By Ann Marie Byrd, Feature Writer
On a crisp November morning in New Bern, the front porch lights flicker on a little earlier than usual. Driveways begin to fill, studio doors prop open, and the smell of coffee mingles with the faint tang of oil paint, damp clay, and sawdust. All across the city, signs read, “Come On In.”
It’s Studio Tour day in New Bern.
Opening Doors, Opening Conversations
On November 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and again on an optional tour day November 15, from noon to 3 p.m., the New Bern Artist Studio Tour returns for its ninth year. What began as a simple idea—invite the community into artists’ workspaces—has grown into a citywide tradition and one of Craven County’s most anticipated fall events.
Hosted by the Craven Arts Council & Gallery, the 2026 tour will feature 50 artists spread across more than 20 studio locations, from cozy backyard sheds to light-filled downtown lofts, plus a special artist pop-up at the Harrison Center. It’s a free, self-guided event, and visitors are encouraged to wander at their own pace.
Unlike a typical gallery opening, the Studio Tour puts you directly in the creative thick of things: brushes still wet, clay still soft, wood shavings still on the floor. You’re not just looking at finished art—you’re stepping into the middle of the story.
Beyond the Gallery Walls
“The mission of Craven Arts Council & Gallery is to create an environment where the arts thrive, bring joy, and enrich the cultural experience in our community,” says Executive Director Jonathan Burger. The Studio Tour is that mission in motion.
Craven Arts Council, based in the historic Bank of the Arts building on Middle Street, is a small nonprofit with an outsized footprint. With only three staff members and hundreds of volunteers, it coordinates over twenty rotating exhibitions each year, manages public art projects (like the beloved Bear Town Bears), organizes popular community murals, and presents concerts, poetry readings, and special events.
The Studio Tour stands out because it flips the usual dynamic. Instead of inviting the public into a formal gallery space, it sends them out into neighborhoods, side streets, and homes they might never otherwise see.
“Watching someone talk with a viewer who deeply connects with their work, or the smile of a child seeing the mural they worked on, or a young artist seeing their work hanging in a gallery for the first time, is a magical experience,” Burger says. “The Studio Tour creates those kinds of moments all day long.”
Meet the Makers: A Peek Inside the Studios
Every door on the tour map opens onto a different artistic world. Some studios are meticulously organized; others are gloriously chaotic. Some are tucked into spare bedrooms; others are fully equipped outbuildings built for the task. What unites them is an eagerness to share.
Clay, Fire, and Face Jugs
At the home studio of Lisa and Pat Connell, art is a team sport. The husband-and-wife duo specialize in face jugs and other pottery, working in mid-fire stoneware clay and mixing most of their glazes from raw ingredients.
During the tour, visitors can watch the entire process unfold: clay centered on the wheel, forms thrown and shaped, kilns loaded and unloaded, and perhaps most intriguing of all, shelves of hand-mixed glaze tests in countless subtle variations of color and sheen. The Connells plan to have their wheels, kilns, clay process, and glazing techniques on display—alongside finished works ready to take home.
It’s a rare chance to see how something as humble as a lump of clay becomes a character-filled jug with attitude and history baked into its surface.
The Magic of Watercolor
For watercolor artist Christine Provard, the Studio Tour is as much about teaching as it is about showing.
“Sharing my creative process with others of all ages is part of my joy in working with watercolors,” she explains. “People are often intimidated with this process and I enjoy breaking it down into smaller steps for them to try. There is a magic found with watercolors that is so exciting. Watching the paints combine and blend on the paper is so fun and then to watch the results is great.”
In her studio, visitors don’t just stand back and observe. If they want to, they can pick up a brush, wet the paper, and watch pigment bloom and merge in real time. That split second when the paint hits water—unpredictable, luminous, alive—is exactly the moment Provard loves to share.
“The tour allows visitors to watch and participate if they want when visiting my studio,” she says. It’s an invitation not just to look at finished paintings, but to feel the medium in your own hand.
Texture You Can Touch
In downtown, painter and printmaker Vicki Vitale is ready to put tools directly into visitors’ hands.
“I usually show a painting, whether it is a miniature or wood block and the tools used to create the piece,” she explains. “If it’s textured work, I let them apply stucco to a board to experience the feel and look.”
