Past Events

2025 Griffin Terrace Series: Spirit Weekend Beer Garden

9/20/2025

Winchester's Sounds Like Chicken rocked the Griffin Terrace for the Winchester Chamber of Commerce's Spirit Weekend Beer Garden. The weather was beautiful and the crowd was hopping!

The Spirit Weekend Beer Garden caps off this year's 2025 Griffin Terrace Series. This year, the Griffin Terrace Series was sponsored in part by the Winchester Cultural Council.

2025 Griffin Terrace Series: Shakespeare Eras Tour

6/21/2025

Worlds A Stage Players presented their Shakespeare Eras performance at the Griffin Terrace to a great crowd on June 21.

This year's Griffin Terrace Series was sponsored in part by Winchester Cultural Council.

Photo credit: Peter Pulsifer

Griffin Terrace Series - Porchfest 2025

6/14/2025

Some rain and gray skies were not enough to stop Winchester Porchfest this year!

Affordable Butter, Porchfish, Big Cy and the Early Bird Specials, and Diver9 rocked the Griffin Terrace on June 14.

This year, the finale was held at the Griffin Terrace with local rock cover band Diver9 performing.

Vertical Water is installed

5/25/2025

Vertical Water by Karin Stanley, a new temporary sculpture was installed on March 28.

Ms. Stanley is an Irish born artist and garden designer who takes her inspiration from the changing landscape in Ireland and Scotland into her practices in garden sculpture, design, and poetry. A sculptor since 1995, Ms. Stanley has given lectures at the New England Flower show and the Philadelphia Flower show, the Arnold Arboretum and various clubs on the Irish and Scottish Gardens. She also organizes tours to the Arnold Arboretum for Harvard University and various private groups. Ms. Stanley resides in Massachusetts.

Photo credit: Cynthia Randall

The Park is Open!

5/10/2025

We were excited that a few people braved the weather to help us open the park on May 10, 2025. Select Board Chair, Michelle Prior and Conservation Commission's Elaine Vreeland joined Arts Winchester's Board to cut the ribbon with the Chamber's big scissors.

The day looked gloomy then the Winchester High School Octets summoned the Mother Nature by serenading the crowd with "Blue Skies". Winchester High School's Choral Director, Joel Buford introduced the high school senior group.

Arts Winchester Board Members handed out paper cranes and Dove chocolates to commemorate the opening.

Photo credits: Electra Govoni, Peter Pulsifer, Scott Randall

The Gulls Arrive!

12/19/2024

Sculptor Dale Rogers was back in town to install the Gulls. The Gulls are a permanent installation of three stainless steel gulls at the new Winchester Riverwalk Sculpture Park.

Dale is a Haverhill based sculpture. His sculptures - Away and Bird in Hand - are displayed near the Town Hall.

Josh Ruder, the bench sculptor, was also on hand to lend Dale a hand and complete the final touches to the benches.

Photo credit: Hilda Wong-Doo

3rd Annual Stroll - Gingerbread House Decorating Contest

12/7/2024

Winchester Chamber of Commerce organized the 3rd Annual Gingerbread House Decorating Contest as part of their Annual Stroll Week's activities. Once again, the participating families did a terrific job decorating!

Arts Winchester Inc receives it 501(c)(3) designation

11/29/2024

After a long wait, the managing entity - Arts Winchester Inc - that organizes the Winchester Cultural District has received its 501(c)(3) designation from the IRS.

Winchester Open Studios 2024

11/23/2024

Over 50 artists and performing musicians warmed up a cold rainy day at eight different locations at our 2nd annual Open Studios.

See Winchester Open Studios page for more photos and links to our participating artists.

Photo credit: Peter Pulsifer

Riverwalk Sculpture Park is born

11/15/2024

Arts Winchester was recently awarded a Town of Winchester Community ARPA grant to build a small sculpture park at the end of Shore Road on the Griffin Museum's property.

Work got underway on October 26, 2024 with an extensive invasive clean-up by town volunteers organized by the Conservation Commission. That work was quickly followed by MC Landscaping leveling the grounds.

On November 5, a crew from Winchester's DPW made moving 16 enormous fieldstone boulders into place easy.  Sculptor Josh Ruder spent the next 5 days sculpting two benches from the stones. He returns on November 20 for the finishing touches.

In parallel, Nevola Irrigation and Lighting has been installing irrigation and wiring for future lighting.  MC Landscaping returned the week of November 12 to install the stone dust pathways and sod.

Board member Cynthia Randall, art consultant, in addition to her contributions throughout, selected two sculptures for installation in the next two months. Stay tuned for updates!

Behind the scene, Elaine Vreeland, Town Conservation Administrator, helped us navigate all the appropriate approvals with the Conservation Commission and then MA Department of Environmental Protection.

Julie Khuen provided for her guidance and expertise with initial landscape design, helping us place stones, envision initial plantings. We can't wait for the plants in the spring!

Ann Storer joined our team as a member of the Conservation Commission but contributed so much more. We could not have done this without her design walk throughs, initial sketches, buckets, tarps, bricks, wetland expertise, construction expertise, and, most importantly, boundless energy!

Our partnership with Crista Dix and the Griffin Museum was critical to the project from idea through execution.

As always, the Arts Winchester is fortunate for its all-volunteer Board who provides art leadership, legal contract negotiation, business and resident input, financial administration, and so much more.

I am so grateful for the teamwork and support from everyone involved and for the encouragement from people just passing by seeing the progress.

Hilda Wong-Doo
Board President