THE BARN DOOR GALLERY
AT 33 HAWLEY
Stewarded by the Northampton Center for the Arts (NCFA), the Barn Door Gallery supports our mission to foster community connections through the arts, and is a dedicated venue for evolving, transformative dialogue between artists and audiences.
OPEN HOURS:
12 pm - 7 pm - Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday
Closed - Sunday, Monday & Tuesday
The Barn Door Gallery is ADA compliant and admission is free.
Additional information can be found on our FAQ document.
THE SPLIT LEVEL GALLERY AT 33 HAWLEY
Stewarded by the Northampton Center for the Arts (NCFA) and A.P.E . (Available Potential Enterprises, Ltd.) the curation of this gallery is shared by both building partner organizations and supports our mission to foster collaboration and community connections through the arts.
Current Exhibits:
July Barn Door Gallery 2026
Ghostlight
Jay Rathaus
July 2 - July 29
Opening Reception on Arts Night Out
A theater “ghost light” —the single bare bulb left glowing on an empty stage- symbolizes loneliness and isolation as it exists in a space meant for people, emotion, and connection. It stands alone in silence waiting, a protection against darkness and a talisman of hope in isolation.
Loneliness is usually framed as absence, being unseen or misunderstood, but loneliness also sharpens awareness and clears a space for inner observation and an appreciation of the subtleties of existence. The sublime is that strange sense of beauty that both terrifies and elevates. Alone on a cliff looking at the endless moonlit sea, we feel both insignificant and connected to something immense. Our smallness in terms of time or nature or truth is evident, but there is also a sense of belonging. Grandeur can make separateness feel sacred and the self becomes a threshold of endless possibilities.
The light boxes in my Ghost Light series create a sense of the sublime in miniature and are coupled usually with a lone individual in a cryptic narrative; these pieces strive to explore themes of isolation and connection.
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Jay (he/him) was born in London and raised in New York City, and grew up surrounded by a rich mix of cultures shaped through extensive travel with his family. These early experiences instilled in me a lasting fascination with landscape, atmosphere, and the emotional resonance of place—elements that continue to inform my work today.
I studied painting and sculpture at Bennington College before earning an MFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. My career has moved fluidly between fine art, exhibition design, work in film and teaching, allowing me to explore visual storytelling across multiple disciplines. From museum installations and science and nature center exhibitions to detailed set design work, I have developed an approach grounded in narrative, space, and sensory experience.
My paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in galleries throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Western Massachusetts. I was also awarded a Northampton Arts Council grant for work exhibited at A.P.E. Gallery in Northampton.
My ongoing Ghost Light series consists of illuminated light boxes containing intricately cut white paper landscapes. These works explore solitude, distance, memory, and the fragile emotional terrain of contemporary life. Using light, shadow, and layered forms, I create quiet spaces that invite contemplation and introspection while acknowledging the uncertainty and vulnerability of existing alone in an unpredictable world.
The landscapes exist somewhere between memory and dream—simultaneously comforting and unsettling. Through them, I hope to evoke both the sublime beauty of isolation and the deep human desire for connection.
August Barn Door Gallery 2026
Emerging Artist Showcase
Local emerging artists
August 5 - August 22
Opening Reception on Arts Night Out
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Elena (she/her) bio coming soon.
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Kira (she/her) bio coming soon.
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(he/him)
I have spent most of my adult life as an educator creating and teaching in successful public high schools for students who were previously disengaged from school. Much of this successful work that engaged the students and allowed them to graduate was through interdisciplinary programs that connected students creating art, music, and theater pieces to the science, technology, social studies and language arts classes.
One of the ways that I re-engaged those students with learning and themselves was to teach them to express themselves through black and white photography and to take pride in making fine art darkroom prints. All of these hundreds of students had dropped out of other high schools, but once in our school and program 84% graduated. Over half of them exhibited their photographs in shows in New York City. I spent my time in photography with them; more important than me exhibiting.
At the same time I tried to fit in my own photography creations, as well as writing and performing music. Needless to say, there was very little space to do this, but I kept a working black and white darkroom at home and practiced my craft as much as possible. Whenever I could I studied. I studied briefly with John Sexton, who printed for Ansel Adams. I also learned multiple enlarger techniques and manipulation from Jerry Uelsmann. I worked as a media tech for the
Maine Photographic Workshops for 3 months. I then worked as a university professor for another 24 years training new teachers and working collaboratively with teachers and administrators across the country on how to implement this interdisciplinary, inquiry-based STEAM approach, along with publishing books on how to do it.
When I retired I began in earnest working passionately with other local progressives on social justice work in Greenfield. Friends and family who saw my photographs in the Recorder or at my home suggested that I should put a show together. Last year I sat down and seriously looked at the thousands of images I had produced over the years seeking a theme or focus to my photography. What emerged is something I always knew was a thought when taking photographs, but never until then realized how central it was to my work. It is CLOUDS.
Since then I have had a local show in the library and sold a few photographs, but have just begun to take myself seriously as an artist. I have spent countless hours taking new photographs and reutilizing older images, all in black and white as this allows the viewer to focus on the the amazing range of texture, contrast, motion, form, emotions, and ratios of size perspectives rather than the often distracting blasts of eye-catching color. It is a most humbling and learning experience for me to live within the process of artistic creation, and to lessen the importance of the final product.
The creation of the work is me and my interaction with existence, and I hope to be able to share that vision with others.
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Saleem (he/him) bio coming soon.