Friday, May 29 at 7pm: Greatest of All Secrets 
Join us for an artist talk with Sampsa Pirtola, artist and curator at Lightforms.

Sampsa Pirtola's abstract experimental video work, Salaisuuksista Suurin [The Greatest of All Secrets], which is on view at Lightforms, is a mysterious and allegorical narrative that tells the story of a young magician encountering an old magician—one imprisoned for life, the other free. Through this encounter, the film unfolds as a mythological journey across cultures whose traditions are built upon an immense lie. Parallels can be drawn to many archetypal stories, including the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz.

Accompanied by a richly atmospheric score by Aino Peltomaa and Harmony of the Spheres from Finland, the work weaves together breathtaking abstract imagery and symbolic storytelling. Pirtola’s striking and beautiful experimental video sequences guide the viewer through shifting states of perception.

Lightforms Art Center is located at 743 Columbia St, Hudson, NY.

Saturday, May 23 at 7pm: Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz
A poetic reading by Laurie Portocarrero of The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosencreuz, anno 1459: a modern poetic version, attributed to Johann Valentin Andreä.

Lightforms Art Center is located at 743 Columbia St, Hudson, NY.

Friday, May 22 at 7pm: The Art of the Heart: The Etheric Heart & Eternal Art
Join us for a lecture and presentation by Lucien Dante Lazar. Lucien is an interdisciplinary artist whose praxis lives within the intersections of art, science, and spirituality. A central theme in his work is initiation through the etheric heart—a spirituality founded in love, attention, creativity, and outer and inner world research. Lucien is currently studying at Eurythmy Spring Valley.

Lightforms Art Center is located at 743 Columbia St, Hudson, NY.

Join us for an evening of ancient sound-healing with Jody Brookes and Cody Rogowski of Camphill Hudson. More information forthcoming!

Fri, May 1 at 7pm: Performance by Laurie Portocarrero. Weaving together poetry, story, song, and the dramatic magic of Shakespeare, actor and storyteller Laurie Portocarrero takes us on a journey through all the crazy, difficult, wonderful, funny, and profoundly transformative ways that we love.

Sunday, Apr 26 from 11am-1pm: Pastel workshop with Richard Neal
Join Richard Neal for a pastel painting workshop. No previous experience required - all supplies provided!

Cost: $20-40 (includes supplies). ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED! Email info@lightformsartcenter.com to register.

Saturday, Apr 25 from 11am-1pm: Poetry workshop with Stephen Steen
Join Stephen Steen for Let Us Poet! No previous experience required.

Cost: $10-25 (sliding scale). ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED! Email info@lightformsartcenter.com to register.

Friday, Apr 24 at 4:30pm: Lecture by Christopher Schaefer
Join us for a lecture by Christopher Schaefer, Rudolf Steiner and the Beloved Community. More details forthcoming!

What happens when clowns get invited to an art show? How do clowns feel about art? Does art change when clowns are present? Do clowns change when art is present? What happens when people gather in a gallery full of colorful paintings to play and explore the art of clowning?

Please join us for one or both of the following opportunities on Saturday, April 18:

10am-1pm: Art, Color and Clowns
A short “taster” workshop introducing the playful art of clowning in an art gallery. No experience or skills necessary. Bring your curiosity and willingness to play and have fun. Ages 15 and up. Pre-registration required. Limited to 15 participants.

Cost: $30-60 (sliding scale). ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED! Email info@lightformsartcenter.com to register.

2-4pm: Clowns On View, Viewing Art
Clowns will be roaming the gallery and viewing the art during regular public gallery hours. Admission: $10-20

Sunday, Apr 11 from 10am-1pm: Biography Workshop with Elvira Neal
Join Elvira Neal for Coloring Your Life: Enlivening the Senses - Ensouling your Life, a biography workshop exploring the influence of art on our life's journey.

Cost: $30-60 (sliding scale). ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED! Email info@lightformsartcenter.com to register.

“Quiet In The Head” is the ongoing musical project of guitarist Sèamus Maynard, violinist Jonathan Talbott.

Their original acoustic music has evolved over many years of playing together and is always an exploration of texture and melody. There are echoes of familiar influences from eastern european music as well as jazz and classical but ultimately it searches far and wide for new sounds. Subject matter includes: swamp donkeys, theories on chocolate consumption, Chekhov’s stage works and more about swamp donkeys. Improvisation plays a large part in Quiet In The Head's compositions but the core of the music is through-composed. Instrumental technique never overshadows the inherent musicality, beauty, and sometimes strangeness of the soundscapes created by the duo. 

Michael Howard has developed two boardgames, CoQuest and Threat, that take up the challenge of collaboration as an alternative to competition. Open to all ages!

