EVENTS

Fiber Arts Residency Presentation
Sep
13

Fiber Arts Residency Presentation

Please join us for a dynamic presentation and conversation from Rose Chiarello, the Catskill Art Space and Gael Roots Community Farm jointly hosted Fiber Arts Resident. The presentation marks the culmination of the residency, using the time and space to explore cultivated and wild dye plants, the fiber flax to linen process, and wool from the Icelandic and Shetland sheep raised on the Livingston Manor-based farm. Chiarello will be joined in conversation with Iris Fen Gillingham, founder and director of Gael Roots Community Farm, for a wide-sweeping discussion on the residency and interactive presentation with resources from the farm. 

About the Artist

With over eight years of experience in textiles, fashion, and fine art, Rose Chiarello is a textile designer and artist based between New York and London. She has worked for Kate Spade New York as a Womenswear Designer and, more recently, worked on the Woven Fabric Design Team at Alexander McQueen. Her expertise covers a wide range of practical and creative applications, including weaving, dyeing, painting, sewing, embroidering, embellishing, and other textile-focused techniques. She holds the experimentation and research stages of creation in high regard and blends craftsmanship with creative exploration in her work. Rose has a Master’s in Textiles (Weave) from the Royal College of Art, along with a Bachelor's in Textile/Surface Design, an Associate’s in Fashion Design, and a minor in Art History from the Fashion Institute of Technology. While her career has focused on fashion textiles in recent years, she is expanding further into the fine art world, using her skills to push the boundaries of material innovation. Inspired by light, color, and the natural world, she strives to create works that reimagine beauty through material, color, concept, and technique.

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Ricky Ford Quartet
Sep
20

Ricky Ford Quartet

Riveting tenor saxophonist, Ricky Ford will lead his quartet in a performance of his own compositions and jazz standards. Ford will be accompanied by local-legend and drummer, Thurman Barker.

About the Artist

Legendary saxophonist Ricky Ford was trained at the New England Conservatory of Music. Soon after graduating, he joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Then he went on to work with Charles Mingus (1976-1977), Dannie Richmond (1978-1981), Lionel Hampton (1980-1982), Abdullah Ibrahim (1983-1990), Mal Waldron (1989-1994). He’s recorded with Yusef Lateef, Sonny Stitt, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Amina Claudine Myers, Sathima Bea Benjamin, and Steve Lacy, to just name a few. As a comprehensive musician, Ford has always strived to master different musical genres, from swing to hard bop to free, and recently focusing on the work of Turkish poet and musician Neyzen Tevfik.

As a leader, Ricky Ford has recorded 21 albums and authored a vast repertoire of originals. The musician has proved to have sharp knowledge and is continually looking for new forms of expression. Ford is also a unique arranger and conductor. From 1985 to 1996 he led Brandeis University's big band, arranging the works of composers whose music had never been played by big bands. When he settled in Paris in the 1990s, he created another big band before moving to Turkey to teach at the Istanbul Bilgi University (2000-2006). Ricky Ford has been working with Ze Big Band, conducted by Fred Burgazzi, with who he has recorded two beautiful albums, 7095 (2009) and Sacred Concert (2013). Ford and Ze Big Band created Sketches of Brittany at the Jazz Festival of Vitré, in Brittany. In 2022 Ford, now 68, burst out with a strong new album, The Wailing Sounds of Ricky Ford: Paul's Scene (Whaling City Sound), his first recording in almost a decade. For those who need to be reminded of Ford's playing strength and musical imagination, a listen to this music will jog the memory. Ford never ceases to create music of the highest caliber.

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Wish You Were Here: Tracing the Resort Era in Livingston Manor
Oct
18

Wish You Were Here: Tracing the Resort Era in Livingston Manor

Join photographers Isaac Jeffreys and Marisa Scheinfeld for a powerful visual journey into Livingston Manor’s Borscht Belt past. Through rarely seen photographs, artifacts, and archival footage, this illustrated lecture explores the people, places, and pivotal moments that shaped Catskills culture and its enduring influence. The duo will also offer a sneak peek at upcoming works from their forthcoming publications.

