The play reading group meets in the BCA Space on the ground floor of Bedford’s Old Town Hall, 16 South Road.

The photo group meets in the BCA Space on the ground floor of Bedford’s Old Town Hall, 16 South Road.

The Art of Community

The second of three public participation workshops to consider Bedford’s Comprehensive Planwill take place from 9:30 am until 12:30 pm on Saturday, May 12 in the Multi-Purpose Room at Town Hall on Mudge Way.  This workshop will consider natural resources, energy and open space; cultural and historic resources; and services, facilities and recreation.

According to the Planning Board website, the Comprehensive Plan is “both a broad vision and a more detailed blueprint to guide growth and development, capital investment and other public policy needs in the local community.” Bedford is in the midst of doing a complete update of its 2002 Plan. The final public workshop will take place in September.

Registration will begin at 9 am and refreshments will be served. To sign up or get more information, call the Planning Department at (781) 275-1548 or e-mail Cathy Silvestrone at csilvestrone@bedfordma.gov.

Art-Link – K-12 Art Exhibition opens on Friday, May 4

Bedford’s 18th annual K-12 art show will open on Friday May 4 and continue through Sunday May 6, featuring work from every student in each of Bedford Public Schools on display a the Bedford High School on Mudge Way. The opening reception will take place from 6 to 9 pm on Friday, May 4; the show will also be open from 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday, May 5 and from 11 am to 3 pm on Sunday, May 6.

The show is sponsored by Art-Link in conjunction with the Bedford Public Schools Art Department. Art-Link is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the visual arts in our public schools.

Want to get involved? Volunteers are needed for setting up and taking down artwork; baking treats and greeting visitors. If you have the desire to help out with any of these tasks, please contact Judy Turner, judy.mt27@yahoo.com or 781-275-8834. No previous experience is required. Please support this wonderful community event!

The Art of the Garden

A plot of your own: Need a nice sunny spot to play in the dirt and grow some vegetables? Garden plotsare available at the Jordan Community Gardens on Hartwell Road. Gardeners do not have to be Bedford residents. Applicants can go to Town Hall, first floor, to see which plots are available or call 781-275-6211.

Just in time for Mother’s Day, the Bedford Garden Club’s annual sale of geraniums, perennials and cut flower arrangements will take place along The Great Road, in front of the DPW building, from 10 am until 3 pm on Saturday, May 12.

The 59^th Annual First Parish Plant & Craft Fair (http://www.plantfair.wordpress.com/) will take place from 10 am until 3 pm on Saturday, May 19. (Snow date: Sunday, May 20, starting at noon.) To entertain eager plant-lovers waiting for the opening bell, Bob Tyler will start playing his saxophone around 9:30 am. There will be heritage perennials from members’ gardens; locally-grown annuals and perennials; a grocery garden with veggie 6-paks, tomato plants and herbs; plus specialty annuals and shrubs. More than fifty crafters, with offerings to delight young and old, will bring their wares to the fair (http://plantfair.wordpress.com/crafts/crafters). And there will be food and family fun: a traditional cook-out lunch, this year including vegetarian specialties; an outstanding bake sale; live music by the Yankee Doodle Dixieland Band from Harvard, MA; and Chip-In Farm’s 4-H kids and their animals in the petting zoo.

St. Paul’s church is collecting seed packets to send to Haiti until May 20. All non-hybrid seed varieties are welcomed.    The packets are delivered to an elementary school where students use them to grow vegetables and herbs for educational, economic and nutritional purposes. This is the congregation’s second year gathering seeds, and everyone in the Bedford community is invited to participate. If you would like to drop off seed packets, there is a collection bin in the front lobby of St. Paul’s during regular parish hours, Tuesday through Friday from 9 am to 1 pm. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is located at 100 Pine Hill Road.

And on June 1 and 2, visitors are invited to participate in the Concord Museum’s 2012 Garden Tour. Reservations are available for museum members at $26 and non-members at $32 until May 25. For more information, visit www.concordmuseum.org.

