Katherine Bradford, Communal Table, 2025, Canada Gallery
Nothing offers the comfort of coming together...maybe it's meeting a friend for coffee, going to a book club, listening to a concert with a lot of other fans, or taking a hike with friends. So many ways the primal need for community can be met. During covid there was a real hole in all our lives. Some people had their bubbles and that helped. We had our neighbors and lots of time talking in the quiet street. Those neighbors became even more precious after the January 7th fire. This yearning for community made me think about the kinds of ways we gather.
Harold Harvey, Lunch, 1918
Sometimes it's just meeting a friend or two for coffee, tea, lunch, talking.
Nachum Gutman
Above: A balcony is an intimate place to be with a friend while staying connected to the world.
Below: Stoop, sidewalk, and porch gathering is a way of reaching out to neighbors. A way to encourage spontaneous community. An article here about how those places helped everyone during the covid lock downs.
stoop.stories...the story can be found here.
New Yorkers on a stoop, 1970s, courtesy NYPL
A classic front porch scene from Andy of Mayberry
Illustration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Sir John Tenniel
Above: A tea party is an excellent way to bring your friends together
A barber shop, a beauty salon, even a small hardware store, can be another kind of gathering place...a place to chat with people you've built up relationships with over many visits.
Below: In our neighborhood when a coffee house and lunch spot opened in an air stream trailer about 2018, it provided a focus for daily walks. I felt it was life changing, but I had no idea at the time how true that was. It was always a beloved place to run into friends, but after the fires in January it became much more, truly the heart of our community. Meetings were held here to reunite neighbors who'd lost homes to the fire, or couldn't move back for months until remediation was completed. When we saw each other here there was, and is, such a sense of joy, of appreciating how much the neighborhood and the community itself mattered.
Below: Above: The Farmers Market on Fairfax and 3rd is a favorite place of mine. When some of our friends had young children they'd meet there on Sundays to read the papers and let the kids play. A very fun spot. And still wonderful.
Andrea D'Agosto, The Original Farmers Market, Hollywood
Nicole Eisenman, Brooklyn Biergarten II, 2008
Below: It's funny how much this Renoir scene from almost 150 years ago feels so much like the Eisenman above of the Brooklyn Biergarten.
Pierre-August Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880-81
Below: I love this Nan Goldin image below, a picnic on the Charles River, Boston in 1973. More picnics follow...
Nan Goldin, Picnic on the Esplanade, 1973
Above: You can see Stettheimer painting in the upper right. In the lower left Marcel Duchamp is posing for Edward Steichen. This party is set at Stettheimer's family estate, "Andre Brook", in Tarrytown NY.
Detail of above showing Stettheimer painting
Hanging out together on the beach...
Harold Harvey, "August 1939", 1940, depicting the last summer of peace before the outbreak of WWII.
Ron Church, 1963, featuring the Windansea Surf Club members.
Margate Beach, 1930s
Faith Ringold, Tar Beach Quilt
Below: Walking a dog means meeting a myriad of other dog walkers and dog lovers...all sorts of conversations come from that. Dog parks are another way to stand around chatting with people you're likely to spend time with again. In China there is a tradition of bird walking, with birds in cages, a way of socializing.
Charlotte Ager
Below: The magic of being on the beach together at night...campfires and stars and sparklers....
Laura Clayton Baker, Campfire 2025
Robert Frank, "NYC, 14th Street White Tower Hamburgers", 1949.
David Park, Interior with Fruit, 1951-52
Nicole Eisenman, Seder, 2010
Salman Toor, Lunch, 2019
Detail from An Elegant Party, Song Dynasty, 960-1279, attributed to Emperor Huizong
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569), The Peasant Wedding, 1567
Stanley Spencer (1891-1959), The Last Supper, 1920
Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), Fisherman's Last Supper, Nova Scotia, 1940-41
Bars or pubs and parties make it easy to relax with old friends and meet new ones...
Marketa Luskacova, 1976, People in Knave of Club's pub, London
Arthur Swoger
Above: Elaine de Kooning, Frank O'Hara, and Franz Kline, at Cedar Tavern, May 1957
Above: Frank O'Hara at the Five Spot, a jazz bar frequented by the abstract expressionists.
