Community Calendar

Explore all things apples this October during the 28th Annual Apple Tasting Tour in Wayne County! The Signature Tasting Weekend will take place from October 10 to 13, 2025, featuring apple-themed tastings, family-friendly activities, and fun across each of the 11 stops. Play the Apple Jumble for a chance to win prizes as you “U Pick the stops, U Pick the way!”

The Ballad of Human Movement is an exhibit that will fill your heart with pride for our little city. People have come from all over the world to make Utica their homes. Stories like The New York Times article "How Refugees Transformed a Dying Rust Belt Town" brought Utica into the spotlight, and the Gannett Gallery is thrilled to present a celebration of what makes our city so special. There will also be a free film screening of "Utica: The Last Refuge" on Saturday, October 25, at 2:00 p.m. in the Kunsela Hall Auditorium on the SUNY Poly campus.

Opening Reception: Friday, 10/10/2025 5:00-7:00
Event website: https//balladofhumanmovement.net

Lacuna presents new works from Alison Altafi that explore the space between presence and absence, form and dissolution, memory and dream. Inspired by the cosmos, fairytale, myth and the endless cycles of time, Lacuna invites viewers to consider the space not as emptiness, but as a site of possibility, memory and soft transformation.

Reception Date: October 3, 5-7 p.m.

"i solemnly swear” is an exhibition about the consequences of conscription and deployment into combat. Syracuse artist Paul Pearce was drafted into the US Army in 1967 and deployed to Vietnam in 1968. “I should never have been a soldier, and yet I was a good soldier,” Pearce says. “For this reason, I am haunted by what I did and what I witnessed. When people say, ‘Thank you for your service,’ my reply is, ‘Don’t thank me for my service; you don’t know what I did. My country made me do it and I was just a kid.’”

Schweinfurth Art Center is holding its fifth Member Show this fall, which features 127 works by talented artists who are members of the art center. The exhibition includes oil, acrylic and watercolor paintings, photography, ceramics, sculptures, fiber art, and more.

This year, the Victorian Lady antique shop in Oneida is on a mission to collect and distribute warm winter coats and accessories to help neighbors facing hardship during these difficult times.

“If you would like to help make someone's winter a little warmer, we would be most grateful!” says Ms. Gerri Gray, the shop’s proprietor. “We are holding the coat drive throughout the fall and winter.” She added, “We also plan to host a few food giveaways, so if anyone wishes to donate any canned food (including pet food) and/or other non-perishable items, they can bring them to the shop during our regular business hours or simply leave them on our front porch.”

Donations of new and gently-used coats, scarves, and gloves are being accepted every Monday and Saturday from noon until 5 p.m. and on all other days by appointment only. The shop, which was featured on Lite 98.7, is located at 302 Main Street, Oneida, NY (at the corner of Stone).

All That Remains features artwork by two SUNY Oswego art faculty members, Peter Cardone and Christopher McEvoy. While each artist explores themes of slippage, memories, and the push pull of reality, their artworks engage these concepts in very different ways.

Cardone’s photographic series depicts the Lighthouse at the H. Lee Maritime Museum and scenes of Lake Ontario. The images of the Lighthouse are devoid of people or living things. They feature liminal interior spaces with views of the lake shown through another frame, such as a door or a window. Other works look down on the water from a higher vantage point, framing the view with bits of roof, gutter, and railings. Cardone says, “The photographs simultaneously generate feelings of presence and absence. Standing by the water, I feel grounded in a particular place and time. Yet, as I look out, I am untethered from the present, tracing the water’s path to memories of other lakes, oceans, places, and people.”

Christopher McEvoy’s abstracted paintings inhabit the gap between perception and imagination. His large paintings are heavily layered with organic and geometric components. These forms overlap, fuse, and create a conflicting linear perspective. This evokes a feeling of falling apart and coming together simultaneously. McEvoy says, “These aren't paintings about confusion but consciousness. In fractured moments and invented landscapes, I witness my own daily negotiations with meaning—the constant work of assembling coherence from fragments.”

On view Oct. 21 - November 14.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday: 2-6 p.m., Saturday – Sunday: 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. Closed on Mondays, holidays, and when classes are not in session. Classes and groups may arrange after-hours visitation.

In this eight-week series, students will learn the foundational skills for throwing pots on the wheel. They will learn centering, basic throwing techniques, trimming, glazing, and more to begin their journey with clay. While this class is geared toward beginners, students who have some introductory skills that they wish to expand on are welcome. Price includes 25 pounds of clay, access to the clay studio outside of class, and use of community tools and glazes.

Hamilton College will present "We Were Here," the untold history of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe. Director Fred Kudjo Kuwornu, an Italian-Ghanian scholar, will discuss the film following the screening.

This groundbreaking documentary reveals the overlooked presence of African figures in Renaissance Europe, challenging perceptions of art, history, and identity, and uncovering the hidden presence of African and Black individuals, revealing their representation in masterpieces by iconic artists of the time. The film investigates how they came to Europe and why they were portrayed in paintings. It questions who they were and challenges the conventional narrative that has long overlooked their significance in the works of celebrated Renaissance masters, telling the unknown, exceptional stories of African-Europeans who were princes, ambassadors, saints, artists, professors, and knights.

Producer and director Fred Kudjo Kuwornu is the founder of the Association Diversity Italia, promoting the importance of racial and ethnic diversity in Italy and Europe through film and other art forms as tools for building a more inclusive society.