. Sometimes on Second Saturday, you can watch them blow glass!
Online: Karen Miura’s pastels bring animals vividly to life! Check out her work here. Her exhibition, Tame & Wild, was set to open at Hudson Beach Glass this weekend. Since it’s on hold, for now, it’s a great time to look through her website. Of Tame & Wild, she says: “My goal was a show featuring animals that were especially inspiring to me. I wanted to bring forth the emotions of the animals I encountered as an animal communicator. When people see my paintings, I hope they can feel and sense the animals the same way I do. I love the beautiful and odd, the strong and meek, and the myriad of their wonderful personalities, I love everything about every creature.”
Hours: Closed until further notice.

Clutter Magazine Gallery
163 Main St.
Beacon, NY
(212) 255-2505
The Clutter Gallery is a branch of the Clutter Media Group family, and is focused on showing quality work by both established and emerging artists in the fields of toy design and customization, as well as modern pop and lowbrow art. Clutter Gallery’s exhibitions are open to the public and free of charge. 
In person for Second Saturday: Be excited, but also be super careful and respectful of everyone around you - Clutter is having a real, live, in-person, in-gallery opening! (Their safety details are at the end of this listing.) First up is Silent Killer, a show by artist Mr. KumKum, with five micro runs of hand-painted masterpieces, including pop culture icons, a snake in disguise, explosives, insects and more (you might recognize some Dunny experiments). Some of the work is haunting.
Oh Boy! Grumble Toy! is a collection from Canadian husband-and-wife duo Chris Bryan and Ainsley Sturko, aka Grumble Toy, whose imaginative designs are as cute as they are creepy — cats in ponchos, upright worms with arms and unicorn horns, prehistoric beasts and other fantastic marvels.
Also happening at Clutter: Vincent Scala’s colorful Covid Crew Buddies. Clutter says it all in this description:

“Grab one or two as the souvenir for a time you probably don't want to remember but always will. $10 from each sale will be donated to the Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund supporting essential workers, local small businesses, displaced workers and other vulnerable New Yorkers. Please Note: These figures do not in any way negate the seriousness of the ongoing pandemic. Please wear a mask and practice social distancing. We are all in this together.”

Online: Head over to Clutter Magazine’s YouTube channel for videos and conversations with toy artists, and the people who love them. #ClutterTalks!
Hours: Second Saturday opening reception, 6 to 9 pm
Social Distancing Guidelines: “Due to the ongoing coronavirus situation we will only be allowing in ten guests at a time. NO ONE will be admitted without a mask, so please make sure you are prepared. We ask that everyone observe social distancing rules both inside and outside the gallery.”

RiverWinds Gallery
172 Main St.
Beacon, NY
(845) 838-2880
RiverWinds Gallery features Hudson Valley artists. Work includes fine art paintings and photography, plus contemporary crafts including ceramics, jewelry, fiber arts and more.
In person for Second Saturday: RiverWinds has reopened; follow their COVID safety precautions! Artist Alaina Enslen brought selected works to RiverWinds Gallery for Remnants, a show she was supposed to have earlier this year. In this series, the artist is using an encaustic medium to abstractly, emotionally connect fabrics and materials given to her by friends and that she has used in her life. Enslen explains her fascinating process: “In these paintings, I’m fusing upcycled cloths to beeswax cultivated in the Hudson Valley, and I’m exploring the emotive properties of cloth as experience and memory. I’m pulling and tearing, cutting, and constructing maps of my own making, flattened, frayed, and immersed in beeswax. It’s a new landscape of where I’ve been and where I want to explore. I poured a lot of love into this work as I focused on how to use sustainable materials and express my experiences through abstraction.”
Online: Alaina Enslen’s show, but virtually. Look through a dozen pieces of her most recent work, set in the Hudson Valley.
Hours: Second Saturday, noon to 9 pm; Thursday to Sunday, noon to 5 pm; Monday, noon to 4 pm; closed Tuesday

THE EAST END & BEYOND
(Closer to the mountain)

Morphicism
444 Main St.
Beacon, NY
(845) 440-3092
Moveable art in frames - art you must see and experience. Jay Palefsky taught art in New York high schools for more than two decades, then packed his bags to pursue life as an artrepreneur, with a steadfast commitment to doing things differently. 
Online: Take a while to cruise around Morphicism’s website. There are dozens of owner Jay Palefsky’s boxes of sliding panels, waiting to be explored.
Hours: Closed until further notice.

No.3 Reading Room & Photo Book Works
469 Main St. 
Beacon, NY
Two doors west of the Howland Center, No. 3 Reading Room & Photo Book Works is an artist-run venue, featuring select artists’ books, artist photobookworks, photography books, work on paper and poetry from small and independent presses. Contact Paulette Myers-Rich at photobookworks@gmail.com for additional information. 
In person: Another well-planned window show, in Slippage as Form: Visual Poems by Edwin Torres. How does an art space owner make connections with the public, when so much of her space’s collection is based on close contact - lingering looks at hand-crafted books, considered careful turns of each page? We share here Paulette’s thoughts about exhibiting the work of Edwin Torres, Beacon poet and graphic artist, in 17x22-inch prints, mounted in the reading room’s storefront window. Through Thursday, September 10, 2020.
Online: Go deep, with Paulette Myers-Rich’s essay about Reach: A Selection of Drawings and Artist’s Books by Rosaire Appel, an exhibition that Photo Book Works hosted earlier this year.
Hours: Indoor space is closed until further notice.

Howland Cultural Center
477 Main St.
Beacon, NY
(845) 831-4988
Beacon's Howland Cultural Center is not just another arts organization. Its beautiful home is a Victorian building, a library for a long time, that was born specifically to serve the community as a cultural resource.
In person for Second Saturday: The 2020 Members Art Show and Sale, featuring the works of the Howland Center’s nearly three dozen member artists. Through Sunday, August 30, 2020
Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 5 pm
Social Distancing Guidelines: No entry without a mask, per their event flyer. 

Maria Lago Studio 502
502 Main St.
Beacon, NY
(845) 765-8421
Online: Click over to Lago’s website to peruse the hypertextured paintings of Ideograph Materica. The series is inspired by prehistoric cave drawings and archetypal images. The surfaces of the paintings resemble the walls of a cave and are inscribed with words and symbols. “Working spontaneously, I combine images from the past and present to create my own symbolic language. I am attempting to interpret my personal experience within a common visual code,” Lago says.
Hours: Closed until further notice.

Bau Gallery
506 Main St.
Beacon, NY
(845) 222-0177
Bau (Beacon Artist Union) is a platform for members and artists to grow, present and market their work and collaborative curatorial projects, while hosting events of related disciplines: performances, talks, film and music. Bau builds a vital link between artists’ activities and rest of the community.
In person for Second Saturday: Fifty artists from around the Hudson Valley - with some familiar big-deal names and some you’ll just meet - take part in Bau’s 184th exhibition, Help Feed Beacon, a fundraiser for Dutchess Community Action Partnership and the Beacon Food Bank. This would seem to highlight the gallery’s stated mission, building a link between artists and the community. In Bau’s words: “Why are we doing this? We know Covid19 closures affected many. The arts community was hit particularly hard as many of us experienced the loss of planned exhibits, residencies, lost commissioned projects and teaching and supplemental jobs. We also know there are a lot of hungry people out there. Despite the loss of jobs and projects, artists continued to create during stay-at-home-orders. Now as we open up again, this is a chance to see some of the work that was produced, get the arts scene going again and help out our artist community and help feed the hungry.” Through Sunday, August 2.
Hours: Saturday and Sunday, noon to 6 pm