By Elmer Ploetz

Curtain Up! 2025 Buffalo kicked off the area theater season last night (Friday, Sept.19), but one of the highlights of the new year came earlier in the week, on Monday, when actress Anne Gabel Gayley was honored with her own star on the Plaza of Stars at 710 Main Street.

Gayley has been a mainstay of Buffalo theater since moving to the city in 1957, becoming one of the city’s most active performers and directors on stage and also on TV and radio.

“She’s not only a remarkable actress, she’s admired and applauded by by so many people from so many decades for being such a very, very important part of the theater community here in Western New York,” Theatre District Association Co-President Lisa Ludwig said at the ceremony dedicating the star.

If you would like to learn more about Gayley and her career, check out this podcast interview with Peter Palmisano from 2023.

WNY art community loses Jay Carrier

Also on Sept. 15, artist Jay Carrier died.

Carrier was one of the region’s preeminent painter, exhibiting at Art Basel 2025 in Switzerland, in New York City and with works at the AKG Buffalo, the Burchfield Penney and other galleries. His “Niagara it’s Great to be Here” exhibition was featured last winter at the Buffalo Arts Studio and Back Rock Arts currently has his work in its “Water, Water, Everywhere” exhibit.

Carrier’s funeral was Friday. A member of the Wolf Clan and of Onandaga and Tuscarora heritage, Carrier was one of the first tenants of the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center in the former Niagara Falls High School. Memorials can be made in his name to the NACC.

In a statement in memory of Carrier, Burchfield Penney Executive Director Scott Propeack said, “(Carrier) spent a career working hard at a job outside of the arts. He put in an effort and energy that was doubled for his family and his creative work. He produced and explored more ideas than some who are fortunate to only focus on their art, and he was only getting started. All that he created and achieved was paralleled by his support and kindness that he shared in support of others.

“We are all deeply saddened by his passing, and we cling to every piece of work he produced and every conversation we had with him. Through this, we hope that we can continue to honor and share his work with those who were not fortunate enough to know him personally.”

Here is Carrier’s artist talk from the “Free to Roam” exhibition he did at Hallwalls in 2021.