Nicole Eisenman, "Another Green World", 2015
Above: If you look carefully you can see the record that's about to be played is Brian Eno's "Another Green World" and the reason for the painting's title.
Natalie Ascencios
Above: "Roundtable at the Algonquin", the famous literary group who met daily for lunch in the 1920s, including Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Alexander Woolcott, Edna Ferber, and George S. Kaufman.
Izzy Barber "Last Night", 2020
Above: From Izzy Barber's series "Last Call & Chinatown". Barber does these evocative oil paintings quickly on site, and carries them back in pizza boxes... (I asked!).
Pedro Figari (1861-1938) Tertulia (A Gathering), 1900
Above: Michael Andrews, 1962, The Colony Room I. Lucien Freud is depicted in the center looking towards the viewer. The man on the right facing away with the pink collar is Francis Bacon. The Colony Club was a gathering spot for the 60s art world in London.
Above: Salman Toor "Bar Boy", 2019, seems to be an homage to the Michael Andrews painting above.
Salman Toor Mehfil/Party, 2019
Above: A surprising group activity is cleaning the streets...there are a number of groups in NY that have fun together and do some civic good at the same time...Pick-up Pigeons, The Litter Legion, Greenpoint Trash Club are a few. They fill bags with litter and head to a bar after to unwind.
Above and below: Turning a laundromat into a bar or using it for a party makes washing clothes a lot more fun...a chance to hang out with friends, meet new friends too.
Below: Cooking is a great way to spend time together...whether it's a group of friends or a family, for a celebration, or just a nice dinner.
Carmen Lomas Garza, "Tamalada", 1990
Sometimes gatherings happen around a shared interest...book clubs, quilting bees, gardening, painting, support groups, giving circles, flower arranging, trivia nights, golf, cooking, swimming, playing music together, dancing, camping, hiking, poker, bridge, chess, Mahjong, singing in choirs, community theatre, amateur sports, and so on. All wonderful ways to connect with other people.
Hope Olson "Land and Sea"
Above and below: Swimming
David Park
Katherine Bradford "Surf Party", 2015
Bob Thompson, Garden of Music, 1960
Above and below: Bob Thompson painted some of his favorite jazz musicians here, including Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry shown below.
Lee Friedlander photo of Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry, 1959
Above: The Beatles and Brian Epstein relaxing August 1962, just about the time Ringo joins the band.
Above: In Chendu, China, the tea houses are places to spend the day. People bring newspapers and play games like Mahjong, chess, and cards.
Poker Night on The Odd Couple TV show, first aired 12/24/70
Poker night from the Odd Couple movie with Walter Matthau
Horace Pippin 1943, "Domino Players"
John Curran, Mahjong game
Vintage photo Mahjong game
Georges de La Tour, 1620-1640, "The Cardsharp with the Ace of Diamonds"
Norman Rockwell, "The Bid", 1948
Eugene Beringuier "Sewing Lessons in the Garden" 1874
Grandma Moses, "The Quilting Bee", 1940-1950
Faith Ringgold, "The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles", 1996
James Walker Tucker, "Hiking", 1936
Vintage hiking photo, 1920s
Above: "13 Women Artists" was a self organized exhibition in NYC at 117 Prince St., featuring pioneering women artists like Louise Bourgeois, Faith Ringgold, Joan Snyder, and Miriam Schapiro. It served as a key moment for women artists to gain visibility and form community, paving the way for collectives like the A.I. R. Gallery.
Above: Guerrilla Girls, Soho, NYC, 1985. The Guerrilla Girls are a group of anonymous feminist artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism in the art world formed in 1985. They're known for the line..."Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum? Less than 5% of the artists in the modern art sections are, but 85% of the nudes are." There's a current show for their 40th anniversary at the Getty "How to be a Guerrilla Girl" that's on till April 12th 2026.
Burt Glinn, 1957
Above: These three women, Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, and Grace Hartigan, were iconic abstract expressionist artists. The book "Ninth Street Women" tells their story beautifully, and also includes Elaine de Kooning and Lee Krasner.
