Community Calendar

Heather Gaudio Fine Art in partnership with Moss Galleries is pleased to present The Paintings of Beate Wheeler, on view January 31 – March 7, 2026. The exhibition will feature 15 paintings by the late Abstract Expressionist artist dating from the 1960s to the 1990s. Although largely overlooked in her time by the mainstream art market, Wheeler was an active Abstract Expressionist, and an indelible part of the complex narrative of American art in the 20th century.

“We are so proud to present to current fine art audiences and local art enthusiasts the opportunity to discover and learn about an epochal and under-recognized female artist,” states Heather Gaudio.

"From my experience working with the estates of Lynne Drexler and Judith Rothschild,
the female Abstract Expressionists achieved more sophisticated and ultimately more exciting color relationships through abstraction than their male counterparts,” adds Elizabeth Moss, Founder of Moss Galleries.

Beate Wheeler (1932-2017) was born in Berlin and fled Nazi Germany with her family, arriving at Ellis Island in 1938. Wheeler earned her BFA from Syracuse University in 1954, followed by an MFA from the University of California, Berkeley under the tutelage of Abstract Expressionist painter Milton Resnick. She later moved to New York City where, alongside Robert Beauchamp, Elaine de Kooning and Patricia Passlof, she established the March Gallery (1958-1960). March Gallery was one of the eight artist cooperative galleries that formed the 10th Street Galleries in the East Village. These galleries showcased avant-garde contemporary art and offered alternative spaces to the more conservative Madison Avenue and 57th Street galleries. Today, galleries and artists working in the Tenth Street Co-ops are considered to have played a significant role in the growth and diversification of styles in the history of American art. Many of the artists in Wheeler’s circle have since become well-known (Lois Dodd, Lynne Drexler, Alex Katz, Mark DiSuvero and Alice Neel, among others), though Wheeler and others remain under-recognized. Lack of recognition, however, did not detract Wheeler from dedicating herself fully to her practice. She managed an incredible output of paintings and drawings over her decades-long career. Wheeler’s work was exhibited in various galleries during her lifetime, including the National Arts Club, and she sold many paintings to private collectors, including Nelson Rockefeller. ARTnews dubbed her an “artists’ artist.”

Wheeler’s approach to painting was introspective–her rich palette led her to explore color theory and composition with a distinctive style. Color, light and form are balanced in her paintings, with autographic gestures and pictorial marks rendering beautiful lyrical abstractions. Earlier paintings from the 1960s and 70s are more tightly rendered than later executions from the 1980s and 90s, but unified by her emphasis on process and mark-making. Brushstrokes reveal themselves throughout, whether as smaller woven webs of pigment or more painterly accident. The sense of the material in her approach to painting is clearly evident. Wheeler’s myriad strokes of color offer an impressionistic language, with visual references to a floral lexicon. Acting much like characters of color arranged in coded forms, the dynamic optical fields offer no focal point or compositional center. The paintings are galvanized with unexpected color relationships, some with atmospheric backgrounds, others with bold hues and brushstrokes. While a fluid spontaneity appears to make up most of the gestures, there is a system to Wheeler’s mark-making that renders an evocative cohesiveness to the overall colorful composition.

Heather Gaudio Fine Art specializes in emerging and established artists, offering painting, works on paper, photography, and sculpture. The gallery provides a full-range of art advisory services, from forming and maintaining a collection, to securing secondary market material, to assisting with framing and installation. The focus is on each individual client, selecting art that best serves his or her vision, space, and resources. The six exhibitions offered every year are designed to present important talent and provide artwork appealing to a broad range of interests. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday; 10:30am to 5:30pm; and by appointment.
Over the course of more than two decades, Elizabeth Moss and her team have guided Moss Galleries to a place of national and international repute. Building on Maine's natural magnificence and rich artistic legacy—from celebrated American masters to the Abstract Expressionists who summered here in the 1950s and '60s—Moss Galleries represents the state’s leading contemporary artists whose work is exhibited and collected worldwide. Moss sees beauty as an essential structure of human experience—a vital framework through which meaning emerges and awareness expands. Our mission is to highlight the critical role Maine plays in American art, and to celebrate beauty as a vital tenet of a fulfilling life.

Museums on Us® Weekend

March 7 - March 8

Present your active Bank of America, Merrill or Bank of America Private Bank (U.S. Trust) credit or debit card with photo ID to gain one free general admission to the Museum!

