Small Stones Festival of the Arts ready to roll in Grafton after initial venue flooded
The sixth Small Stones Festival of the Arts that runs Jan. 27 to Feb. 4 at the Brigham Hill Community Barn, 37 Wheeler Road, Grafton, will have a back-to-its-basic-mission sort of look to it after a flood incapacitated the Grafton Public Library, the venue originally scheduled for last October.
The change of scene also means that the 2023 Small Stones Festival of the Arts is now taking place in 2024. But the festival, which began in 2018 as primarily a juried exhibition of fine art and photography, is still the largest art event of its kind in Grafton, the Blackstone Valley area, and indeed the state.
"It's a wonderful show," said Carolyn Kinloch-Winkler of the Blackstone Valley Art Association who is co-chair of the festival with Sue Cardosi of the Worcester County Camera Club. They are assisted in their efforts by an 11-member organizing committee.
"In addition to established artists we have a huge number of beginning artists just at a place of coming into their own. It's the woman down the street. The photographer you see with a camera once in a while. The entire region is represented," Kinloch-Winkler said.
Furthermore, the exhibition is free.
However, the event had grown to the extent that the fifth Small Stones Festival of the Arts in 2022 also had an extensive literature and music program, including talks by author Nicholas Gage ("Eleni") and Shakespeare scholar Helen Whall, music by the Claflin Hill Symphony Players, and historical performance by Judith Kalaora of History At Play.
'A terrible flood'
The Grafton Public Library sustained significant flooding on Aug. 18 as a result of intense rainstorms, with water sheeting off the wetlands side of the building and flowing into areas such as the Community Room, Kitchen, Children’s Room, and Children’s Program Room. Although the library has reopened, event space would not have been ready for the festival as it is being repaired.
"It was a terrible flood," Kinloch-Winkler said.
The 2023 festival was postponed from in October to December, and then postponed again to its Jan. 27 opening date at a new, first time venue at the Brigham Hill Community Barn.
The Barn is home to Community Harvest Project and the headquarters of Grafton Land Trust.
"We're excited about it. We've just been bouncing around, trying to figure out when it's going to start," said Dana Wilson, a member of the organizing committee.
"We were really fortunate to get the Community Barn. It's a wonderfully beautiful building. It's a lovely place to have the show. It's not a barn, it's a beautiful meeting space. No dirt floors, no cows in the corner," Kinloch-Winkler joked. "This is our 2023 festival."
As for the official 2024 festival, "We're planning for October of this year," she said.
Meanwhile, the literature and music has been put on hold. "It's been a lot of work ... There was too much going on for us to arrange for too many things. We hope to return to the literature and music another year," Kinloch-Winker said.
For the sixth Small Stones Festival, "the focus is on art."
Different experiences
The festival is being produced this year by the Blackstone Valley Art Association and the Worcester County Camera Club, two of the original arts organizations involved from the beginning. Apple Tree Arts, which had also been part of the festival since its inception, isn't going to be participating this time. In 2022, five regional art organizations – Apple Tree Arts, Worcester County Camera Club, Blackstone Valley Art Association, Shakespeare Club of Grafton and Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra — collaborated to put on the festival.
But as in other years, the call for art for the new festival drew well over 500 submissions, and 144 works have been chosen by the jurors for exhibition at the festival. Meanwhile, every submitted work is posted in the festival's web gallery along with artists’ information. A hard-bound catalogue of the 144 exhibition works will be available for sale at the festival.
The categories are fine art paintings (including drawing, sketches, ink and other 2D productions) and photographs (including film based, digital, infrared and alternative processes).
The opening of the exhibition from noon to 5 p.m. Jan. 27 will include an awards ceremony at 2 p.m. and artist talks at 2:30 p.m.
While the works are online, "Seeing the art online and seeing it in person are entirely different experiences. So I encourage people to come to the show. It's free," Kinloch-Winkler said.
