Upstate Art Weekend
July 21, 2023 – July 24, 2023
Upstate New York
Hudson Valley and Catskills
Upstate Art Weekend returns for its fourth edition this weekend, from July 21, 2023, to July 24, 2023. The weekend-long event was founded by Helen Toomer and is a connective annual planned gathering for tourists and locals to experience and celebrate the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York. It is managed by Haley Carloni and powered by Stoneleaf Retreat.
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After just three previous editions, Upstate Art Weekend is bigger than ever. After launching in 2020, it started as an informal map for tourists featuring twenty-three participants. Now, it has now grown into a festival with over 130 participants, bringing thousands of visitors to the region. The festival features galleries, museums, residencies, art organizations, and creative projects.
Upstate Art Weekend was designed as a way of connecting local artists and cultural organizations in the Hudson Valley and Catskills, and one of the main ways it achieved this was through its Google Map. Leadership creates a program of events and an interactive Google Map so that visitors can follow the festivities on their own devices. In 2022, the Google Map garnered over 255,000 views.
This weekend’s program is packed with special events. At the Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory, visitors can walk through the private art studios of artists Anita Fina Kiewra, Randi Chalfin, Basha Ruth Nelson, Penny Dell, and Jeff Aman. Workshops will also be offered in The Coffeehouse, including collage, screen-printing, gel print, etching, meditation, and sculpture. Private artist studios are also open at Beacon Open Studios and Newburgh’s Atlas Studios.
In Kingston, Noise for Now is hosting an auction supporting the New York Abortion Access Fund, and Ellenville is giving visitors a preview of the Borscht Belt Museum, opening in 2025.
There are also a variety of performances, including Indigenous sound artists at Art Omi, put on by the Hudson Valley Intertribal Noise Symposium, and an outdoor performance by Emily Johnson at the CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art.
In Catskills, the Upstate Art Weekend hosts a fair in the industrial buildings called NADA Foreland. This fair features community vendors and a wide range of galleries. Some of the featured art includes embroidery by Padma Rajendran, Olivia Jia’s paintings, oil silhouettes by Ryan Steadman, and ceramics by Whit Harris. The NADA Foreland is in Greene County and will be open until July 23, 2023.
One artist receiving special attention at the Upstate Art Weekend is sculptor Kathy Ruttenberg. Located in Ulster County, Ruttenberg is opening her doors for the weekend and showing her near-life-size ceramic figures of sprites, fairy-tale heroines, and animals.
The majority of the events at participating venues are free and open to the public, but some require ticketing and registration. The program has more information and Upstate Art Weekend can be followed at @upstateartweekend.