Vintage curling photo
Vintage curling photo
Above: Chilly Challenge at Puffer's Pond, North Amherst, Mass. This is a fundraiser for the Center for Women & Community, but polar plunges can be a regular part of peoples lives as a health boost reducing inflammation, boosting mood, improving circulation, improving sleep, and more fun in groups if you live near a chilly lake or ocean!
Above and below: Rowing clubs are a great way to find community. Above is a mixed age women's club from Boston, below is the Oakland Women's Rowing Club, aka the Ladies of the Lake, founded in 1916, for women 60-80.
Justin Sullivan
Greater Providence RI Softball League
Above: Amateur league sports are also a great way to find community.
Community Theater...A scene from the film "Waiting for Guffman".
Above and below: A scene from the "Midwinter Revels", a holiday tradition from Cambridge, Mass. celebrating the winter solstice and Christmas with songs, dances and stories from various cultures. The Revels encourages local community involvement, believing everyone is has the ability to sing, dance, and be part of the experience. The story of this years show is about Ellis Island, a natural subject for diverse people getting to know each other. They aim to "spark appreciation for the diverse world we live in, and awaken a sense of joy and connection".
Below: During the early days of covid, Zoom became a lifeline for many. It allowed for new ways of being together, and continued to be a useful place after we could all be together in person again. It's added a lot to my life...I joined a bookclub with old friends across the country who I'd lost touch with, and we're still reading together. I started and continue taking virtual painting classes at the NY Studio School, which has been fantastic...excellent teachers and small enough classes that you get to know everyone. And because my dad lives across the country, he and I started a reading group...just the two of us, and we take turns reading novels and short stories aloud to each other every week.
Laura Clayton Baker "Zoom Book Club", 2025
High School Ikebana club display in Kyoto.
Postcard of an outdoor art class in Rockport, Mass.
The Granite Group Artists...a painting outdoors with friends in the Sierras.
Winners of the Evanston Plein Air Festival, 2025, Evanston Illinois
1920s Texas Artists Camp participants, along the Concho River.
Above and below: Painting classes led by Charles Webster Hawthorne in Provincetown about 1910. After traveling abroad, and studying with a number of artists including William Merritt Chase, Hawthorne started the Cape Cod School of Art in 1899, the first outdoor school for figure painting in America. It grew into one of the nations leading art schools. He was also a founding member of the Provincetown Art Association.
Class at the Hans Hofman School of Arts, Provincetown, Mass, 1945
Plein air painting with friends
Below: Community Gardens are a wonderful place to connect with neighbors, and get the pleasure of working in a garden when you live in a city and don't have a yard. I wrote a post about them a while ago...you can see it here.
Above: A painting party at the Green Oasis & Gilbert's Sculpture Garden in the east village, NYC.
Above and below: 1100 Bergen St. Community Garden became the first well known land trust site in NYC. With help from the Trust for Public Land this block association was able to purchase the garden property from the city for 10% of the real property market value.
Above: 1100 Bergen Street has been transformed by the community volunteers, and become a place to gather and celebrate.
Above: Students, parents, and teachers work on the garden at the 24th St. school, West Adams, LA, on "Big Sunday", the largest annual citywide community service event in America.
Below: In the most neighborly way, a generous person has purchased a beautiful tiny bungalow in Laurel Canyon, not to live in, but to turn into a place for poetry readings, book readings, and other gatherings. This is something tangible that one person did to create a space for community.
Laura Clayton Baker, Bungalow, 2025
For some people yearning for community there are ways of living that build in that goal. One is "intentional community" which is unrelated people living together communally, like an extended family. These tend to be mixed age which offers grandparent figures and babysitting to families with young children, and liveliness to older people or anyone who feels isolated.
Below: The essence of all sitcoms seem to answer to that primal need for community. Think about Friends, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Seinfeld, Brooklyn 99, The Office, Parks and Rec, The Big Bang Theory, etc. and most especially Cheers, where the theme song talks about everyone knowing your name. Watching those shows makes you feel included in a group that becomes like family.
