September 20 – October 10, 2026.

Stephanie McCaine produced the musical 1776 at the Historical Hall the last 2 weeks of June in honor of the Semiquincentennial.  The production was championed by The Bedford Historical Society and the Friends of John Jay Homestead with the support of Katonah Classic Stage.

Max Valentine-Mills, a recent Purchase College graduate who also appeared in the production as the ‘Artist and Leather Apron’ created a series of seven paintings during the performances. In the opening scene of 1776, Franklin is sitting for a portrait, and Max extended that theatrical moment by continuing to paint our Franklin and other members of the cast throughout the run.

The resulting works became a visual counterpart to the production itself. As the team did not want to present 1776 as a museum piece, these paintings do not offer fixed, formal, commemorative portraits of the Founder. They are loose, layered, and visibly in process, capturing actors in motion as they inhabited these historical figures in real time.

Presented together, the paintings extend the production’s act of excavation. They invite questions about who is pictured in the American story, how familiar historical figures change when their words are spoken through a broader range of bodies and voices, and whether the founding should be understood as a completed monument or as an ongoing, unfinished argument. The series is therefore more than documentation of the production: it is a body of artwork created from within the performance that continues the conversation the production began.

Artist Statement:

Max Valentine Mills always knew he was an Artist.  Raised by an English Teacher Mom and Painter Dad in the Flatbush area in Brooklyn, he studied at SUNY Purchase College’s Fine Arts program.  This series of paintings were created before, during and after each show of the musical production of 1776 at the Bedford Historical Hall. 

A plot point of the play is Benjamin Franklin having his portrait painted and I would start the paintings the morning of the production – so they would read on stage – and continue to paint during the production and finish them up right after.  Some of the compositions were thought of as different aspects of Benjamin Franklin’s personality and his inventions as well as playing off some of the dialogue from the show.

To purchase any of the portraits, please reach out to Christopher Brescia at:  Artgallerycb@gmail.com.