In the Bedford Library Gallery: Solitude

Solitude, the current exhibit in the library’s Atrium Gallery, runs through May 7. The exhibit features paintings by Sus Iserbyt and photography by Nick Johnson. The gallery is open during regular library hours.

A new exhibit featuring acrylic paintings and multi-media work by Janet Albert will be installed on May 7 and run through early July, with an artist’s reception from 5 to 6 pm on Sunday, May 20.

The library’s atrium gallery is open during regular library hours (http://www.bedfordlibrary.net/).

And don’t forget these events:

The Destiny Africa Children’s Choir from the Kampala Children’s Centre in Wakiso, Uganda, will perform at First Parish on the Common in Bedford at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, May 15.  Violin students from the Crescendo Suzuki Studio of Bedford will join the choir in performing a portion of the program that will be prepared at a workshop earlier that afternoon.  This cross-cultural exchange will give children from dramatically different cultural and musical backgrounds an unusual opportunity to meet and make music together. Admission is free with a goodwill offering to benefit the Kampala Children’s Centre.  For additional information, please call Carlough Faulkner-Carroll at 781-271-0167. First Parish is located at 75 The Great Road (Rtes 4/225, exit 31B from Rtes 95/128); the building is fully accessible.

There will be a family Pajama Party–yes, come in your pajamas–in the gym at Davis School from 5:30 to 6:30 pm on Friday, May 4. Individual parents are invited to bring their children who are either between 3 and 5 years old or currently attending Davis School (age appropriate siblings are welcome). There will be milk and cookies while Davis kindergarten teacher Sara Buttrick, Bedford children’s librarian Sharon McDonald and Bedford’s police chief Robert Bongiorno read to the children aloud. Presale tickets are $15 per family ($20 at the door) and are available in the office at Davis School, at the Integrated Pre-School, or at the Recreation Department. Checks should be made payable to the Bedford Education Foundation with Play Zone on the memo line. Tickets are also available online at www.bedfordrecreation.org. Proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to the outdoor classroom and Play Zone at Bedford High School planned for the LABB, CASE and Integrated Preschool students in honor of Judith Mirel who is retiring this year after 35 years as Bedford’s Early Childhood Coordinator and Kindergarten screening administrator.

The Cookbook Book Club presents the Gluten Free Diva In The Kitchen at 7 pm on Tuesday, May 1, in the meeting room at the library. Whether you eat gluten-free or know someone who does, ELLEN ALLARD, the Gluten Free Diva, will delight with her gluten-free recipes. Ellen is a recipe developer, food writer, and food photographer. The speaker is funded by the Friends of the Bedford Free Public Library and the event is free and open to the public. To learn more about Ellen Allard visit www.glutenfreediva.com/.

Middlesex Community College’s spring concert series, A World of Music, concludes with pianist Naho Bessho performing works by Weber, Mendelssohn, Liszt and Chopin at 3 pm on Sunday, May 6. The concert will take place in the MCC Concert Hall (Building 6) on the Bedford campus, 591 Springs Road. The concert is free and open to the public. For information, call 781-280-3923 or email peraltac@middlesex.mass.edu.

From Playful Puritans to Football Patriots: Die-hard Boston sports fan Christopher Klein has attended sporting events around the globe, from Australian football to Japanese sumo wrestling. His book, The Die-Hard Sports Fan’s Guide to Boston will be the basis for his talk about Boston sports history at the Bedford Historical Society’s annual meeting in Fellowship Hall at 7:30 pm in the First Church of Christ, Congregational, 25 The Great Road. Klein’s entertaining presentation will highlight the Society’s final program meeting of the year, which will also include the Annual Meeting to elect new Society officers and members of the Board of Directors.

Bedford’s classical Indian dance teacher Jayshree Bala Rajamani will celebrate the silver jubilee of her Bharathakalai School of Dance with a concert, Carrying Forth Tradition, featuring Nritya Rekha and Rajamani’s current students, at Keefe Technical High School, 750 Winter Street in Framingham, at 3 pm on Sunday, May 27. Tickets are $25 per person and include a vegetarian meal catered by Meena’s Kitchen. Tickets are available online at http://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/cal.php?stage=1&event_id=9149. For additional information, email jayshree.rajamani@gmail.com.

