Community Calendar
2024 Events from our Community Partners - - - > Visit the Community Guide to Learn More
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Rethinking Art and Business: Discovering Old Beliefs to Connect with Flow
The intersection of art and business is complicated. Creativity requires freedom and flow, a capacity to tune into your artistic vision. And, yet to maintain and sustain yourself, money is required. Yet often the need for financial nourishment feels like compromising your values, selling yourself short, or becoming dependent on others in a way that feels icky. In this workshop, we’ll rethink the meeting point of creativity and business from a place of ease, integrity, and purpose.
This includes:
— Identifying limiting beliefs that keep you out of flow on the business side of your work.
— Reimagining business growth from a place of creativity and self-trust.
— Crafting action steps that feel nourishing and in alignment with both your artistic vision and financial goals.
Beth Pellettieri is a Creative Business Coach and Martha Beck Wayfinder Life Coach. She works with heart-centered, creative business owners to find fun, fulfillment, and financial peace. You can learn more about her work at www.bethpellettieri.com or IG @bethpellettieri.
Registration
Click/tap the link below for more information on this event and to register.
Sunday May 19th from 3:30 pm — 5 pm at Northampton Center for the Arts.
Sliding scale pricing.
Holyoke Arts League Annual Spring Exhibition
During the month of May, the Wistariahurst Museum at 238 Cabot St. in Holyoke will host an exhibition of artwork by members of the Holyoke Arts League (HAL), founded in 1923 and celebrating its 101st year in Holyoke. The League holds artist demonstrations and weekly adult figure drawing sessions.
You are cordially invited to join them at their opening reception on Saturday, May 4th, from 2-4pm. This event is complimentary and welcomes all.
Throughout May, the exhibition will be accessible during the museum's usual operating hours on Mondays (10am-2pm) and Tuesdays (4:30pm-6:30pm) until May 28th. The juried exhibition will showcase diverse entries such as oil and pastel, watercolor, acrylic, tempera, gouache, non-oil wet media, graphite, charcoal, printmaking, graphic media, sculpture, and ceramics.
Registration
Click/tap the button below for more information and to RSVP.
This is a FREE event and is open to the public.
The UnNameable Children’s Project Presents: The Garden of Recycled Delights
As part of the "Moving Museum" free art pop-up series, the UnNameable Children's Project is collaborating with the Children's Museum at Holyoke on four art workshops, free to the public, and open to all ages. Each session will be an hour long led by an artist from the UnNameable Children's Project. Participants will collaborate with the artists to create fantastical garden installation out of recycled materials. Each artist will focus on a different component of the garden which will be put together into a whimsical and magical environment that visitors can walk through and performances can take place in. The project will emphasize group collaboration, imagination, and celebrating nature in spring!
Registration
This is a FREE event. Click the button below for more information!
April Break at Children’s Museum Holyoke
Children’s Museum at Holyoke has nine days of fun planned for April Vacation!
Registration
Click/tap the button below to learn more about these offerings.
These events are FREE with the price of ticket admission to the museum.
The UnNameable Children’s Project Presents: The Garden of Recycled Delights
As part of the "Moving Museum" free art pop-up series, the UnNameable Children's Project is collaborating with the Children's Museum at Holyoke on four art workshops, free to the public, and open to all ages. Each session will be an hour long led by an artist from the UnNameable Children's Project. Participants will collaborate with the artists to create fantastical garden installation out of recycled materials. Each artist will focus on a different component of the garden which will be put together into a whimsical and magical environment that visitors can walk through and performances can take place in. The project will emphasize group collaboration, imagination, and celebrating nature in spring!
Registration
This is a FREE event. Click the button below for more information.
Trans Day of Visibility Resource & Art Fair
Let's celebrate our joy, strength, and resiliency on Trans Day of Visibility 2024!
Join Translate Gender’s annual Resource and Art Fair on Sunday 3/31 from 4-7pm at the Northampton Center for the Arts.
You’ll find:
Art made by Trans Makers
Clothing Swap
Community Resource Tables
Name Change Help
Music
Food
The resource and art fair will showcase affirming and inclusive community based organizations; trans and gender expansive artists; a gender affirming clothing swap; name change support and legal resources; as well as light refreshments and performances! The event is free and open to youth, families, and community members.
Find more information on Translate Gender’s Facebook event, linked below.
