Tom Annear spoke to the Shakespeare Club in October.

WESTFIELD — The Fredonia Shakespeare Club kicked off the 2025-26 season with the traditional Tea, held at the Lakeshore Center for the Arts on Oct. 9. Twenty members and guests were in attendance. The Club’s area of study for the new season is UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Club President Karin Seger Cockram welcomed all in attendance. Cockram introduced guest speaker, artist, Thomas Annear who was originally from Alexandria, Va., and graduated from Rutgers University in 1995. In 2000 he moved to Fredonia.

Annear’s focus over the past 25 years has been plein air (painting outdoors) paintings that celebrate the beauty and history of local agricultural communities. The last 17 years he has broadened his work to include national parks and monuments. He has visited over 30 such sites and created more than sixty paintings in the parks and their surrounding ecosystems. The club was treated to a slide show of his works during which he described his paintings, the parks, and their beauty.

The Tea was organized by incoming officers: Seger Cockram, President; Sharon Klug, vice president; Dr. Leanna McMahon, treasurer; and Beckie Huber-Ross, secretary.

The Fredonia Shakespeare Club was established in 1885. In October 1886, the first regular annual cycles began, which initiated an unbroken sequence of meetings of the Club over the last nearly 140 years.

At the next meeting of the club will be when Cheryll Rogers will present her paper on Alambra with Klug as hostess.