Discovering Local Art and Artists in Needham Open Studios
April 25, 2025
• Now in its 25th year, the annual showcase invites the public to discover art created within their own community.
More than 35 local artists will bring their art out and the outside world in for Needham Open Studios. Across 11 locations in town — from Gorse Mill Studios to Sunita Williams Elementary School and residents’ own homes — Needham artists will open their doors Saturday, May 3 and Sunday, May 4 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Several participating artists will also hold live demonstrations of their artistic process.
Selected residents at North Hill will display their art through the program, aided by a dozen volunteers from the retirement community, Artist-in-Residence Cheryl Clinton said. Their work will appear in the North Hill Gallery and its WellSpring Gallery on the campus.
North Hill displays art year-round, while its residents participate in a series of artistic ventures, from woodworking to ceramics to printmaking and more.
“The community here is such a rich resource of broad, unique life experience,” Clinton said of North Hill. “Needham Open Studios is a beautiful bridge to unite us.”
For Liron Inbar, inspiration strikes not in the studio, but out in the great outdoors. That’s also where he finds the subject and actual material for his art.
Inbar creates terrariums, capturing outside elements within their own contained ecosystem, which can sustain itself, theoretically, for many years, he said. “I really like the idea of having the forest inside your house,” he said.
Originally from Israel, Inbar moved to Needham almost two years ago, encountering an entirely different landscape, but one that fulfilled his terrarium dreams.
“Israel doesn’t really have moss. It has some kind of moss, but it’s very, very small and ugly if you compare it to the moss you have here,” Inbar said. “These days, my son always tells me, ‘Do some desert in the terrariums,’ and I say, ‘No, I had enough of it in Israel.’”
His never-ending search for materials now involves the larger Needham community, who text him when they moss in their gardens. “Everybody knows that I’m looking for moss,” he said.
The natural world, however, can be unforgiving. With any living thing, “there’s always a chance that something can go wrong,” Inbar said, so every terrarium is a learning opportunity. Mold is the bane of his existence.
“It’s not recommended to put wood, for example, or stuff like acorns and pine cones because they are so beautiful, but they can have a mold on them very fast,” he said. “So I try to prevent it.”
Inbar works in layers to create the most habitable climate for his foliage. He starts with a drainage layer, then adds a special layer to block out any bugs, followed by airy soil — which he himself creates — and then the plants and accessories, such as rocks and plastic animal figures.
Artist Hilary Hanson Bruel also works in layers, though her art takes place on a canvas.
Bruel specializes in encaustic painting, wherein she melts down pigment mixed with beeswax to produce a special liquid paint. Once it cools, the paint hardens onto its surface.
“The biggest difference is there’s something very sculptural to it, and it also lends itself to mixed media, so you can build up textures really quickly, you can carve into it, you can scrape it down,” Bruel said. “It does have this sculptural quality to it, a little like working with ceramics.”
She’ll demonstrate that process at Gorse Mill Studios, where she’ll set up her palette and showcase recent works-in-progress.
As a self-described “artistic kid” and painter throughout high school and college, Bruel returned to the art form about 10 years ago, this time in encaustic. She paints in “bands of color,” weaving different pigments and texture across straight lines. Many of her pieces are iterations of each other — leftover paint from one piece can be the start of something new.
“Starting with a blank canvas or a blank piece of wood, it can be a little daunting,” she said, “so as soon as there’s a mark on there, then I have something to react to, and then it starts to inform which colors I’m going to use and what the composition of the piece will be.”
Joining Bruel at Gorse Mill is resident mosaic artist Audrey Markoff Dunn, whose studio is filled with thousands of tile fragments, waiting to join together to create something new.
Collaboration underpins much of her mosaics and artistic vision — she brings her tiles to corporations, temples, schools and community groups for hands-on team-building. When many hands come together, joined by a commonality, the art takes on a new meaning.
“You empower other people to be part of the art. Even though I identify as the artist, and I do really feel it is my art, I can’t make it alone,” Dunn said. “When everyone else is involved with the process and with making it, they have ownership, they have pride, they have excitement, and they also have a really good time.”
Dunn rolls out polymer clay through a pasta machine, flattening it before it bakes in a toaster oven to harden. From there, she snaps tiles or cuts them for a more precise shape, bringing unique pieces together to create a mosaic.
Laid out in her studio last week was about half a Boston skyscraper, made out of mosaic tiles. It’s a piece she’s designing for the firm developing the building.
For her second year at Needham Open Studios, Dunn will have attendees create their own leaf — once she collects enough, maybe 300, she’ll create a tree out of them.
Dunn views mosaics as an approachable art form. Tiles may break, but they can still make something visually appealing.
“The world needs more art, always,” Dunn said. “And people making art and coming together through art, whether you do it for fun or professionally, there’s always a place for it.”
As he gears up for his first Needham Open Studios at the Sunita Williams Elementary School, Inbar recalled last year’s event, which he attended as an observer.
“I found the community very, very warm, and they opened the doors [for me],” Inbar said. “I spent time walking around in the previous Needham Open Studios and connecting with artists, and I always received a welcoming atmosphere.”
Locals who stop by aren’t expected to purchase any art, but rather to simply engage with the artists and learn what drives their passion, Bruel said.
“We just want to share our art with the community,” Bruel said. “So many of us who participate in Needham Open Studios live in Needham, so this is this really unique opportunity for us to be sharing our work with our friends and neighbors.”
Explore the 11 locations participating in Needham Open Studios below.
A video segment on Needham Open Studios also appeared on the Needham Channel News and is available here.
