Talent show
The seventh edition of the Valley Talent Showcase will be presented Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Gateway City Arts, 92 Race St. in Holyoke. The show, produced by Mark Sherry, is held the first Friday of each month.
Five bands or solo acts are selected from a wide variety of musical genres to compete for gift certificates and cash prizes. All monthly winners will compete Sept. 9 for a headline gig at The Big E, $500 cash and 20 hours of free studio time at Northfire Studios in Amherst. Celebrity judges include well-known musicians and elected officials.
This month’s contestants are Avi Jacobs of Northampton and Charleston, North Carolina, Rebirth of Amherst, Rool Bunk of Northampton, Reverend Dan and the Dirty Catechism of western Mass., Wishbone Zoe of Westfield and Malado Music of Springfield.
Suggested donation, at the door, $10 (or what you can afford).
Multi-Arts is a non-profit arts educational program for ages 4 through 12. It is located in Amherst and Northampton.
For information visit multi-arts.org.
The following artist will exhibit works in the hall corridors at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, 30 Locust St., Northampton. There will be a reception for the artists Thursday from 4:40 to 6:30 p.m.
In the New Gallery: “Seeing Things” by Margaret Humbert-Droz of Northampton. For a while, the artist worked with white paper — different whites, different textures — cut, torn, twisted into low-relief images that relied on light and shadow to tell their stories. Gradually, hints of color were added.
In the North Gallery: “Nature’s Peaceful Places,” oil paintings by Ed O’Brien of Leeds. The artist had a 40-year career in engineering before pursuing a full-time career in art back in 1988. His landscape paintings are a blend of some of the styles and techniques he has learned studying with more than 14 artists.
New Century Theatre opens its summer season with a return of “Life in the (413)!” The show, a night of original radio plays that lampoon life in the Pioneer Valley, aims to celebrate the region’s collective hometowns.
The co-emcees will be WHMP radio host Monte Belmonte and Northampton City Council president Bill Dwight, who will introduce six original plays by area playwrights Jack Neary, Phil O’Donoghue, Harley Erdman and Eric Henry Sanders, and the writing team of Hilary Price and Kelsey Flynn. Also joining the group of writers will be Ellen Wittlinger of Amherst, a nationally renowned writer of young-adult fiction.
The show, one night only, is Saturday at 7 p.m. in Theatre 14 in the Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts, 122 Green St., on the Smith College campus in Northampton. Tickets cost $25 (student and “starving artist” discounts available). To reserve, visit www.newcenturytheatre.org or call 587-3933. And, yes, that’s in the (413)!
“Some Pops,” a group exhibit, will open with a reception Monday from 5 to 8 p.m. and will remain on view through June 24 at the ECA+ Gallery in the old Town Hall at 43 Main St. in Easthampton.
“The conventions of earlier generations have collapsed, allowing us to define masculinity and fatherhood in new ways,” says an artists’ statement. “We can participate in our kids’ lives in ways that used to be reserved for mothers. We can be freer with our emotions, more flexible in our roles, and spend far more time with our children than our fathers and grandfathers.”
“Some Pops” gathers a group of artist-fathers to explore what “Daddiness”is like in 21st-century America.
The artists are Matthew Choberka, Adam Connor, Jay Cooper, James Hindle, Rob Kimmel, Riccardo Mazzei and Aeric Meredith-Goujon.
For information, visit www.easthamptoncityarts.com.
“Abstraction,” an exhibit of new paintings and monotypes by Linda Batchelor, will be on view in the Back Room Gallery through June 26 at the Oxbow Gallery, 273 Pleasant St. in Northampton. There will be an artist’s reception June 10 from 5 to 8 p.m.
After working primarily with printmaking for 20 years, Batchelor has returned to painting. And while she’s using similar themes, the process, she says, feels very different.
“With printmaking, I used inks on a plate and then transferred the image to paper via a press. It entails a lot of process,” Batchelor writes in an artist’s statement. “With painting, I am working on clayboard panels with acrylic and sometimes oil paint, allowing me to work in an immediate, unpremeditated manner because the technique is malleable.”
Gallery hours are Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. For information, visit www.lindabatchelor-art.com.
Gimme Shelter
“Shelter Me: Hearts & Paws,” a film by Hadley native Steven Latham (a former Gazette paperboy, no less), will be shown Thursday at 9 p.m. on WGBY, Public Television for Western New England (channel 57).
Hosted by actress Kristen Bell, the film features award-winning artist Patrick McDonnell, creator of the popular MUTTS comic strip. Armed with a pen and a sketchpad, McDonnell takes a look inside Animal Care Centers of New York City to find inspiring stories. There’s also a story about a dog that finds a new life after being given up at the shelter and a visit to Cat Town Cafe, the first such establishment in the country.
“Be Still an Instant,” still lifes by Valerie Bassett of Florence, is on view through June 30 in the second-floor waiting area a 22 Atwood Drive, Northampton.