Concord Art Walk

On May 19 the Concord Art Walk–held at galleries in Concord center, at Emerson Umbrella, in West Concord and in the Depot area–will feature art displays, performances, and children’s activities, as well as several CAA Paint The Town artists working at their easels at various sites around town.

Concord Art Association will hold an art book sale from 10 am to 3 pm on May 19, in conjunction with Art Walk. Deliver your book donations by May 10 to the Concord Art Association on Lexington Road in Concord.

Celebrate Orchard House’s 100 years with the Concord Art Association and Little Women

In conjunction with Orchard House’s centennial celebration, Concord Art Association is co-sponsoring Images Of Orchard House. All artists are invited to stop by the Concord Art Association to receive a piece of an original shingle from the house and then to utilize it to create an inspired piece of original artwork. You can paint on it, use it as a part of a sculptural piece, wrap it, draw with it or on it–whatever inspires you– to reflect Orchard House and the Alcott family. Drop off your completed piece by May 21, along with an Images of Orchard House form (available at Concord Art Association). Some of the completed pieces will be exhibited at Orchard House during their centennial celebration on Memorial Day weekend, and some will be exhibited at Concord Art Association. All pieces can be picked up by the artists the week of June 4 during normal gallery hours. For more information, call Lili Ott at 978-369-2578.

The 8^th decennial production of Little Women, directed by Kate Clarke, runs through May 13, with a final matinee on Mother’s Day afternoon. The performances will benefit Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House in conjunction with its 100^th anniversary celebration. For tickets and information, please visit concordplayers.org or call 978-369-2990.

Fundraisers at Emerson Umbrella and Concord Art Association

Artrageous, an evening of artistic immersion to benefit Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts, will take place from 6:30 pm until 10:30 pm on Saturday, May 12. The party will include both silent and live auctions and comedian Jimmy Tingle. To learn more, visit www.emersonumbrella.org/.

The 14th annual fundraising auction for the Concord Art Association, Paint the Town, will begin with a silent auction at 6 pm on Saturday, May 19. A live auction featuring work by 36 local and regional artists will begin at 8:15 pm. To learn more, visit www.concordart.org.

In nearby galleries

An artists’ book exhibit, More than Words, features work by four Depot Square artists who sought to find ways to work together after the Depot Square gallery closed: Jeanne Borofsky, Joyce Collier Fearnside, Deborah Read and Jan Powell. In the gallery at the Groton Library, the show runs thru June 15. To learn more: www.gpl.org/events-and-activities/art-gallery.

Sculpture by David Crane and paintings by JJ Long are on display in their show Emergence, in the Loading Dock Gallery at Lowell’s Western Avenue Studios from May 2 through May 27. Their work celebrates the strength and mystery of form in dialogue with gravity, of potential realizing itself. An artists’ reception will take place from 5 to 7 pm on Saturday, May 5, at the close of Western Avenue Studios First Saturday Open Studios.

And don’t forget that deCordova offers reduced admission while the main gallery and café are closed through May 25 while the summer exhibit is being installed! Click here to for a peek at the new show.

At Lexington Arts and Crafts Society (LACS)

Seventh Biennial State of Clay Exhibition of Massachusetts Ceramics: Celebrate the diversity of ceramic art in Massachusetts, featuring 81 pieces of contemporary ceramics from 72 artists.  The exhibit will include award winning functional and sculptural pieces created using a broad range of ceramic materials and firing techniques.  Visitors are invited to cast a ballot for the Peoples’ Choice Award during the opening reception from 2 to 5 pm on Sunday, May 6, with a gallery talk by juror Doug Casebeer at 3 pm.

