New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Join us on AHA! night when Downtown New Bedford comes alive with Art, History and Architecture! On January 13th we will be celebrating what is NEW in New Bedford for the NEW year. Find out what’s in the NEWs, remember those we kNEW, check out NEW artwork & enjoy NEW menus at partner eateries. Plus we welcome our NEWest partner, Love Life Lens Photography!
Judith Klein Art Gallery (752 Purchase Street) Stop by for the opening of “Caught ON Film”, a show featuring artists on location in vintage New Bedford using the traditional medium of camera & film. Artists include: Bill Harting, Whitey Morange, Sheila Oliveira, Marc St. Pierre, Claudin Poyant , Elias Roustom, & John S. Wojtowica. All artists will be available to talk about their work on AHA! Night.
New Bedford Whaling Museum (18 Johnny Cake Hill)
• Children’s author Janet Costa Bates will read from her recently published children’s book “Seaside Dream”, illustrated by Lambert Davis. 6–7pm in the Cook Memorial Theater
The winner of Lee & Low’s New Voices Award Honor, “Seaside Dream” celebrates a treasured relationship between a child and her Cape Verdean immigrant grandparent. The reading will be preceded by a Member’s Only meet and greet with the author at 5:30pm in the Resource Center at the NBWM. Funded in part by the NBWM, the New Bedford Historical Society and Baker Books.
• NEW NEWs: Shorts from community newsmakers about upcoming projects. 7:30-8:30pm in the Cook Memorial Theater
New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park
(33 William Street)
• Inventions, Store Fronts and Scandal: Ruth and Abby discuss what is new in the city during the 1850s. 6-8pm in the Corson Maritime Learning Center, 2nd floor
• “Having Our Say: Stories from the Cape Verdean Community” documents the lives of New Bedford’s Cape Verdean community from the end of the whaling era to the present day. Presented by Ann Marie Lopes in the Corson Maritime Learning Center at 7:30pm. Lopes, an oral history consultant, interviewed twenty Cape Verdean Americans, ranging in age from 60 to 92, throughout greater New Bedford. She will present a multimedia event highlighting the stories gathered at these interviews including segments of the actual interviews.
Crowell’s Fine Art (382 Acushnet Avenue) Say Cheese! The AHA! Photo Booth is popping up at Crowell’s Fine Art featuring photographer Kate Mello plus NEW props including frames, hats & signage. & there’s still time to shop A Few of My Favorite Things: Ideas and Objects for Artful Living.
Artworks! (384 Acushnet Avenue) Author Kiki Latimer and illustrator Bunny Griffeth present “Bubble Butt, the Challenged Sea Turtle of Mystic Aquarium”. Book signing at 5pm & reading at 6pm. Their other book, “Water Fire Duck” will also be available. Jane Bregoli will be on hand with her book, “The Goat Lady” & there will be goat puppet making.
New business & new AHA! partner: Love Life Lens Photography (14 Rodman Street)! Stop by for their grand opening, 5-9pm. During the event the photographers will be conducting free mini-sessions. A mini-session is a 20-minute portrait session with up to two subjects resulting in up to 10 final images. Sign up at www.lovelifelens.com or call 774-473-8464 to book your mini-session. Plus musical performances, a cake display from Boscakes, cocktails, hor d’oeuvres, open gallery viewing and a meet and greet with the photographers. Love Life Lens Photography is owned by Ashley Ahola and Colleen MacRamos, who worked together at a corporate photography studio for years and finally decided to branch out on their own. They specialize in portrait and wedding photography, and are focused on capturing once in a lifetime moments. Come and show your support for New Bedford’s small business community!
New Bedford Public Library (613 Pleasant Street) Gallery talk on the exhibition of Norman Rockwell’s “Home for the Holidays” collection of 40 original framed Saturday Evening Post cover tearsheets with Janice Hodson, Curator of the Art Collection. 6:30pm
The Cummings Building Artist Studios (96 William Street, 2nd Floor) will be featuring music by Stephan Rose.
The Coalition for Buzzards Bay’s Richard C. Wheeler Bay Learning Center (114 Front Street) is the newest destination in Downtown New Bedford, but who is Richard Wheeler? As a teacher and historian Richard Wheeler has dedicated his life to spreading the word of conservation and maritime heritage. Come learn the story of Richard’s 1,500 mile kayak journey from Newfoundland to Buzzards Bay (following the path of the extinct Great Auk) by watching the NOVA documentary “The Haunted Cry of a Long Gone Bird”, 7pm.
Ginger Grill (778 Purchase Street) Artist’s Winter Solstice: artwork by Susan Cabral and friends. Plus new menu and new program of tea afternoons.
Colo Colo Gallery (25 Centre Street) New Exhibit: “SHADES OF FRAGILITY”: works by Christina Maria Duarte. Featuring a collection of self portrait acrylic paintings that reveal her interest in the figure in a thematic assortment that focuses on the idea of vulnerability and the physicality of the neck.
Pour Farm (780 Purchase Street) Ask the Brewer Series continues with brew master Jeff Horner from Cisco Brewery. Tasting & presentation at 6:30pm. Plus DJ Colin Whatever spinning songs as part of AHA! After 9.
New Bedford Art Museum (608 Pleasant Street) Last chance to see the exhibition: In the Landscape: 4 painters, 4 seasons.
GENERAL INFORMATION
All activities are FREE and open to the public. Year-round programming is funded in part by the Mass Cultural Council’s John and Abigail Adams Arts Program, The Island Foundation, The City of New Bedford, the AHA! partners, individual supporters and in-kind marketing support from the Standard-Times and WBSM. For more information call 508-996-8253 x205
First time visitors may want to start AHA! Night at the National Park Visitor Center (33 William Street). Complete program flyers with maps are also available at all AHA! venues starting the Tuesday prior to each event.
Directions: From I-195 E or W. Take Exit 15 (Rte. 18). Follow Rte 18 to 2nd traffic signal; take a right onto Union St. At the first traffic signal take a right onto Second Street and take your first left for parking in Custom House Square or continue on two blocks to the Elm Street garage. On-street parking also available for free after 6 pm.
