The LAVA Center

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The LAVA Center Where ideas erupt, and creativity flows, community grows. Our mission is to create opportunities and build community in and through the arts and humanities.

a community arts & humanities space, arts incubator, and black box theater in downtown Greenfield, Mass
cafe/gallery hours, recurring events, free programming, community, inspiration! The LAVA Center is a community arts space, arts incubator, and black box theater in downtown Greenfield, MA. We are a place where all, including marginalized communities and individuals, can have their voices heard. An arts incubator, providing many opportunities for creatives and their work to be nourished. Our humanities programming centers on local history, and social and environmental justice themes. The LAVA Center is located at 324 Main St., between TD Bank and the Pushkin Gallery. NOTE: Our staff is part-time, and we cannot always respond to comments quickly. You may get a faster response if you contact us using this form - https://thelavacenter.org/contact-us/ - or text us at 413-376-8118. Thank you.

Theater of Ideas: Making Sense of Ballot QuestionsFriday, Oct 16, 6pmThe LAVA Center: 324 Main St, GreenfieldNow that th...
10/16/2026

Theater of Ideas: Making Sense of Ballot Questions
Friday, Oct 16, 6pm
The LAVA Center: 324 Main St, Greenfield

Now that the primaries are over it is time to take another look at 9 Ballot Questions we are asked to vote on in the general election in November. As a whole, it can be confusing. Does a “yes” vote mean keep things as they are, roll them back to how they were, or replace them with something new? Is a “no” vote for change or saying “no” to change? It depends upon the Question. Understanding what the passage or failure of each means for us is important. Each one of them will have real consequences in our lives.

This session follows the one led by members of Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution in August that introduced the Questions and began to look at some of the more complex and controversial ones in particular. Now that the Information for Voters pamphlet has been published we can dive in deeper. Please join us to learn the proffered pros and cons of each, to understand who is endorsing the “Yes” or “No” vote for each, and to sort out your own considered opinions so you are prepared to vote with clarity and purpose.

Question 1: Expanding the Public Records Law
Question 2: Collective Bargaining for CPCS Employees
Question 3: State Primary Elections
Question 4: Election Day Registration
Question 5: State Revenue Limit & Rebate
Question 6: Natural Resource Conservation Fund
Question 7: Single Family Homes
Question 8: Prohibit Retail Sale of Adult Recreational Use Ma*****na
Question 9: Fi****ms Regulation

For more information, contact [email protected] with “Ballot Questions” in the subject line.

There is no charge for this event, though donations to LAVA are always accepted and appreciated.

Theater of Ideas is made possible in part with support from LAVA's 2026 Season Sponsor the Greenfield Recorder, 2026 Community Building Sponsor Dog Hollow Press, and with general operating support from Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts and Mass Cultural Council.

https://www.facebook.com/events/753056930700579/

Spooky Open Stage!Thursday, Oct 15, 7pmThe LAVA Center: 324 Main St, GreenfieldThe LAVA Center is excited to announce a ...
10/15/2026

Spooky Open Stage!
Thursday, Oct 15, 7pm
The LAVA Center: 324 Main St, Greenfield

The LAVA Center is excited to announce a Spooky Open Stage in October to celebrate all things spooky!

The Open Stage is a performance series that takes place every third Thursday evening. Signups start at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. This Spooky Open Stage will consist of costumes, candy and spooky performances! Show up in your best costume and perform a spooky song or skit, read scary stories and poetry, or sit back and enjoy the atmosphere!

An open stage is similar to an open mic, but more inclusive to all types of the performing arts. Artists are encouraged to sign up to perform theater, dance, music, literature, spoken word, magic, puppetry, circus, sideshow, comedy, improv — any form of art or entertainment that can be staged, in any stage of development; this month’s theme is Halloween!!

Your host Clara Witty lives in Orange, MA and works as the Programming Director of The LAVA Center. She’s worked on many different projects at The LAVA Center including indiVISIBLE, On the Boards playwright festival, and produced the documentary film “Rising River’s Edge”. She values her community and the arts, and works to bridge them together through her work at The LAVA Center.

Signup starts at 6:30 p.m., show starts at 7 p.m. There will be a five-minute limit for each act. Artists can plug into our sound system if they’d like audio to backup your act; connect using Bluetooth, plugin using 1/8″ mic jack input, or bring adapter if needed. Questions? Email [email protected].

There is a $1–5 suggested donation for this event.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1942855999982864/

RE-ART workshop: Allen Fowler: Paper, Acrylic and MagazinesSaturday, Oct 24, 12-2pmThe LAVA Center: 324 Main St, Greenfi...
10/14/2026

RE-ART workshop: Allen Fowler: Paper, Acrylic and Magazines
Saturday, Oct 24, 12-2pm
The LAVA Center: 324 Main St, Greenfield

LAVA’s extended season of creating art from reclaimed, repurposed, and reused materials! We will learn from local artists who turn waste to wonders, trash to treasures.

RE-ART will culminate in the fall with a community art show featuring work created by those who have attended one or more of the sessions.

