EXHIBITION: ARTS & CRAFTS INSPIRED BY THE 1774 NORTH LEVERETT SAWMILL

Mixed Media Art Show Opens at the Leverett Library

NORTH LEVERETT (September 8, 2025) — An exhibit of artwork inspired by the North Leverett Sawmill and its environs will be on display at the Leverett Library throughout September and October. A public reception, hosted by Friends of the North Leverett Sawmill, the nonprofit behind the show, will be held at the library from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. on September 13. 

The exhibition, titled Art & Crafts Inspired by the 1774 North Leverett Sawmill, will feature the work of dozens of professional and aspiring artists, including some Pioneer Valley favorites. Paintings, etchings, photographs, and sculpture will be on view, along with fabric art, collage, sketchbook drawings, and digital art. Historic works in the show include a 1935 etching of the mill by Frank Waugh, a 1947 oil painting by Stephen George Maniatty, and sculptures by Lloyd Kirley, the mill’s last private owner.

“This historic mill, its working components, and environs have inspired so many artists,” said Cynthia Baldwin, who co-curated the show with Steven Stroud and serves as board secretary for Friends of the North Leverett Sawmill. “It is interesting to see that the sawmill has been an inspiration for nearly a century, as exemplified by the 1930s etchings of Frank Waugh, the founder of the University of Massachusetts school of landscape architecture.”

Many of the exhibit’s works were displayed inside the sawmill in June, as part of a one-day launch event for the adjacent heritage park and nature trail. Developed in partnership with the Town of Leverett and encompassing 4.6 acres of land along the Sawmill River, the park represents the first phase of the nonprofit’s larger effort to preserve and document the region’s early industrial heritage and make the site publicly accessible for recreational and leisure activities. The group has received grants to rehabilitate the historic sawmill for adaptive reuse as a museum and community space from the National Park Service, Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund, Town of Leverett, and Greenfield Cooperative Bank. Once completed, exhibits and programming will focus on industrial New England from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. 

To learn more about the sawmill project or make a donation, visit leverettsawmill.org.

WHAT: Opening Reception, Art & Crafts Inspired by the 1774 North Leverett Sawmill 

WHEN: September 13, 2025, from 12:30-1:30 p.m.  

WHERE: Leverett Library, 75 Montague Road, Leverett, MA