Newport Mansions

Through January 12, 2025: Wild Imagination: Art and Animals in the Gilded Age. During the Gilded Age (1865–1914), Americans’ relationship with animals transformed in lasting ways. Wild Imagination explores how this exciting, tumultuous era shaped our modern attitudes towards animals, from pampered pups to wondrous sea creatures. A broad range of artworks, photographs, scientific specimens, and other objects reflect vital period developments including the dawn of the animal rights movement, the surge in pet keeping, the popularization of natural history pursuits like birdwatching, and the golden era of zoos and circuses. They also reveal the stories and experiences of individual creatures who continue to capture our imagination.

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Clark Art Institute

Winter is the ideal time to visit the Clark! A renowned collection of paintings, works on paper, sculpture, and decorative arts fills the galleries. Outside, the walking trails wind through a serene wintry landscape. Borrow a free pair of snowshoes to explore the campus. Opening November 23: Abelardo Morell: In the Company of Monet and Constable. Opening December 14: Wall Power! Modern French Tapestry from the Mobilier national, Paris.

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New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill 

November 23, 2024–January 5, 2025, evenings: Experience Night Lights: Color Cascade, a breathtaking light display celebrating the magic and beauty of the winter season. Wander through formal gardens and conservatories illuminated by more than a quarter million artfully arranged lights. With displays showcasing a creative new theme each year, this dazzling, one-of-a-kind spectacle is unmatched in the region. Festive activities such as outdoor skating, s’mores roasting, and holiday shopping promise an unforgettable experience for visitors of all ages.

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Williams College Museum of Art

Through December 22: Teddy Sandoval and the Butch Gardens School of Art is the first museum retrospective dedicated to Teddy Sandoval (1949–1995), a central figure in Los Angeles’s queer and Chicanx artistic circles who was an active participant in avant-garde movements. Through December 22: Pallavi Sen: Colour Theory is an immersive installation of new work by interdisciplinary artist and Williams College assistant professor of art Pallavi Sen.

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Paradise City Arts Festival

Paradise City Arts hosts New England’s premier and most celebrated shows of contemporary fine and decorative arts. The Marlborough event draws thousands of attendees of art buyers, designers, and enthusiasts seeking to connect with 175 exceptional artists and makers from across the country. In Metrowest Boston (with free parking), enjoy the special exhibition Styling the Seasons, music in the air, and two cafés.

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Cahoon Museum of American Art

Through December 22: Varujan Boghosian: Material Poetry. This exhibition presents collages and mixed-media pieces that span Boghosian’s career, including rarely seen artworks from the collection of his daughter, Heidi Boghosian. Well-known as an art professor at major American universities, Boghosian played a large role in the Provincetown art colony, influencing generations of artists and writers.

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Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth

Opening November 16: In East Asian art, non-human subjects have long been represented with agency, coexisting alongside their human counterparts. Experience an inclusive and collaborative relationship in Attitude of Coexistence: Non-Humans in East Asian Art. Opening January 18: Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light) presents a thematic examination of Romero’s complex and layered images, which celebrate the multiplicity, beauty, and resilience of Native American and Indigenous experiences. This is Romero’s first major solo exhibition.

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AVA Gallery and Art Center

November 29–December 26: AVA Member’s Holiday Exhibition and Sale. AVA’s annual holiday exhibition features the work of member artists from Vermont and New Hampshire. Works in a variety of media will be on display and available for sale at a wide range of prices. Shopping at AVA ensures finding special gifts of lasting value while supporting local artists and AVA’s commitment to nurturing the artistic spirit. Open house: Saturday, December 7, 11–4 p.m.; reception 5–7 p.m.

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The Mercy Gallery at The Loomis Chaffee School

The Mercy Gallery invites groundbreaking artists working in a variety of media, representing diverse endeavors and cultural + geographic perspectives to share their art with the community. Open to the public. Opening November 14: Destiny Palmer: Spoken in a Language You Can’t Ignore. With bold and vibrant drawing, painting, and textile works, Palmer explores the possibility of a color system that centers history and the body.

