Artscope Magazine

This summer, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art is presenting four thoughtful and engaging contemporary exhibitions organized by CMCA’s relatively new curator Grant Wahlquist: “Will Sears | The Third Field,” “Bianca Beck: Eyes,” “Abbey Williams: Fugue,” and “Mac Swanson: Death is Expensive.” Heather Stivison reviews each in our current issue: “The four solo shows balance each other well, geometric meditations in wood; abstract paintings and giant papier-mâché sculptures in sizzling colors; assemblages in natural and manmade materials; and a video installation moving across five screens.”

This Saturday, July 18, at 2:30 p.m., Wahlquist will host an artist dialogue conversation with Marc Swanson and Abbey Williams followed by a reception in the museum courtyard. The Center for Maine Contemporary Art is located at 21 Winter Street, Rockland, Maine.

Read Stivison’s full review of CMCA’s summer exhibitions in the July/August 2026 issue of Artscope Magazine, available free of charge at partnering museums, galleries and art centers throughout New England and via mail order or digital purchase for online access at artscopemagazine.com/subscribe/

“Faces, Places & Spaces,” on view through August 23 at the Somerville Museum, is not a traditional visual art exhibition with paintings, photographs, or sculptures. Instead, it’s a visual representation of the Coalition movement: preventing artist displacement and creating more inventory of affordable workspaces across Massachusetts.

“The exhibition, reviewing our art space advocacy efforts in Massachusetts since 2020, invites viewers to learn about artist displacement, its causes (development, change of owner and extreme rent hikes) and its impact on artists, musicians, residents, and communities,” writes founding volunteer Ami Bennitt in our latest issue. “Through a handful of different components, Faces, Places, & Spaces outlines ’s advocacy projects, introduces visitors to 66 artists and musicians in their studios, and invites the community to take part in art space advocacy on site in real time.”

This Tuesday, July 14 at 6 p.m., Brickbottom Studios artist Randal Thurston will present “A Narrative History of Somerville’s Brickbottom Neighborhood” at the museum, which is located at 1 Westwood Rd., Somerville, Massachusetts.

Read Bennitt’s complete feature in the July/August 2026 issue of Artscope Magazine, available free of charge at partnering museums, galleries and art centers throughout New England and via mail order or digital purchase for online access at artscopemagazine.com/subscribe/

Summer is a time for big tents and big festivals. As part of her profile of the Wickford Art Association in North Kingston, Rhode Island, Suzanne Volmer previews the Wickford Art Festival taking place this Saturday and Sunday, July 11 and 12, in our July/August 2026 issue.

“The Wickford Art Festival is a huge outdoor tented art festival on the field of Wilson Park. “Admission is free to the public and features 200 plus fine artists, food vendors, organized parking and shuttle buses, live music, and area non-profits,” explained Shari Weschler, the Wickford Art Association’s gallery and education coordinator. “Our own Wickford Art Association booths offer merch, information on our organization and education programs, and a scholarship raffle. A tent featuring a juried exhibition of works by WAA members is also onsite. “Artists fill out an application online, pay a small non-refundable jury fee and the call for artists opens in January and closes in March of each year.”

There are other New England summer art festivals in the weeks ahead. The Guilford Craft Expo hosts 175 artists and makers on July 17, 18 and 19 in Guilford, Connecticut while in Newfane, Vermont, the Rock River Artists Open Studios Tour takes place on July 18 and 19. The 23rd Annual South Coast Artists Open Studio Tour takes place on July 18-19 and August 15-16 at over 70 locations in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The Art drive juried studio tour goes through Dartmouth and Westport, Massachusetts on August 7, 8 and 9.

In New Hampshire, the League of N.H. Craftsmen’s 93rd Annual Craftsmen’s Fair runs from August 1-9 at Mount Sunapee Resort and later that month, the Nashua Area Artists’ Association’s 73rd Greeley Park Art Show returns August 29-30.

Read Volmer’s complete feature on the Wickford Art Association in the July/August 2026 issue of Artscope Magazine, available at partnering art centers, galleries and museums throughout New England, by mail order, or through purchasing digital access at https://artscopemagazine.com/2026/07/wickford-summer/