• Saturday, Oct. 24, noon–2 p.m.: Allen Folwer: Paper, Acrylic and Magazines.

For more information, contact [email protected]. To register for one or more artist-led workshops, go to http://bit.ly/4fEmdQa.

RE-ART is made possible in part by project support from Greening Greenfield and Cultural Crossroads District LLC (a project of Mass Cultural Council), 2026 Season Support from the Greenfield Recorder and Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, and 2026 Community Building Sponsor Dog Hollow Press.

Writers Read: Amy Gordon, Cheryl Dukes, JuPong LinWednesday, Oct 14, 7pmThe LAVA Center: 324 Main St, GreenfieldWriters ...
10/14/2026

Writers Read: Amy Gordon, Cheryl Dukes, JuPong Lin
Wednesday, Oct 14, 7pm
The LAVA Center: 324 Main St, Greenfield

Writers Read is a monthly opportunity for an audience to come and listen to local writers in an intimate environment. Each second Wednesday of the month, three writers read from their work, followed by a discussion facilitated by Lindy Whiton. These discussions have been eye opening, touching, and inspiring. Audiences have left the venue ready to write.

Amy Gordon’s poems have appeared in The Amsterdam Review, Ekphrastic Review, The Massachusetts Review, and other journals. Her chapbook, Leaf Town, published in 2026, was winner of the Slate Roof Press Chapbook Prize. She lives in Gill and directs an after-school theater program.

Cheryl Dukes: Past performance is irrelevant to future earnings. Curious, persistent and charming with chutzpah requires death as a fact of life while choosing to live … Active voice; action verb and laughing our (my) ass off despite the shusshing and the hushing … all the way to the other side of OtherWise … with love as an action … act I on; quest I on. Woop. Woop.

JuPong Lin is an independent artist, practice-led researcher, writer and cultural worker who dances with horseshoe crabs and makes ceremony with cranes. Her mission is to hospice the dying colonized world, serving as death doula working with arts and poetics in the emergent futures of interspecies co-becoming. JuPong’s poetry and socially-engaged art projects honor beloved heartplaces and shift the paradigm of colonialism and conquest and seed new kinds of stories that live beyond the “one world” and proliferate in pluriverses (many worlds) of possibilities. JuPong was a faculty member in the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College for nearly 20 years before the College closed in 2024. She earned her PhD in Environmental Studies at Antioch University New England and currently works as a narrative coach for public health organizations in Massachusetts. JuPong’s first play, Phoenix in the HolyLand, aims to contribute to global peace movements working to end ecocide and genocide (omnicide). JuPong’s poems have been published in several Writing the Land anthologies and academic essays are included in Ecological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women’s Voices and Contemplative Practices and Acts of Resistance in Higher Education: Narratives Toward Wholeness.

For more information, email [email protected].

$1-5 suggested donation

https://www.facebook.com/events/2441308116287692/

Events @ LAVA this week!🗓️ WED 7pm: Writers Read: Amy Gordon, Cheryl Dukes, JuPong Linhttps://www.facebook.com/events/24...
10/13/2026

Events @ LAVA this week!

🗓️ WED 7pm: Writers Read: Amy Gordon, Cheryl Dukes, JuPong Lin
https://www.facebook.com/events/2441308116287692/

🗓️ THU 11am-12:30pm: Drop in & Draw
https://www.facebook.com/events/1186306573226794/

🗓️ THU 7pm: Spooky Open Stage
https://www.facebook.com/events/1942855999982864/

🗓️ FRI 6pm: Theater of Ideas: Making Sense of Ballot Questions
https://www.facebook.com/events/753056930700579/

☕️ cafe/activities/gallery hours:
Mondays, 11am-2pm
Thursdays, 11am-2pm + 5-8pm
Fridays, 5-8pm
Saturdays, 11am-2pm

all happening at:
📍 324 Main St in downtown Greenfield

Join our friends at the LAVA Center in Greenfield for a Spooky Open Stage with Host Clara Witty!!The Open Stage is a per...
10/12/2026

Join our friends at the LAVA Center in Greenfield for a Spooky Open Stage with Host Clara Witty!!

The Open Stage is a performance series that takes place every third Thursday evening. Signups start at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. This Spooky Open Stage will consist of costumes, candy and spooky performances! Show up in your best costume and perform a spooky song or skit, read scary stories and poetry, or sit back and enjoy the atmosphere!

An open stage is similar to an open mic, but more inclusive to all types of the performing arts. Artists are encouraged to sign up to perform theater, dance, music, literature, spoken word, magic, puppetry, circus, sideshow, comedy, improv — any form of art or entertainment that can be staged, in any stage of development; this month’s theme is Halloween!!

Your host Clara Witty lives in Orange, MA and works as the Programming Director of The LAVA Center. She’s worked on many different projects at The LAVA Center including indiVISIBLE, On the Boards playwright festival, and produced the documentary film “Rising River’s Edge”. She values her community and the arts, and works to bridge them together through her work at The LAVA Center.