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Fuller Craft Museum

Opening December 21: Waste Not, Want Not: Craft in the Anthropocene. Ongoing: Maria Molteni: Soft Score. Ongoing: Beau McCall: Buttons On! Ongoing: Hand in Hand: Works from the Fleur S. Bresler Collection. Ongoing: Small Wonders: Beauty, Alchemy, and the Art of Enameling. Through November 3: Chris Bathgate: The Machinist Sculptor. Through November 24: Tiny Pricks Project: Desperate Times, Creative Measures. Through December 1: Michael C. Thorpe: Homeowners Insurance. Fuller Craft Museum’s wide-ranging exhibitions and outdoor sculpture showcase the finest contemporary craft in a spectacular organic modernist building and woodland setting. All are welcome, completely free of charge.

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Fitchburg Art Museum

Through January 12, 2025: Bob Dilworth: When I Remembered Home features the vibrantly colored, richly layered, monumental portraits of Bob Dilworth. Through January 5, 2025: G.O.A.T. The Sports Photography of Walter Iooss. Iooss photographed professional sports with the passion and perception of a true fan, capturing iconic moments in sports history for over sixty years. Ongoing: Africa Rising: 21st-Century African Photography, including photographs by Zanele Muholi, Lalla Essaydi, and Aida Muluneh, among others.

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Nantucket Historical Association—Whaling Museum

Through December 31: Tony Sarg: Genius at Play is the first comprehensive exhibition exploring the life, art, and adventures of Tony Sarg (1880–1942). Known as the father of modern puppetry in North America and the originator of the iconic Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade balloons, Sarg was an accomplished illustrator, animator, designer, and nimble entrepreneur who summered on, and took inspiration from, Nantucket for nearly twenty years. Organized and in partnership with the Normal Rockwell Museum. Made possible in part by funding by the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Davis Museum at Wellesley College

Through December 15: Organized in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (London) and the Mellon’s Oak Spring Garden Foundation (Virginia), Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature surveys the impact of Scottish painter Rory McEwen (1932–1982). McEwen’s work is presented alongside botanical art from the eighteenth through twenty-first centuries. Free and open to the public.

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Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts

Ongoing: Decade: 2014–2024, commemorating Mitchell • Giddings’ 10th anniversary with an exploration of printmaking by Matt Brown, Liz Chalfin, Elaine de Kooning, Eric Fischl, Stephen Hannock, Emily Mason, Jules Olitski, James Stroud, Dan Welden, and others. Opening a fine art gallery in 2014 provided owners Petria Mitchell and Jim Giddings an ideal opportunity to share conversation among artists, collectors and lovers of the visible creative act.

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Armenian Museum of America

Ongoing: Filtered Identity: The Art of Tigran Tsitoghdzyan. Tigran is a New York-based artist whose photo-realistic paintings merge an interest in classical and modern art with an emphasis on his own experiences as a father and an immigrant. He has exhibited widely including Art Basel Miami, Cube Art Fair in Times Square, and globally in cities such as Dubai, Singapore, Zurich, and Brussels.

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Atlantic Works Gallery

November 2–30: johngreinerferris/november2024/mixedmedia, mixed media by John Greiner-Ferris, and POLLINATION: BODY AND SOUL, painting and mixed media by Dominick Takis. Opening reception: Sunday, November 3, 2–5 p.m. Second reception and artists talks: Thursday, November 14, 6–9 p.m. December 7–28: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, Eric Hess and elfin friends. Opening reception: Saturday, December 7, 5–8 p.m. Third Thursday reception and artist talk: December 19, 6–9 p.m.

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Boston Sculptors Gallery

Through November 3: Chris Abrams, IYKYK & Julia Shepley, Transmissible. First Friday November 1, 5–8:30 p.m. November 7–December 8: Murray Dewart, Numinous & Sally Fine, Sea Dreams. Artists’ reception: Saturday, November 16, 2–5 p.m. First Friday December 6, 5–8:30 p.m. Opening December 12: Cori Champagne, Water Mgmt & Christina Zwart, La Pucelle. Artists’ reception: Friday, December 13, 5–8:30 p.m. The gallery will be closed December 23, 2024 to January 1, 2025.