From the 1920s to the 1970s, the Catskill Mountains were a beloved vacation destination for millions of American Jewry. Known as the Borscht Belt, the resorts and bungalow colonies of Sullivan and Ulster Counties became a haven during a time when antisemitism excluded Jews from many facets of American life, including business, employment, social clubs, and travel. Out of that exclusion emerged something extraordinary: a vibrant, welcoming world of tradition, culture, leisure, and connection. The Borscht Belt wasn't just a vacation destination, it was a cultural Renaissance. It paired recreation with a deep sense of community, and it became the birthplace of modern stand-up comedy in the region’s theaters and showrooms.

At its peak after World War II, the Borscht Belt boasted over 535 hotels and resorts and more than 50,000 bungalows. Its legacy has rippled into American life ever since; socially, artistically, and culturally. But as time passed, much of its physical landscape has faded, with many buildings decaying or replaced. Scheinfeld and Jeffreys co-founded the Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project in 2022, along with a small group of artists and historians dedicated to preserving and honoring the memory of this iconic era.

About the Artists

Marisa Scheinfeld is a Jewish-American photographer and author who was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1980 and raised in the Catskills. She received her B.A. from the State University at Albany in 2002, and her MFA from San Diego State University in 2011. Her work is motivated an interest in regional landscape and its myriad histories, both apparent and hidden, and a drive to use the medium of photography as an act of preservation. Marisa’s work is among the collections of the Library of Congress, The New York Public Library, The Center for Jewish History, The National Yiddish Book Center, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley and the Museum of Photographic Arts. Her work has appeared in publications such as National Geographic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Forbes, Paper Magazine, Village Voice, the American Historical Association and American Photography. In the fall of 2016, Cornell University Press released her first book The Borscht Belt: Revisiting the Remains of America’s Jewish Vacationland. Marisa is currently an Adjunct Professor of Photography at SUNY Purchase and working on her second book which explores hidden, alternative and fringe histories of the Catskills and Hudson Valley. 

Isaac Jeffreys is a Hudson Valley native and Parsons School of Design (The New School) graduate (BFA Photography, 2022) whose work sits at the intersection of history, memory, and transformation. Focused on 20th-century spaces, especially the Mid-century modern ‘Borscht Belt’ resorts of the Catskills, Isaac uses film photography, long exposures, and carefully staged scenes to illuminate long-abandoned buildings at night, reanimating spaces left without power or presence. His images invite viewers into dreamlike ruins where nostalgia lingers and the past remains vivid. Since 2022, Isaac has served as Visual Coordinator of The Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project, where he leads research, archival curation, and manages the project’s Instagram—sharing rare collections and stories that introduce the Borscht Belt’s vintage Americana and aesthetics to a new generation. Beyond the Marker Project, Isaac has spoken at The Center for Photography at Woodstock and Modernism Week, and has shot for The Washington Post. His latest photographic series merges New York City nightlife figures with historic landmarks, deepening his exploration of the past. Currently, he is developing a photo book celebrating the vibrance and legacy of the Borscht Belt through his lens.

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ARDSLEY DANCE MINI RESIDENCY
Aug
22
to Aug 23

ARDSLEY DANCE MINI RESIDENCY

Together with the Dance Gallery Festival (DGF), CAS is thrilled to welcome emerging choreographic and dance talent for weekend-long residency in Livingston Manor. The residency brings together three choreographers and their respective dancers for an immersive creative experience intended to enhance the deliberation and depth of the work that is created. The annual residency has been fruitful for choreographers workshopping new dances, giving space and inspiration to create in the picturesque Catskill mountains. Audiences are invited to open rehearsals as three choreographers and their dancers workshop new works, offering insights into their artistic processes.