Cheers
Seinfeld
The Office
Mary Tyler Moore
King of the Hill
Friends
When the state of the country, or a sense of injustice, makes you feel hopeless and helpless, bringing people together and using the weight of a group will amplify everyone's voice and can ultimately lead to a change. I like this quote from Winnie Holzman, screenwriter and playwright, best known for writing the musical Wicked, and co-writing the two movies based on it.
"I think it's really important right now to find ways to lift each other's spirits,
to feel that there's a community that one can be part of.
It helps you live through some of the harder situations that we find ourselves in."
Winnie Holzman
The suffragette movement was a highly organized effort that took many years of hard work before women won the right to vote through the 19th amendment. Below a group of organizers are at work in the office of the National Woman's Party in Washington D.C., in 1919. Many fantastic photos in this article from the Atlantic.
Alice Smith, S. J. de Crasse, and G. H. Halleran sell copies of the Suffragist in Boston Mass.
A suffrage parade takes place in NYC
October 23rd 1915
Above: A jubilee celebrating the passage of the 19th amendment.
Photo: G. Marshall Wilson
Above: Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech to the largest crowd ever to participate in a civil rights demonstration, August 28th 1963.
Below: View of anti-Vietnam War protesters around the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, on October 21st, 1967.
Leif Skoogfors/Getty
Below: Nicole Eisenman, The Abolitionists in the Park, 2020-2022. The painting takes it's subject from "Occupy City Hall", at City Hall Park in downtown Manhattan, triggered by the murder of George Floyd. The occupation began July 23rd, 2020, and lasted for months.
Below: The "No Kings" march in NYC on October 18th 2025. About 7 million people participated in "No Kings" events that day, occurring in all 50 states. The commonality created a joyful feeling.
Adam Gray/NYTimes
Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Paul Fusco
Paul Fusco
Paul Fusco
On a less somber note, there is great joy to be found listening to music with other people. During the worst times of covid people found creative ways to share music from yards, windows, and balconies...
Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters
Above: Part of a musical flash mob organized in Rome, March 13, 2020, in the early days of covid.
Below: In Cleveland, players from Opus 216 perform in a front yard on May 23rd, 2020
John Kuntz
Below: Music festivals give the sense of being with your people, a shared joy.
Above and below: A blurry screen grab from the trailer of a great film..."Our Latin Thing" by Fania. More about the film here.
Above and below: Woodstock festival, summer of '69.
Philip Gould, Grateful Dead fans dancing in a field outside
Berkeley's Greek Theater while the Dead played inside.
Glyn Howells, June 1993, "Dead play Vegas"
Terry Schmitt/SF Chronicle Golden Gate Park Grateful Dead/Jefferson Starship Concert, September 1975
Above: Hitching a ride home from Woodstock.
Dancing together....
Sunday afternoon tango at Plaza Dorrego in Buenos Aires
David Park (1911-1960), "Sophmore Society", 1953
Edvard Munch (1863-1944), The Dance of Life, 1899-1900
Henri Rousseau, The Centenary of Independence, 1892
Above: Quite an interesting story about the reason for this dance! It all started with a tarantula bite, and a woman who writhed and dance convulsively to rid herself of the venom. Soon others joined her. More here.
Above: Contra dancing has become a popular more inclusive version of square dancing. I read about it in Catherine Newman's book "Wreck" and she makes it sound overwhelmingly fun!
Below: Joyful celebrations....
Michael Dwyer/AP
Above and below: The ecstasy in Boston when the Red Sox broke an 86 year losing streak (perhaps the "curse of the bambino" for trading Babe Ruth in 1920), to win the World Series in 2004.
Bizuayehu Tesfaye/AP
Allen J. Schaben/LA Times
Above and below: Dodger parades celebrating back to back World Series wins in 2024 and 2025.
Daniel Cole
Mardi Gras revelers on Frenchmen Street, New Orleans, 2009
Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Puerto Rican Parade 2016
Peter Hujar, Gay Liberation Front poster image, 1970
Narinder Nanu
Above: On March 22nd 2020, people gathering together on a balcony to clap and make noise with kitchenware to thank essential service providers in Amritsar, India.
Eric Thayer/LA Times
Above: Supporters of NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani cheer on his victory at an election night party in Highland Park, Los Angeles.
We're not the only ones who need each other.
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