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Hall Art Foundation

The Hall Art Foundation is a museum of contemporary art with a sculpture park and café. Exhibitions are held seasonally, from May through November. On view this year: Barbara Kruger; Ed Ruscha; Sherrie Levine; Doomscrolling by Zorawar Sidhu and Rob Swainston and Icarus Rising by Robert Longo. Advance reservations recommended, yet not required. General admission: $15 adults; $5 children 12 and under.

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Norman Rockwell Museum

Home of American Illustration; featuring new exhibitions. Opening November 9: Anita Kunz. November 23, 2024–January 4, 2026: Illustrators of Light: Rockwell, Wyeth, and Parrish from the Mazda Edison Collection. Opening November 9: Norman Rockwell: Home for the Holidays. Guided tours of Rockwell’s Studio and galleries by reservation. Museum Store (and online store). Save time with online tickets. More at NRM.org.

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Fairfield University Art Museum

Bellarmine Hall Galleries, through December 21: Ink & Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection. This exhibition samples the richness of European print culture between the late 15th and late 18th centuries through more than 50 woodcuts, engravings, and etchings Walsh Gallery (Quick Center), through December 21: Sacred Space: A Brandywine Workshop and Archive Exhibition. This exhibition of contemporary prints encourages exploration of spiritual connection, and reflection on ancestral wisdom and memory passed down through generations.

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Bates College Museum of Art

Ongoing: Across Common Grounds: Contemporary Art Outside the Center. Drawing upon diverse styles and media from traditional craftwork to digital art, this exhibition features works by over twenty artists living across America that expand, deepen, and challenge how we cultivate and connect to land, culture, art, and one another in rural places. Through December 21: ARRAY: Recent Acquisition Series, Part 1: Jeffrey Gibson and Sarah Rowe. The first of a three-part rotation highlighting the wide variety of artworks the museum is currently collecting features a textile by Gibson (Mississippi Choctaw/Cherokee) and a print by Rowe (Lakota/Ponca).

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Worcester Art Museum

Through January 20, 2025: Im/Perfect Modernisms: Asian Art and Identity Since 1945. Challenge your preconceptions of modern art through thought-provoking and at times subversive artworks created across postwar Asia. November 23, 2024–March 9, 2025: Twentieth-Century Nudes from Tate. Explore how the nude was used by artists in the 20th century to explore new ideas about age, race, gender, and sexuality, with works by Pablo Picasso, Alice Neel, Barkley L. Hendricks, Henri Matisse, and many more.

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Mad River Valley Arts

November 7–December 19: Elemental, a group show about water and its soulful impact on our daily lives. Artists in Elemental share the ethereal beauty of water and ask us to reflect upon our deep connection to this element of nature. Unusual materials and whimsical forms in their varying creative practices force the viewer to contemplate colors, textures, and emotions of imaginal landscapes, and to evoke the connection between them through the balance of harmony and disharmony, structure and chaos and the dance between light and shadow.

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ECOCA

November 10, 2024–January 5, 2025: Reflection: Remy Sosa & Merik Goma, curated by Moshopefoluwa Olagunju. Be Longing: Frank De Leon Jones & Shanti Grumbine. Self Taught: Bula, Serge D, Bill Healy, Karen Karen, Richard Knowles, curated by Michael Shortell & Emily Weiskopf. Dude Portraits: Leigh Busby. To The Touch, curated by Deborah Hesse. And more. Opening reception: Sunday, November 10, 1–3 p.m. Free and open to all.

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SONO Arts at The Norwood Space Center

The Norwood Space Center will celebrate the holidays with vendors, food trucks, and Salvage Angel’s Holiday Stroll. SONO Arts—the resident artists—will open their studios in Building 6 and guest artists from Norwood and surrounding communities will join them for an art exhibition. Free and open to the public. To learn more, visit Norwoodspacecenter.com/events.

