Seasonal Shifts Opens a New Velvet Mill Artists Group Show in Stonington

Seasonal Shifts brings the work of artists based at Stonington’s Velvet Mill together for a new group exhibition opening Thursday, September 17, with an evening reception beginning at 5:30 p.m.

The exhibition will be installed in the Velvet Mill Gallery, upstairs from the building’s main entrance near Zest Fresh Pastry, and will remain on view through the holiday season.

That extended run makes the opening party more than a one-night event. It’s the introduction to a fall and early-winter exhibition showcasing artists who work inside the enormous former textile mill, a building that has gradually developed into one of southeastern Connecticut’s more unusual creative communities.

One Building, Many Artists

The Velvet Mill can be confusing if you’ve never explored it.

It isn’t one gallery.

It’s an enormous former industrial building filled with individual studios, galleries, shops, makers, restaurants and other small businesses. Some artists maintain spaces that function as both working studios and miniature galleries, while others primarily use their rooms to make art.

Seasonal Shifts pulls members of that scattered community into a shared exhibition.

Instead of opening one studio door at a time, visitors can see work by multiple Velvet Mill artists together in the Mill’s upstairs gallery.

The group format is particularly useful in a place like this. Artists working only a corridor or staircase apart can have dramatically different approaches, materials and subjects.

The Theme Is Right in the Title

Seasonal Shifts arrives almost exactly as summer turns to fall.

The autumnal equinox follows just days after the opening, but “seasonal shifts” offers artists considerably more room than simply painting fall foliage.

A shift can be environmental.

It can be emotional.

It can involve light, color, weather, aging, growth, loss or transition.

And an exhibition that remains up through the holidays will itself live through a substantial seasonal shift. Visitors seeing it in September will encounter the work in a different context than someone walking into the gallery in December.

The promotional artwork, by Dennis Caruso, reinforces that freedom of interpretation with an abstract composition of loosely defined forms, energetic black marks and areas of white, cream, blue, pink and muted yellow.

It’s not a postcard version of autumn.

That’s probably the point.

The Velvet Mill Has Become an Arts Destination Almost by Accident

The setting is part of the story.

The enormous brick complex at 22 Bayview Avenue was built in the late 19th century and became associated with the American Velvet Company, which manufactured textiles in Stonington for generations.

When industrial production ended, the question facing the property was familiar throughout New England: what do you do with a huge old factory that no longer has a factory inside it?

In Stonington, part of the answer became art.

Large industrial windows, high ceilings and adaptable rooms made the former manufacturing spaces particularly suitable for studios.

Artists moved in.

Then makers, galleries and small retailers followed.

Today you can walk through the Mill and encounter painters and photographers alongside letterpress printing, coastal art, handmade goods, antiques, furniture, food, a brewery and other independent businesses.

The building still feels industrial.

It just produces very different things now.

There Are Galleries Hidden Throughout the Building

The artists’ group show also offers an introduction to a larger visual-arts scene inside the Mill.

There are individual artist studios as well as dedicated gallery spaces scattered throughout the complex.

Dennis Sirrine Gallery showcases the work of longtime Velvet Mill painter Dennis Sirrine.

Coastal Arts Gallery & Studio #85 concentrates on coastal and New England-inspired work, including original art, prints and smaller gift pieces.

Studio 87 – Nautical by Nature similarly draws inspiration from the region’s maritime environment.

Allgood Studios and Gallery takes a less conventional approach, combining gallery and creative studio space with an arcade component.

Shuttle Press & Bindery expands the definition further. Its Studio 77 is a working letterpress shop and bookbindery, where traditional printing and bookmaking techniques become part of the Mill’s broader maker culture.

The result is less like visiting a conventional museum complex and more like exploring an arts neighborhood that happens to be contained inside one very large building.

An Opening Party Changes the Experience

The September 17 opening provides something that visiting the exhibition later won’t.

The artists are part of the event.

Opening receptions are useful precisely because gallery exhibitions can otherwise separate the finished work from the person who made it.

At a group opening, viewers have the opportunity to encounter multiple artists, ask questions and hear how individual pieces relate to the exhibition’s theme.

For people who enjoy art but feel they don’t know enough to talk about it, there really isn’t a prerequisite.

Find something that stops you.

Look at it.

Ask the artist about it.

That’s enough.

Make Sure You Head Upstairs

The Velvet Mill is big enough that knowing where you’re going matters.

The Velvet Mill Gallery is upstairs from the main entrance near Zest Fresh Pastry.

Visitors entering the building for the first time shouldn’t assume the exhibition is in one of the retail galleries along the main corridors.

The opening begins at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, September 17.

After opening night, Seasonal Shifts remains on view through the holidays, giving visitors several months to catch the exhibition even if they can’t attend the reception.

A Particularly Busy September at the Mill

The opening also arrives during an active stretch at the Velvet Mill.

Two days later, on September 19 and 20, participating businesses throughout the building will hold the End-of-Season Indoor Sidewalk Sale, moving sale and clearance merchandise into the hallways outside their shops.

Saturday mornings also bring the Stonington Village Farmers Market into the Mill.

That makes Seasonal Shifts easy to combine with a larger visit.

Someone coming for the art can end up exploring shops.

Someone coming for the market can discover a gallery upstairs.

Someone arriving for lunch can find an exhibition they didn’t know was there.

That’s one of the advantages of putting art in a building where people are already doing other things.

You don’t necessarily have to decide you’re going to an art gallery.

Sometimes you just walk upstairs.

Details

Exhibition: Seasonal Shifts
Event: Opening Party
Date: Thursday, September 17, 2026
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Presented By: Velvet Mill Artists
Venue: The Velvet Mill
Gallery: Velvet Mill Gallery
Address: 22 Bayview Avenue, Stonington, CT 06378
Location in Building: Upstairs from the main entrance near Zest Fresh Pastry
Admission: No admission charge is indicated for the opening or exhibition
Format: Group exhibition featuring Velvet Mill artists
Exhibition Run: September 17 through the holiday season
Poster Artwork: Dennis Caruso
Opening Reception: Thursday evening at 5:30 p.m.

More information is available at the Event Website link below.

 

Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.