Signup starts at 6:30 p.m., show starts at 7 p.m. There will be a five-minute limit for each act. Artists can plug into our sound system if they’d like audio to backup your act; connect using Bluetooth, plugin using 1/8″ mic jack input, or bring adapter if needed. Questions? Email [email protected].

RE-ART workshop: Ash Goverman, Plarn: turning plastic bags into baskets and more.Saturday, Oct 10, 12-2pmThe LAVA Center...
10/09/2026

RE-ART workshop: Ash Goverman, Plarn: turning plastic bags into baskets and more.
Saturday, Oct 10, 12-2pm
The LAVA Center: 324 Main St, Greenfield

LAVA’s extended season of creating art from reclaimed, repurposed and reused materials! We will learn from local artists who turn waste to wonders, trash to treasures.

RE-ART will culminate in the fall with a community art show featuring work created by those who have attended one or more of the sessions.

• Saturday, Oct. 10, noon–2 p.m.: Ash Goverman, Plarn: turning plastic bags into baskets and more.

For more information, contact [email protected]. To register for one or more artist-led workshops, go to http://bit.ly/4fEmdQa.

RE-ART is made possible in part by project support from Greening Greenfield and Cultural Crossroads District LLC (a project of Mass Cultural Council), 2026 Season Support from the Greenfield Recorder and Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, and 2026 Community Building Sponsor Dog Hollow Press.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1048997621420082/

Renewal Society Workshop: Mending with Miranda KingfisherSaturday, Oct 10, 9:30-11:30amThe LAVA Center: 324 Main St, Gre...
10/08/2026

Renewal Society Workshop: Mending with Miranda Kingfisher
Saturday, Oct 10, 9:30-11:30am
The LAVA Center: 324 Main St, Greenfield

Join Miranda, on IG, for an open-ended workshop on clothing mending. Bring a garment you love or want to experiment on and play with patching, darning and more by hand or machine. Absolute beginners and experienced menders alike are welcome.

*This workshop is for educational purposes. Miranda will do their best to help you assess and work on your item, but we can’t guarantee that it will be fully repaired by the end of the workshop.

Register Here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0D4DADAE2CA4F8CF8-65207767-therenewal #/

***

Redistro is a mutual aid collective dedicated to building community locally through the redistribution of our shared abundance. Their community members envisioned a series of focused workshops building on the very popular repair fairs that have been held from time to time in Franklin County. What if people could not only have their household items repaired, but learn how to do it themselves? This vision is actualized in THE RENEWAL SOCIETY project, which focuses on re-using and reclaiming through the art and craft of repair. Participants will learn specific skills to extend the life of their own household belongings.

More information: Renewal Society linktree: https://linktr.ee/renewal_society

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1746626886480274/

MAKING MASKED THEATRE #3MAKING THEATRE MASKS!Friday, October 9 6-8 p.m. Hybrid event!How to make masks compatible with ...
10/07/2026

MAKING MASKED THEATRE #3
MAKING THEATRE MASKS!
Friday, October 9 6-8 p.m. Hybrid event!
How to make masks compatible with respirators for theatre, drag,
performance dance,or…HALLOWEEN!
Virtual and in-person options
N95s and KN95s expected / provided
Wheelchair accessible restroom and entryway
LAVA Center 324 Main St Greenfield MA
Register: monsterclowngirl.mmm.page

***

Alt text:
Black slide with orange, white and yellow text and three photos.

Photo 1:
is a middle aged woman of white. She is wearing black overalls with pink, green, white, gold and brown floral pattern. She has a brick red bandana with a black crow printed on it. She wears her hair black and silver hair in a pompadour. She has a 3m aura n95 respirator decorated with painted paper and beads in red, black, and brown.She holds a theatrical mask of a man made of newspaper. He has large ears and nose, a high forehead and black and silver sideburns and pompadour. In the background, a wood paneled wall is visible. There is a string from which multicolored k n ninety fives hang. Shelves of materials and mask and puppets in various stages of development.

Photo 2:
On the left, Molly onstage. She is a q***r, middle aged woman of white wearing a theatrical mask of a man made of newspaper. He has large ears and nose, a high forehead and black and silver sideburns and pompadour. She is onstage at a microphone. pointing up with the right hand, the other hand is floating in the air.
On the right, Molly is onstage at a microphone. Black background. She wears black duckbill respirator and a theatrical mask she made of paper and cardboard. The mask has a white face, heavy light blue eyelids and long black lashes, and a mane of purple, fuschia and pink paper curls.

Photo 3:
There is a large piece of cardboard on a table. There are various tools and materials in two rows. In the front row, from left to right, blue Hot glue gun , white glue , scissors and a roll of blue painter’s tape and beige masking tape. The back row: a roll of black velcro, a pink set of electric scissors, and a white papier mache craft half-mask.

https://www.facebook.com/events/2038348256766307/

Address

324 Main Street
Greenfield, MA
01301

Opening Hours

Monday 11am - 2pm
Thursday 11am - 2pm
5pm - 8pm
Friday 5pm - 8pm
Saturday 11am - 2pm

Telephone

+14133768118

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