A bunch of geese pal around/poop around the sidewalks and pond at Hoopes Park. And then there is this one glorious blue heron! Yes – I made a new friend before heading to the art, craft and foodie filled tents that made up Art in the Park.
Art in the Park is an annual event at Hoopes Park, 100 S. Herman Avenue, Auburn, New York 13021. It was yesterday, September 20, 2025 from 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM and a perfect day for it, too. Sunny, blue sky, breezy, etc.
The cookie sellers did the best – Oma-Nonna had only three packages of Italian cookie assortments left to sell at around 3:00 PM.
Many of the vendors told me they have a variety of day jobs and selling their handmade wares is their side-hustle. They were all really friendly, happy people. The vibe in the park was definitely upbeat. Oh, and the event welcomed food trucks and music! It was really lovely.
Before I left the park (around 3:45 PM), I was hoping to see that blue heron again but that didn’t happen. Someone told me it hangs in the mini rock island in the middle of the pond, so maybe next time.
Strawberry Fields Hydroponic Farm and Florist (4240 East Genesee Street, Auburn, NY) is the latest place to be if you still haven’t walked through a sunflower maze. Today was a beautiful day for it!
For more information, including hours of operation, call them at (315) 751-5657.
BEST OF SHOW, Fuzzy Mall, Dundas, Canada, “Emma and Clarke 2 composition 1” 2023, $4,800
Full disclosure – I was hiding those turkey rocks in Emerson Park in Auburn, New York the other day and there was no bathroom there. I was all – maybe I can drive over to the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center and use the restroom there?
I parked the car across the street and almost peed my pants because I thought it wasn’t open. There is scaffolding everywhere. The gallery is undergoing a huge renovation. Luckily, it was open.
And luckier still, I have a membership card. So after that mini drama, I was treated to this technicolor array of internationally produced quilts. The Quilts=Art=Quilts 2024 exhibition is on display and will be up through January 5, 2025.
It is spectacularly colorful. These large scale function-to-decorative objects brilliantly fill the walls and I must say these photographs do not do this show justice. They are stunning in person or as my Mom always says, they are “Wow-ie!!!” !!!
Lela O’Dell, Oklahoma City, OK, “Plush Curiosities”, 2023, $3,000Kerri Green, Dallas, TX, “tool Box”, 2024, $3,500; Viviana Lombrozo, San Diego, CA, “Ordered Chaos”, 2023, $2,750
The Schweinfurth is located at 205 Genesee Street, Auburn, NY 13021.
Gallery hours: Wednesday-Saturday 10am-5pm and Sundays 1-5pm.
Yan Liu, Mubarak Al Abdullah, Kuwait, “Kuwait Futurism”, 2021, NFSPat Pauly, Rochester, NY, “Rite of Spring”, 2023, $4,800
Seventy-four New York state-based artists comprise the current MINY art exhibition at Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, NY, including my middle school art teacher circa the 1970s, Mrs, Joyce Homan!
Her piece, “COVID Bubbles” is a watercolor.
Gabriella Mirabelli, “Trees Reflected in Water 1”, 2022, acrylicHong Wu, “A Seat at the Table”, 2023, furniture and mixed media
A New Hartford native, Gary Sczerbaniewicz currently lives and works in Buffalo. He earned degrees at Munson-Williams Proctor Institute School of Art, Alfred University, and the University at Buffalo.
“My recent sculptural work investigates the concept of cognitive dissonance as articulated through an architectural lexicon,” he says on his website. “I am drawn to create works in which an unknown, sudden, violent event has rendered a space inert, transforming it from its original intended function into a hybrid and liminal zone. A recovering child of both Catholicism and the Cold War, my works possess an acute fondness for cultural marginalia: the post-apocalyptic, the science-fictional, the Fortean, the weird and the eerie (as articulated by theorist Mark Fisher), the occult, and the many bewildering worlds of alternative history and conspiracy theory.
Sczerbaniewicz has had solo exhibits in Buffalo, Niagara, Philadephia, Connecticut, Delaware, and Florida, and has been included in group exhibitions in Toronto, New York City, Cleveland, Indiana, and Texas. His entry to Made in NY 2020 at the Schweinfurth won Best in Show award.
Based in Jersey City, NJ, Theda Sandiford creates multi-disciplinary experiences that provide a safe space to explore themes such as equity and inclusion, sustainability, and personal well-being.
