Sip and stroll: Art & Wine Walk pairs wines and galleries in Eastworks this Saturday, Feb. 1

Miranda Brown and Lauren Clark, owners of Tip Top Wine Shop, which will partner with galleries in Eastworks to pair wine with art for Saturday’s Art & Wine Walk, part of February’s Art Walk.

Miranda Brown and Lauren Clark, owners of Tip Top Wine Shop, which will partner with galleries in Eastworks to pair wine with art for Saturday’s Art & Wine Walk, part of February’s Art Walk. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

This Saturday, Feb. 1, from 4 to 7 p.m., guests will be able to try free samples of six curated wines from Tip Top Wine Shop, each matched with a local gallery or artist in Eastworks.

This Saturday, Feb. 1, from 4 to 7 p.m., guests will be able to try free samples of six curated wines from Tip Top Wine Shop, each matched with a local gallery or artist in Eastworks. GAZETTE FILE PHOTO/DAN LITTLE

By CAROLYN BROWN

Staff Writer

Published: 01-29-2025 2:35 PM

Drinking wine while enjoying art – what’s not to love?

As part of February’s Easthampton Art Walk, a monthly event series that celebrates the arts in Easthampton, the Easthampton Mills Project will host an Art & Wine Walk in Eastworks on Saturday, Feb. 1, from 4 to 7 p.m. Guests will be able to try free samples of six curated wines from Tip Top Wine Shop, each matched with a local gallery or artist.

The participating artists and galleries are Moonlit Sea Prints with Hashi Pottery (Japanese woodblock printing and Japanese pottery), Invisible Fountain (paintings by Luke Cavagnac), Lisa Brown at 50 Arrow Gallery, Amanda Barrow (gel plate monotype prints), Alchemy Fiber Mill (fiber art and textiles), and Barbara Johnson (paintings).

The wines on offer (with descriptions from Tip Top, in order of the gallery they’re paired with) are Pietrame Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (“soft tannins and delicate notes of wild cherry and violets”); Denny Bini “Festa” Lambrusco (“with real depth to the fruit,” “notes of sweet and sour berries”); Folias de Baco Uivo Renegado (“crisp acidity with earthy raspberry notes”); Bodegas Rafael Cambra Soplo (“medium-bodied red wine from Spain with soft, smooth tannins”); Ami Ami Vin Orange (“notes of flowers, citrus peel, apricot”); and Ca’ di Rajo Mito Spumante Extra Dry (“subtle, pleasant fruit notes and fine bubbles”).

The Art & Wine Walk will also feature a gallery talk on the sōsaku-hanga (woodblock) works of Kasamatsu Shiro at Moonlit Sea at 5 p.m. and a printmaking demonstration at Amanda Barrow’s studio from 5:30 to 5:50 p.m.

Organizer David Kutcher, who owns Moonlit Sea Prints, said that his goal was to bring more people to businesses in Easthampton’s mill buildings, which often see less foot traffic during the regular Easthampton Art Walks than businesses on Cottage Street do. For visitors, he hopes this will “open their eyes to, ‘Oh my God, there’s so many good things in this building. I should come back more often.’”

Even locals, he said, might forget how much the mill buildings offer, including a gaming and minigolf center, restaurants, breweries, social justice organizations, a skate club, photography studios, and more.

“I’m hoping that this serves as an impetus for more and more businesses in the mills to come up with collaborative events and see that there’s gonna be some big return as a result,” said Kutcher. “Someone from out of town could come and spend the entire day just over at the mills. I think this is the beginning of that idea.”

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Easthampton City Arts Arts & Culture Program Director Pasqualina Azzarello, whose organization hosts the wider umbrella of Easthampton Art Walk events, likewise agreed that Eastworks is “a rich and active ecosystem of so many creative individuals and organizations.”

“It’s incredible,” she said, “when you stand outside that building, to think how many hundreds of people are working so industriously every day and generating such incredible content and products and artwork.”

There isn’t an exact science to pairing a specific wine with a specific gallery (especially given that Kutcher, ironically, isn’t a wine fan himself; he prefers Japanese whiskey and often hosts as whiskey tasting in his gallery during the Art Walks); rather, Kutcher’s method was to organize the route such that a participant would pass by a wider range of businesses than if they just took a direct route from one stop to the next.

Naturally, he expects this event to boost foot traffic at the mills; as the series continues, he’d love to bring in not only more visitors, but also more participating businesses: “The more we can help get those artistic events and collaborative events, it really just helps everyone.”

Beyond that? “Hey, let’s keep this momentum going. Let’s do more.”

For more information, visit www.easthamptoncityarts.com/event/the-easthampton-art-walk.

Carolyn Brown can be reached at cbrown@gazettenet.com.