On one Saturday in most months, from noon to 4 p.m., the studios at the Farmington Valley Arts Center open along the boardwalk at 25 Arts Center Lane in Avon Park North. Inside you'll find painters, illustrators, potters, jewelers, photographers, fiber artists, a filmmaker and a furniture craftsman at work. This fall the Open Studios fall on October 3 and November 7. On Friday, November 20, the center holds its 50th Candlelight Holiday Stroll. After that come three straight Saturdays of holiday Open Studios in December.
Taken together, those dates set the order of Avon's season. Most months get one Saturday afternoon, then one evening in late November starts the holidays, and December turns into a run of weekends. A household that has these dates on the fridge already knows most of the town's calendar between now and New Year's.
October 3 Is the Busiest Day on the Calendar
The first of these Saturdays is also the most crowded day of the fall, because several separate Avon calendars all land on it.
| Time on Saturday, October 3 | What's happening | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 9 to 11 a.m. | Avon Land Trust fall-foliage group hike | People's State Forest |
| 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. | Garden Club of Avon "Free Plants for Your House & Garden" | Avon Free Public Library |
| Noon to 4 p.m. | First Saturday Open Studios | Farmington Valley Arts Center |
| 2 to 4 p.m. | Opening reception for "Illustrated" | Fisher Gift Gallery at FVAC |
| All weekend | Avon Lions Carnival, October 2 to 4 | Town of Avon |
The Garden Club's giveaway opens the day before, Friday, October 2, from 1 to 5 p.m. It includes plants, containers, dried hydrangeas, seeds and vases. On the same Friday from 2 to 3 p.m., Avon Free Public Library at 281 Country Club Road hosts author Andrea Penrose for "Murder on Threadneedle Street." If you start Friday afternoon at the library, you can still be at the arts center by Saturday noon without missing much of either weekend.
The second Land Trust date comes two weeks later. "Hike to the TOOT!" leaves from the Nod Way Trailhead at 11 a.m. on Saturday, October 17. That gives October two outdoor mornings, and the first one lands on the same day the studios open.
Who Is Behind the Studio Doors
The Open Studios are worth repeating from month to month because the studios are working spaces with resident artists. FVAC has been a nonprofit since 1974. It works out of the red-sandstone buildings of the former Climax Fuse Factory. Avon's planning records tie the land under Avon Park North to Ensign Bickford Realty. A 2011 town record notes that FVAC owned its two buildings and leased the ground beneath them.
FVAC's current roster lists 24 studio artists by name. Among them are Erika Novak of Round Trip Clayworks, Drew Darley Ceramics, Maurice Casas, Kim Burris, Sue Nooney of All That Sparkles, Glenn Affleck, Natalya Reymont, Anatoly Loshmanov, and Rebekah Church, the current Artist in Residence. CTvisit's listing gives slightly different counts, 25 artists in 20 studios. It also lists admission as free.
What that means in practice is that you can come back in November and find the same people at the same benches, with different work on the shelves. The Open Studios run monthly, so you can see a piece take shape over a season.
"Illustrated" Connects the Gallery to the Classroom
The Fisher Gift Gallery is the center's year-round shop. Its fall exhibition, "Illustrated," features eight Connecticut illustrators: Jo Lynn Alcorn, Amy Casazza, Christy Corey, Kim Burris, Kristy Lankford, Tao LaBossiere, Julie Phillipps and Deborah Velasquez. The opening reception is Saturday, October 3, from 2 to 4 p.m. The gallery hasn't posted a closing date, so check before you plan a visit around it late in the season.
Two of the people on that wall also work in the building. Kim Burris is on the studio roster. Jo Lynn Alcorn teaches two of the fall's hands-on sessions:
- Rustic Lantern: Paper Engineering, Friday, October 16, $60 with materials included
- Paper Botanicals: Poppies, Lavender & Ferns, a masterclass on Sunday, November 1, $180 registration plus $30 for materials
The longer courses are already in session. Maurice Casas, also a studio artist, teaches Outdoor Sketching on Thursdays through October 22, at $180 for six weeks. Paul Iezzi's Figure Drawing with Live Model meets Wednesdays through November 18, at $510 including the model fee. Carolann Dvorak-Brewer's Beginner Watercolor runs on the same September 16 to November 18 schedule for $290.
All of this means the illustrators you meet at the October 3 reception are the same people teaching paper lanterns two weeks later and paper botanicals on the first of November.
A Renovated Building for a 50th Candlelight
FVAC is calling 2026 a year of "new faces and spaces." Board President Helen Thomas and Executive Director Carol Kaplan say that means several new artists, instructors and exhibitors, along with studio renovations and expansions and upgrades to all of the restrooms. They describe this work as preparation for hundreds of visitors at the monthly Open Studios and at the 50th Candlelight Holiday Stroll.
Candlelight runs Friday, November 20, from 5 to 8 p.m. The center describes an illuminated boardwalk along the two-story brownstone, complimentary refreshments, and studios and galleries filled with gifts and fine art. Visitors can meet the artists who made the pieces. The work on offer covers paintings, prints, photography, film, textiles, sculpture, jewelry, ceramics and fine-art illustration. The Fisher Gift Gallery adds wearable art, wood and metalwork, and glass.
This year's Candlelight also falls 13 days after the Simsbury Farms ice rink, just over the town line, opens for its season on November 7. That's the same Saturday as November's Open Studios.
December Speeds Up
After Candlelight, the center's schedule switches from monthly to weekly. Here is the December order:
- Saturday, December 5, Holiday Season Open Studios, noon to 4 p.m.
- Sunday, December 6, extended Fisher Gift Gallery hours, noon to 4 p.m.
- Saturday, December 12, Holiday Season Open Studios, noon to 4 p.m.
- Sunday, December 13, extended gallery hours, noon to 4 p.m.
- Saturday, December 19, Holiday Season Open Studios, noon to 4 p.m.
- Sunday, December 20, extended gallery hours, noon to 4 p.m.
On weekdays the gallery keeps its regular hours, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. It closes on Thanksgiving Day and from Christmas through New Year's Day. If you buy gifts there, the last weekend falls on December 19 and 20. The gallery also sells online through the Fisher Gift Gallery website.
Dinner After Is on Route 44 This Year
The new option for after a gallery afternoon is Max Burger at 70 East Main Street. Max Hospitality held a grand opening party there on September 10 and opened to the public on Tuesday, September 15. James Stone, a managing partner, runs the Avon location.
Longtime residents know the address. Until last year it was the longtime home of Max a Mia Ristorante, which has since moved to 380 West Main Street. That's in Avon Marketplace, the Route 44 center whose tenants also include Starbucks, Ulta Beauty, New Balance and Playa Bowls. So the restaurant group now has two Avon dining rooms on Route 44. One is the familiar Italian restaurant at a new address, and the other is a burger bar at the old one. Max Burger's Avon page has an online pickup menu.
For Candlelight on November 20, a night that ends at 8 p.m., either one works for dinner a few minutes from Avon Park North.
Here at Laurie Kane Real Estate, we pay attention to which brownstone studios are drawing a crowd and which Route 44 addresses have new tenants, because that kind of local detail shapes how a home here gets presented. If Candlelight has you thinking about your own house's holiday look, or about what it might be worth this winter, request your complimentary CMA & staging consultation and we'll walk the rooms with you.
