Artists Association of Nantucket (AAN) is celebrating the 2026 Hale Juried Exhibition in the Cecelia Joyce & Seward Johnson Gallery with a reception at 5 pm on August 13 at 8 Federal Street. Through diverse approaches to subject, style, and medium, Eye of the Beholder exhibit invited AAN artists to ref lect on the many ways they interpret and transform the world around them.
“Our accomplished juror, Meredith Ward, reviewed submissions from AAN’s artist members and selected the final works to be exhibited,” explained AAN artistic director Bobby Frazier. Ward is a respected specialist in American art. Since founding Meredith Ward Fine Art in 2004, she has established her Manhattan gallery as a premier destination for important American paintings and works on paper, with a particular emphasis on American modernism and exceptional examples of 19th- and 20th-century art.
AAN’s artist members who were awarded prizes in Eye of the Beholder are Leyah Jensen who was awarded first place for her watercolor titled Nantucket Homeless; Donata Vita took second place for The Mind of the Water, mixed media; third place went to John Carruthers for his multi-color woodcut Chanticleer Horse. The Hale Award for Excellence went to Bettina Broer for Shape Shifting, oil & wax.
“I would like to thank Kaaren and Charles Hale for generously supporting the juried exhibition and the Hale Award for Excellence,” said Tracey Sears, AAN’s executive director. “We are most grateful for the opportunity they have provided.”
The 2026 Hale Juried Exhibition continues through August 18 in the Cecelia Joyce & Seward Johnson Gallery at 8 Federal Street. The gallery is open daily from 10 am to 5 pm. To learn more about the AAN, visit the website at nantucketarts.org or follow them on Instagram @ackartists.