About the Artists

Robert S. Kelley II (He/Him) is a Florida-based improvisational dance performer, choreographer, and educator committed to fostering empathy and dialogue through movement. He has collaborated with esteemed choreographers and showcased his work at renowned events like the Korean Dance Festival (KoDaFe) and Camping. As an Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellow at Jacob's Pillow, Robert's choreography explores themes of emotion and community. Holding an MFA in Choreography from the California Institute of the Arts, Kelley is dedicated to empowering the next generation of dancers while promoting social justice and accessibility in the arts.

Doron Perk is the founder and artistic director of More Fish Dance Company, a Bessie Award nominated artist, one of Dance Magazine’s “Best Performers of 2016”, and a recipient of consecutive “Extraordinary Ability in Arts” O1 Visas. Perk’s choreography has been presented at numerous venues in New York City, across the US, and internationally in Spain, Israel, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and Greece. His first evening-length work, Grandfather Visit, premiered in October 2022. Doron performed with the Croatian National Ballet, Compañía Nacional de Danza (Spain), and the Batsheva Ensemble. Perk has worked closely with choreographer and ballet master Zvi Gotheiner, eventually becoming his rehearsal director and stager. He is a certified Gaga movement teacher, the creator of Super Chill Ballet and More Fish Partnering classes, a teaching artist at Gibney Dance Center, and an adjunct professor of ballet and repertory at NYU Tisch. His work has been supported by the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Brooklyn Arts Fund, the Young Creators Foundation, and the Sharet Foundation.

Jo Warren is a New York-based artist whose work intersects at the body as a site of potential and as a tool of resistance. As a maker, Warren has shared original work at AUNTS, The Performance Mix Festival, Movement Research at Judson Church, the Exponential Festival, The Brick Theater and at Socrates Sculpture Park. As a performer and collaborator, Warren has had the pleasure of working with artists such as Lisa Fagan, Lena Engelstein, Sarah Michelson, the LAVA acrobatic dance company and Vanessa Anspaugh. They are part of the original and touring cast of Faye Driscoll’s Weathering.  

 

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73 seconds
Aug
16

73 seconds

In its second year, CAS Performing Arts Residency, produced in partnership with En Garde Arts will share a workshop presentation of a new project called 73 Seconds by Jared Mezzocchi,  “Multi-media whiz” – NY Times . Mezzocchi tells the true story of his relationship to his mother after she is invited by NASA to go into outer space. 73 Seconds is a piece about outer space, family, and our inability to cope with long-term catastrophe. Directed by Aya Ogawa. This residency and presentation is made possible by The Dr. David Milch Foundation.

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out of pocket
Aug
15

out of pocket

Join us for a screening of Babe Howard’s new series Out of Pocket. A New York-set crime comedy (in chapters) about movies, mothers, privilege, and the limits of self-awareness. After a viral article links him to his famous mother, a filmmaker is determined to succeed without benefiting from nepotism. But his obsession with making a movie the "right" way leads him to the wrong people. Free and open to all.

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Tapestry of Sound: Viola and Harp Duo
Aug
2

Tapestry of Sound: Viola and Harp Duo

Catskill Art Space and Shandelee Music Festival jointly present harpist Subin Lee and violist Julian Seney will present the unusual combination of Harp and Viola with music from Bach to Faure to the contemporary music of Garth Knox. Their repertoire will present composers from yesteryear to today, spanning hundreds of years with unusual sound palettes in solo, duo, and even “quartet”. You will not want to miss this unique pairing of instruments and sounds. Experience a Tapestry of Sound made possible by this unusual combination of instruments in the hands of consummate artists.

