The Wayne County Arts Alliance is excited to invite the public to join us for the opening reception of our Gallery exhibition “The WCAA Dinner Party: Setting the Table for Women” on Saturday, March 1, 3-5pm at the WCAA Gallery at 959 Main Street Honesdale.

“The WCAA Dinner Party: Setting the Table for Women,” opens the 2025 WCAA Gallery’s 2025 season and will run March 1 through March 29. The show riffs on “The Dinner Party,” a permanent installation at the Brooklyn Museum of Art by American multi-media artist Judy Chicago.  Chicago’s “//The// Dinner Party/, created between 1975 and 1979, imagines a banquet for 39 historic or mythological women, each celebrated with a unique place setting.   

For “The WCAA Dinner Party,” art teachers from Wayne County’s three school districts and the Cooperage Pop-Up Club asked students, “If you could have dinner with any woman, historical or contemporary, who would she be?”

 Students’ answers included Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman, Clara Barton and Helen Keller, Greta Thunberg and Amelia Earhart, Michelle Obama, Aphrodite, and their own mothers and grandmothers. The young artists then were assigned to make two or three-dimensional works celebrating their choices.

“Challenged to explore the impact of women—both past and present—these young artists have truly embraced the task, creating powerful works that reflect their personal inspirations and the strength of those who have shaped our world,” writes Kathy Higgins, Art Department chair at Honesdale High School. The WCAA show “offer(s) Wayne Highlands students a unique opportunity to connect with the community through their creativity.”

“The WCAA Dinner Party” is sponsored by the WCAA with support from area restaurant and business owners, who have made monetary contributions and will offer discounts during March and April in honor of “Women’s History” and community art. Funds raised will go to the art departments of the participating school districts.

Area businesses and restaurants who are sponsoring this Exhibition include: A.M. Skier Insurance Agency, Dave’s Super Duper Supermarket, Dunkin’, Elegante Restaurante and Pizzeria, Green House, Half Baked Sandwich Joint, Here & Now Brewing Company, Hotel Wayne, JoRob’s Naturals, Laurel’s Hometown Café, Moka Origins, Native Food and Drink, Nature’s Grace Heath Food and Deli, Paulie’s Hot Dogs, Scarfalloto’s Towne House Diner and Restaurant, Tablespoons Kitchen, The Inn at Woodloch Resort, The Mustard Seed Café, The Red Schoolhouse, The Settler’s Inn, Tick Tocks on Terrace, Two Guys From Italy, Weis Market, Wood Winery.

After March 1, our Gallery and Artisan Shop regular hours are Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays 11am-4pm.  For information about this and other WCAA projects, go to www.waynecountyartsalliance.org