Developing CoQuest games began as a pastime, but over time, became an integral aspect of Michael's creative work. Like all good games, playing CoQuest and Threat are meant to be fun to play. But in today's world, they also offer an opportunity for those who want to strengthen their capacity for creative collaboration, as well as foster it more widely in our social affairs and institutions. 

This is one of two workshops in which you can dive into the two themes of Michael Howard's artwork: Visible Speech and Visible Music (respectively). Along with some biographical context, we will explore some of the form exercises included in the exhibition that are keys to a fuller experience of the musical and speech dimensions of his artwork.

Looking at his artwork will naturally lead over into a couple of drawing activities; one that explores Visible Speech (on February 28), and the other exploring Visible Music (on March 7).

Please note that you can attend one or both – they do not have to be taken together! Sliding scale of $20-40 per workshop, or $50 total for both. ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED: email info@lightformsartcenter.com to sign up!

On Fri, Mar 6 at 4:30pm, Luigi Morelli will give a lecture entitled The Calendar of the Soul as a Path to Self-knowledge through Feeling: Preparing Ourselves for Easter.

The Calendar of the Soul is a self-enclosed world, a little like the lessons of the First Class of the School of Spiritual Science, or the Foundation Stone Meditation. Rudolf Steiner called it a “potential path to self-
knowledge through feeling” (1 st preface to the Calendar). It is in fact a world that calls us to a participatory, fluid and artistic understanding of the relationship between soul and macrocosm through our immersion in the cycle of the seasons and the life of the festivals. Each season requires of us different soul qualities and at each mid-season point we meet a challenge that spurs us and helps us transition from one cardinal festival to another.

This presentation will focus on the rhythm of expansion the soul undertakes into the ethers (cosmic life, cosmic light and cosmic warmth) in spring and summer and the contraction/transformation they undergo in fall and winter. It will explore one specific transition and look at how the Calendar helps us move from winter and Christmas to spring and Easter. It will highlight what is required of us and how we can best support the coming Easter experience.

Luigi Morelli has worked extensively with the contents of the Calendar ofbthe Soul in the last fourteen years. What he has written about it can be found at www.millenniumculmination.net

This is one of two workshops in which you can dive into the two themes of Michael Howard's artwork: Visible Speech and Visible Music (respectively). Along with some biographical context, we will explore some of the form exercises included in the exhibition that are keys to a fuller experience of the musical and speech dimensions of his artwork.

Looking at his artwork will naturally lead over into a couple of drawing activities; one that explores Visible Speech (on February 28), and the other exploring Visible Music (on March 7).

Please note that you can attend one or both – they do not have to be taken together! Sliding scale of $20-40 per workshop, or $50 total for both. ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED: email info@lightformsartcenter.com to sign up!

Michael Howard has developed two boardgames, CoQuest and Threat, that take up the challenge of collaboration as an alternative to competition. Open to all ages!

Developing CoQuest games began as a pastime, but over time, became an integral aspect of Michael's creative work. Like all good games, playing CoQuest and Threat are meant to be fun to play. But in today's world, they also offer an opportunity for those who want to strengthen their capacity for creative collaboration, as well as foster it more widely in our social affairs and institutions. 

Join Michael Howard for a lecture on Visible Music, Visible Speech: The Evolving Role of Art and Artist. 

Michael writes: "As an artist, I offer my artwork as seeds for awakening the artistic capacities in every human being. And in this way, art fosters the capacities needed for the Social Art of developing a culture and society in keeping with our full humanity."

You are invited to the opening of Larry Young's Face to Face exhibition, happening concurrently with the opening of Michael Howard’s exhibition.

Larry Young (January 21, 1944 – February 16, 2026) viewed painting as a portal into inner life - an experience that moves the viewer seamlessly between individual subjectivity and universal human truths.

“The whole human being is complete in the face,” said Young. He described its architecture simply: in the forehead lives the quality of thinking; in the eyes and nose, the life of feeling; in the mouth and jaw, the forces of will and desire.

You are invited to the opening of Michael Howard's Visible Music, Visible Speech exhibition. There will be a short introduction and musical interlude by Alicia Burns and Patrick Loughrey at 7pm.

This exhibition features two main themes in Howard’s work: visible music, and visible speech, each made visible through both sculptures and paintings. 

Tues, Dec 23 7pm: Philosophy of Freedom presentation
You are invited to a presentation by Andreas Schmitt on a very exciting project based on the Philosophy of Freedom by Rudolf Steiner. Schmidt recently gave a presentation at the 100 Years Rudolf Steiner conference at Harvard University in Boston, MA.

In Andreas’ presentation you will get an introduction into the meaning of the Philosophy of Freedom for the challenges of modern times, for exploring our own inner being, and it’s creative power. And we will do exercises to experience it in a deep and personal way. 

Andreas Schmitt is a German anthroposophic physician. He is the founder and leader of the annual Philosophy of Freedom training, a worldwide schooling path based on the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity in 14 languages and with more than 2500 participants in the past seven years.