In a world where so much art is kept at arm’s length—no touching, no flash photography—the chance to spread stucco across a surface and feel its weight and grit is surprisingly memorable. You leave not just with an image in mind, but with a physical memory in your fingertips.
And Vitale is just one example. Across the tour you’ll find artists working in painting, photography, sculpture, woodworking, and more. Some are longtime professionals with established reputations; others are hobbyists quietly creating in their spare hours. The tour levels the playing field: each artist gets a space, a listing in the guide, and a day to share their passion with the public.
How It Works: Maps, Pins, and a Little Adventure
The New Bern Artist Studio Tour is designed to be as approachable as possible.
Cost: Free
Date & Time:
Saturday, November 14, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Optional tour day: Sunday, November 15, noon–3 p.m.
Where: Across New Bern, with more than 20 studio locations and a pop-up at the Harrison Center downtown.
To get started, pick up an Artist Guide at the Bank of the Arts (317 Middle Street) or at various locations around town. The guide includes:
• A map of participating studios
• Artist profiles and mediums
• Driving suggestions so you can cluster nearby locations
• An Artist Studio Punch Card for a bit of extra fun
Each studio you visit can stamp your card. Once you collect ten stamps, bring your punch card back to redeem it for a limited-edition 2026 New Bern Artist Studio Tour pin—a small but satisfying badge of honor for an art-filled day.
If you prefer to travel light, you can also access the digital map and guide at www.newbernartists.com on your phone or tablet.
A Community Effort, Powered by the Arts
The Studio Tour is organized by the NBST committee as a program of the Craven Arts Council & Gallery, a 501©(3) nonprofit dedicated to nurturing the arts in Craven County. Support from the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, helps make the event possible.
But its true engine is local: artists who open their doors, volunteers who help coordinate logistics, businesses that host guides and spread the word, and visitors who show up ready to explore.
Craven Arts’ broader work amplifies that impact year-round. In addition to the Studio Tour, the organization:
• Hosts more than 20 rotating exhibitions annually in its two gallery spaces
• Maintains a sales gallery featuring local artists
• Coordinates public art projects like Bear Town Bears and annual community murals
• Offers grants to artists and arts organizations
• Presents concerts, judge’s talks, poetry readings, and other special programs
• Partners with other organizations to enhance community events
Operates signature fundraisers such as:
• Broad Street banners (showcasing local artists)
• Empty Bowls, in partnership with RCS
• Footloose on the Neuse with the City of New Bern
“There’s always something new to see at Bank of the Arts,” Burger notes. “And we’re always looking for new ideas and ways to engage and inspire our community. Keep an eye out for information about our new mural in Downtown New Bern for April of 2027, where we’ll be asking our community to help us fund and paint the image.”
How to Get Involved (Before or After the Tour)
If one Saturday of studio visits isn’t enough—and for many, it isn’t—Craven Arts offers plenty of ways to stay connected:
Visit the Galleries:Bank of the Arts317 Middle StreetNew Bern, NC 28563Open Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.Admission is free.
Become a Member or Donor:Memberships help sustain exhibitions and programs, and come with benefits like discounted entry fees and event tickets. Donations—both one-time and recurring—can be made online or in person, and Craven Arts also accepts certain art supplies, artwork, and materials.Learn more at:
www.cravenarts.org
www.cravenarts.org/membership.html#/
Volunteer or Participate:Craven Arts is always looking for volunteers, artists, and engaged community members. Sign up for email updates and volunteer opportunities at www.cravenarts.org, or follow along on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cravenarts
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cravenarts/
Explore the Studio Tour Online:
www.newbernartists.com for maps, artist listings, and updates
Why It Matters
On the surface, the New Bern Artist Studio Tour is a pleasant way to spend a fall Saturday. You drive around town, meet interesting people, maybe buy a piece of art that catches your eye.
Look a little deeper, and it becomes something more: a living map of the city’s creative heartbeat, scattered across cul-de-sacs and historic streets, rural roads and downtown corners. It’s proof that serious art can come from a converted garage as easily as a formal gallery, and that creativity thrives when given the chance to be seen.
For artists, it’s a rare moment of direct connection. For visitors, it’s a chance to move from “I don’t get art” to “I watched this being made—and I understand it a little better now.” For New Bern, it’s one more way a small coastal city continues to punch above its weight in culture and community spirit.
On November 14 and 15, the doors will be open. All you have to do is step inside.