Past Events 2023
PLAY BY PLAY returns to the A.P.E. Gallery
• November 30 - December 3 •
The return of the Northampton Playwrights Lab festival of new plays. Featuring new work by 6 local playwrights
September 30, 2023
NORTHAMPTON PRINT + BOOK FAIR
12 - 5pm
A.P.E. Gallery at 126 Main St.
More info and vendors HERE
Three days only
September 27-29, 2023
AUTHENTIC SELVES
PHOTO EXHIBITION CELEBRATING TRANS AND NONBINARY PEOPLE AND THEIR FAMILIES
September 29, 5:30-7:30pm
OPENING RECEPTION, READING, + PANEL DISCUSSION
will include a reading and discussion from ALWAYS MATT: A TRIBUTE TO MATTHEW SHEPARD with Lesléa Newman and a powerful panel discussion by six local families featured in AUTHENTIC SELVES. Reading starts at 6:00 p.m.
Panelists include Ted J. Rau, Brianna Harris, Amy McNeil, Jack Pierson, Chris Nelson Mohn, and Genny Beemyn.
September 27-29, 2023
AUTHENTIC SELVES
PHOTO EXHIBITION CELEBRATING TRANS AND NONBINARY PEOPLE AND THEIR FAMILIES
September 29, 5:30-7:30pm
OPENING RECEPTION, READING, + PANEL DISCUSSION
will include a reading and discussion from ALWAYS MATT: A TRIBUTE TO MATTHEW SHEPARD with Lesléa Newman and a powerful panel discussion by six local families featured in AUTHENTIC SELVES. Reading starts at 6:00 p.m.
Panelists include Ted J. Rau, Brianna Harris, Amy McNeil, Jack Pierson, Chris Nelson Mohn, and Genny Beemyn.
No Theater presents
LET GO
a short, adult comedy about love, death, and a pile of papers
“The best-kept secret in experimental theater” (National Public Radio)
July 6th -29th
Thursdays - Saturdays at 8pm
A.P.E. 126 Main St, Northampton
Tickets $20
What the audience has emailed us about LET GO
"a journey where I’m confused, moved, laughing, pushed to rethink all my assumptions"; "lots of surprises, lots of interesting nods to Beckett and Albee, and then a turnaround... a perception shift worthy of Martin McDonough"; "the show sure struck home - not the practical-joke parts but the aging and frailty (mental/physical) parts for sure"; "little did I know as a young dumb thing watching No Theater plays that No would still be showing me my life 40 years later"; "Discomforting…weirdly familiar….strange, funny….questions continue!"; "The play was fabulous. I need to see it again."
NO THEATER begins its 50th year of presenting new works for the stage locally and around the world with performances of its most recent production, LET GO, performed by No Theater veterans Roy Faudree and Jane Karakula. who appeared in No Theater's 2020 production of Martin McDonagh's A SKULL IN CONNEMARA just before the COVID pandemic.
Find out more about NO THEATER here
LET GO
a short, adult comedy about love, death, and a pile of papers
“The best-kept secret in experimental theater” (National Public Radio)
July 6th -29th
Thursdays - Saturdays at 8pm
A.P.E. 126 Main St, Northampton
Tickets $20
What the audience has emailed us about LET GO
"a journey where I’m confused, moved, laughing, pushed to rethink all my assumptions"; "lots of surprises, lots of interesting nods to Beckett and Albee, and then a turnaround... a perception shift worthy of Martin McDonough"; "the show sure struck home - not the practical-joke parts but the aging and frailty (mental/physical) parts for sure"; "little did I know as a young dumb thing watching No Theater plays that No would still be showing me my life 40 years later"; "Discomforting…weirdly familiar….strange, funny….questions continue!"; "The play was fabulous. I need to see it again."
NO THEATER begins its 50th year of presenting new works for the stage locally and around the world with performances of its most recent production, LET GO, performed by No Theater veterans Roy Faudree and Jane Karakula. who appeared in No Theater's 2020 production of Martin McDonagh's A SKULL IN CONNEMARA just before the COVID pandemic.
