Stardust: The Perseids Are Coming! Free
2026-08-08 10:00 - 12:00 (America/New_York)
Where does the dust that comes into the Earth’s atmosphere come from? Join us as astronomer Carol Ivers helps us delve into the world of star stuff as seen from Earth on Saturday morning.
Followed by Stardust: The Perseids Are Here – Meteor viewing at Sandisfield Orchard Wednesday Aug 12 at 8:30 pm
The Perseid meteor shower is an annual, prolific celestial event, usually peaking around August 12-13 with up to 100 bright, swift meteors per hour. Known for producing fireballs, they are best viewed in the Northern Hemisphere after midnight. They originate from Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle and appear to radiate from the Perseus constellation

Stardust: The Perseids Are Here! Free
2026-08-12 20:30 - 22:30
Join us on the hill behind the Sandisfield Orchard on New Hartford Road beginning at 8:30 pm to see the Perseids meteor shower. Bring bug repellent, blanket and binoculars if you have them.
Be sure to come to the previous Saturday’s talk by asronomer Carol Ives, The Perseids Are Coming!
The Perseid meteor shower is an annual, prolific celestial event, usually peaking around August 12-13 with up to 100 bright, swift meteors per hour. Known for producing fireballs, they are best viewed in the Northern Hemisphere after midnight. They originate from Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle and appear to radiate from the Perseus constellation

Daniel Manacher Prize for Young Artists 2025 and 2026 Prize Winners - Opening Reception - Free
2026-08-16 16:00 - 18:00
Image: Swoopy Loops by Daniel Manacher
Opening reception 4 – 6 PM.
We are very excited to showcase the winners of the 2025 and 2026 Daniel Manacher Prize for Young Artists in this biennial show.
The 2025 contest was judged by Josephine Halvorson, an accomplished artist and the Chair of the MFA Program in Painting at Boston University’s College of Fine Art. She has a studio here in Sandisfield.
The 2026 contest will be judged by Virginia Overton. Overton is a distinguished American artist known for her site-specific and sculpture works that often incorporate found or readymade objects. In 2018 she was the first female artist to have a solo exhibition at the Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, Queens, New York. She has work in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Show closes August 30.
2025 winners
Elizabeth Cheng
Enaya A. Ogletree
Website: https://ejahnaestudios.univer.se/blank
Annie Scott
Website: annniescottt.com
Evelyn Vollmer
2026 winners (to be announced, contest in progress)
More about the prize and past recipients.

The American Story in Song - A Program by Jon and Li Waterman - Free
2026-08-29 19:00 - 21:00
The Sandisfield Arts Center is pleased to host this Sandisfield Cultural Council-sponsored event.
Donations welcome.

Poetry Reading with Amy Dryansky and Hannah Fries
2026-08-30 14:00 - 16:00
Pictured: Amy Dryansky and Hannah Fries
Amy Dryansky’s third book, Ambergris is forthcoming in June 2026. She has two prior collections; Grass Whistle (Salmon Poetry) which won the Massachusetts Book award, and How I Got Lost So Close to Home (Alice James Books). Her poetry is included in several anthologies and individual poems appear in Adroit, Harvard Review, New England Review, Memorious, MER, Orion, The Sun, Tin House, and other journals.
”Amy Dryansky’s poems open the moment of experience for fresh possibilities of understanding. By this, I mean the impact of her language, her vision, and her quest bring us to the point of moving beyond the poems. We are given more in this book than in most collections because the poet has not held anything back. We find ourselves on the other side of the book–that place any poet and her reader wishes to be.”
—Ray Gonzalez

As a writer and editor, Hannah Fries often works at the intersection of poetry, science, and the wonder and mystery expressed in both. Her new book, A Forest Language, a collection of lyrical essays, will be released September 30th of this year from Storey Publishing. She is also the author of Being with Trees and the poetry collection Little Terrarium. She grew up in the woods of New Hampshire and now lives in Sandisfield with her family.