Fine art painting jurors are Glenn Murray, Kim Morin Weineck and Michael Rose; photography jurors are Ron Rosenstock, Shane Gutierrez and Tom Nault. All are are well known and respected in their respective fields and will be giving juror talks on the final day of the festival Feb. 4.
The stated mission of the Small Stones Festival of the Arts is "to elevate the practice and appreciation of fine art in the area."
"The Biennial of ArtsWorcester draws in a lot of the same people," Kinloch-Winkler said of that organization's member competitive juried exhibition. "That tends to be heavily Worcester. This (Small Stones) tends to be heavily this region. If you're an artist it counts to have an opportunity to show in our region."
'I think it's going to be beautiful'
Jennifer Behymer of Grafton is in her fourth year as an exhibiting artist at Small Stones and her second year as a member of the organizing committee.
"I think its a wonderful festival. The committee is made up of artists who really have a passion for it," Behymer said of all the volunteers who put the festival together.
Behymer is originally from the Kansas City area, Missouri, and moved to Grafton in 2015 after her husband's job took the family East. She has a degree in educational and counseling psychology from the University of Missouri and was a muralist and painted props for a youth ballet company. Later she also ran an art gallery and taught K-12 art in Independence, Missouri.
After moving tp Grafton, she took classes at the New England School of Fine Art in Worcester where she now teaches.
"Kansas City has a pretty vibrant arts scene as well, but the New England School of Fine Art was the first time I had a chance to do more classical training," she said.
With the pandemic in 2020, Behymer started sending her work to exhibiting competitions.
"Small Stones is one of the ones I entered. It's a really nice festival. The committee and the town are very welcoming. It was a way to get my feet wet," she said.
Her art focuses on figurative drawing with charcoal and white chalk and painting still lifes in oil.
At the Small Stones Festival exhibition this year she has two works — "Reverie," a dreamy drawing of a woman, and an oil painting, "Honey Pear."
"When I'm doing a figurative piece it takes a long time," Behymer said, so she did a photo shoot of the model for "Reverie" and then started drawing. "My model has a lovely way about her that is both calm and graceful," she says in her artist statement.
For "Honey Pear" she writes, "The vintage fabric combined with the white vessel and green pear seemed cheerful to me. I added the little bee checking out the fabric flower for a bit of fun."
Behymer said of submitting art to the festival, "I think for artists it's a good way to take it further than just a hobby — which is perfectly fine, but entering can get a juror's eyes on your art and you meet with other artists. And being part of an exhibition can be really exciting. If you win an award that's even better."
She did win a juror's choice award at Small Stones in 2021. Other recognition includes receiving the J. Banigan Sullivan Award for Artistic Excellence in the Providence Art Club’s National Juried Exhibition in 2022.
As a member of the Small Stones Festival organizing committee, "I really enjoy getting to know other committee members and helping where I can with the festival," she said.
"This year with the venue changes it's pared it down to art ... I think it's going to be beautiful. The (Brigham Hill) Community Barn is a beautiful structure."
2023 Small Stones Festival of the Arts Exhibition schedule
Saturday, January 27: The Opening of the Exhibition – Noon to 5 p.m.
Saturday, January 27: Awards Ceremony 2 p.m. Artist Talks, 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, January 28: Exhibition open, Noon to 4 p.m.
Tuesday, January 30: Exhibition open, 6 to 9 p.m.
Wednesday, January 31: Exhibition open, Noon to 4 p.m.
Thursday, February 1: Exhibition open, Noon to 4 p.m.
Friday, February 2: Exhibition open, Noon to 6 p.m.
Saturday, February 3: Exhibition open, Noon to 6 p.m.
Sunday, February 4: Exhibition open, Noon to 4 p.m. – This is the final day of the Exhibition for 2023
Sunday, February 4: Juror Talks, 2 p.m.
Where: Brigham Hill Community Barn, 37 Wheeler Road, Grafton
How much: All events are free. For more information, visit smallstonesfestival.org.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Small Stones Festival of the Arts gets back to its roots in Grafton
