Events

50 Years of Harvest Fair: Retrospective Exhibition

This event has ended

September 19, 2024 - December 2, 2024

Norman Bird Sanctuary Barn

Free, No Registration Required

The Norman Bird Sanctuary will host a commemorative photography exhibit, 50 Years of Harvest Fair, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Harvest Fair. Showcasing the Harvest Fair photographs of internationally-renowned photographer, Salvatore (Sal) Lopes, the exhibit will be on view in the Barn at The Norman Bird Sanctuary this fall.

Lopes’ photographs of the 1976 and 1977 Harvest Fairs capture the many faces, activities, and traditions that have established the Harvest Fair as a beloved, timeless community event over the last five decades. In addition to Lopes’ photographs, 50 Years of Harvest Fair will include a wall of community photographs and a display of archival Harvest Fair ephemera from the NBS collection.

The exhibit will be on view during the 50th anniversary Harvest Fair weekend on October 5 and 6, 2024. It will also be open to the public during the Sanctuary’s operating hours between September 19 and December 2, 2024.

We are grateful to Barbara Benson, BankNewport, Frosty Freez, and the NBS Exhibition Committee for their generous support of 50 Years of Harvest Fair. This exhibition is made possible in part by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

About the Artist

Salvatore Lopes (American, b. 1943) is an internationally renowned photographer and platinum printer. Lopes has exhibited in the United States and abroad, with nearly 250 photographs in museum collections around the world. His photographs have appeared in publications ranging from Newsweek and National Geographic to French PHOTO, Black & White Magazine and Shutterbug. Larger bodies of work have been published in the books The Wall: Images and Offerings from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Living with AIDS: A Photographic Journal.

While living in Newport, Rhode Island as a young artist in the 1970s, Lopes attended Harvest Fair several times. Inspired by the Fair’s vibrant and diverse community, Lopes began a two-year photo documentary of the tradition from 1976 to 1977, the third and fourth Fairs, respectively. The following exhibition is only a sliver of what Lopes captured and reflects the many faces, activities, and traditions that have cemented the Harvest Fair as a beloved, timeless community event over the last five decades.

More About the Artist