OPEN DOOR GALLERY @ WAM
Located inside the worcester art museum
Designed as a partnership between Worcester Art Museum, Seven Hills Foundation, and Open Door Arts,
ODG@WAM is a working studio and gallery that exhibits and celebrates the work of aspiring, emerging and established artists with disabilities, acting as a catalyst for community convening and conversation with the museum and beyond.
CURRENT EXHIBIT
Tim de Christopher "Paper and Stone: A Retrospective"
On view: September 16 - December 6, 2026
Reception: Sunday, October 25 from 1-3 PM
Virtual Tour Coming Soon
Screen Reader Friendly Tour Coming Soon
About the Artist and Exhibit
Tim de Christopher(opens in new tab) began his art career in 1977 while living in New York’s Lower East Side and attending Cooper Union. He is now an established artist known for his stone carvings featured in private collections and public installations, including gargoyles for the facade of the Jewish Museum in New York City and a major work titled Rock Paper Scissors installed in Turners Falls. With this public artwork, de Christopher has made his mark on the town of Turners Falls.
Paper and Stone is a retrospective of de Christopher’s artwork, on view in the Open Door Gallery at the Worcester Art Museum. Featuring stone carvings, paintings, prints, and drawings, this maximalist celebration highlights Tim’s consistent artistic voice across media, as well as his legacy of creativity, humor, and gift for elevating the everyday. A special highlight of this exhibition is the display of Tim’s Napkin Drawings—600 napkin sketches made from 1977 to the present day, installed in the drop-in studio. A literal visual diary of the artist.
Tim shares about his art: “We love to use the phrase ‘etched in stone,’ with an ironic wink, but to me it has a vital immediacy. I am a stone carver, and I tell stories in stone. We know our ancient history largely from artifacts in stone left behind by past civilizations. I want to follow that tradition but with a contemporary twist. My vision is to capture events—general and specific moments in time—that relay milestones in our shared human experience, events that have marked episodes in our collective history.”
AUDIO TOUR
Below is an audio tour that contains descriptions of the larger series in the exhibitions, reflections from the artists about the art, and image descriptions of all the artworks in order of appearance in the gallery.
VIRTUAL TOUR
Now you can enjoy the Open Door Gallery from anywhere! We’re excited to offer virtual gallery tours for all of our exhibitions. Whether you’re unable to visit us in Worcester or prefer to experience the show from home, our virtual gallery provides an accessible way to explore the artwork, exhibitions, and audio tour.
GALLERY COMMITTEE
in 2024, to ensure that multiple voices inform our vision and decision-making, we created a paid Gallery Committee to help design and juror calls for art and advise on best practices to create an accessible, inclusive and representative gallery space. Along with their guidance, we are also forming deeper relationships with disabled artists throughout the state, disability organizations, and the broader community.
The committee includes Jeff Kasper, Gordon Sasaki, and Dominic Quagliozzi (who all identify as disabled artists), Megan Bent (Open Door Arts Gallery and Communications Manager) and Samantha Cataldo (Curator of Contemporary Art at WAM).
LOCATION AND HOURS
The Open Door Gallery @ WAM is located in the Higgins Education Wing of the Worcester Art Museum, at:
55 Salisbury Street
Worcester, MA 01609
Hours:
The gallery is open during regular museum hours,
Wednesday – Sunday: 10 am-4 pm
Third Thursday of every month: 10 am-8 pm
The Open Door Gallery @ WAM is located in the Higgins Education Wing of the Worcester Art Museum. The gallery can be accessed through the Lancaster Street entrance of WAM or through the Tuckerman Street entrance.
The gallery is at the end of the first floor of the Higgins Wing. During warmer months, it can also be accessed directly through the Lancaster courtyard, where there is a ramp and switch-operated double doors.
We are committed to making the gallery experience as accessible as possible by featuring tactile representations of artworks, large print and Braille signage and texts, audio description, and virtual alternatives, as well as providing ASL interpreters and sighted guides for all events. Please contact for access-related questions or requests.
We are proud to participate in the Card to Culture program, a collaboration between Mass Cultural Council and the Department of Transitional Assistance, Massachusetts Health Connector, and WIC Nutrition Program, by broadening accessibility to cultural programming.
Admissions to our Open Door Galleries and related events is free. EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare cardholders will receive free admission to any ticketed events. See the full list of participating organizations offering EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare discounts.
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