Museums on Us® is available to Bank of America, Merrill or Bank of America Private Bank (U.S. Trust) credit or debit cardholders during the first full weekend of every month. One free general admission is limited to the individual cardholder. This offer is not transferable. This offer does not guarantee admission. Not to be combined with other offers. Excludes fundraising events, special exhibitions, and ticketed exhibitions.

For complete eligibility requirements, please review eligibility and terms prior to your visit.

Through Museums on Us® Bank of America offers cardholders new ways to get out and learn about the world around them, with free general admission to local cultural attractions including some of America’s favorite museums and arts institutions.

Join the Suzuki Music School of Westport for a Pillow Concert on Sunday, March 8th at 3:00pm in the Blake Recital Hall (246 Post Road East, Lower Level, Westport CT 06880). This concert will feature pianist Melvin Chen from the Yale School of Music.

The Pillow Concert Series features professional artists performing in an informal setting designed for the whole family. Children of all ages can bring a pillow and sit up close with the performers. Concerts are about 45 minutes long and suitable for children ages 4 and up.

The event is free and open to the public. Tickets can be reserved at https://suzukischools.org/events/the-childrens-pillow-concerts-melvin-chen-sp26/

For students in grades K-5

March 9, 3:45 PM - 4:45 PM

Session II dates: March 9, 16, 23, and 30 (Mondays)

FREE, Southampton & Tuckahoe School District Residents
$80 for four sessions, Out of District Resident

After-school art workshops are designed for children in grades K-5 to learn about artists, be inspired by works of art, and create their own artwork with teaching artist Wendy Gottlieb.

Our Workshop Wednesdays are back!

Every other Wednesday afternoon, we will once again open up our program to students from the community to join with our current cohort for a mini project-based learning “sprint” tackling a real-world problem in just 3 hours, end to end!

These immersive, drop-off programs give kids who are looking for additional enrichment for their school-based programs or who are in home-schooling, medical homebound or 1:1 programs the opportunity to develop critical thinking, executive function and peer collaboration skills, together with bright, gifted and twice exceptional peers.

Every week is a new project, so you can come for just a week or join them all. Each project is developed by Cajal Academy staff, or our current students! Previous projects have ranged from, “How can we create a spring garment out of upcycled fashion” to “How can we create a water filtration system using only household goods?” Each project is announced at the start of the program, so kids work through the problem as a group, working within a closed set of information provided to them over the course of the afternoon.

For our currently-enrolled students, these bi-weekly workshops provide opportunities to develop mini projects in areas of their own interests—like the project increasing conservation of Connecticut’s native carnivorous plants that one of our high school students developed for the inaugural series last year! By bringing in students who aren’t already in our community, they also offer the opportunity to develop the unique social skill of connecting, collaborating and sharing your thought leadership with new people: a critical skill in our Vision to Voice Curriculum.

All Cajal Academy programs are open by application to kids who have high analytical reasoning and/or creative thinking skills, including students who have learning, social-emotional, neurophysio and/or chronic medical differences, even ones as complex as connective tissue disorders like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. As with all Cajal Academy programs, learner needs are support through our unique Neuro- and Trauma-Informed Approach to understanding and supporting gifted and/or neurodivergent kids’ learning and social-emotional needs.

All Cajal curriculum is developed in ability-based groupings but part of the power of our program is the nurturing, mixed-age community that develops among our students so our Workshop Wednesdays Series is open to kids in grade-equivalencies of 2-12 who are not physically aggressive towards staff or peers and do not have a current history of elopement or substance abuse. For older learners, this provides unique opportunities to develop leadership skills, together with teens currently enrolled in our high school program.

If you grew up reading newspaper comics, you probably know Beetle Bailey, the classic comic strip about a wise-cracking private soldier at a fictional United States army post. Created by Mort Walker in 1950, Beetle Bailey celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2025 — and Walker's sons Brian, Greg, and Neal are carrying on their father's legacy. Together, they'll take the stage of the Trefz Forum to share the history and current workings of their family business with a presentation and onsite drawing demonstration. Learn more about one of America's most beloved comic characters with a discussion of their book, Beetle Bailey: 75 Years of Smiles.

Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Why You Should Come
Comic lovers and pop culture fans won't want to miss this special author talk that goes beyond discussion, offering an inside look at the creative process for an iconic comic strip that has delighted readers for 75 years. Enjoy plenty of laughs and firsthand stories about the comic's creation, evolution, and enduring appeal, straight from the family that has shaped its legacy for generations.

