Get a jump on your holiday shopping with these open studio events
Two of Boston’s oldest open studios events — South End Open Studios and Jamaica Plain Open Studios — invite the public behind the scenes this weekend. And Tuesday, Artists for Humanity, a nonprofit that helps youths pair creativity and entrepreneurship, welcomes visitors to their Open Studio evening. These are just a sampling of more than 20 open studios around Massachusetts this fall.
South End Open Studios started with a group of 12 artists 37 years ago, said Jenn Sherr, co-chair of United South End Artists, which organizes the event. Since then, it has waxed and waned. About 20 years ago, Open Studios covered 15 artists buildings and more than 250 artists, according to Sherr. Then gentrification drove many artists from the neighborhood.
This year, between 50 and 60 artists in six buildings will welcome visitors. “It’s still a great artists community in the South End, it’s just that artists can’t afford to have studios here,” she said.
If, like me, you’ve visited artists at work in the South End, you know that half the fun is wandering through the warrens of old industrial buildings, turning a corner, and finding a studio filled with beauty and creative energy.
JP Open Studios, around for 30 years, spotlights about 180 artists from Jamaica Plain and beyond — in people’s homes, on porches and driveways, in yards, and in local businesses, according to Susan Duprey, executive director of the Jamaica Plain Arts Council. There will be close to 70 sites to visit, and 30 art installations around town.
“It’s all over the place,” said Duprey. That includes four group areas where artists who don’t live in JP can display their work.
On Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m., Artists for Humanity’s Open Studio evening celebrates the AFH Artists Fellowship Inaugural Cohort, five alumni who have been working with mentor Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs for the last six months. Fellows Amril Foster, Ayana Mack, Kevin Nguyen, Naijah “Nine” Garrett, and Michael Talbot will show work in the “VOICE5,” exhibition, and visitors can tour the studios at the AFH Epicenter.
Wherever you go to open studios, it’s a peek into artistic process.
“You get to learn what’s behind all of it, what inspired the artists, and to be in the studio where it’s made,” said United South End Artists’ Sherr.
South End Open Studios, Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., www.useaboston.com
Jamaica Plain Open Studios, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. https://jpopenstudios.com
Artists for Humanity Open Studio, Tuesday, 5-7 p.m., AFH Epicenter, 100 West 2nd St. www.afhboston.org/event/open-studio-september-2023