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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260919T190000
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SUMMARY:WAAG Exhibition Brings Westerly’s Alternative Art Community Together at Studio 39A
DESCRIPTION:WAAG Exhibition brings more than 20 members of the Westerly Alternative Artists Guild together Saturday\, September 19\, for an evening gallery exhibition and art market at Studio 39A in Westerly. \nThe show runs from 7 to 11 p.m. at the grassroots arts and music space at 39A Beach Street. The format combines an exhibition with a market\, giving visitors a chance not only to see work by members of the newly organized guild but also to buy directly from participating artists. \nAdmission is particularly straightforward: \nBring a donation for the Westerly Animal Shelter. \nWAAG Is Creating a Place for Artists Who Don’t Always Fit the Traditional Gallery Mold\nThe Westerly Alternative Artists Guild\, or WAAG\, is a relatively new addition to Westerly’s growing arts community. \nAnd “alternative” is important to understanding what the group is trying to build. \nRather than defining art narrowly around traditional painting\, sculpture or the kind of work usually selected for a conventional fine-art gallery\, WAAG is assembling a community around artists working outside those boundaries. \nThe guild’s identity embraces the independent\, experimental\, DIY and sometimes unconventional side of making art. \nThat makes Friday’s exhibition as much an introduction to the organization as an art show. \nMore than 20 WAAG members are expected to participate. \nWith that many artists sharing one room\, visitors should expect variety rather than a single curatorial theme or medium. \nThis Is Both an Exhibition and a Market\nThe poster makes an important distinction: \n“A gallery & market art show.” \nThat means the evening isn’t designed solely around finished pieces hanging on a wall. \nArtists will have work available to browse and purchase\, turning Studio 39A into something closer to a temporary alternative-art marketplace. \nFor emerging artists\, that direct connection can matter. \nTraditional galleries generally select artists\, curate exhibitions and take a commission when work sells. Markets and artist-run shows can remove some of those barriers\, allowing creators to meet the people looking at their work and sell directly to them. \nFor visitors\, it also means this isn’t necessarily an event where you’re expected to quietly circle the room with your hands behind your back. \nTalk to the artists. \nAsk what they make. \nAnd if something grabs you\, find out whether you can take it home. \nStudio 39A Is a Natural Home for It\nStudio 39A is an all-ages\, grassroots art and music space at 39A Beach Street in Westerly. \nThe venue has become part of the area’s independent creative scene by providing a room for the kinds of artists and musicians who don’t necessarily have an obvious home elsewhere. \nThat includes intimate concerts and alternative music\, but Studio 39A isn’t simply a small music venue. \nIt operates as a community-driven cultural space. \nThat’s an important distinction for an event like this. \nWesterly already has established arts institutions\, galleries and performance spaces. Studio 39A occupies a different part of that ecosystem: smaller\, independent\, informal and intentionally accessible. \nWAAG fits naturally into that environment. \nWesterly’s Art Scene Is Bigger Than It Looks\nOne of the interesting things about this show is the larger arts community developing around it. \nWesterly has a surprising concentration of creative spaces within a relatively small area. \nThe long-established Artists’ Cooperative Gallery of Westerly operates as an artist-owned nonprofit gallery. The Hoxie Gallery presents exhibitions inside Westerly Library. Independent studios and shops have spread through downtown\, while the Westerly Arts Crawl has helped connect artists with businesses and the public. \nStudio 39A and WAAG represent another layer. \nThey’re not replacing those traditional institutions. \nThey’re creating an entry point for artists who may be younger\, emerging\, self-taught\, experimental or simply uninterested in fitting their work into conventional categories. \nA healthy local arts scene has room for both. \nThe DIY Poster Tells You Something About the Show\nYou don’t need much explanation of WAAG’s aesthetic after looking at the poster. \nHand lettering. \nUneven blocks of black ink. \nA roughly drawn eye. \nAlmost everything appears deliberately handmade rather than digitally polished. \nIt’s closer to a punk-show flyer or photocopied zine than a conventional gallery invitation. \nThat visual language has a long history in independent art and music scenes. \nBefore anyone could build a slick social graphic on a phone\, underground bands\, artists and promoters made flyers with markers\, typewriters\, scissors\, photocopiers and whatever else was available. \nThe imperfections became part of the identity. \nWAAG’s poster carries that same DIY spirit. \nIt doesn’t look like an invitation to an institutional gallery opening because this isn’t trying to be one. \nMore Than 20 Artists Means You Probably Won’t Know What You’re Walking Into\nThat’s arguably the best reason to go. \nA tightly curated solo exhibition gives you a deep look at one artist. \nThis is the opposite. \nWith 20-plus WAAG members participating\, the point is discovery. \nThe currently available public announcement does not provide a complete roster of every exhibiting artist or a piece-by-piece catalog\, and that’s information worth leaving open rather than guessing from social-media accounts associated with the organization. \nWhat is confirmed is the scale: more than 20 members of the guild\, a combination of gallery exhibition and art market\, and four hours to explore it. \nThe organizers are also encouraging visitors to follow @waag39a for updates as the show approaches\, so additional artist introductions may appear before Friday. \nAn Art Show for People Who Don’t Think They’re Art-Show People\nAlternative community shows can do something larger institutions sometimes struggle with. \nThey can lower the psychological barrier to walking through the door. \nYou don’t need to understand art history. \nYou don’t need to know whether something qualifies as expressionism\, assemblage\, lowbrow art or anything else. \nYou don’t even have to like everything. \nIn fact\, with more than 20 independent artists showing work\, you almost certainly won’t. \nThat’s part of the fun. \nFind the strange thing. \nFind the funny thing. \nFind the thing you don’t understand. \nFind the artist whose work makes you stop for another 30 seconds when everything else gets five. \nAnd if you’re someone making art at home who has never thought of yourself as the sort of person who belongs in a guild or gallery\, pay attention to the people exhibiting. \nThat may be the larger point of WAAG. \nA Four-Hour Snapshot of Westerly’s Alternative Art Scene\nWesterly has no shortage of polished cultural institutions. \nThis is something else. \nOne night. \nOne grassroots studio. \nMore than 20 artists. \nArtwork for sale. \nA handmade flyer that looks like it was designed specifically to make a graphic designer nervous. \nAnd admission that helps the WARM Center. \nFor WAAG\, the exhibition is a chance to put a relatively new artistic community in one room and show Westerly what its members have been making. \nFor everyone else\, it’s an opportunity to see what happens when the artists who don’t necessarily fit neatly into the established boxes decide to build their own box. \nThen cover it with art. \nDetails\nEvent: WAAG Exhibition: A Group Show\nDate: Saturday\, September 19\, 2026\nTime: 7–11 p.m.\nVenue: Studio 39A\nAddress: 39A Beach Street\, Unit 1\, Westerly\, RI 02891\nOrganizer: Westerly Alternative Artists Guild (WAAG)\nArtists: More than 20 WAAG members\nFormat: Group gallery exhibition and art market\nArtwork for Sale: Yes; the event is promoted as both a gallery and market show\nAdmission: Donation for the WARM Center\nAll Ages: Studio 39A operates as an all-ages community arts space\nUpdates: Follow @waag39a on Instagram for additional exhibition information and artist announcements \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/waag-exhibition-brings-westerlys-alternative-art-community-together-at-studio-39a/
LOCATION:Studio 39A\, 39A Beach St Unit 1\, Westerly\, RI\, 02891\, United States
CATEGORIES:Studio 30A
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/WAAG-Exhibition-Brings-Westerlys-Alternative-Art-Community-Together-at-Studio-39A.jpg
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