The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz will co-present a collection of art installations along the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail from Aug. 27-29 as part of Upstate Art Weekend, a celebration of creativity in the Hudson Valley that includes contributions from more than 60 organizations.
The Dorsky Museum is collaborating with The Cronin Gallery, Wallkill Valley Land Trust and the Women’s Studio Workshop to present Rooted: Art + Land, which can be viewed at specific sites along the Rail Trail linking Rosendale, New Paltz and Gardiner, New York.
Each of the three collaborating arts organizations is working with a woman-identified artist to present artwork at locations along the trail. They are also hosting programming throughout the weekend to engage visitors and foster conversations around land stewardship and the importance of art in connecting communities.
Wallkill Valley Land Trust is serving as a bridge between the artists, the organizations and the land, helping to bring contemporary art into these trails and open spaces.
Use this link to view the full schedule and map for Rooted: Art + Land.
The Dorsky Museum will present the work of Emilie Houssart, the Dorsky’s 2021 Artist-in-Residence, who will create “DIRTdoors,” a new, interactive project that grew out of her exhibition “DIRT: Inside Landscapes.” Using a series of doors spread throughout the Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary, visitors are invited to experience the ground underneath the visible landscape, to build personal relationships with ecological neighbors, and to consider questions about food and land.
The Cronin Gallery has partnered with Brooklyn-based curator Beth Tully to bring artist Bel Falleiros’s living monument, “America (un)known,” to the Gardiner Library. This piece dismantles traditional monument structures based on colonial, hierarchical standards and reimagines them using ancestral forms of construction, bringing humans, the earth, and the cosmos together. Falleiros will install a second piece, “To Ripple with Water,” at Denizen Theatre in New Paltz.
Women’s Studio Workshop is presenting work by Althea James, the recipient of their 2021 Public Art Mural Grant. Over the course of a four-week residency, James will create an original work of art for the Workshop’s mural wall, as an ever-evolving canvas for public art that overlooks both their new ADA-accessible outdoor event space and the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail.
More information about Upstate Art Weekend is available here.
Visit the Cronin Gallery website here.
Visit the Wallkill Valley Land Trust website here.
Visit the Women’s Studio Workshop website here.
About The Dorsky Museum
Through its collections, exhibitions and public programs, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art supports and enriches the academic programs at the College and serves as a center for Hudson Valley arts and culture. With more than 9,000 square feet of exhibition space distributed over six galleries, The Dorsky Museum is one of the largest museums in the SUNY system. Since its official dedication in 2001, The Dorsky has presented more than 100 exhibitions, including commissions, collection-based projects, and in-depth studies of contemporary artists including Robert Morris, Alice Neel, Judy Pfaff, Carolee Schneemann and Ushio Shinohara.
Funding for The Dorsky’s exhibitions and programs is provided by the Friends of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art and SUNY New Paltz.
Museum Hours
Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Closed Mondays, Tuesdays, holidays and intersessions.
For more information about The Dorsky Museum and its programs, visit http://www.newpaltz.edu/museum or call (845) 257-3844.
