Jamestown Arts Center

08/24/2026

The trailer is here. 🎬

MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival returns to JAC this fall, bringing ten finalist films from ten countries to the big screen. From animation and dark comedy to psychological thrillers and drama, this year’s films move between technology, migration, family, superstition, loneliness, and the strange uncertainties of starting over.

And you’re not just watching. Every audience member receives a ballot to vote for Best Film and Best Actor, with votes counted alongside audiences at more than 500 venues across six continents.

Four screenings at JAC:
- Friday, September 25 at 7 pm
- Saturday, September 26 at 7 pm
- Friday, October 2 at 7 pm
- Saturday, October 3 at 7 pm

Tickets are $10. Advance purchase is strongly recommended, as these screenings often sell out.

Watch the trailer, then get your tickets at the link in bio.

08/21/2026

New this fall at JAC: “Autumnal Arts”!

Make the most of the season with an eight-week class inspired by the colors, textures, and natural materials of autumn. Led by Erica Connolly, students will explore a new project each week, from leaf printing and cyanotypes to painted gourds, natural weaving, bark and seed collages, and more.

Open to artists of all experience levels, ages 13+ (younger artists are welcome with an adult), “Autumnal Arts” is a new opportunity to experiment, make, and find inspiration in the changing season.

📆Mondays, September 14–November 9
🕥4–6 pm
💲$320 ($288 for JAC Members)

Scholarships are available. Learn more and register at the link in bio.

08/20/2026

As summer begins to wind down, we’re looking back at a season of making, experimenting, learning, and growing together at Summer Arts Camp.

We’re especially grateful to the artists and instructors who brought so much care, imagination, and generosity into the studio each week, and to the young artists who met them there with curiosity of their own. The work may be packed away and the studios a little quieter now, but the energy of the summer lingers.

Here are just a few moments from a season we’ll miss, and already can’t wait to do all over again next year.

08/20/2026

A magical night in review at JAC 🎷

Last Friday, Randy Ingram (Randy Ingram), Rufus Reid (Sean Reid), and Joe LaBarbera (Joe La Barbera) joined us for “Sound Within: A Celebration of Bill Evans,” presented with Puddingstone (Puddingstone Music).

An intimate evening of jazz honoring Evans’s enduring influence, brought to life by three extraordinary musicians. Thank you to everyone who joined us.

08/18/2026

Time to get back in the studio!

Fall Classes are enrolling for all ages—ceramics, painting, printmaking, bookbinding, writing, game design, and more.

Join Erica Connolly for Autumnal Arts, Andre Lee Bassuet (Andre Lee Bassuet) for Intro to Bookbinding, Will Simons (Will Simons) for Introduction to Wheel Throwing, Jeanette Bradley (Jeanette Bradley) for Writing in Community, Burl Dawson (Burl Dawson) for Plein Air Painting, Rosemary Burns (Rosemary Burns) for Intermediate Handbuilt Sculpture, Priyanka Kumar (Priyanka Kumar) for Print Portfolio Exchange, Will Seitz (will.seitzz) for Intro to Game Design, Jon Baylor (Jon Baylor) for Introduction to Handbuilding, or Levi Barrington (Levi) for Clay Play!

Classes begin the week of September 14, and spaces are limited. If you’ve been thinking about signing up, now is the time.

Learn more and enroll at the link in bio.

08/06/2026

08/06/2026

Fall classes are now enrolling at JAC! 🍂

Explore something new this season with classes in handbuilding, wheel throwing, plein air painting, printmaking, bookbinding, creative writing, game design, and more for adults, teens, and children.

Spaces are limited. View the full schedule and register at the link in bio.

08/05/2026

What happens when two Fulbright scholars to Indonesia (Fulbright Association Fulbright Indonesia) sit down to talk about art, memory, and the places that shape us?

Join artist Adam de Boer (Adam de Boer) and JAC Executive Director Christine Cocca (Christine Cocca) for an intimate conversation inspired by de Boer’s work in “A Celebration of Trees.” Rather than a traditional artist lecture, this illustrated dialogue will explore the intersections of batik, landscape, memory, and cultural exchange.

Beginning with “Reconstruction Site No. 5,” de Boer will reflect on how the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires transformed his relationship to place, and how his ongoing work records both destruction and renewal. Together, de Boer and Cocca will discuss de Boer’s hybrid batik painting practice, the enduring influence of Indonesia on his work, and the ways artistic traditions evolve across cultures and generations.

The evening will feature projected images, behind-the-scenes views of de Boer’s process, and time for audience Q&A.

🗓 Wednesday, August 12
🕦 6:30–8 PM
💲 Pay-what-you-can
👤 RSVP encouraged

Learn more and RSVP at the link in bio.

08/03/2026

A look back at an extraordinary few days with Agus Ismoyo and Nia Fliam of Babaran Segaragunung (Babaran Segaragunung Culture House), whose visit to Rhode Island brought together conversation, close looking, and hands-on making.

At JAC, Ismoyo and Fliam shared more than four decades of collaborative practice through their artist talk, “Batik as Character, Cosmos, and Creation.” Over the following weekend, Nia led “Wax/Threads/Roots,” an immersive two-day workshop exploring batik through the cultural knowledge embedded within the practice.

Their visit also included a special trip to the RISD Museum with Holly Gaboriault (Holly Gaboriault), RISD Faculty Member and Kate Irvin (Kate Irvin), Curator and Department Head of Costume and Textiles. Together, they examined works from the museum’s batik collection and discussed the histories, techniques, and ideas that continue to shape Ismoyo and Fliam’s practice today.

We are grateful to Agus Ismoyo and Nia Fliam (Brahma Tirta Sari Batik Studio) for sharing their knowledge so generously, and to everyone who joined us in learning, making, and experiencing batik as a living practice of cultural transmission and creative transformation.

07/30/2026

A celebrated Vermeer. A master forger. One of the greatest scandals in art history.

On Wednesday, August 5, from 6 to 7:30 pm, join JAC for “Vermeer, Vermeer Forgeries, and the ‘Van Meegeren Affair,’” a talk with Dr. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., one of the foremost scholars of Dutch and Flemish painting.

In 1947, Han van Meegeren stood trial for selling what was believed to be a priceless Vermeer to the N***s. His defense was extraordinary: the painting was not a Vermeer at all, but a forgery he had created himself. The revelation stunned the public and forced the art-historical establishment to reconsider what it thought it knew about Vermeer’s work.

Wheelock, the former Curator of Northern Baroque Painting at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, will trace how the scandal transformed Vermeer scholarship. He will focus in particular on “Young Woman Seated at a Virginal,” pictured here, exploring its complex attribution history, recent conservation treatment, and place within ongoing debates surrounding the artist’s oeuvre.

This JAC Talk is pay-what-you-can, and advance RSVP is encouraged. Learn more and reserve your seat at the link in bio.

Image: Johannes Vermeer, “Young Woman Seated at a Virginal,” ca. 1670–75. The Leiden Collection.