About the Artists

Violist Julian Seney has performed in venues including the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Beijing Concert Hall, under conductors including Susanna Mälkki, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Gustavo Dudamel. He is an alumnus of the Perlman Music Program, Yellow Barn, and the Lucerne Festival Academy, and has participated in residencies through both Perlman Suncoast and the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival. He is a proponent of new music, and has premiered many works of his peers and mentors most recently solo with Yale's New Music series. In addition to classical music, he also regularly performs as an improviser and has collaborated with Anthony Coleman and Joe Morris. Hailing from Los Angeles, he studied as an academy student with Paul Coletti at the Colburn school. He received a Bachelor's of Music from the New England Conservatory, having studied with Kim Kashkashian, and now is pursuing a Masters of Music at the Yale School of Music with Ettore Causa.

Harpist Subin Lee performs regular solo recitals in South Korea and the United States, having appeared in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Seoul Arts Center, Kumho Art Center, Ilshin Hall, and Perigee Hall. An award-winning harpist, Subin is the first prize winner of Italy’s International Harp Competition “Suoni d’arpa”, Lyon&Healy Awards, and was recognized for her academic and musical excellence during her years at the Curtis Institute of Music, receiving the Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award. She was also a prizewinner of numerous international and national competitions, including the Hong Kong International Harp Competition and the Korea, Szeged and Germany International Harp Competitions. As part of the 2021 Marilyn Costello Composition Competition, she has worked with the winning composer to provide feedback on harp writing and performed the world premiere of the work commissioned by the competition, “Blue, Vanishing”. She continues to make efforts to expand the boundaries of harp music and performance by taking part in composition, performing new music, and encouraging emerging young composers to write for her instrument.  Subin entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2019 and studied with Elizabeth Hainen as recipient of the Marilyn Costello Fellowship. She is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree at the Yale School of Music with Professor June Han.

 About Shandelee Music Festival

The Shandelee Music Festival encourages and promotes the careers of young, exceptional classical musicians through an annual series of summer concerts in New York’s Catskill Mountains.  Concert locations include SMF’s own Sunset Concert Pavilion, Bethel Center for the Performing Arts Event Gallery, and public enrichment appearances in local schools and special care facilities.  Founded in 1993, SMF operates as a private, not-for- profit corporation.

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The Gathering
Aug
1

The Gathering

The Gathering is a coming together of upstate neighbors, downstate friends, out of state colleagues and an interested public for an afternoon of informal performance and good conversation. Hosted by Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw. The afternoon will take the form of a Care Café, which simply provides the opportunity to sit and chat for a couple of hours in an atmosphere of care with occasional readings, rants, proclamations, considerations, and maybe even a bit of music and dance. The main focus of a Care Café is to gather. All we have to do is turn up as we are, with no specific agenda, expectation, or discussion topic, and ask the question: How can we maintain an attitude of care in an uncaring world? With possible contributions from Lois Weaver, Peggy Shaw, Mary Hall, Terry Dame, Mimi McGurl Holly Hughes, Muriel Miguel, Patricia Adams, Neil Greenberg, Susan Young, Lori E. Seid, and more… 

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WEEKEND OF CHAMBER MUSIC
Jul
26

WEEKEND OF CHAMBER MUSIC

Schumann String Quartet no. 3 in A Major 
Augusta ReadThomas, Chi, for string quartet
Augusta Read Thomas, Toft Serenade, for violin and piano
Beethoven, Piano Sonata Op 109, pf.
Michael Tippett, String Quartet no. 2

$30

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CAS KIDS CHAMBER CONCERT
Jul
20

CAS KIDS CHAMBER CONCERT

Together with Weekend of Chamber Music, CAS Kids will offer a free chamber music concert for children (adults welcome too!). Join us for a riveting and accessible concert with music of Haydn, Thomas, Chavez and Copland.

Free and open to all.

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ART21 SCREENING OF JAMES TURRELL AND ARLENE SHECHET
Jul
18

ART21 SCREENING OF JAMES TURRELL AND ARLENE SHECHET

As part of Upstate Art Weekend, please join us for an Art21 screening of short documentary films on the artistic practices of James Turrell and Arlene Shechet—both of whose work will be on view at CAS. The screening will be followed by a talk back and conversation. Free and open to all.