Small Victories Grand Opening at Thornes Marketplace
Join Small Victories for the opening of their retail shop in Thornes Marketplace! They'll have plantable seed paper greeting cards, art prints, accessories, and more, straight from their studio in Easthampton, MA - plus goody bags for the first 100 visitors who sign up for their mailing list!
As always, Small Victories donates 10% of their profits from every item you purchase to organizations that support biodiversity and imperiled species or improve the lives of gender-expansive and LGBTQ+ individuals.
Registration
This event is FREE
Click the button below to learn more about Small Victories
Nature / Nurture Art Exhibit at Wistariahurst Museum
Wistariahurst Museum is excited to welcome back their Women's History Month juried art show, with this years theme being Nature/Nurture. Female and nonbinary artists explore the theme of nature versus nurture, showcasing different perspectives on how genes and environment influence mental and physical well-being. Some artworks focus on genetics, while others emphasize the role of upbringing and life experiences in shaping one's identity.
The jury selected five artists to showcase for the Nature/Nurture art exhibit: Anne Bradford Spencer, Deborah Yaffe, Shelsy Rodiguez, Camille Roos, and River Nation, with other amazing artists as honorable mentions.
There will be an artist talk and opening reception on March 12th, 2024, from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm, including an artist panel discussion at 5:30 pm. During the opening reception, get a first look at the exhibit and speak with some of the artists who helped shape this year's theme with their artwork. We will be joined by some of our featured as we feature them on our artist panel to talk about what inspired their art, their experiences, and what their thoughts on this year's theme
The exhibit is open on Mondays from 10 am to 2 pm and Tuesdays from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm from March 12th until April 16th.
Registration
This event is FREE
Click/tap button below for more info!
Hope is Here: Art in the Café at River-Valley Co-Op
Artist Elayna Sturm (The Fantasies of Youth) translates dreams into something tangible. Via intersectional research and multimedia artwork, Elayna’s work incorporates elements of land, historical contexts, holism, queerness, spirituality, community, and lineage among the intertwining of their own lived experiences.
Registration
This is a FREE event and will be on view through the month of March at the Northampton River Valley Co-Op store in their cafeteria.
Yoga for Creativity
This writing and yoga workshop will include an asana practice designed to spark our creativity, followed by generative writing.
Q/T Valley Emergence: Mxed Media Night
On Thursday, June 1, 2023 (rescheduled from 4/27/23), Transhealth and Bloom Local invite you to a Mxed Media Night at the Wild Chestnut Cafe in Florence, MA featuring a special author presentation with Emet Aron, local illustrator and author of Bug Theory, a “debut graphic memoir-in-progress” followed by a zine-making workshop with Lachlan Thompson of Astral Cherry Art.
This event is sponsored by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Northampton Arts Council.
Doors open at 6pm; Emet Speaks at 6:30pm; Zine-Making to follow.
About The Artists
Bug Theory is Emet's debut graphic memoir-in-progress, relaying what bugs taught them about becoming themself. Part love letter to insects and arachnids, part transition story, this comic takes an empathetic view of Emet's struggle to metamorphose in their early 30's, and looks back into Emet's childhood as an “Amateur Bug-ologist” for clues about who they are to become.
Astral Cherry Art (ACA) seeks to cultivate spaces of radical authenticity, disability justice, and trauma-aware care through the transformative power of art and facilitation. ACA provides personalized artwork, trainings & workshops; peer support groups & one-on-one support sessions. They also host community-led art exhibitions, facilitate ritual & storytelling spaces, and are striving to be a hub to uplift the work of multiple marginalized creatives through collaborations.
Event Details
$5-$20 suggested donation at the door/in advance (button below). Proceeds benefit the QTVE Partnership between Transhealth and Bloom Local.
The Wild Chestnut Cafe will have delicious baked goods and beverages available for purchase.
Masks are strongly suggested. More access information specific to each venue in this series is provided here.
Q/T Valley Emergence: Local Music Showcase
Transhealth and Bloom Local invite you to a Local Music Showcase at The Divine Theater featuring musical performances by Doctora Xingona Diana Alvarez and Olivia Nied on Thursday, May 25th. The music begins at 6:30pm; doors open at 6pm.
Come enjoy music and connect in community at this beautiful venue in Holyoke. A suggested donation of $5-$20 benefits the partnership of Transhealth and Bloom Local, and helps to sustain this programming.
