The Don't Miss List: October '26
Thinking about all the fabulous things there are to do and see this month is helping cure my end-of-summer blues. Everyone seems to be talking about how quickly September whizzed by, and how to hold on a little tighter to fall before winter arrives. These choice cultural must-sees should help.
Remember, the RSVP is yes.
Field Trip: Studio Visit with Matter Design @ MIT Met Warehouse
First and foremost, Misstropolis brings you the second in our series of Field Trips designed in collaboration with CoDesign Collaborative.
Date: Tuesday, October 13. 12–1pm.
Location: Metropolitan Storage Warehouse, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139.
Registration required. $25/person.
Matter Design is an interdisciplinary design practice and research lab that focuses on rethinking the future of architecture by merging ancient construction wisdom with cutting-edge digital fabrication. The visit will be led by co-founder Brandon Clifford, Associate Professor at MIT, and partner artist-designer Jo Lobdell.
The visit takes place in MIT's Metropolitan Storage Warehouse, the 1895 brick fortress on Vassar Street that reopened in August 2026 as the new home of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning.
Art Fairs
Affordable Art Fair, Boston
October 22 - 25 at SoWa Power Station
The second year of this for-the-people art fair will showcase local and national galleries selling original contemporary artworks from $100 to $12,000.
Be sure to visit:
Krakow Witkin Gallery (Boston, MA — Booth A10)
Chase Young Gallery (New Bedford, MA — Booth E8)
ShowUp "Immovable Feast" Exhibition: An immersive, curated visual installation built right into the fair layout
art_works Reading Room: A peaceful space curated by Karen Pfefferle
"Wonders Under $1,000" Wall: A dedicated area specifically showcasing highly accessible works for budding collectors.
City of Boston Material Dialogue Exhibition: A special presentation focusing on regional and local artistic narratives.
SoWa Power Station, 550 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA.
Thu. Oct. 22: 5 - 9pm; Fri. Oct. 23: 12 - 9pm; Sat. Oct. 24: 10am - 7pm; Sun. Oct. 25: 10am - 6pm.
Affordable Art Fair, Boston.
Frieze London and Frieze Masters
October 14–18 at Regent's Park, London
The two fairs run side by side, so you have no excuse to miss one or the other. This is marathon art viewing, be sure to eat breakfast. 300 galleries from 48 countries and regions will be exhibiting. Frieze London is a top market for the most sought after contemporary art, and Frieze Masters features historical masterpieces and ancient artifacts. New curated sections include The Code Universe, at Frieze London, and Queering Modernism, at Frieze Masters. Frieze Sculpture is free and open to all, in the English Gardens through November 1.
Art Basel Paris, 2025. Photo: Robin Hauck.
Art Basel Paris
October 23–25 at the Grand Palais, Paris
Perhaps my favorite art fair of the year (although in fairness I have not been yet to Seoul). Experiencing the recently renovated Grand Palais makes you feel like you’re perusing art in a glass bird cage built for the Gods, and the people watching is as fun as fashion week. This year, 211 international galleries from 41 countries and territories are participating, more than 60 of them with spaces in France. It has three sectors: Galeries (the main sector), Emergence (young artists and galleries), and Premise (singular curatorial and historical proposals). Wear, as always, comfortable shoes, and give yourself more than one day to take it all in.
Reminder: Plan ahead for Art Basel Miami Beach which runs December 2 - 6.
Exhibitions
Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love
MFA Boston. 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston
When I saw Suzanne Jackson’s retrospective at SF MOMA, it made a lasting impression on me. Her sensual gouache and acrylic paintings had me in a trance with their dreamy lines and generous white space. Her later environmental abstractions speak to patience, resourcefulness, and obsession with process. I was lucky enough to interview Jackson while she was in Boston. Stay tuned for the interview, dropping later this month.
What is Love is on view through January 18, 2027, but go see it soon. You’ll want to go more than once!
Suzanne Jackson (American, born in 1944). Grandparents, 1970. Acrylic wash, gesso, and graphite on canvas. Collection of Tina and Larry Jones, New York. © Suzanne Jackson, courtesy Ortuzar, New York; photo: David Kaminsky.* Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Molly Hatch: Agency
Fuller Craft Museum, 455 Oak Street, Brockton
Molly Hatch is a ceramic artist who uses domestically-coded diinner plates to upend cultural assumptions and reframe traditional gender narratives. Agency is a series of site-specific painted-plate installations that “reappropriates traditional Victorian jewelry motifs as symbols of feminine strength and autonomy.“ (Fuller Craft Museum).
Exhibition opens October 17th, 2026 and runs through September 2028.
“Historically, jewelry—particularly during the Victorian era—was often given to women as an assertion of male ownership... In each of the works created for “Agency”, I reclaim the historic symbolism of Victorian jewelry, transforming these once-prescriptive motifs into powerful expressions of feminist strength and resilience within a metaphorical jewelry box.”
Molly Hatch Photo Credit: John Polak
2026 Wagner Arts Fellows: Tomashi Jackson, Lucy Kim, and Yu-Wen Wu
Wagner Gallery, 485 Massachusetts Ave, 2nd Floor, Cambridge
The Wagner Foundation celebrates its second Art Fellows cohort with an exhibition in their Cambridge Gallery. This year Wagner recognizes artists Tomashi Jackson, Lucy Kim, and Yu-Wen Wu: “three Greater Boston artists with rigorous attention to materials and research-based practices that investigate the social, technological, and political conditions that shape contemporary life.” (Wagner Foundation). These artists are helping to put Massachusetts on the international art world map with their sustained and serious investigations into personal, political and process-based issues.
The Wagner Arts Fellowship supports mid-career to established Greater Boston visual artists with a $75,000 unrestricted grant and tailored artist services in partnership with United States Artists.
Show runs through December 2, 2026.
Events
MFA Artists Open Studios
Saturday, October 24, 2026
The cross-campus student studio showcase, featuring a collaborative open-studio day hosted by Boston University, MassArt, and SMFA at Tufts. Revel in the work being done by graduate students — the next generation of artists we want to support.
Free and open to the public, with a staggered schedule to allow for viewing at three schools:
Boston University: 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
MassArt: 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
SMFA at Tufts (Mission Hill): 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Photo: Twentieth Century Fox.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Spooktacular Tour with Patricia Quinn
Tuesday, October 27 at the Emerson Colonial Theater
Patricia Quinn played the original Magenta, and hers are the famous red lips in the opening credits. Join her for singing, dancing and acting out the sexy cult classic while costumed performers play out scenes on stage. Oh, and there’s a costume contest of course. The interactive screening is even better with new 4K restoration.
7:30pm. 106 Boylston Street, Boston.
The Don't Miss List is a lovingly curated list of things to see, do, read, listen to, and explore, sent at the start of every month. If you would like to submit an event or idea, please email dontmiss@misstropolis.com.
*Cover Image: Molly Hatch, Agency at the Fuller Craft Museum.
