This month our AHA! partners are offering a variety of both virtual and IRL (in-real-life) programs.
Look for the Virtual and IRL icons to help you plan your AHA! activities.
Virtual
IRL
Click For Tips To Help Get The Most Out Of Your Vaha! Experience
Find archived programming from the August VAHA! on our Connect From Your Couch page.
AHA! In The Afternoon
Our downtown New Bedford museums, galleries and institutions are welcoming back visitors.
Visit their websites for more info about current hours, programs, exhibits and COVID19 safety protocols.
New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center
Open on AHA! 10am – 4pm
& extended AHA! programming from 5:30-7:30pm (see listing below)
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New Bedford Port Society including Seamen’s Bethel & Mariner’s Home
Open on AHA! 10am – 4pm
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New Bedford Whaling Museum
Open on AHA! 10am – 4pm
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New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park
Open on AHA! 10am – 4pm
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Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum
Open on AHA! 10am – 4pm
with extended AHA! programming from 3-5pm (see listing below)
Click For More Info
Please consider shopping or dining in DNB throughout the day
to help support our small biz community.
Follow DNB, Inc. on Facebook /dnbinc or Instagram @dnbinc
for updates about indoor and outdoor dining and retail shopping.
SHOPPING SPOTLIGHT!
Subtext Bookshop
209 Union Street
Stop by to shop books on gardening and birding
– perfect summer time reading!
Celebrating your Art, History & Architecture from home?
Order up some take-out or delivery from one of your
favorite downtown eateries and enjoy all the
VAHA! programming from the comfort of your couch or yard.
11am – Noon at Buttonwood Park
Music in the Parks 2020
presented by the NB Symphony Orchestra &
NB Parks, Recreation, and Beaches
Featurng musicians Raluca Dumitrache and Ona Jonaityte (violin & flute).
Noon on Facebook
Messages of Light and Hope
NBSO musicians Raluca Dumitrache and Emmalee Holmes-Hicks present beautiful music with an uplifting theme.
3-4:30pm
on Facebook Live
5 Pillars of Hip Hop Series
presented by 3rd EyE Unlimited
& the NB Whaling National Historical Park
Featuring music, dance, spoken word, live painting plus interesting info and interviews with Park Rangers.
3-5pm
AHA! at the RJD (396 County Street)
The Museum House will be open for visitors from 3-4pm at no charge. In addition, kids can stop by the front porch of the mansion, grab a coloring book, and adorn the driveway with chalk art.
Please note: COVID-19 protocols will be followed including limiting the number of visitors inside the Museum at one time, all guests must wear a mask and practice proper phyical distancing.
4:30pm on Facebook
Lighting The Way: Amelia Jones
Philanthropist Amelia Hickling Jones (1849-1935) focused on projects that benefited the New Bedford area’s children. She resided at 396 County Street (now The Rotch-Jones- Duff House & Garden Museum) for 85 years. Join RJD Docent, George Kontanis, as we learn about her legacy from her favorite rooms in the house.
5pm on Facebook Live
VAHA! Mini-Concert
hosted by Scott Bishop
Tune in for this mini-concert featuring 3
New Bedford-based artists playing original music:
Molly Motta
Mike Heffernan
Sarah Donner playing a special
“Lighting The Way” themed set
5-8pm
31st Public Hanging
at Gallery X
Featuring over 100 pieces of art.
Masks required to enter the gallery.
5:30pm & 7:15pm on Facebook
Centre Street Sessions:
The Whaling City Sound Annual Jazz Series
Featuring two sets by the Tim Ray Trio with Dave Zinno on bass and Mark Walker on drums.
Until the pandemic shut live music down, Tim was touring as music director and pianist for Tony Bennett, and his recent CD with Terri Lyne Carrington and John Patitucci made the top 10 in the JazzWeek National Radio Chart.
Centre Street Sessions usually take place in the Summer months of June through September outside, in the parking lot of Fiber Optic Center, in the heart of the Historic District and within the Whaling Heritage Historical National Park. Sponsored by AHA, Fiber Optic Center and Whaling City Sound these concerts have showcased many performers and enabled people to enjoy world class music in a relaxed, informal and acoustically comfortable setting.
This performance was recorded earlier in July in the chapel of the renovated Steeple Playhouse new home of the 70+ year old Your Theatre and formerly the First Baptist Church. Renovation is being overseen and supported by the non-profit Waterfront Historic Area LeaguE (WHALE, www.waterfrontleague.org). Professional quality audio, as well as video, was done by John Farrell of Middlehouse Sound. For the last 8 years, Your Theatre has also produced the widely acclaimed New Bedford JazzFest, held on the waterfront near downtown, and surrounded by New Bedford’s record setting fishing fleet.
5:30-7:30pm
Stop by the NB Fishing Heritage Center
Check out the latest gallery exhibit, “We Came to Fish, We Came to Work: Stories of Immigration” and enjoy live music in the Center’s parking lot featuring “Traditional Music from Ireland and the Canadian Maritimes” with Fern Tamagini-O’Donnell on fiddle, John MacDonald on guitar and banjo, and Colin Everett on Irish uilleann pipes, Scottish smallpipes, and whistle.
