Summer 2026
Tessa Greene O’Brien and Jana Benitez painting at the Backshore Beach, Castine. 2024
Updates at Annex Arts:
Due to building renovations, we have a reduced slate of residencies and events this season. Renovations will allow us to offer more artist housing and more studios than before.
We are experimenting with new ways of using spaces, including new first-floor studios. This allows artists to rotate studios during residencies.
Open Door Policy to past Annex Fellows: When space and time allow, we welcome fellows of Annex Arts to return and utilize the space.
This summer offers a few Open Studios. Watch this space or follow us on Instagram and Facebook for updates and reminders.
NEW ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE
July 21 - August 1: Hilary Irons
Hilary Irons, Vesper Sparrow’s Nest; Acrylic, marble dust, and mica on muslin over panel, 18x18”, 2026
Photo: Luc Demers
RESIDENCY:
Hilary Irons will spend time at Annex Arts and exploring our region, devoting time and contemplation to her new body of work.
Bio:
Hilary Irons is a Maine-based painter and curator. Hilary received an MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2008 and a BFA from Parsons School of Design in 2002, and she has attended residencies at the Albers Foundation, Skowhegan, MacDowell, the American Academy in Rome, the Pace House, Hewnoaks, Canterbury Shaker Village, and the Surf Point Foundation. She has written for The Chart, Art New England, Boston Art Review, and other publications. She is gallery and exhibitions director at the University of New England.
Her work revolves around opticality, the landscape, and material culture, exploring the ways in which our reading of space and object are impacted by color, mark, and light.
Hilary Irons shows at Morgan Lehman Gallery (https://www.morganlehmangallery.com/) in New York
Events:
Open Studio - Tuesday, July 28, 10-12 am
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Hilary Irons is a Maine-based painter and curator.
Hilary received an MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2008 and a BFA from Parsons School of Design in 2002, and she has attended residencies at the Albers Foundation, Skowhegan, MacDowell, the American Academy in Rome, the Pace House, Hewnoaks, Canterbury Shaker Village, and the Surf Point Foundation. She has written for The Chart, Art New England, Boston Art Review, and other publications. She is gallery and exhibitions director at the University of New England.
Her work revolves around opticality, the landscape, and material culture, exploring the ways in which our reading of space and object are impacted by color, mark, and light.
Hilary Irons shows at Morgan Lehman Gallery (https://www.morganlehmangallery.com/) in New York
Articles & Interviews
RETURNING ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE
July 8-21, 2026: Sara MacCulloch & Mara Korkola
RESIDENCY:
Returning Annex Arts Fellows from Les Canadiennes (2023), Sara MacCulloch and Mara Korkola from Toronto and Nova Scotia, will be in residence together. They will be painting en plein air around the peninsula and also working in their studios.
EVENTS:
Open Studio: Tuesday, July 14, 10-12 am
Closing/Opening Reception: Tuesday, July 21, 5-7pm, in conjunction with the exhibition Outdoors Indoors and opening reception at gallery b.
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Sara MacCulloch is a Toronto-based Canadian painter who is well known for her sublime landscapes and interiors which capture the feel of a place with minimalist brush work, subtle color, and vivid feeling in buttery oil paint.
A Nova Scotian native, MacCulloch holds BFA (1992) and MFA (2019) degrees from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, she has lived across Canada, exhibited extensively in North America, and is represented in galleries in Toronto, Maine, New York, and Chicago. MacCulloch has taught painting at Canadian art colleges and participated in residencies internationally. Her work is included in major collections like TD Bank and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, and featured in publications on contemporary Canadian painters. A book about her work is forthcoming from St. Thomas University. Though based in Toronto, she maintains a strong connection to Canada's and New England’s East Coast.
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Mara Korkola graduated from the Ontario College of Art, Toronto (AOCA); Wichita State University, Kansas (BFA) and the University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio (MFA).
She has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in Canada, the US and Germany, including Painting as Paradox at Artists Space in New York, Synthetic Psychosis at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Auto-Motive: World from the Windshield, Oakville Galleries, Ontario, Sequence and Passage: Mara Korkola and Monica Tap at Cambridge Galleries in Cambridge, Ontario, and Commuter, a comprehensive solo exhibition of her No Place series of paintings at the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, Ontario.
Korkola's work has been reviewed in Canadian Art, Border Crossings, C Magazine, The Globe and Mail, The National Post, and Now Magazine among others, and has been included in Carte Blanche Vol 2 – Painting, a national survey of Canadian painters. She was also featured on an episode of the television series The Artist's Life. Images have been reproduced in BlackFlash, Coupe Magazine and Harper's Magazine. She has received grants from the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. Her work is held in private and corporate collections, including Scotia Bank, Fidelity Investments and Hydro Quebec.
Mara Korkola lives in Toronto.