Second Saturday Art Gallery hop in Beacon

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April 11 - Beacon is Open-ish, But…

It probably goes without saying that April’s Second Saturday isn’t going to include wine and cheese nibbles in our favorite galleries, and excited strolls down a packed Main Street. Per recommendations from Governor Andrew Cuomo and medical experts, recreational out-and-about-ness and non-essential business outside our homes are strongly discouraged. So galleries are closed. That doesn’t mean there’s no art. Some venues 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.

Some venues and artists will take a true break during the pandemic, and the art will still be there when we’re on the other side of this virus. If you do decide to go out, please be conscientious about your habits and consider the people around you. Remember, too, that historically, lots of art gets created when people are facing challenging conditions. In 2015’s “No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear,” author Toni Morrison reminded people tempted to resign themselves to the anguish of hard times: “This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” So let’s look to help heal, in whatever way we can contribute.

Now, back to our regular posting:
For years, Beacon has had hoppin’ Second Saturdays with gallery openings and art happenings. But art refuses to be confined to a hashtagged event schedule. That’s why we’ve expanded this Guide to showcase as many art openings as we can within Beacon’s city limits. Artistic endeavors are going up on walls (and sidewalks, and lawns) all the time around town, so keep your eyes glued to this space and refresh often to stay in the loop. We try to update the bulk of this Guide on the Monday before Second Saturday, or as venues list their happenings. But we’re constantly updating the Guide as we hear about new events and openings.

Are you planning for the fourth Thursday of the month? Or maybe you’re already a seasoned #2Sat pro? Skip the Second Saturday 101 below if you'd like, and head straight for the listings, starting with Dia: Beacon.

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. At the reading room, you’ll find not just rotating exhibits, but cool collections of handmade books that the public is encouraged to peruse.

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: 

April 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, April 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 for Second Saturday: The museum has linked to a series of thought-provoking blog posts, designed to encourage avid art viewers to try on the process themselves. The title of one artist prompt in particular jumped out as one to try in this time of self-isolating: Home-Body, by Bel Falleiros. Below the blog posts are links to Dia projects. This interactive one, by Iñaki Bonillas has stunning vintage photos; viewers generate the words.
Hours: Closed until further notice

Mother Gallery - Closed until further notice
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.
ONLINE for Second Saturday: Jenny Morgan’s To Bathe the World in a Strange Light was set to open in March, before the world was in fact bathed in a strange (viral) light. Read an interview with the artist and see her work in this Juxtapoz piece.
Hours: Closed until further notice

Parts & Labor Beacon
1154 North Ave. (upstairs)
Beacon, NY
(917) 664-8861
This recent arrival to the Beacon gallery scene, opening last May, uniquely pairs works by one younger or emerging artist and one more-established artist. Writer Alison Rooney and the gallery’s co-founders, Nicelle Beauchene and Franklin Parrasch, explain the concept really nicely in this Highlands Current piece.
ONLINE for Second Saturday: Pictures can’t do it justice, but stroll (or scroll) through pictures from an exhibition anyway. Paired together in this installation are the paintings of Alex Bradley Cohen and Rafael Ferrer. The gallery describes Alex Bradley Cohen’s pieces: “Working with acrylic paint on canvas, the artist depicts friends and family members in scenes of everyday moments of connection. For Cohen, painting serves as an exercise in world building, a practice that embraces the effort— at once life-giving, messy, joyful, and discomfiting—of sharing in kinship.” Instead of directly observing and recording his subjects in a documentary way, he paints from photos, memories, and other one-step-removed influences. His works often invoke his home base of Chicago. Similarly, Rafael Ferrer’s paintings reference the tropical vibrancy of his native Puerto Rico. Though he works now from the North Fork of Long Island, Ferrer has traveled (and exhibited) internationally for decades, beginning with a trip to Paris in 1953, meeting influential artists during that buzzing era. The five portraits in P&L’s exhibition are from the 1980s. The gallery says: “His lines are quick and colors bold, exuding an expressive verve that captures just enough of his sitters’ likenesses.” See for yourself, through Sunday, May 3.
Hours: Closed until further notice.

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 for Second Saturday: 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. 
ONLINE for Second Saturday: Clutter has announced that they will have online-only gallery shows until further notice. Head over to Clutter Magazine’s YouTube channel for videos and conversations with toy artists, and the people who love them. #ClutterTalks!
Hours: Closed until further notice.

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.
ONLINE for Second Saturday: Artist Alaina Enslen brought selected works to RiverWinds Gallery for Remnants, a show she was supposed to have last month. But, thanks to COVID-19 closures, not too many people had the chance to see it. Look through a dozen pieces of her most recent work, set in the Hudson Valley. 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.”
Hours: Closed until further notice.

THE MIDDLE & MARKET SQUARE

Howland Public Library
313 Main St.
Beacon, NY
(845) 831-1134
POSTPONED for Second Saturday: The Howland Public Library is postponing the opening reception for We Persist, the sixth annual group show from the CoMFY collective, female artists from in and around Beacon. In honor of the upcoming 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, artists were asked to create a piece of art in response to the phrase “She persisted.” The exhibit features artwork by over 20 local artists inspired by the idea of the persistence and strength of women. The exhibition is in honor of Women’s History Month.
Hours: Closed until further notice.

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 for Second Saturday: 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. 
Note from Paulette, February 29: “Like may other organizations that are cancelling or postponing events, No.3 Reading Room will be closed until further notice in order to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Please email photobookworks@gmail.com if you have any questions, and check back for updates on when we will reopen. Thanks for your patience and stay well.”
ONLINE for Second Saturday: Go deep, reading Paulette Myers-Rich’s essay about Reach: A Selection of Drawings and Artist’s Books by Rosaire Appel, the latest exhibition that Photo Book Works hosted.
Hours: 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.
Hours: Closed until further notice.

Maria Lago Studio 502
502 Main St.
Beacon, NY
(845) 765-8421
ONLINE for Second Saturday: 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.
ONLINE for Second Saturday: In the 183rd consecutive exhibition at Bau Gallery, the Main Room will have Roots, a group show from Bau members, whose work here is in response to the word “roots.” In this show, “our artists have the chance to create one-off works of art outside of our regular everyday practice. There are many directions one can take the word ‘Roots.’ Perhaps a literal interpretation of root systems. Maybe instead something more akin to origin, or source or the basic cause of how life itself. The possibilities and individual expressions are endless.” See for yourself what these artists come up with. March’s celebratory opening events were canceled, so Bau moved the gallery online. Check out the online exhibition here.
Hours: Closed until further notice.