Exhibition at Dottie’s in Pittsfield
Artist and educator Laura Dickstein Thompson is pleased to announce the opening of HeART at Dottie’s Coffee Lounge on North Street in Pittsfield. The exhibition—featuring paintings and mixed-media works by Thompson alongside pieces by her family and longtime creative collaborators—celebrates a shared legacy of artistic expression across generations. An opening celebration will be held on October 30 from 5:00–7:00 PM, marking both the launch of the exhibition and the joyful reopening of Dottie’s under new management.
“I’m honored to be the featured artist at this beloved Pittsfield gathering place,” says Thompson. “It feels like the perfect setting to share a show rooted in creativity, connection, and community.”
Raised in a family of artists, Thompson inherited her passion for artmaking from her grandfather, an Ashcan and WPA artist in New York, and her father, a writer and painter whose bold abstractions evoke the spirit of Fauvism. Her youngest son continues the lineage, creating expressive landscapes and cityscapes in oil paint.
HeART weaves together the work of these family members with pieces by artists Thompson has collaborated with throughout her career, including Nick Cave, Wendy Red Star, Tsherin Sherpa, Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Wes Bruce, and Linda Price Sneddon. From 2002–2023, Thompson served as MASS MoCA’s founding Director of Education and Curator of Kidspace, where she curated more than 30 exhibitions and developed community-based public programs.
“My artwork reflects a belief in the transformative power of creativity, mindfulness, and love. I begin my painting practice with meditation and yoga, and find that the act of painting itself becomes a form of meditation,” says Thompson, who now teaches at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health and writes at the intersection of art and mindfulness.
Her abstract expressionist paintings explore color, gesture, and emotion—revealing a deep connection between inner stillness and artistic expression. “Seeing all this work together, I’ve realized that while my paintings emerge from my inner world, they are also shaped by the visual language I’ve absorbed throughout my career—years spent in museums surrounded by the creativity of others.”
HeART invites viewers to experience the beauty of interconnection—between family, art, and the enduring human impulse to create.
