On the first weekend of October, four Morgantown studios will unlock their doors and let the public walk in. There is no ticket, no velvet rope, no fixed starting point. Visitors pick up a map, choose a studio, and go — and then, if they like, they go to the next one. The Mo'town Studio Tour, now in its eighth year, runs Saturday, October 3, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, October 4, from noon to 4 p.m.
The premise is simple and a little old-fashioned: artists who usually work alone, in rooms built for making rather than showing, open those rooms to strangers. Four host artists anchor the tour, and each hosts a curated group of guest artists — some local, some from elsewhere in West Virginia, some with ties to the state, and some who travel in from the surrounding region. Over the years the tour has showcased work from artists based in West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Maine, and Missouri, among others. The through-line, according to the organizers, is work "you want to live with in your homes, use in your kitchens, or wear on your bodies."
The event's origins trace back to a single potter's frustration with distance. Jen Allen, a Morgantown ceramic artist and instructor, was inspired by national ceramic tours — the kind of multi-studio weekends that have long been a fixture in pottery-rich regions — and wondered why her own city didn't have one. Five years before the tour's fifth edition in 2023, she set out to build a tour of artists working in all mediums, not just clay, spread across local studios. Lisa Giuliani, a potter and jewelry maker, became a co-founder. The two are consistently described in local coverage as the hosts and founders of the event.
What they built has a deliberately rotating cast. The roster of guest artists changes every year, and participants typically attend only once. That's not an accident of scheduling; it's the design. A constantly shifting lineup gives local audiences a chance to see one-of-a-kind work they wouldn't otherwise encounter, and it gives visiting artists a reason to come see what Morgantown has to offer. Giuliani has framed the goal plainly: "We're trying to bring great art to Morgantown," she told The Dominion Post. "We're trying to have a lot of people come to Morgantown, and just increase the reach of artists in Morgantown."
The four hosts for 2026 are Bryn Perrott, Lisa Giuliani, Shalya Marsh, and CJ Helenski, each of whom will host their own slate of guests. The hosts themselves represent a cross-section of the city's creative community. Perrott, who works under the name DeerJerk, graduated with a BFA in printmaking from West Virginia University in 2004 and has built a career on highly detailed woodcuts and relief carvings that draw on tattoo imagery, print history, and a love of animals. Marsh is a ceramic artist and educator, originally from upstate New York, who holds a BFA from the State University of New York and now lives and works in Morgantown, where her studio practice centers on ceramic stencils and surface design. Giuliani works in both pottery and jewelry. Helenski, who sews under the name CJ Sews, makes one-of-a-kind wearable art from cutter quilts — well-loved vintage and antique quilts — and thrifted textiles.
The guest list has historically been as broad as the hosts' interests. Past participants have included printmakers, potters, textile artists, metalsmiths, photographers, muralists, illustrators, and clothing designers. Among the names from recent years: Christina Kang, a West Virginia University graduate whose prints explore what the tour's own materials describe as the cultural rift in which Asian Americans find themselves confined; Lindsay Hagerty, known as Part-time Poodle, who designs colorful clothing in linen and second-hand fabrics and travels with a prop goose dressed in her designs; and Carolyn "CJ" Helenski, who has since graduated from guest to host. The tour has also handed out awards to visiting artists in categories including a Local Spotlight Award, a WV Artist Award, and a DEI Award.
The self-guided format is central to the experience. Attendees receive a punch card at their first stop, and a punch from all four studios enters them into a raffle for art by the host or guest artists — a small nudge to see the whole tour rather than one favorite stop. Studios are located in town and just east of town in Brookhaven, and the organizers maintain an interactive map with directions to each stop. Because the tour is free and unticketed, it functions less like a conventional arts festival and more like an open-house weekend: visitors can linger, ask questions about process, and watch makers at work in the spaces where the work actually happens.
The eighth edition also comes with a kickoff. A pre-tour party and auction is scheduled for Friday, October 2, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Co-op, timed to coincide with First Friday. It's a chance to see work and support the tour before the studios open the following morning.
For a city that sometimes gets defined by its university and its football Saturdays, the studio tour has become a quiet counterweight — an annual reminder that Morgantown has a working artistic community whose reach extends well beyond the state line. Eight years in, the formula hasn't changed much: open the doors, put out a map, and let people wander in.