This event is made possible through the support of our sponsors:
Holyoke Cultural Council
Mass Cultural Council
Gateway City Arts
The Divine Theater
About the Artists
Doctora Xingona Diana Alvarez
Doctora Xingona's ancestors bloom in her/their voice. Her/their songs roar an otherworldly fire against oppression, exalt queer love and liberation, and create a gripping atmosphere for healing. Doctora Xingona’s poetic songs live in-between, where borders are a myth. An expansive multimedia artist and educator, Doctora Xingona's music, poetry, performances, films, and gatherings center transcendence, kinship, and the co-liberation and nourishment of queer and trans artists of color.
Doctora Xingona is the composer and filmmaker behind the award-winning Quiero Volver: A Xicanx Ritual Opera, a multimedia performance altar for queer and trans BIPOC artists to convene and manifest futures. This performance, awarded by the New England Foundation for the Arts and multiple Massachusetts Cultural Councils, has been described by the press as an "acoustically stunning performance meant to honor women, nonbinary, and genderqueer artists of color." Quiero Volver has raised over $10,000 to support immigrant justice initiatives, and currently benefits the BridgeSong Fund: Emergency Relief for Western MA Women, Nonbinary, Trans, and Genderqueer Artists of Color, co-founded by Doctora Xingona at the Institute for the Musical Arts in Goshen, MA.
Alvarez's journey as a songwriter and opera composer began with her award-winning poetry, which centers genderqueer muse, Bruja Juana. In 2008, Alvarez completed her MFA in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College, where her poetry collection, Consultations with Bruja Juana, was conceived. Consultations was published by Toadlily Press in 2009, and two of Alvarez’s poems also appear in The Best of Toadlily Press (2011). Poet Sean Nevin said of Consultations, "Diana Alvarez writes the truth through a tincture of magic and prayer, and both the spirits and the living are cupping their ears to listen."
Dr. Alvarez earned her PhD in Electronic Arts Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she was mentored by groundbreaking composer Pauline Oliveros. Alvarez's dissertation research is titled Bridge Artistx: Gatherings of Women, Non-Binary, and Genderqueer Artists of Color. At Rensselaer, Alvarez composed her opera, and blended testimonio methods and video portraiture to document the lives and work of women, nonbinary, and genderqueer artists of color. Alvarez's video art continues to expand. In 2018, Alvarez was commissioned to create a documentary for the world premiere of Sharon Bridgforth’s performance installation, dat Black Mermaid Man Lady at allgo, a statewide queer people of color organization in Austin, Texas. In addition to her documentary commissions for Bridgforth, Alvarez has directed her own music videos, as well as a music video for internationally recognized singer-songwriter and jazz musician, Pamela Means.
Doctora Xingona Diana Alvarez has been awarded grants from New England Foundation for the Arts, Iguana Music Fund/Club Passim, Easthampton City Arts, Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts and Mass MoCA, Massachusetts Assembly/ArtPlace America. Alvarez is the recipient of the Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize from the Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA) and the Malcolm S. Morse Graduate Research Enhancement Award in Honor of Pauline Oliveros from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Alvarez has also been an artist-in-residence at Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada.
Doctora Xingona is an invited performer, guest lecturer, workshop facilitator, and keynote speaker at venues and schools across the US and worldwide, including Festival Internaciónal Cervantino, MX, Philadelphia Folk Festival, PA, Banff Centre for the Arts, Folk Alliance International, and many more.
Doctora Xingona's debut album, Ser Artista--a roaring, genderqueer, extraterrestrial, Xicanx collection of songs produced by Seth Glier--was released in December 2021.
Olivia Nied
Olivia’s poignant songs reflect her unique life experience shared with audiences through moving vocals and unique instrumentation on guitar, piano, bass, ukulele, melodica, violin and percussion.
Trained at Hampshire College, Goldsmiths - University of London, Berklee College of Music, and the Vermont Jazz Center, Olivia is an innovative composer, arranger, and producer who creates original music for live performance, modern dance, theater and independent film. She has performed across the US and Europe as a solo artist and session player as well as with various groups and ensembles exploring rock, indie-pop, new-grass and jazz.
Event Details
$5-$20 suggested donation at the door/in advance. Proceeds benefit the QTVE Partnership between Transhealth and Bloom Local.
Masks are suggested at this event. More access information specific to each venue in this series is provided here.