This summer, in honor of ArtBeat 2025: FREEZE festival, the Somerville Arts Council and the Inside-Out gallery are keeping things cool, reflecting on all the wonderful talent Somerville has to offer. In this exhibit, Somerville Arts Council LCC Visuals Arts 2023 Fellowship winner, Cindy Weisbart (curator of the exhibit), has gathered a collection of work celebrating this year’s theme. The featured artists’ work demonstrates that “freeze” can be interpreted broadly: cold temperatures; freezing, pausing and slowing down; a freeze frame, or reflecting on the moment. On display through the summer.

Curator’s Statement
To pause, to hold for longer than a moment, to stick together, to protect, to preserve. And – to add a bit of cold!

In this ArtBeat exhibit, “FREEZE” is interpreted by Somerville artists – residents and art workers – in a myriad of ways. It is a subject, a season, a moment, a bracing notion, a suspension, a memory, a capture of a feeling. In the July heat, we are invited by these creators to “chill” for a minute. How lucky we are to have this reprieve!

The opportunity to curate the 2025 ArtBeat theme gallery has been a significant one for me. It mirrors the pause, reflection and layering required to compose a photograph. Narrative, setting, composition and connection require a freeze-and-thaw process to create a meaningful, interlocking, storytelling image. Considering how this process flows through the work of these wonderful artists has been inspiring, and a joy!
Thank you for celebrating the creative foundations of Somerville with us today. You have joined a community of residents willing to both freeze, and act!

Participating Artists
Annie Silverman, Bronwyn Teixeira, Cindy Weisbart, David Whitney, Debi Milligan, Emily Bhargava, Gary Duehr, JJ Gonson, Jonathan Donahue, Kerri Kemperman, Lee Kilpatrick, Martha Friend, Michael Robbins, Pauline Lim, Uma Mirani

This exhibit was conceived as part of a LCC Visual Art Community Benefit Project, supported through a fellowship grant from the Somerville Arts Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council

About the Inside-Out Gallery
The Inside-OUT Gallery is located in the CVS Window in Davis Square, a unique space that allows the public to view an eclectic array of works from artists and local organizations each month. The mission of the Somerville Arts Council is to cultivate and celebrate the creative expressions of the Somerville community. Through innovative collaborations and quality programming we work to make the arts an integral part of life reflective of our diverse city.