Find out more about NO THEATER here
VULTURE SISTER SONG
Saturday, April 8, 7pm
A.P.E. Gallery, 126 Main St
Saturday, April 8, 7pm
A.P.E. Gallery, 126 Main St
Vulture Sister Song explores human and more-than-human relationships through story, song, sculpture and dance. Collaborators from around the country, Ellen Smith Ahern, Kate Elias, Pete Dybdahl, Jacob Elias and Josina Guess, use live storytelling and folk music, a migrating herd of creature-like lanterns, curious movement and a healthy dose of humor to celebrate the possibilities of vibrant interdependence.
All participants receive a guidebook to the show, featuring artwork and writing from contributors (including environmental educators from VT Institute of Natural Science and the Yurok Tribe's Condor Conservation Program), as well as fun, thoughtful activities that carry themes explored in the performance out into the world beyond. (large print accommodations available)
Check out a preview of the show HERE
Vulture Sister Song is supported in part by grants from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Mascoma Bank, and the Jack & Dorothy Byrne Foundation
AUDIENCES ARE ALSO ENCOURAGED TO CHECK OUT 'VULTURE WATCHING';
created in partnership with the live performance
Vulture Watching: Considering Our Relationship Through Ecology, History and Art
(filmed with a live audience at Artistree Community Art Center, 2022)
WATCH THE FULL FILM HERE
A cross pollination of ecology, memory and folk music with collaborators from Vulture Sister Song. Lead Environmental Educator at the VT Institute of Natural Science, Anna Morris, guides us through the natural history and ecology of vultures, and Georgia-based writer, Josina Guess, shares writings inspired by watching and living in close proximity to black vultures and the unmarked graves of African American people.
Vulture Watching is funded in part the New England Endowment for the Arts' New England Dance Fund, with generous support from the Aliad Fund at the Boston Foundation.
Friday, April 7, 7:30pm
A.P.E. Gallery, 126 Main St., Northampton, MA
$10/$20/$30 suggested donation tickets
Limited seating -- Reservations recommended!
Nature’s Cook is a musical reflection on the juxtaposition of life and death and a celebration of rebirth and freedom in our world, all this just in time for Passover and Easter.
Tiny Glass Tavern is: Sophie Michaux (voice+accordion); Paul Holmes Morton (voice+banjo+theorbo+guitar); Benjamin Katz (voice+harpsichord); Adam Simon (voice+bass+mandolin)
BIG INK RETURNS!
April 1st + 2nd, 11am-4pm daily
Witness a giant portable printing press IN ACTION!
Come watch the Big Tuna, a portable print press whose size inspired its name, reel off large-scale woodblock prints carved by local artists. BIG INK LLC, a New England-based art education company, is teaming up with A.P.E. Ltd. for a second time. A group of artists started carving monumental woodblocks in February using traditional Japanese chisels. BIG INK Director Lyell Castonguay has been guiding them through the process via online instruction.
"Seeing woodblocks printed at this scale is impressive," states Lyell Castonguay, BIG INK's Founding Director. "It's like magic. The woodblock is inked, sent through the press, and an image appears on the paper."
The event will be open from 11 AM to 4 PM on April 1 and 2, where visitors can see up-close printing demonstrations.
Saturday's slate will feature appearances by:
Samantha Durfee, Iwalani Kaluhiokalani, Molly Paul, Kate Ricketson, Richard Deon, and Nancy Doniger.
Sunday's artists are:
Alison Friedlin, Jessica McKeon, Heather Kasunick, Kevin Cross, Peter Cangialosi, and Dara Herman-Zierlein.
Come enjoy this unique experience! Free and open to the public.
"Seeing woodblocks printed at this scale is impressive," states Lyell Castonguay, BIG INK's Founding Director. "It's like magic. The woodblock is inked, sent through the press, and an image appears on the paper."
The event will be open from 11 AM to 4 PM on April 1 and 2, where visitors can see up-close printing demonstrations.
Saturday's slate will feature appearances by:
Samantha Durfee, Iwalani Kaluhiokalani, Molly Paul, Kate Ricketson, Richard Deon, and Nancy Doniger.