“Using personal conflict as a starting point, I juxtapose various fibers with a variety of found materials using free form weaving, coiling, knotting, wrapping, and jewelry-making techniques,” Sandiford told Artwork Archive. “Meticulously collected materials, transformed by their collective memory become ‘social fabric’ weaving together contemporary issues and personal narratives.”
Her work has been selected for Excellence in Fibers, curated by Fiber Art Now; displayed publicly in installations in New Jersey, New York, Florida, and more; and displayed in solo exhibits in New Jersey, New York City, Chicago, and more.
Kevin Larmon is a retired professor emeritus and Program Coordinator Art, Design, and Transmedia in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. He received a BFA from Harpur College at SUNY Binghamton, and currently resides in Upstate New York.
For over three decades, Kevin Larmon has received critical acclaim for creating paintings that lyrically explore the divide between abstraction and referential imagery. His work has been associated with the post-conceptualism and neo-conceptual art movements, which were prominent aspects of exhibitions of the early 80s East Village Gallery Nature Morte and with critics/curators Tricia Collins and Richard Milazzo shaping the nature of painting after the rise of conceptual art.
His work is included in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, and Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery at the University of Texas, Austin. He is the recipient of an Atlantic-Pacific Fellowship and a Pollack Krasner Foundation grant.
Angela Gaffney-Smith, “A Thousand Reasons Why”, 2022, bluestone on mapleDavid Dorsey, “Sunny Skies, Green Furrows”, 2022, oil on linenJoyce Hertzson, “After the (F)fall”, 2022, eco-print on rag paper
Pattern and texture is at play here. So many paintings, prints and mixed-media pieces are visually embellished with intricate segments of color, while macrame and other crafts, including crochet, embroidery and weaving adds the tactile component, which creates a cohesive bond to the exhibit. After perusing the jurors’ individual dossiers, it all makes sense.
Margery Pearl Gurnett, “Birds Sing Even After the Storm”, mixed media with resin
It is a wonderful show. The art is for sale. Made in New York 2023 opened last night and continues through May 28, 2023.
Judith Plotner, “Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down”, 2021, fiber and mixed mediaLorraine Walsh, “Marking Time”, 2021, ink on birch panelJulia Graziano, “Perplexed”, 2021, fiber quiltDenise Moody, “Her Trunk”, 2023, palm tree fronds
The museum is open Wednesdays-Saturdays 10:00 am – 5:00 pm and Sundays 1:00 – 5:00 pm. Visit their website for details.
David Zaggert, “Musk Portrait”, 2021, oilDeborah Florentino, “Golden Field”, 2022, pastelKurt Treeby, “Atari Skies: Enduro 1”, 2021, acrylic yarnRebecca Taylor leather top, Alice & Olivia cotton maxi skirt, Rag & Bone boots, Coach purse
Every year the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center does a Made in New York (MINY) juried exhibition. This year’s show – what can I say? A lot of eggs and phallic symbols, am I right? OMG – round circular objects with the center piece sculpture filled with actual eggs. And every other sculpture is sporting the dildo-esqueness of a you-know-what.
LOL, so great! I wonder if this was the intent, or am I being fresh?
Sixty-nine artists were selected….
Shari Werner, New York, NYChristina Bang, Pittsford, NY
Actually, the great thing about this exhibition is that artists must produce new work for it and everything looks very fresh in that sense of the word. It is all so colorful and curvy, clean, linear, firm and innocently provocative.
It’s a great show!
Jean K. Stephens, Honeoye, NY
MINY will be on display through August 7, 2021. Check out videos of the artists sharing their respective visions here.
Sharon Louden is an artist, educator, advocate for artists, editor of the Living and Sustaining a Creative Life series of books, and the Artistic Director of the Chautauqua Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution. Louden’s work has been exhibited in numerous venues including the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, the Drawing Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Weisman Art Museum, National Gallery of Art and held in major public and private collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, National Gallery of Art, Neuberger Museum of Art, Arkansas Arts Center, Yale University Art Gallery, Weatherspoon Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others.
George Afedzi Hughes is originally from Ghana and studied painting at The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, College of Art, Kumasi, Ghana, where he earned a BA in Art: Painting and Drawing (1989) and an MA in Art Education (1991). He later received an MFA in Painting and Drawing (2001) from Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, U.S.A. His paintings, performances, and installations have been featured in several museum exhibitions: Perez Museum, Royal Ontario Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, National Football Museum, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and Museum voor Zuid-en Noord-Beveland. The following museums have collections of his work: Royal Museum of Ontario, Harn Museum of Art, Iwalewahaus and the Ghana National Museum.
