The Bristol Art Museum announces its participation in Blue Star Welcome Week, an initiative by Blue Star Families to support military families moving to new communities. From Sept. 27 to Oct. 5, Veterans and military families will receive free admission to the Museum as part of this nationwide effort to provide a warm welcome to servicepeople and their loved ones.

The Museum is open Thursday through Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.

As a Blue Star Museum, the Bristol Art Museum is committed to honoring those who serve our country and their families. This year, the Museum will continue its tradition of support for military families by offering a welcoming experience to Veterans and their families, helping them acclimate to their new community in a meaningful and uplifting way with free admission to the Museum. 

“Veterans, servicepeople and their families make tremendous sacrifices in service to our nation,”  said Lynn Moran, Museum board member. “It is our privilege to offer active duty personnel, their families and Veterans free access to the Museum. By opening our doors, we hope that the Museum can do its part to foster a sense of community and belonging as they explore their new or existing communities.”

Blue Star Welcome Week is an initiative that supports the estimated 600,000 military families who move to new communities each year. Through events and community messages, the program helps ensure that military families receive the welcome and support they need as they adapt to new surroundings. Museums like the Bristol Art Museum are well-positioned to make a positive impact, creating moments of connection in the community.”

The Bristol Art Museum invites all military families and veterans to visit during Blue Star Welcome Week to enjoy the Museum's exhibits and to experience the vibrant cultural offerings in the community.



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The Bristol Art Museum proudly presents In Her Own Image, a powerful new exhibition that invited women artists to challenge and reclaim how they are seen and represented. On view through August 30, the exhibition brings together works that explore identity, resistance, and liberation. This is a group of 14 artists working across media—from painting and photography to installation and digital works—each exploring themes of identity, self-perception, and autonomy through a female lens.

Among the contributions is an extraordinary floor installation by Iranian-born artist Maedeh Tafvizi, whose work bridges digital fabrication with results that are reminiscent of ancient forms of craft. Tafvizi’s piece Grief Resonance—a sprawling, 3D-printed clay “rug”— alluding to the visual language of traditional Persian textiles while invoking themes of displacement, cultural memory, and embodied presence. Viewers are invited to walk around the piece, encountering it not just as an object, but as an act of translation between personal history and public space.

The Museum’s board of directors and staff recognize the importance of supporting living artists like Tafvizi, whose voice and vision contribute to the diversity and urgency of contemporary art. Her presence in the United States—and in our cultural institutions—enriches public dialogue and artistic innovation at a moment when both are urgently needed.

Tafvizi, who earned her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design, spoke movingly at the exhibition’s opening reception about how to “belong” and about claiming space as a woman and an artist. Her creative approach—using cutting-edge technology to enliven traditional motifs—offers a timely and poetic response to questions of belonging, migration, and identity.
Serving as a compelling counterpoint is the work of Ruth Dealy, an established Rhode Island artist known for her raw, introspective self-portraits. Created over decades while navigating vision loss, Dealy’s paintings reveal a deep commitment to presence, vulnerability, and truth. Her work challenges idealized representations of women by confronting the viewer with unflinching honesty—each painting embedded with an intimate act of endurance, perception, and power. Where Tafvizi speaks to cultural exile and reconstruction, Dealy embodies the slow and fearless act of self-witnessing. Together, their works expand the exhibition’s invitation to see and be seen—on one’s own terms.

In Her Own Image features 14 artists working across media, from painting and photography to installation and digital works. Curated to amplify narratives often hidden or erased, the show fosters a space for visibility, solidarity, and creative agency. Participating artists include Anis Beigzadeh, Ruth Dealy, Cricket Fisher, Susan Freda, Leigh Craven, Soraya Lutes, Mercedes Nuñez, Allison Newsome, Magaly Ponce, Esther Solondz, Meredith Stern, Maedeh Tafvizi, Tina Tryforos, Shari Weschler.

The exhibition is on view through August 30. For more information, including a transcript of Maedeh Tafvizi’s opening remarks, click here.