Exhibit: Together Far Away

The Martha's Vineyard Playhouse presents a new exhibit of artwork by Gretchen Baer and Shelagh Hackett. 

Gretchen Baer is an artist best known for her art activism, colorful art cars, and for her work with kids along the U.S./Mexico border. She is the director of Studio Mariposa, a free art center for children, located in Naco, Mexico. Gretchen and the kids are currently painting a mile long mural on the Mexican side of the border wall. She was born and raised on Martha’s Vineyard, and is the daughter of Island artists Gene and Jackie Baer. She graduated from Massachusetts College of Art. She currently lives in Bisbee, Arizona but can often be found on the Island painting madly in her studio, “The Cleopatra Lounge” with the talented Shelagh Hackett.

Shelagh Hackett is a local Vineyard artist, mostly known for her stage performance. She has been performing in plays and singing at MV Playhouse and around the island since the 1980s. Together Far Away is her first foray into painting, inspired in the summer of 2022 by her good friend Gretchen Baer. Finding a new way to create after the pandemic sorely curtailed any performing possibilities has made life better in every single way. Shelagh lives in Chilmark with her two teenagers and her dog.