Hannah Frieser is the Executive Director for the Center for Photography at Woodstock, an arts organization that features exhibitions, residencies and other artist-oriented programming. With over twenty years of leadership experience in the visual arts, she has curated countless solo and group exhibitions with contemporary photographers, including Suzanne Opton, Adam Magyar and Barry Anderson. Her essays have been featured in monographs and publications, such as Contact Sheet, Exposure, and Nueva Luz. Prior to joining CPW, she was Director of Light Work in Syracuse, NY.
Lauren Bristol, Syracuse, NYJohn Fitzsimmons, Syracuse, NYCharles Compo, New York, NYEmily Kenas, Geneva, NY
MINY Artists
Carolyn Abrams Liz Alderman Robin Arnold Patricia Bacon Christina Bang Howard Bartle Madeline Bartley Mary Begley Marna Bell Tammy Renée Brackett Paul Brandwein Lauren Bristol Andrea Buckvold Susan Byrnes Carlos Caballero-Perez Nancy Callahan Eva Capobianco Stephen Carlson Kevin Carr Tara Charles Sage Churchill-Foster Fernando Colón-González Charles Compo Cynthia Cratsley Carole D’Inverno Lisa DeLoria Weinblatt KP Devlin Lisa Donneson Audrey Dowling Robert Doyle Sharon Draghi Leonard Eichler John Fitzsimmons Faithanne Flesher John Galt Jacq Germanow Cora Jane Glasser Julia Graziano Raechelle Hajduk Barbara Hart Laural Hartman David Higgins Lee Hoag George Hrycun Bob Ievers Emily Kenas Dale Klein Tom Kredo Timothy Massey Becky McNeill Valerie Patterson Beth Pedersen Judith Plotner Rose Popper Jim Quinn Steve Rossi Amy Schnitzer Catherine Shuman Miller James Skvarch Jason Smith Jean K. Stephens Susan Stuart Jane Verostek Kim Waale Mary Pat Wager Shari Werner Katharine Wood Hope Zaccagni Leah Zinder
Julia Graziano, Manlius, NYJim Quinn, Williamson, NYKim Waale, Manlius, NY/Nancy Callahan, Gilbertsville, NY
The Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center is located at 205 Genesee Street, Auburn, New York 13021. For more information, including hours of operation, call (315) 255-1553 or visit their website here.
Paul Brandwein, Rochester, NYRobin Arnold, New Paltz, NY/Timothy Massey, Spencerport, NYCharles Compo, New York, NYCatherine Shuman Miller, Williamsville, NYAndrea Buckvold, Syracuse, NY/Patricia Bacon, Lyons, NYMary Pat Wager, East Greenbush, NYCora Jane Glasser, Brooklyn, NY,#coach #tashkovski #rebeccataylor #ragandbone
The five pieces that make up this whimsical installation by Abraham Ferraro of Albany, New York, are the reason children grow up to be artists. (What kid didn’t have a sticker collection in the ’80s – am I right, people?) Arrows wrapped in brightly colored postal tape direct viewers towards this behemoth labyrinth of recycled cardboard and stickers. You can’t take a bad picture – every angle is perfection. It is just so incredibly fun! There is this feeling of discovery, the idea of packages – think Willie Wonka meets Amazon Prime via the U.S. postal service.
It is located in the main gallery space at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, the featured items in a three-person show called Made and Remade: Re-Imaging Industrial Systems and will be on display until August 18, 2019. The other artists in this exhibit are Landon Perkins of Bentonville, AR and Sherri Lynn Wood of Cincinnati, OH.
Apparently, Ferraro mailed the boxes and arrow-shaped sculptures to the Schweinfurth then added more tape and arranged them to create the eye-popping playground-like display.
Tonight was the gallery’s First Friday event. In addition to viewing the artwork, browsing the gift shop and enjoying delicious snacks, there was a free re-purposed art project (creating a self-watering planter from a wine bottle) set up in the basement – led by my friend Davana Robedee, Program Coordinator.
Michelle DaRin Jewelry, BCBGMaxAzria dress and sandals
The next First Friday will be August 2, 2019. Edgy Folk will perform.