LACS’s Ceramics Guild presents Doug Casebeer–A Throwing and Hand-building Workshop, on Saturday, May 5 from 10 am to 5 pm. Tuition is $80 for non-member and $65 for members and State of Clay applicants. For additional information, or to register, call 781 862 9696 or visit www.LACSma.org.  Casebeer is the Artistic Director for Ceramics and Sculpture at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center as well as Chair of the Artist in Residency Program.

Shopping for just the right gift for Mother’s Day or a June wedding? Visit LACS’ 2012 Ceramics Guild May Pottery Sale on Friday, May 11, and Saturday, May 12, from 10 am to 6 pm each day. This annual event helps raise money for the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society so it can continue to provide the community with quality arts programming and classes.

The Lexington Arts and Crafts Society is located at 130 Waltham Street in Lexington; telephone 781-862-9696; at  www.LACSma.org on the web. Gallery Hours are Tuesday–Friday and Sunday, 12 noon to 4 pm, Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm.

Also in Lexington

Artists who live, work or are affiliated with the art community in Lexington will take part in the 4^th Annual Town-wide Lexington Open Studios Art and Fine Crafts from 11 am until 5 pm on Saturday, May 19, and Sunday, May 20.  More than 78 artists and art organizations will display, discuss, demonstrate and sell their creations in home studios; in a community space at 2027 Massachusetts Avenue; in the Munroe Center for the Arts at 1403 Massachusetts Avenue; and at LACS. For a map and studio locations visit www.lexingtonopenstudios.org/ During the event, maps will also be available at the Lexington Visitors Center and at the Open Studio sites.

There will be something for everyone during the second annual Revolutionary Revelry, May 1 through  May 31.  Each day will feature an activity that will make you want to linger in Lexington. The fun will begin with a Maypole dance at the May Day celebration, and continue with a Fife & Drum Parade, Tattoo & Muster; artists painting En Plein Air along the Minuteman Bikeway; the Citizens World Fair.  Many of the events are free. Check out the complete calendar of events, details and locations at www.tourlexington.us

Worth the road trip?

At sunset (8:05 pm) on May 21 you may want to be in Providence for Waterfire’s full basin lighting.

Rembrandt and Degas: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, on display at the Metropolitan Museum in New York through May 20. And don’t forget to visit the other Rembrandt, a self-portrait of him as a younger man, at the Frick while you’re in the city!the Frick while you’re in the city!

Last year the Bedford Cultural Council funded the following grants:  Art supplies for the Bedford Family Connection;  a concert in Bedford by a cappella groups from two New England colleges; Halsey Burgund’s Music for Journaling multi-media project; Reading for the Arts in the Bedford high school art department; last October’s Spooky Stories presentation at the Bedford Library; a performance of Peter and the Wolf at the Concord Children’s Center; a painting demonstration for the Bedford Arts and Crafts Society;  a video project, What’s Cooking Bedford, to record family recipes from various cultures;  the Winter Lights concert by the Acton Community Chorus; and field trip support for two classes at Shawsheen Tech.

The Cultural Council provides grant money for participants in the arts, sciences, education and humanities as the local affiliate of the Massachusetts Cultural Council.  Grant applications are due on October 15 each year, and applicants must either reside in Bedford or present a project that benefits a substantial number of Bedford residents.  Recipients are usually notified of the Cultural Council’s decision by the following January.

Current Cultural Council members are Kenneth Gordon, chair; Jane Franklin, Vice-Chair; Ginny Packer, Treasurer; Linda Connelly, Secretary; and Susan McCombs, Breena Daniell, Tim Gartland, Barbara Purchia, and Cheryl Blalock.

The series begins with a MayDay flower arranging workshop with Nancy Tripodi of Bedford Florist.

Future events include:

• Sing Hanson’s accordion book workshop from 1 to 3 pm on May 9
• Creating hors d’oeuvres at Asiana restaurant from 3 to 5 pm on May 14
• An early morning (7 am) walk in Wendell Smith’s garden on May 24

Click here to see details about each event and learn how to register.

If you’re interested in other kinds of classes, please e-mail info@bedfordarts.org and help us plan new offerings.