Second Saturday Art Gallery stroll in Beacon

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

September 12 - Beacon is re-awakening…

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, 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.
• 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, many galleries remain closed. But there’s still plenty of art. 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: 

September 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, September 12: 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 - Reopening in August!
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 is free for residents of Beacon, Fishkill, Chelsea, and Glenham every Saturday and Sunday, year-round. (Thanks, Pete Seeger.)
Special for Second Saturday (in person): After a several-month closure due to COVID-19, Dia:Beacon reopened in August. Admission is by advance reservation only, with timed tickets. “Availability will be extremely limited,” Dia warns. From a few quick checks of dates/times on this page, it seems like Mondays are your best bet, with Friday, September 11, through Sunday, September 13, completely sold out. See more information here.
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: By appointment/timed ticket only

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.
Special for Second Saturday (in person): Finally Golden, works by Brian Belott and Bridget Caramagna. Through October 25.
Online: Mother Gallery is still also “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: Open to the public for Second Saturday, September 12, noon to 6 pm; viewing by appointment only after that date.

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.
Open for Second Saturday (in person): Lois Dodd and Shara Hughes, an exhibition featuring recent paintings by contemporary artist Shara Hughes alongside a selection of paintings by Lois Dodd dating from 1966 to 1988. According to Parts & Labor’s release, Dodd’s images “reveal the artist’s intimate and focused interest in painting her immediate environs — the surrounding woods of her summer home in coastal Maine, the interior-exterior views of her East Village apartment window, and the winter scenes of her home near the Delaware Water Gap — that she has revisited through her 70-year career.” Shara Hughes “creates images of invented landscapes and surrealistic environments defined by chromatic radiance and abundantly lush density. Addressing qualities of light and flora, Hughes defines the interaction between these two elements as they create portals that allude to spaces beyond the picture plane.” Get drawn in by the stunning works from these two women. Through Sunday, October 25.
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)

Marion Royael Gallery
159 Main St.
Beacon, NY
(727) 244-5535
Special for Second Saturday (in person): Stick a fork in him? Not yet. Not ever. Local Beaconite Ed Benavente is popping up in Marion Royael after taking down some of his longstanding sculptures around town. You may remember the hammer people at Brett's Hardware, and other pieces that have been acquired to stay in place. See what else Marion Royael has in store for you.
Ongoing: Inside the gallery, see Candelabra: Things That Carry the Light of the World, featuring "finely executed visual perspectives" in various mediums by more than a dozen artists. What carries the light of the world to you? How do you carry light? Don't hide it under a bushel. Bring it to Main Street and the MR Gallery. 
Hours: Noon to 7 pm (sometimes later)

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!
Special for Second Saturday: Beacon Open Studios was set to run as usual earlier this year, but, you know… Great news though - it’s coming back the first weekend of October around town. There’s a group show up now at Hudson Beach Glass to kick off the event. There’s no specific reception, but HBG is open daily, so check it out!
Hours: Monday to Saturday, noon to 6 pm; Sunday, noon to 5 pm

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. 
Special for Second Saturday (in person): Be excited, but also please be super careful and respectful of everyone around you - Clutter is hosting another real, live, in-person, in-gallery opening! (Their safety details are at the end of this listing.) Four - count ’em up, four! - separate shows are opening in Clutter’s space. First up is the annual DTA Custom Show, a group event featuring three dozen artists’ personalized takes on the legendary CANZ platform.
Creative Quarantine is a solo show from Clutter regular Czee. Following up his 2018 solo show Creative Solitude, Czee returns with a new body of work created entirely while quarantined in his studio during the pandemic. Featuring customs, paint-ups, and original sculpts, get ready to be surprised! The third show, Creatures of the Night, is a solo show from Nightly Made (aka Megan Mahfoud) with her sweet-but-maybe-a-lil-creepy cuties. Last but not least, Nocturnal, a solo show from Naptime Noah (aka Noah Eaton) showcases his long-standing love of sculpting. From figures to pendants, and everything in-between. Best known for bright color palettes, and cracked paint layers revealing inner depths. All four shows, through Sunday, October 4.
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.”

Clarkson University’s Beacon Institute for Rivers & Estuaries
199 Main St.
Beacon, NY
(845) 838-1600
This historic brick storefront houses a variety of Institute programs: the WOW! gallery, the Hudson River bookstore and gift shop, its administrative headquarters, and a new venture, Sensor Place. Events feature talks by artists and regional Hudson Valley authors.
Reopening for Second Saturday! The Beacon Institute reopens this month with Jane Colgan’s blessing water. “In choosing paintings for this show, I wanted to share my relationship with and appreciation for water in her gentle beauty, her vast power, her fathomless generosity,” Colgan writes.
Hours: Second Saturday, 10 am to 2 pm

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.
Special for Second Saturday (in person): Commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month with the Latinx Art Celebration at the Howland Center, featuring works by more than a dozen artists around the Hudson Valley.
In a special balcony exhibition, Ring Them Bells is a photo series by Kelly Ellenwood, of 45 doorbells she encountered while out in Beacon canvassing for local office. “Each of the doorbells or knockers tells a story - of history, of a home-owner’s personality, and of what it took for me to approach each home, not knowing how my presence or my message would be received,” Ellenwood says. “I was often alone, but I was determined to connect, even when it seemd that the person who answered the door was unlikely to be a voter.” Through Sunday, September 27.
Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 5 pm, except Sunday, September 13

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.
Special for Second Saturday: Weightless, Daniel Berlin’s first solo show at Bau Gallery, “is a reference to avoiding conceptual quicksand, which can overload and confuse fresh perception,” a release from Bau explains. “The show includes painting, monotypes and sculpture that intend to embody an energetic connection which relieves the density of thinking.” Lukas Milanak “applies the do-it-yourself ethos to science and engineering, inventing playful sculptures and art-making machines by breathing life into found objects with elemental materials like wood, steel and handblown glass,” according to Bau’s release. In Allegory and Apparatus, “through the reuse and reinvention of everyday materials, Milanak depicts an age where the experimental spirit of alchemy and curiosity is alive and well.” Both shows, through Sunday, October 4.
Hours: Second Saturday opening reception (all day), noon to 8 pm; Saturday and Sunday, noon to 6 pm