There is a small gallery to the right of the entrance at Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, New York, called the Gallery Julius. It is a space reserved primarily for emerging regional artists who send work to the art center’s curator for consideration.
Common Places is the current exhibition: photographs by Willson Cummer of Fayetteville, New York, taken while on hiking excursions to parks near his home. He and his wife are kindred spirits, the term for people I meet on the road-less-travelled sections of the trails at Green Lakes State Park. We have that in common.
These photographs also have sunshine in common, and a sense of serenity and timelessness. There are ten similarly-sized and framed photographs in this show, all priced at $650.
Artist Statement
These photographs are from my project called Common Places. I use a few word plays to develop the concept. First, I made these images in parks — places held in common, set aside from private development. Also, these pictures are of unremarkable places. While I love to climb in the Adirondacks this work is about common parks near my home in Fayetteville, New York. Finally, I am interested in the use — primarily in the 1700s — of the commonplace, a scrapbook of sorts in which people collected stimulating quotes, letters and printed items. These pictures are my commonplace.
All current spring exhibitions will be on display until May 12, 2019. The Schweinfurth is open Tuesday-Saturday 10 am – 5 pm and Sunday 1 pm – 5 pm. Admission is $7 and free for exhibiting artists, members and children.
Seventeen venues were open last Friday evening with special happy hour deals and art exhibits (including the Cayuga Museum, Seymour Public Library, Seward House Museum, The Copper Pig, Moondog’s Lounge, Finger Lakes Artist Co-op, and the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center to name a few).
It was another gorgeous summer night in Central New York. Joyce, Janine and I met at the Schweinfurth. Edgy Folk played outside to the crowd of people who enjoyed a free mini-painting workshop.
Inside, we viewed the exhibit – Transgressing Traditions: Contemporary Textiles from the Surface Design Association.
This is an international exhibition of textile work from sixty-five artists. People from all over the nation, as well as from Canada, Hungary, Korea, France, Germany, and the UK! The Schweinfurth is such a beautiful space and this work looks AMAZING in it!
So modern! It is just so incredible what artists are doing with traditional sewing techniques. These are not your grandmother’s crochet and knitted afgans – my grandmother, while being known as the best crochet-er in New York State as acknowledged at the New York State Fair for many years, never created her own patterns or took the art to another level the way these artists do.
The show continues through August 21, 2016.
The Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center is located at 205 Genesee Street, Auburn, New York. Call (315) 255-1553 for more information or visit their web-site – www.myartcenter.org
I wanted to go the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, NY. There was an art reception for Water Effect – Art Inspired by Water, but I had a power headache brought on by a dumb sinus infection that has been bothering me for more than a week.
I was able to finagle a last minute appointment with my nurse-practioner, got the meds, popped into Panera Bread for a strawberry-banana smoothie and miraculously felt better than ever!
In less than forty minutes, I arrived. And as soon as I walked in, I saw my friend Katie Turner and her husband Ralph, two of my favorite people in this universe – we only met last year when she exhibited her Terraskin watercolors of flowers in the Chittenango Middle School library, but we clicked like life-long friends. Here she is next to her piece, The Pines ($275).
I believe this was a juried exhibition, by the way. I only knew a few of the other artists, like James Skvarch…
and Mary Giehl.
I had amazing conversations with the artists who were in attendance. Gordana Vukovic…
Susan Weisend…
and Carol LaBorie.
Carol retired from a non-art job and is now a full-time artist who has studied encaustic technique under a number of artists, often going to workshops and artist’s retreats. I just loved her enthusiasm and passion! Fifty-three artists from throughout the region are represented in this exhibit, which continues through October 18, 2015.
In addition, there is a wonderful show of landscapes and barn paintings by Kathryn J. Schylinski. OMG, I loved her! She’s from Skaneateles, NY, but will be relocating to my neck of the woods soon and verbally agreed to working with me in the future – à la my art gallery in the school library! I told her that I sometimes do a painting lesson using Wolf Kahn references and she said she channels Kahn and crosses him with an Edward Hopper flair…and that is so true! You can totally get that.
All of the work, including Kathryn’s, is for sale and will be available for pick-up at the end of the exhibit. (Hers ends October 18th as well).
The Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center is located at 205 Genesee Street, Auburn, NY. They are open Tuesday-Saturday 10 am – 5 pm and Sundays 1 – 5 pm. For more information contact them via their web site, www.myartcenter.org or by phone, (315) 255-1553.
