CONWAY — The Friends of the Field Memorial Library’s Holiday Giving Tree collected food, baking goods and more than $1,000 in gift cards that were taken to the Hilltown Churches Food Pantry for its holiday distribution.
Donors can continue to bring items to the Field Memorial Library through Dec. 19. The library is open to receive donations on Mondays from 3 to 6 p.m., Wednesdays from 2 to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This year, the food pantry is specifically requesting books for children ages 2 to 18, gift cards parents could use for children’s gifts, ingredients that could help make cookies and other baked goods for the holidays, and basic toiletries.
LEVERETT — The first event of the Speaker and Film Series sponsored by the Sacred Earth Collective of the Village of Light Ashram will be “Sacred Land, Sacred Waters.” The event will be held Saturday, Dec. 17, at 7 p.m., both online and in person at 83 Shutesbury Road.
Three short documentaries by filmmaker Brooklyn Demme that are described as “an ongoing prayer for water, Indigenous sovereignty, and planetary unity and healing” will be screened. They were filmed in the Amazon rainforest and at Standing Rock, South Dakota. Also presenting her wisdom and experience will be Penobscot Grandmother Elder Cindy Fountain.
All are welcome. A donation to further the work of Demme and Fountain will be appreciated. For more information, email ashram@villageoflight.org.
CONWAY — Artist Hannah Harvester invites the public to her Delabarre Avenue studio for a holiday celebration featuring treats, live music, views of the South River and, of course, art, on Saturday, Dec. 17, and Sunday, Dec. 18, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The event is the painter and printmaker’s first open studio since moving into the space over the summer. Saturday afternoon will feature a jazz trio: Conway’s David Braden-Johnson and friends Josh Metz and Steve Thomas on keyboard, bass and guitar. On Sunday afternoon, Westfield guitar virtuoso and singer-songwriter Dan Harvester will perform original and holiday favorites.
Hannah Harvester’s artwork includes many local landscapes rendered in soft pastel, along with oil paintings and original block prints. Framed and unframed original art, including hand-printed holiday cards, will be available for sale, with prices ranging from $5 to $500. One special framed piece will be available by silent auction, and a few lucky visitors will come away with door prizes.
Harvester is a painter, printmaker and art educator who has lived in Conway since 2017. Since June 2022, she has worked from a studio at 46 Delabarre Ave. in Conway, a space that was originally built to house the Conway School of Landscape Design.