The number of guests inside the Center is limited to 10 at a time. Masks are required for entry to the parking lot and the Center.
Visit the Center’s website for a full list of the Center’s COVID-19 Safety policies: fishingheritagecenter.org
Lighting The Way
5:30pm on Zoom
Lighting the Way For All
Public Art Unveiling
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution recognizing some women’s right to vote. The public art project Lighting the Way for All is commemorating the centennial, honoring the unfinished legacy of the women’s suffrage movement, and celebrating historic women who forged the path and lit the way for us all.
10 civically engaged women from the Lighting the Way project were chosen and local students were asked to tell the stories of these historic women through inspiring videos. Thousands voted online to select educator Marial Harper (1934-2016) and community leader Jennie Horne (1920-1998) to be the subjects of a public artwork created by local artist Alyn Carlson. Join in virtually for the unveiling of the piece!
6pm on Facebook
Lighting the Way: Seaport Art Walk
Meet the Artists VAHA! video premiere
To honor the anniversary of the 19th Amendment and the unfinished legacy of the women’s suffrage movement, the 2020 Seaport Art Walk is inspired by “Lighting the Way: Historic Women of the SouthCoast,” a project of the New Bedford Whaling Museum. This year’s artworks are on exhibit now through October at State Pier along MacArthur Dr. The artists selected by an esteemed panel of jurors include Jessica Bregoli, Bruce Bailey, Ramiro Damaro-Comas and Grace Lang.
Any Time!
Lighting the Way Self-Guided Tours
brought to you by The New Bedford Whaling Museum
The LTW Trail Map guides you to locations in downtown NB associated with over 30 inspiring women. The trail map is available in print form, pdf download, and via mobile app.
History & Architecture with the NB Preservation Society
6pm
Gather at Custom House Park
Downtown Historic District Walking Tour
This walking tour of the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and adjoining areas will cover many of the most significant buildings in the city’s history and the stories behind them.
SPACE ON THE TOUR IS FULL
Any Time!
New Bedford Personalities Virtual TourTour guide Bruce Barnes brings to life eight notable New Bedford historic VIP personalities thorough the places they lived and worked. Combined with historic maps, pictures and illustrations, the tour explores the history – whaling, textiles, religion, abolition, even the poetry – of our fascinating and important New England city.
#SeeTheLight
6pm
Pre-Register For Livestream Link
Lighting Your Home (And Your Art)
hosted by The Drawing Room & DATMA
A presentation, by lighting designer Evelyn Audet of Evelyn Audet Lighting Design, on the aspects of light and how good lighting design and the right light fixtures can transform a space.
Any Time!
DATMA presents Light2020
Photo-kinetic Grid by Soo Sunny Park
Reflective silver mirrors embedded in welded chain link fencing emitting light and colorful rainbows generated by camera-projector cycles. On view at the UMass Dartmouth CVPA Star Store Building, corner of Union and Purchase Streets.
6pm on YouTube
Pastoral Light Exhibit Talk
presented by NBAM/Artworks!
Join New Bedford Free Public Library’s Curator Allie Copeland as she discusses her newest exhibition at NBAM Pastoral Light: 19th Century Landscapes from the New Bedford Free Public Library’s Collection.
6:30pm on Facebook
Virtual Gallery Visit to Marc St. Pierre’s Exhibition at Dedee Shattuck Gallery
Presented by UMass Dartmouth CVPA
Nicole and Olivier St. Pierre will walk you through this beautiful show that unfortunately never had the opportunity to ‘open its doors’ due to Covid-19. Joining will be ‘guest art-historian’ and the former gallery director of UMass Dartmouth, Lasse Antonsen. He will be discussing Marc’s work, aesthetically, stylistically and contextually. This event is hosted by the UMass Dartmouth Gallery Director, Viera Levitt.
Printmaker and beloved UMass Dartmouth professor Marc St. Pierre (1952-2019) is known for his collage and encaustic work as well as pinhole photography. He was initially trained as a painter and received his undergraduate degree from Laval University in Québec City, Quebec, Canada in 1976. Marc was a Professor of Printmaking at Swain School of Design in New Bedford from 1979 to 1988. At the UMass Dartmouth, he taught printmaking and photography from 1988 until his retirement as a Professor in 2017.
7pm on Zoom
Anomaly Poetry Virtual Open Mic
Enjoy a lovely summer evening full of poetry
from the comfort of your home live on Zoom.
Any Time!
Is It A Crime To Vote?
How Enfranchisement Stops Lynching
– told by Ida B Wells & Susan B Anthony
When Ida B Wells was eleven years old watching her father struggle with politics in Mississippi, 1873, Susan B Anthony was on trial for voting in New York State. Using the words of these eloquent crusaders, five performers show us how the VOTE of the Whole People prevents lynchings and protects us all. This performance is brought to you by The Tempest Theatre Co.
Artist Talk with Alison Wells
Join Artist Alison Wells as she talks about her upcoming solo show at the New Bedford Whaling Museum beginning August 20th.
Get a sneak peak of some of her new mixed media paintings as well as learn about the narratives and artistic processes behind them.
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