The First Fridays Artswalk in downtown Pittsfield continues its 5-month season (May through September) on Saturday, July 12 from 1 to 4 pm (this special Saturday Artswalk is due to the First Friday falling on July 4th).
Participating venues on Saturday, September 12 include Berkshire Art Center, Berkshire Theatre Group, Clock Tower Artists, Dottie’s Coffee Lounge, Framework by Downtown Pittsfield, Inc., Hotel on North, Marketplace Cafe, Roots and Dreams and Mustard Seeds, and the Soda Chef.
Download the Downtown Pittsfield App in the App Store or on Google Play to follow a virtual walking tour of art on your cell phone.
The Clock Tower Artists at 75 South Church Street will host an open studios event on Saturday, July 12, 1 to 4 pm. Clock Tower Artists (CTA) is the largest and most diverse contemporary, working artists’ group in Berkshire County. Now numbering two dozen working creatives, the Clock Tower Artists Open Studios will feature original paintings, prints, photographs, and sculptures. Enjoy an insider’s look into the world of working artists.
Artists with Open Studios at the Clock Tower on July 12 include Karen Carmean, Deborah H Carter, Lucie Castaldo, Joan Palano Ciolfi, Randy Foulds, Marion Grant, Nava Grunfeld, Caroline Kelley, Mollie Kellogg, Eric Korenman, Bruce Laird, Lisa Loustaunau, Mark Mellinger, Linda Petrocine, Shany Porras, Sally Tiska Rice, Ilene Richard, Audrey Shachnow, Stanley Singer, Ariel Smith, Jordan Stone, Sharon Walthew, Stefanie Weber, and Carmel Wilson.
NUarts gallery + studios, 311 North Street, will open their Hall Gallery featuring the works of resident artists on Saturday, July 12, 1 to 4 pm.
Downtown Pittsfield, Inc. and Framework will feature a brand-new exhibition featuring a collection of Huck Elling’s recent paintings exploring color, patterns, and pursuit of joy. The exhibition will be on view July 7 through July 24, 2025, at Framework by Downtown Pittsfield, Inc. (437 North Street).
This year, Huck was selected to create the poster for the 2025 Pittsfield Fourth of July Parade. The theme being “Young at Heart”. The original artwork will be on view as part of this exhibition.
“I have always been motivated to make art which inspires human connections,” says Huck. “For more than twelve years I have been fortunate to be working as a professional artist, in a variety of mediums, methods and scales, and at the heart of everything I do is the desire to inspire curiosity, connection, and joy.”
“Public Art has the specific beauty of belonging to everyone, it is art without barriers. As a Public Artist, I am motivated by activating communities, through identifying the architectural and visual landscape and enhancing it with art projects including the people of the neighborhood. Together we create lasting contributions to the vibrancy of the community.”
There will be an opening reception with the artist during the special Saturday, July 12 Artswalk from 1 to 4 pm.
The exhibition will be on view Monday through Thursday, 10 am to 2 pm, July 7 through July 24, by visiting the Downtown Pittsfield, Inc. offices at 431 North Street.
Hotel on North, 297 North Street, will feature artworks by Sally Tiska Rice July 1 through September 1. This beautifully restored boutique hotel blends 19th-century architecture with sleek, contemporary design—and is the perfect backdrop for Sally’s richly layered light-filled artwork.
Meet the artist on Saturday, July 12 from 1 to 4 pm at an Opening Reception during the Special Saturday Artswalk. Visitors will have the opportunity to meet Sally in person, explore her creative process, and hear the inspiring stories behind her work. Her paintings draw from deep wells of personal experience, including her journey as a spinal injury survivor—and now, as she bravely faces breast cancer with strength and creativity. Her art is not just visual—it’s emotional, healing, and vibrantly alive.
Sally, a lifelong Berkshire resident, has worked in many mediums, including watercolor, acrylic, oils, pastels, and mixed media. Her style blends atmosphere, memory, and light, creating emotionally resonant works that have been commissioned and collected internationally. With a 25-year career at Crane & Co. hand bordering luxury stationery for names like Cartier, Tiffany & Co., and Aretha Franklin, her artistic pedigree is matched only by her passion and perseverance.
Roots and Dreams and Mustard Seeds, 119 Fenn Street, will present eco-friendly products by Aisha B. and the Cosmic CoArt Cooperative’s Cosmic Butterfly Procession project during a reception on Saturday, July 12, 1 to 4 pm, during the Special Saturday Artswalk.
Artist and artisan Aisha B. will be showcasing her natural handcrafted eco-friendly products which include reusable concrete candles, zero-waste soaps, clay jewelry, canvas art, and more alongside the Cosmic CoArt Cooperative’s Cosmic Butterfly Procession project.
The Cosmic CoArt Cooperative is a multi-talented artist cooperative that strives to thread together common strengths through the living arts. They sincerely feel creating a culture of a “beloved community” while crossing borders of race, class, culture, language, ability, and creed can be done hand in hand through the forces of creativity and the human phenomenon of art.
Artists include Annalisa Jacobsen, Peppa, Aisha B., Drake, Jean Minuchin, Macarena, Beth Fairservis, Matt Brinton, Nicole Fecteau and Olly.
The Berkshire Art Center (BAC) Gallery Windows, 141 North Street, will feature “Making Space for Joy: Works by Deb Koffman” through August.