“A Forest Language is an exquisite cabinet of arboreal wonders, where each term becomes a story and each story a portal into the secret lives of trees, written with the precision of a naturalist and the tenderness of a poet.” —Diane Ackerman, author of A Natural History of the Senses

Amy and Hannah each have special and deep connections to Sandisfield. Amy is the daughter of a Sandisfield Arts Center’s founder Leonard Dryansky and spent many summers here growing up. Hannah is a longtime resident whose writing about “arboreal wonders” draws on her Sandisfield surroundings.

Papier-Mâché Workshop - Session 1 of 2 - Free
2026-09-05 10:00 - 13:00
Create vibrant, tactile sculptures in a fun and fast-paced Papier Mâché workshop led by Christine Novak and Jaye Moscariello.
Open to ages 12 and up, this hands-on session invites you to craft colorful 3D pieces for the “Touch Me, Gently” exhibition opening on Saturday, September 19, 1–4 PM.
Bring your imagination and leave with a unique, touchable creation.

Papier-Mâché Workshop - Session 2 of 2 - Free
2026-09-12 10:00 - 13:00

Touch Me, Gently, Group Show - Opening Reception - Free
2026-09-19 13:00 - 16:00
Dolls by Susan Flex Gilbert
Touch Me, Gently invites you to experience three-dimensional art through touch.
This tactile exhibition features fabric arts, papier-mâché, and other touchable sculptures designed to soothe during turbulent times. Gently explore textures and forms with your hands, engaging with art in an intimate, calming, and multi-sensory way.
Artists include Bonnie Cordova, Susan Flex Gilbert, Christine Novak, Jaye Alison and participants in the two-session Papier-Mâché Workshop (Sept 5 and 12).
About the artists (more to come)

Christine Novak
By nature, I am both an artist and an educator. My now-ancient undergraduate degree is in studio art with an emphasis in printmaking. Later in life, while teaching elementary school, I returned for a Master’s Degree in Curriculum Development Using the Arts. This inspired me to teach the academic subjects using the arts. For example, this allowed me to explore American history using music and recipes; to investigate math using dance and rhythm; or to create poetry as we examine science and nature. For me, it was the perfect blend of lifelong learning and a creative process. At 73, I haven’t stopped. Often, I just like to create for no purpose!
This past winter I created two papier-maché giraffes shown in the Knox Gallery Show in Monterey. They are on their way to being full-sized creations. The next step is to calculate and create a frame for the bodies. Then build out the bodies with pool noodles, wadded paper, foam, or whatever junk that works. Then cover them with papier-maché, paper-maché clay, adding painted features, finally finishing with a clear waterproof acrylic. Eventually I hope to add them to my backyard. If I could, I would create a whole LIFE-SIZE ark for people young and old to climb on!

Susan Flex Gilbert
As an artist I am a painter. I graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1981.
My work is about color, pattern and storytelling with a little humor and irreverence thrown in. It takes a couple of different forms, one being gouache on paper and the other 3D pieces constructed out of roofing aluminum and plywood painted with either gouache or oils. I work in a cartoony figurative style inspired by such artists as Red Grooms, Roger Brown and the Chicago Hairy Who. Other influences are outsider art, gothic religious art and indian miniature painting. My subject matter runs from observations about American popular culture to portraits of people I know or admire to rooms which depict exaggerated scenes from my own life.

Family Fotos - Opening Reception and Show - Free
2026-10-17 16:00 - 2026-12-05 17:00
Photo: Louie with a swollen eye, by Josie Miner
Opening reception Saturday October 17 4 – 6 PM.
Family of Man meets Sally Mann meets a box of dusty photos. An intimate and raw exploration of “family” in all its possible meanings.
Open most weekends 11 AM – 3 PM or by appointment. Contact gallery@sandisfieldartscenter.org.
Closes December 5.