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The Bruce Museum

The Bruce Museum is a world-class institution that offers a changing array of exceptional exhibitions and educational programs that cultivate discovery and wonder through the power of art and science. Opening November 9: Nature’s Impressions: The Modernist Landscape. Opening November 16: The Art of Work: Painting Labor in Nineteenth-Century Denmark. Ongoing: Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects. Every Leaf & Twig: Andrew Wyeth’s Botanical Imagination. Hockney/Origins: Works from the Roy B. and Edith J. Simpson Collection. Conservation Through the Arts: Celebrating the Federal Duck Stamp. Tara Donovan: Aggregations. Gabriel Dawe: Plexus no. 43. The Robert R. Wiener Mineral Gallery. Permanent Science Galleries: Natural Cycles Shape our Land. Admission: Adults $20, Students/Sr. Citizens $15.

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Burlington City Arts

A contemporary art gallery with up to three floors of exhibition space, hosting new exhibitions every fall, winter/spring, and summer, on Burlington’s iconic Church Street Marketplace. Through February 1, 2025: Passages: Identity, Memory, and Transformation, a group of contemporary artists who embrace themes of journey and transformation in their art. Through January 18, 2025: Between the Covers: Works by Jane Kent, artist books, broadsheets, and working drawings created by the artist in collaboration with eight authors over the past 25 years. Free and open to the public.

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Bannister Art Gallery at Rhode Island College

November 7–December 6: Richard Whitten: Objects of Wonder. Richard Whitten creates paintings which transport the viewer through the surface of the painting into a world of imagined architectural spaces. There, the viewer finds similarly imagined machines and is invited to bring the worlds inside the paintings to life—to propel the machine into motion—through sight and thought alone.

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Currier Museum of Art

Ongoing: Jean-Michel Basquiat and Ouattara Watts: A Distant Conversation brings together six artworks by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988), one of the most celebrated and influential artists of his generation, and seven large canvases by New York-based Ivorian painter Ouattara Watts (b. 1958). Ongoing: Dan Dailey: Impressions of the Human Spirit. Ongoing: Olga de Amaral: Everything is Construction and Color.

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Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University

The Museum has a permanent collection focusing on American art from the 19th century to the present day, rotating exhibitions of contemporary, regional artists, and a gallery focused on the artist Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller. Through January 26, 2025: Ileana Doble Hernandez: My Dear Americans, It’s Not Enough; DM Witman: Ecologies of Restoration; Suzanne Révy: A Murmur in the Trees. See website for hours and events.

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3S Artspace

Opening November 22: Two exhibits, Noticing Light and Kinship Compositions, works by Christina Watka and Margaret Jacobs, respectively. Watka creates joyful spaces that reflect the interplay between light, fullness, movement, and stillness. Juxtaposed with Watka’s delicate suspended sculptures, Jacobs uses steel for her sculpture and powder coated brass in her jewelry, developing organic textures and surfaces. Free and open to the public.

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Krakow Witkin Gallery

Through December 7: Jo Sandman: Folded Fabric. Saturday, November 9, 2 p.m.: Gallery talk with Jennifer M. Swope (David and Roberta Logie Curator of Textiles, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) and Katherine French (curator, Sandman Legacy Project, and Director Emerita, Danforth Museum of Art). Reception to follow. Through December 7: Aiko Miyawaki: Work; and Robert Gober: One Wall, One Work. Saturday, November 30, 10 a.m.: Annual AIDS benefit (online only).

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The Guild of Boston Artists

Through November 30: Stapleton Kearns—We Are Still In Eden, a solo exhibition of oil paintings that reveal the landscape artist’s deep sensitivity to the beauty and magnificence found in pure rural nature as each canvas implores us to respond to a visual poetry of place. Artist demonstration: Saturday, November 16, 1 p.m. Opening December 7: Winter Holiday and Small Works Displays.

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