Reading Frederick Douglass Together
 
Marion, MA - The Marion Art Center partners with the Marion Community Center and Tri Town Against Racism to present a public reading of Frederick Douglass’s 1852 speech What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? The event will be held on Saturday, July 1 at 1:00pm at the Benjamin D. Cushing Community Center located at 465 Mill Street in Marion. A diverse group of readers from the SouthCoast region will present an abridged version of Douglass’s famous speech, which will take approximately 50 minutes. Audience members are encouraged to stay for a community discussion following the reading. Dr. Moise St. Louis returns in 2023 to give opening remarks and help lead the discussion. The presentation of this public reading is a statewide initiative coordinated by Mass Humanities, a generous sponsor of these free community events. Additional resources can be found at masshumanities.org. See this and all MAC events at marionartcenter.org/events.

Marion Art Center announces new Exhibit

(Marion, MA) – The Marion Art Center announces its newest exhibit, Illuminations, featuring works by Tamalin Baumgarten and Meredith Leich. Show dates are July 1-August 4, with an artists’ reception scheduled Saturday, July 15 from 3:00-5:00pm. The exhibition explores the harmonies and tensions between the natural and human worlds. While working in different media, both artists use light to reveal a sense of uncanny mystery in the New England landscape and places beyond. Through Baumgarten’s oil paintings evoking memory and domestic life and Leich’s photographs and video illuminating the effects of climate change, viewers will discover sensitive depictions of our ever-changing world.

Baumgarten and Leich also serve as Co-Directors of the Cuttyhunk Island Artists’ Residency on nearby Cuttyhunk Island. Learn more about the artists at marionartcenter.org/on-exhibit. During the reception, we’ll also celebrate the musicians of the Buzzards Bay Musicfest, scheduled July 12-15 (buzzardsbaymusicfest.com).

Arts in the Park

(Marion, MA) – The Marion Art Center’s annual outdoor artisan market, Arts in the Park, returns to Bicentennial Park in Marion on Saturday, July 8, 10am-4pm. A rain date is scheduled on Sunday, July 9. The park is across the street from the MAC, which is located at 80 Pleasant Street in Marion, at the corner of Main and Pleasant.

The curated event will feature over forty five artists and artisans from across the region and includes many new vendors this year. Goods include ceramics, clothing, collage, fiber, glass, jewelry, woodworking, painted, and hand-crafted furniture, paintings, photography, and more. Shop for gifts, fine art and handmade goods, grab lunch or ice cream from the Oxford Creamery’s Oxcart, listen to live music by Richard Lewis and Molly O’Leary, and bring the kids for free games and craft activities on the MAC lawn! Visit the MAC galleries throughout the day to see the new exhibit, Illuminations, featuring artists Tamalin Baumgarten and Meredith Leich. The MAC booth will feature paintings by artist Alyn Carlson. Visitors can enter for a chance to win prizes from the raffle featuring original artwork from each vendor.

Arts in the Park is sponsored in part by donations from the Marion, Mattapoisett, and Rochester Cultural Councils, local chapters of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. For more information, visit marionartcenter.org/events or email the MAC at [email protected].