Table of Contents
For one fall weekend each year, Winchester becomes a canvas. Local artists open their doors to the public for Winchester Open Studios, transforming churches, markets and studios into creative spaces that celebrate community and connection.
Now in its third year, the event – on Nov. 22, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – is organized by groups across the town, including Arts Winchester, Winchester Farmers Market, First Congregational Church, Studio on the Common, Griffin Museum of Photography, Unitarian Society, Winchester Artists Network and the Winchester Cultural Council. The council is the event sponsor.
This year multiple home studios have also opened their doors to the public.
“It’s a really nice community event,” said Tracy Burhans, an artist and curator at the First Congregational Church. “It’s really nice for the artists and the craftspeople to interact with people from Winchester and from towns surrounding Winchester.”
Planning for the event begins immediately after the previous year’s Open Studios concludes. Committee members, all volunteers, collaborate closely over several months to ensure the event runs smoothly.
“We’re all just volunteering to coordinate this together,” said Jean Wallace, director of art education at Studio on the Common.
Their efforts include recruiting artists, organizing venues, marketing the event and supporting participating artists with a Zoom workshop on preparing displays, creating business cards and presenting their work effectively.
“One of the things that we noticed last year was that sometimes it’s hard for artists to know how to get themselves prepared for this event,” Wallace said.
Wallace said the biggest challenge the team faced was getting people to realize there are artists all around town. The team worked together and will give out maps to the visitors.
“We printed those out last year, and we’ll do that again, but we’re also putting it online so that folks will be able to have access online,” Wallace said.
Members utilize individual strengths in marketing, design and logistics to coordinate maps, lawn signs, flyers and online resources to help visitors navigate the multiple studio locations.
That spirit of collaboration, said Arts Winchester President Hilda Wong-Doo, is what defines the event’s success.
“When we started planning for the second year, Fred [Yen] said, ‘We want it to be bigger — more artists, even from outside Winchester,’” Wong-Doo said. “This year we’ve filled every location to capacity, even after a few artists had to cancel. That’s very exciting.”
At the church’s Ripley Chapel, Burhans curates an exhibit featuring both professional and emerging artists, including those who rent studio spaces within the building. She’s expanded the lineup this year to include artists from across town.
Burhans plans to hang the show by Nov. 17 and collect all the materials from the artist by Nov. 21. She will then print sheets for people to walk around the church with, showing which items are for sale and their prices.
“I’m very sensitive to the fact that [Ripley] was a worship space,” she said. “I just want to be really sensitive, to keep some of that buying and selling separate as much as possible, and to really have it be a time of fellowship and people being able to take in what they see, and to not have it be solely commerce.”
The church takes no proceeds on artwork sold during the event, something Burhans calls “pretty incredible.”
Across town, the Winchester Farmers Market Community Hub at the Jenks Center provides another anchor location. The farmers' market has featured different artists each week throughout the summer and fall.
“I just felt like it would be nice to center this last market around the theme of the artists, and have all of the artists be part of that,” said Fred Yen, executive director of Winchester Farmers Market Community Hub.
The Jenks Center combines the market with an art exhibit — “half farmers market, half gallery,” Yen said — with painters, potters, and photographers sharing space with bakers and farmers, accompanied by live local music.
For Wallace, Open Studios highlights the work of teaching artists at her Studios on Common.
“On Open Studios day, we close regular operations and open the space to artists who teach or sell here,” Wallace said. “It’s not just a sale — it’s a chance for artists to meet the community.”
This year, Studio on the Common will showcase pottery, paintings, and jewelry by instructors including Bel Cauley, Rocky Prull, Adeline Cota and Wendy Jo New, alongside Wallace’s own art.
“This is a family-friendly event,” she added. “We want to meet the community and let them know what we do here and who we are as artists and individuals as well as teachers.”
Aayushi Datta is a journalism student at Boston University. This story is part of a partnership between Winchester News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
