Live music, new exhibitions, storytelling, and movies under the stars
Beacon’s arts scene shifts into high gear this weekend. May’s Second Saturday offers an early glimpse of the season ahead—gallery openings starting to spill into the streets, live performances carrying on into the evenings, and the city finally beginning its slow, steady turn toward summer.
Here’s this weekend’s highlights. And remember, it’s also Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 10th, so explore our Beacon Guide To Mother’s Day if you’re still making plans or wondering where to begin.
Art Shows
Larrupin Opens At Distortion Society
- Where: Distortion Society (155 Main Street)
- When: Opening reception, Saturday, May 9th, 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
This May and June, Distortion Society presents Larrupin, a solo exhibition by installation artist Josué Morales Urbina. Born in Guatemala and now based in New York, his work centers on the experience of not fully belonging to either place. He describes this as transcultural displacement or dépaysement—a longing for home within a foreign environment.
In Larrupin, Morales Urbina works with materials ranging from the utilitarian to the organic to explore ideas of home, ephemerality, and connection through language, taste, and sensory experience. This touching and thought-provoking show is curated by Gallery Director, Michelle Silver.
The exhibition will run until Thursday, July 2nd, 2026.
Three New Shows At BAU Gallery
- Where: BAU Gallery (506 Main Street)
- When: Opening reception, Saturday, May 9th, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Join BAU Gallery for the reveal of its May shows on Saturday evening. Peruse the latest exhibits over a glass of wine and good local company. Karen Allen’s show Surprise Garden takes viewers on a search for undiscovered meanings and stories, one that mirrors the artist’s own. Using paint, paper, fabric, and repurposed items, Allen creates a journey into a personal and idiosyncratic “garden” of painting.
Photography lovers will enjoy Soli Pierce’s new exhibition, Stillness Speaks, which brings together long-exposure photography, encaustic painting—a technique using heated beeswax mixed with color pigments and dammar resin—and sculpture in a meditation on light, time, and presence. Across these practices, Pierce seeks a “still point”—an anchoring force within an often-fractured world.
Finally, there’s the BAU Invitational, where each member of the gallery has selected an artist whose work they admire to participate in a vibrant exhibition that spans painting, sculpture, photography, and works on paper. The resulting exhibition features a broadly diverse set of 14 contemporary artists, most of whom have never exhibited at BAU Gallery.
Here you’ll find the invited artists: Julia Arstorp, Gülnar Babayeva, Paola Bari, Carol Bouyoucos, Elvira Clayton, Denise DeVore, Kristin Flynn, Meg Hitchcock, Bibiana Huang Matheis, Qiana Mestrich, Anette Millington, Allyson, Montana, Thomas (T-Bone) Muniz, and Samantha Palmeri.
The show runs until Sunday, June 7th.
A New Show Opens At Super Secret Projects
- When: Saturday, May 9th, 4 PM to 7 PM
- Where: Super Secret Projects, (484 Main Street) (At the back of Hyperbole)
A new solo show called On Building A Body by Marin Kenny opens this weekend at Super Secret Projects, and will be on view until Saturday, June 6th.
Private Tour Of Robert Irwin’s Beacon Project at Dia Beacon
- Where: Dia Beacon (3 Beekman Street) (Members only)
- When: Saturday, May 9th, 11 AM to 1:00 PM
One of the many reasons to love Dia Beacon is that the building itself is a spectacular work of art. This weekend, members can learn more about the museum, as well as discovering more about its quirkiest exhibit found in its beautifully landscaped West Garden.
There will be a guided exploration of Robert Irwin’s famous Beacon Project—Irwin is responsible for transforming Beacon’s long-derelict Nabisco box-printing factory into the world-renowned museum it is today. The tour also includes Louis Lawler’s Birdcalls—a wonderfully eccentric project in which Lawler recites a series of high-pitched sounds you could mistake for birdcalls derived from the names of famous male artists, all of whom came to prominence in the 1960s.
The First Outdoor Movie Of The Year
- Where: Bannerman Island, pick up the Estuary Steward from Red Flynn Drive
- When: Friday, May 8th
Take a glorious Hudson Highlands sunset cruise to Bannerman Island and stay for Stephen Spielberg’s 1989 classic adventure film, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade. Get tickets here.
A Solo Show Courtesy Of The Artichoke
- Where: Howland Cultural Center (477 Main Street)
- When: Saturday, May 9th, 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Maggie Crane’s Side by Side is part solo show, part stand-up special about her relationship with her older brother Aiden. Aiden was blind, in a wheelchair, and developmentally disabled. But this never stopped the wild jealousy, intense sibling rivalry, and unique bond between the two siblings. This darkly funny story, set during the early 2000s in Western Massachusetts, is Crane’s autobiographical account of growing up amid disability, death, and Dunkin Donuts. Hosted by Jamie Mulligan. Get tickets here.
Velvet Confessional: An Intimate Vaudeville
- Where: Savage Wonder Arts Center (139 Main Street)
- When: Every Saturday in May, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
As always, you never quite know what to expect from our friends at Savage Wonder—apart from knowing it’s going to captivate.
Velvet Confessional: An Intimate Vaudeville consists of a music comedy circus with a series of 10-minute plays. Imagine an atmospheric midnight cabaret with five veteran authored comedies that emerge from the shadows and dissolve back into them, sharing the space, performers, and confession. In true Savage Wonder style, there will be late night bites and craft cocktails created by The Grape Rebellion included. Get tickets here.
Rebel Yell By Ted Swindley
- Where: Savage Wonder Arts Center (139 Main Street)
- When: Sunday, May 10th at 6:00 PM
This powerful drama written by Ted Swindley (author of Always…Patsy Cline) tells a shocking story about racism in the Jim Crow South. Set against the backdrop of a Civil War Confederate Veterans Home in 1920, A white supremacist, confederate veteran Grandfather and his anti-racist son battle for the conscience of their grandson, forcing the young man to choose sides between the two most important men in his life, unaware that his choice in this heated debate will result in devastating results. Catch this one-night performance in The Parlor at Savage Wonder. Get tickets here.
Live Music
88 Stories From Jeremy Schonfeld
- Where: Howland Cultural Center (477 Main Street)
- When: Friday, May 8th, 8:00 PM
Writer and musician, Jeremy Schonfeld’s one man show, 88 Stories, is part song and part storytelling—a concert experience that reveals the personal stories that have inspired and shaped his life and art. Get tickets here.
Black Coffee Blues
- Where: Dennings Point Distillery (10 North Chestnut Street)
- When: Saturday, May 9th, 7:00 PM
Enjoy some uplifting blues and rock with Dimitri Archip’s Black Coffee Blues Band, who return to Dennings Point Distillery for their monthly Second Saturday residency.
An Electronic Miasma
- Where: The Yard (4 Hanna Lane)
- When: Saturday, May 9th, 7:00 PM
The Lab at The Yard raises money through its Karaoke For A Cause sessions so they can support live music events in which the performers and staff get fairly paid. This month’s offering, featuring Ohio’s Slugg, Zed Star Seven, and a DJ set from MMKay Beats The night, is described as an electronic miasma of experimentation, punk, and dance music. Get tickets here.
That’s certainly not all. There’s plenty more to explore in our Events Guide for this weekend and beyond. You’ll also find more in our Events Hub on WhatsApp. For more of the month’s highlights, read our recent May In Beacon feature.
Plus, explore our Directories for everywhere in Beacon to shop, eat and drink, and more.
Until next time…
The Beacon Beacon🧡