LAVA Center launching ‘Black Families of Greenfield’ exhibit
The LAVA Center at 324 Main St. will present a new humanities gallery exhibit, “Black Families of Greenfield: A Brief Historical Snapshot,” starting with an opening reception on Friday, July 7, from 6 to 8 p.m.
The exhibit has been researched and designed by Carol Aleman of the Historical Society of Greenfield, and will serve as an introduction to some of the history of Black families in Greenfield as it points to contributions in such areas as music, sports, business and military service. The exhibit will build slowly throughout the month and will be on display until September.
Thomas Ratté displaying art in July
Local artist Thomas Ratté will hold a reception for his exhibit at The LAVA Center, 324 Main St., on Saturday, July 8, from noon to 3 p.m. The exhibit will be on display throughout July.
Ratté did his undergraduate work at Greenfield Community College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He works with several mediums, including painting, pencil, watercolor and photography. Most of the pieces that are on display were created by blowing the ink from a ballpoint pen onto snack wrappers that Ratté would then wrinkle and press into the paper.
“For the most part, my visual art is more akin to the psychedelic experience than anything else. It’s escapist in a sense and yet immersive,” Ratté said in an artist’s statement. “Historically I have left them open so that they acted as more of a Rorschach inkblot test. These new pieces are fairly playful and were done in lockdown.”
from the Greenfield Recorder Notebook
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