Sunday's artists are:
Alison Friedlin, Jessica McKeon, Heather Kasunick, Kevin Cross, Peter Cangialosi, and Dara Herman-Zierlein.
Come enjoy this unique experience! Free and open to the public.
IN CONVERSATION:
ALEX CALLENDER and SARAH STEFANA SMITH, with JENNIFER DECLUE
March 23, 4:30-5:30pm in the A.P.E. Gallery
Join artists Alex Callender and Sarah Stefana Smith as they talk about their shared inquiry - and individual artistic practices - in(to) archives and absences, historical records and contemporary resonances, in conversation with queer studies and black feminism scholar Jennifer DeClue. A small, informal convening that speaks to the importance of building communities of practice and place, the talk will unfold within the setting of the exhibition 'After Archives', which brings Smith and Callender's work into dialogue for the first time.
Seats will be limited to 30 people on a first-come basis; the gallery will be open following the event until 6pm. FREE
Seats will be limited to 30 people on a first-come basis; the gallery will be open following the event until 6pm. FREE
MAKING HISTORY MANIFEST: Photography in the Archives
• an online presentation with Wendel White; March 12, 3pm •
Q&A led by Clark University Associate Professor of History, Ousmane Power-Greene
Throughout his career, photographer and scholar Wendel White has sought to “excavate Black history through material culture” by exploring the history and lived experience of African American communities through objects, images, and documents found in archives and historical collections.
White is currently one of three artists featured in A.P.E.'s current exhibition, After Archives, curated by Amy Halliday. In this presentation hosted by Historic Northampton, White will discuss the role of archives and museum collections in his own work (and particularly in the ongoing project, Manifest), his interest in examining the impulses and motivations to preserve history and record memory, and his belief that remnants of material culture are imbued with the power to help challenge our preconceived ideas. Clark University Associate Professor of History, Ousmane Power-Greene, will respond to Wendel White's presentation, and lead a brief Q&A.
“The ability of objects to transcend lives, centuries, and millennia suggests a remarkable mechanism for folding time, bringing the past and the present into a shared space that is uniquely suited to artistic exploration. These artifacts are the forensic evidence of Black life and events in the United States.”
Co-sponsored by the David Ruggles Center and A.P.E. Gallery
Register for the Zoom link HERE
Sliding scale admission: $5-25.
Students: free of charge.
White is currently one of three artists featured in A.P.E.'s current exhibition, After Archives, curated by Amy Halliday. In this presentation hosted by Historic Northampton, White will discuss the role of archives and museum collections in his own work (and particularly in the ongoing project, Manifest), his interest in examining the impulses and motivations to preserve history and record memory, and his belief that remnants of material culture are imbued with the power to help challenge our preconceived ideas. Clark University Associate Professor of History, Ousmane Power-Greene, will respond to Wendel White's presentation, and lead a brief Q&A.
“The ability of objects to transcend lives, centuries, and millennia suggests a remarkable mechanism for folding time, bringing the past and the present into a shared space that is uniquely suited to artistic exploration. These artifacts are the forensic evidence of Black life and events in the United States.”
Co-sponsored by the David Ruggles Center and A.P.E. Gallery
Register for the Zoom link HERE
Sliding scale admission: $5-25.
Students: free of charge.
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Currently in residence at the A.P.E. gallery
Isabelle Bushue and Jackson Pelz with their new music comedy PLANT Work-in-Progress showing February 11 at 7:30pm + February 12 at 2pm A.P.E. Gallery 126 Main St. Tickets at the door: $10-25 sliding scale (no one turned away for lack of funds) Plant is a two-person absurdist musical in which the actors play each character at the exact same time. It is a dark and twisted tale of a young boy who has lost contact with his mystic mother and is forced to live underground, abandoning the academic regime of his intellectual father. While unraveling the mystery of his parents' past, he finds solace in his new stepsister, Syliva, who he likes. Like, like likes. Plant explores what it means to identify and preserve humanity when being a human isn’t the most important thing. Plant is in development through A.P.E’s performing artists’ LAB residency. The two writer/performers are opening their work-in-progress to the public for the first time, inviting audiences to dialogue about the process as it’s happening. Click for more info about The LAB at A.P.E. |