About Beetle Bailey: 75 Years of Smiles
75 Sunday pages reproduced from color syndicate proofs, 135 daily and Sunday strips scanned from original artwork, and close to 200 additional images, this beautifully designed volume, impeccably researched and written by Mort Walker's son Brian, also includes rare photographs, historic debut character appearances, syndicate promotional materials, posters, merchandise, personal drawings and memorabilia from the family archives, as well as biographical sketches and anecdotes.

Dubbed “The Dean of American Cartooning,” Walker was one of the most prolific cartoonists in the comics business, with the creation of nine different syndicated strips during his lifetime, including Beetle Bailey, one of the most widely syndicated strips in the world. Beetle Bailey remains a popular feature in newspapers today and is currently produced by his sons Greg, Brian, and Neal.

About the Speakers
Brian Walker, who graduated from Tufts University, has a diverse background in professional cartooning and cartoon scholarship. He was one of the founders of the Museum of Cartoon Art and has served as the curator for more than seventy cartoon exhibitions. He taught cartoon history at the School of Visual Arts and was editor-in-chief of Collectors’ Showcase magazine. He has written, edited or contributed to more than forty cartoon-related books, including the recently-published history The Comics – The Complete Collection for Harry N. Abrams, Inc. He has been contributing to both Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois since the early 1980s.

Greg Walker studied liberal arts and journalism at Syracuse University and has worked in film, commercial photography, newspapers, and graphic arts. He started his cartooning career writing and drawing comic books, including such well-known titles as Rocky and Bullwinkle, Barney and Betty Rubble, Underdog, Sarge Snorkel and Beetle Bailey. He began providing gags to his father’s strips in the early 1970s and, in addition to writing, currently does the inking and lettering on Beetle Bailey. In the 1980s, Greg also collaborated with Guy and Brad Gilchrist on the Rock Channel comic strip and with brothers Brian, Neal and Morgan on Betty Boop and Felix.

Neal Walker says, “Growing up with comics, I’ve never been able to imagine doing anything else.” He graduated with a B.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1983. He collaborated with his brothers on the Betty Boop and Felix comic strip from 1984 to 1988 and produced the Beetle Bailey comic book for Scandinavia beginning in 1989. He has also worked in animation as an animator, studio assistant, computer operator and editor for advertising, industrial film and children’s educational video. He designed a Beetle Bailey screen saver and sculpted a Beetle Bailey bronze statue, which is now at the University of Missouri, Mort’s alma mater. After his father’s passing in 2018, Neal continues to pencil and write gags for Beetle Bailey.

Heather Gaudio Fine Art is pleased to present Notions of Time a four-person exhibition featuring new works by Jessica Drenk, Yoona Hur, Amy Kirchner and Simona Prives. The show will open with a public reception on March 14th, 4-6pm, and runs through April 25th.

The artists featured in the exhibition possess distinct visual languages that are heavily influenced by the concept of time, permanence, impermanence, nature and the man-made. Their evocative investigations with the medium and materials will take visitors into contemplative visual journeys that allude to origins, life, stillness, and the cyclical nature of existence.

Jessica Drenk’s works repurpose everyday materials to mimic the structures and forms of nature. In her exploration of materiality, Drenk’s process subverts the meaning and original function of the material, cleverly referencing the life cycle of objects over time. Among the works featured in the exhibition, Drenk will present new wall-mounted sculptural works from the Aggregate series called Agates. Used paper and junk mail are transformed conceptually to reference geology, with contrasting colors and voids that suggest complex layers of crystallized minerals and other sediments. Taking on the appearance of geodes that have accumulated over millennia, formed, and eroded, Drenk’s stunning three-dimensional objects relate to the passage of time and our role in the transformation of the Earth as participants and consumers. Drenk holds an MFA from the University of Arizona and BFA from Pomona College and has exhibited widely across the United States. Her works are in many notable private, institutional and corporate collections.

Exhibiting for the second time at the gallery, Yoona Hur will present beautiful ceramic Moon Jar sculptures for which she is known. Shaped by her Korean upbringing, Hur’s approach to artmaking is a nod to a slower-paced, more meditative way of life that opens spaces for contemplation and spiritual transformation. Eastern philosophies of timelessness and impermanence are associated in the Moon Jars, which embody the notion of emptying oneself as a simultaneous act of release and change. Balance and transition are prioritized over perfection. The jars show evidence of being handmade and are finished with deep, smoky cobalt blue patinas. Hur earned her BA in architecture from The Cooper Union before receiving her BFA from The School of Art Institute of Chicago. Her works have been widely exhibited in the United States and abroad and are in many important private and corporate collections.