Deb Koffman’s work was about creating space—not just in art, but in the mind and heart. This show transforms the windows into a visual retreat, where bold, simple images and positive affirmations provide moments of lightness and reflection. Inspired by Deb’s minimalist yet profound style, the exhibition highlights her signature short, impactful phrases paired with playful illustrations. Arranged as a series of small “reminders” throughout the space, it invites visitors to pause, engage, and absorb messages of mindfulness, joy, and self-discovery.
Now through July 12, Berkshire Theatre Group (BTG) is proud to partner with the Guild of Berkshire Artists in displaying their art show, “Creative Diversity,” in The Colonial Theatre lobby at 111 South Street. The exhibit consists of ten works of art selected from Guild of Berkshire Artist applicants by a jury, and each piece is available for purchase and viewing Tuesdays-Saturdays from 12 to 5 pm. BTG will host a Closing Reception on Saturday, July 12, 1 to 4 pm during the Artswalk.
Works range from photographic realism to impressionistic landscapes to gestural abstract expressionism and you are left to use your creative diversity to make your own interpretation.
The Marketplace Cafe, 53 North Street, will feature the surreal landscape paintings of Sean McCusker July 2-30.
Sean McCusker is an artist, curator, and all-around art lover devoting his work and free time to the arts. His surreal landscapes have been displayed at the Berkshire Museum, Gallery 14, and Rehoboth Art League. Sean runs an art installation business and is Exhibitions Curator at the Becket Arts Center. Berkshire Art Association recently voted him as VP of Exhibitions where he is in charge of development, expansion, and installation of their art exhibitions.
Contrasted by stillness, drama unfolds as cascading shadows fall heavily on the colorful landscape. Figures find themselves bathed in the sun as they dot the landscape and contemplate their surroundings. Paintings are made up of roughly 30 translucent layers, creating McCuster’s glowing compositions of dark shadows suspended in light.
Meet the artist on Saturday, July 12 during the Artswalk from 1 to 3 pm.
Dottie’s Coffee Lounge/Dorothy’s Estaminet, 438/444 North Street, will present COLOR FORM AND TEXTURE: Works by contemporary artists J. D. Logan, Diane Firtell, and Scrap Wrenn from July 1 through the end of September. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, July 12, 1 to 4 pm.
J. D. Logan creates bold abstracts using acrylics and mixed media on both canvas and wood panels. “To me the different sections of each piece represent chapters in a book, acts in a play, parts of our personalities or phases of our lives”, says J.D.
Diane Firtell is heavily influenced by botanicals and color, and this exhibit represents the various ways she likes to work and have her work reproduced. “My work is a happy marriage of years of technical practice and abandoned experimentation”, says Diane.
Scrap Wrenn’s work becomes “artifact” from an implied near-future; and the time-layered aesthetic references both geological strata of deep history and accelerated contemporary tenses.
Download the Downtown Pittsfield app in the App Store or on Google Play to follow a virtual walking tour of art on your cell phone. Direct link: https://downtownpittsfield.stqry.app/tour/55868
First Fridays Artswalk is supported in part by The Feigenbaum Foundation.
Featured image: Sally Tiska Rice
Event Highlights (South to North):
Artists at the Clock Tower, 75 South Church Street, Third Floor
Karen Carmean, Deborah H Carter, Lucie Castaldo, Joan Palano Ciolfi, Randy Foulds, Marion Grant, Nava Grunfeld, Caroline Kelley, Mollie Kellogg, Eric Korenman, Bruce Laird, Lisa Loustaunau, Mark Mellinger, Linda Petrocine, Shany Porras, Sally Tiska Rice, Ilene Richard, Audrey Shachnow, Stanley Singer, Ariel Smith, Jordan Stone, Sharon Walthew, Stefanie Weber, and Carmel Wilson.
Open Studios: Saturday, July 12, 1 to 4 pm
Berkshire Theatre Group/Colonial Theatre, 111 South Street
“Creative Diversity”
Guild of Berkshire Artists
Closing Reception: Saturday, July 12, 1 to 4 pm
Marketplace Cafe, 53 North Street
Surreal landscape paintings by Sean McCusker
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 12, 1 to 3 pm
Roots and Dreams and Mustard Seeds, 119 Fenn Street
Cosmic CoArt Cooperative and the Cosmic Butterfly Procession Project
Annalisa Jacobsen, Peppa, Aisha B., Drake, Jean Minuchin, Macarena, Beth Fairservis, Matt Brinton, Nicole Fecteau and Olly
Reception: Saturday, July 12, 1 to 4 pm
Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, 28 Renne Avenue
Community Access to the Arts’ annual exhibit “I Am a Part of Art”
Not Open on Saturday, July 12
Berkshire Art Center/Brothership Building, 141 North Street
Window Display
“Making Space for Joy: Works by Deb Koffman”
Soda Chef, 161 North Street
Window Display
Nicole March Art
Hotel on North, 297 North Street
Sally Tiska Rice
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 12, 1 to 4 pm
NUarts gallery + studios, 311 North Street
View the Hall Gallery featuring the works of resident artists
Saturday, July 12, 1 to 4 pm
Framework by Downtown Pittsfield, Inc., 437 North Street
Recent paintings by Huck Elling
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 12, 1 to 4 pm
Dottie’s Coffee Lounge/Dorothy’s Estaminet, 438/444 North Street
COLOR FORM AND TEXTURE:
Works by contemporary artists J. D. Logan, Diane Firtell, and Scrap Wrenn
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 12, 1 to 4 pm