Small Stones Festival of the Arts returns in October
The Small Stones Festival of the Arts is making a return for the fourth year in October, with artists from around the region displaying their fine art and photography in the Great Hall at the Grafton Town House.
The festival is a collaboration of four regional arts organizations: Apple Tree Arts, the Worcester County Camera Club, the Blackstone Valley Art Association and the Shakespeare Club of Grafton. It features an opening reception and juried art exhibition on October 15.
The Festival’s Art call opens August 15 for submissions of artwork. Photography and all forms of two-dimensional artwork are welcomed, with a maximum of three entries per artist. The Art Call will remain open until midnight of the day 500 entries are received. All artwork meeting acceptance criteria will be displayed online. Artists may submit artwork beginning Aug. 15 at www.smallstones2021.artcall.org
A distinguished panel of six jurors (three for each category) will select 144 works to appear in the exhibit and printed exhibit catalog as well as select cash prize winners in fine art and photography categories. Awards will include first, second and third cash prize winners, juror’s choice and a popular choice award for each category. Cash awards are $500 for first; $250 for second; and $100 for third place. A 2021 hardback exhibit catalog will be sold online in late November.
Fine art category jurors include Carol Arnold, a Putney Painter group member and first place prize winner in the best figure/portraiture category of the June 2020 Plein Air Salon Art Competition; Charlotte Wharton, a highly accomplished portrait, plein-air and genre artist, whose work is displayed in national and European collections; and Susan Swinand, a prominent painter with preference for water media, who has taught at Worcester Art Museum, Clark University and Wellesley College Greenhouses.
The jurors for the photography category are David DeMelim, founder and managing director of Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts ; Jessica Roscio, director and curator at Danforth Art Museum, who has held positions at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and renowned fine art portraiture photographer Al Weems, whose work is widely published and displayed.
The Festival has added new venues including the recently renovated and expanded Grafton Public Library. The Shakespeare Club of Grafton has organized a diverse literary track. Radio Active Theatre and Club members will perform excerpts from “Spoon River Anthology” on Oct. 16, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Local author Nicholas A. Basbanes will discuss his new book, “Cross of Snow, A Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow” and Barbara Basbanes Richter will talk about her translation of Fanny Reybaud’s nineteenth century French novel, “Mademoiselle de Malepeire” on Oct. 22, 7 p.m. Assumption University professor Dr. Daniel Mahoney will talk about the correlation between George Orwell’s classic books and how totalitarian governments corrupt and manipulate language on Oct. 23, 3 p.m.
Several additional programs include a discussion by artists about their work on Oct. 17, 2 p.m. and a presentation by jurors regarding their thoughts and perspectives about their favorite Festival artwork at 3 p.m. Art collector Tom Saupe will present “Eclectic Eye: Collecting Art on a Limited Budget” on Oct. 20, 6 p.m. A music program will be presented at the Congregational Church of Grafton.
Exhibit hours are Saturday, Oct. 16, and Oct. 23, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 17, and Oct. 24, noon to 4 p.m. at the Great Hall. New weekday hours run Oct. 20- 22, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
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