When Nicole Goldberg stepped into her role as executive director of the Woodstock Art Association & Museum five years ago, she had no idea how many artists lived and worked in the area. For an organization devoted to artists within a 50-mile radius, that abundance carries a responsibility to support them—and a joy.
“Every opening we have is a major celebration,” she said, noting that they typically draw as many as 300 people even amid snow or rain.
The latest iteration comes this month and next, when it mounts six exhibits, each with its own focus. Kicking them off is a talk by artist Yura Adams on Saturday, Jan. 24, from 3 p.m.- 4 p.m., followed by an opening reception from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The front doors of the 1921 gallery building, which offers 3,500 square feet of space at 28 Tinker St., open into the Main Gallery, where the first exhibit each year is the “Media Annual,” which focuses on a specific medium.
This year, “Waxworks” features cold wax and encaustic techniques, the latter a medium that originated in ancient Greece where the hulls of warships were painted with hot wax saturated with colored pigments.
Encaustic creates “a beautifully muted surface which gives the art a tactile quality,” said Jill Skupin Burkholder, who is among 39 artists in the juried show and also works with cold wax.
Her contribution combines photography, oil paint and cold wax in abstract textures creating “a portrait of an older woman in Cuba.” Burkholder said she treasures the “ease and almost seductive smoothness of the materials.”
In the Middle Gallery is “Marvel’s Cabinet,” a solo exhibition by Adams, who considers herself a painter although it includes several sculptural and mixed media works.
“I like to have the eye travel around each piece,” said Adams, a lifelong artist who said aspects of her work have changed “tremendously” over the years while in other ways it “hasn’t changed at all.”
A shift came about a decade ago, when she moved to a former farm that now includes a stretch of uncultivated fields. The largest piece in her show is titled “Forest Walker (big boy)” and marks her encounter with a bear, when she experienced “something that was a lot older than me — terror.”
She describes Marvel as “a character that I’ve given a name to,” representing a figure from her unconscious.
The Towbin Gallery at the back of the ground floor is dedicated to works from WAAM’s permanent collection, which includes 2,346 works. Most were created between the 1920s and 1950s, although new works are continually being acquired.
The exhibit’s theme is woodcuts and wood engravings, including 37 works in a range of periods and styles ranging from a tiny 1929 black-and-white woodcut by Pamela Vinton Ravenal that depicts the WAAM building to large-scale works in saturated colors. Several have been awarded the group’s annual print award, which has been bestowed since 1948.
Downstairs, the Founder’s Gallery displays works no more than 15 inches tall or wide, affordable works selected by the association’s members. This year’s first exhibition features artists whose last names start with A through E, and will cycle through the rest of the alphabet in the months ahead.
Education Director Tara Foley also works with teachers to present lessons using artworks from the permanent collection, leading children to create their own themed art.
As visitors move downstairs, they pass through the Stairwell Gallery, where “Rethink Everything” shows work created by middle school children who have studied 20th Century movements. Downstairs, YES, the Youth Education Space shows art by elementary school students on the theme “Eclipse.”
The woodcuts and wood engravings in the Towbin Gallery will be on display until April 26. The other exhibits close March 8.
Where: Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, 28 Tinker Street, Woodstock
Date: Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026
Time: Artist Talk by Yura Adams, 3-4 p.m. Opening Reception, 4-6 p.m.
Gallery Hours: Thursday-Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.
Margaret Tomlinson is a contributing writer. You can send her an email at reporting@theoverlooknews.com.