Amy Kirchner uses graphite and acrylic on large-scale canvases to explore painting and abstraction purely for what it is. In the quietness of her studio, the artist articulates shapes, color, line and gestures that come to her, with intuition and spontaneity taking over her process. In this fast-paced world, the artist seeks to slow down time for herself and the viewer. Soft, muted palettes express expansive spaces that are not only visual respites but also allow the mind to engage more deeply with the works. Countered with larger, darker brushstrokes that give weight to the composition, the artist manages a balance between the ephemeral and the permanent. Kirchner grew up in Western Nebraska, and her works allude to the wide landscapes of the Great Plains, with sweeping skies and canyons, which she dubs “the unchanging recorders of time.” This is Kirchner’s debut exhibition at the gallery, which is made possible thanks to the generous collaboration of Long-Sharp Gallery in Indianapolis.
Simona Prives’ artistic practice includes painting, drawing and time-based media that bridge the organic and man-made. Her visual lexicon consists of amalgamations from various sources, including maps, topographical patterns, and references to current and historical locations. These intertwine and dissolve into each other to form intricate new terrains rendered in nebulous, atmospheric compositions. For this exhibition, Prives will present dreamlike landscapes, imbued with elusive open-ended narratives she created in collaboration with pioneering master printmaker Dan Welden and print studio Brooklyn Editions. The works merge analog printmaking with innovative hybrid-printing techniques to create a dynamic dialogue between traditional and contemporary processes. Prives holds an MFA from Pratt Institute and currently serves as an Associate Professor at City University of New York. The artist has also exhibited widely in the United States, and her works are in many important collections.

Curious about all that we have to offer? Join us for a relaxed and welcoming Open Day and experience the beauty, history, and vibrant life of our farm and education center. Wander through a stunning landscape rich with diverse habitats and wildlife, discover our deep roots in place and learning, and meet the warm, passionate people who bring it all to life.

Inside our Learning Center, enjoy hands-on activities including exploring our Native American Museum with its artifacts and reproductions, meeting our beloved program animals, sampling delicious farm-fresh dairy products, and more. Outdoors, take time to explore the property, visit our barnyard animals, and connect with members of our staff and Board who are eager to share their stories and answer your questions.

Free and open to all — no registration required.

Please, no dogs

For students in grades K-5

March 16, 3:45 PM - 4:45 PM

Session II dates: March 9, 16, 23, and 30 (Mondays)

FREE, Southampton & Tuckahoe School District Residents
$80 for four sessions, Out of District Resident

After-school art workshops are designed for children in grades K-5 to learn about artists, be inspired by works of art, and create their own artwork with teaching artist Wendy Gottlieb.

Our Workshop Wednesdays are back!

Every other Wednesday afternoon, we will once again open up our program to students from the community to join with our current cohort for a mini project-based learning “sprint” tackling a real-world problem in just 3 hours, end to end!

These immersive, drop-off programs give kids who are looking for additional enrichment for their school-based programs or who are in home-schooling, medical homebound or 1:1 programs the opportunity to develop critical thinking, executive function and peer collaboration skills, together with bright, gifted and twice exceptional peers.

Every week is a new project, so you can come for just a week or join them all. Each project is developed by Cajal Academy staff, or our current students! Previous projects have ranged from, “How can we create a spring garment out of upcycled fashion” to “How can we create a water filtration system using only household goods?” Each project is announced at the start of the program, so kids work through the problem as a group, working within a closed set of information provided to them over the course of the afternoon.

For our currently-enrolled students, these bi-weekly workshops provide opportunities to develop mini projects in areas of their own interests—like the project increasing conservation of Connecticut’s native carnivorous plants that one of our high school students developed for the inaugural series last year! By bringing in students who aren’t already in our community, they also offer the opportunity to develop the unique social skill of connecting, collaborating and sharing your thought leadership with new people: a critical skill in our Vision to Voice Curriculum.

All Cajal Academy programs are open by application to kids who have high analytical reasoning and/or creative thinking skills, including students who have learning, social-emotional, neurophysio and/or chronic medical differences, even ones as complex as connective tissue disorders like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. As with all Cajal Academy programs, learner needs are support through our unique Neuro- and Trauma-Informed Approach to understanding and supporting gifted and/or neurodivergent kids’ learning and social-emotional needs.

All Cajal curriculum is developed in ability-based groupings but part of the power of our program is the nurturing, mixed-age community that develops among our students so our Workshop Wednesdays Series is open to kids in grade-equivalencies of 2-12 who are not physically aggressive towards staff or peers and do not have a current history of elopement or substance abuse. For older learners, this provides unique opportunities to develop leadership skills, together with teens currently enrolled in our high school program.