About the Artists

Arlene Shechet has been the subject of many solo exhibitions, including All at Once (2015),a major, critically acclaimed survey of her work at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston that The New York Times called, “some of the most imaginative American sculpture of the past 20 years, and some of the most radically personal,” and Full Steam Ahead (2018), an ambitious, large-scale public project installed in Madison Square Park in New York. Her curatorial vision has been shown in the exhibitions Porcelain, No Simple Matter at The Frick Collection (2016-17), From Here On Now at The Phillips Collection (2016), Making Knowing at The Drawing Center (2021), STUFF at Pace Gallery NY (2022), and Disrupt the View at the Harvard Art Museums (2022-25), which is currently on view. Shechet’s approach to installation and curation is intuitive and playful, responding to the architecture of space and creating dialogue between works, sites, and spectators, inviting them into a space and ushering them through its choreography.

In 2023, Shechet was elected as a lifetime member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This follows many other awards and honors including the CAA Artist Award for a Distinguished Body of Work, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. In 2024, one of the monumental sculptures from her much lauded exhibition, Girl Group, was acquired by Storm King Art Center for their permanent collection. Shechet’s work is in over fifty public collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Centre Pompidou, National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum, Nasher Sculpture Center, Walker Art Center, and Whitney Museum of American Art. She currently lives and works in New York City and Upstate New York.

James Turrell (b. 1943, Los Angeles) creates often unclassifiable work that examines the perceptual effects of light, color, and space in a range of forms across more than five decades of practice. This singular approach to art making is influenced by many unique aspects of his personal biography, from his Quaker upbringing in California, to his later studies in mathematics and psychology, and his one-time career as a pilot and an aerial cartographer.

Turrell’s work—particularly his immersive and luminous light- and color-drenched installations—has become increasingly recognized in the field of contemporary art, and his prominence reached new heights in 2013, when he was honored with a three-part retrospective shown simultaneously at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in Texas. He is perhaps best known as the creator of contemporary art’s greatest unfinished masterpiece, Roden Crater, a large-scale artwork created within a dormant volcano located in the Arizona desert, which he has been developing since 1977.

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annual gala
Jul
12

annual gala

For its annual gala, supporters, friends and artists join together in celebration and support of Catskill Art Space. This is the organization’s largest fundraising event of the year, raising crucial funds that sustain CAS for the year to come. For its third year, the gala will take place on Main Street with cocktails at CAS, followed by a seated dinner and program in a tent at Renaissance Park.

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CAS PRIDE: LAVA, INTIMACY CREATES
Jun
28

CAS PRIDE: LAVA, INTIMACY CREATES

Sarah East Johnson, founder and artistic director of LAVA, a Callicoon-based feminist acrobatic dance, brings a new movement investigation to CAS Pride a celebration of the talent of LGBTQIA+ identifying artists local to the Catskills region.  Intimacy Creates is a set of movement experiments that explore improvisational duet scores embodying trust, closeness, vulnerability and strength.  By honoring the complexities, challenges, and beauty of physical and emotional connection, the work will bring the audience members and performers into a weaving meditation and celebration of women seeking depth and aliveness in their connections to each other and their environment.  The music for the duets will be composed and performed by Barbara Gogan and Terry Dame, both of whom reside in the Catskills region and have long and storied careers of experimental and pop music.  The duet material between Gogan and Dame reflects their deep listening and collaborative practices that create sonic landscapes for the dancers’ duets to inhabit and populate. The duets between women who have long term real life relationships act as tributaries to a pond of movement that then comes into an accelerating finale of unison movement gathered and foraged from the wider community and set to beats by DJ Tikka Masala, who is also local to the area.  The dance performance will be followed by an all access pass to a dance party across the street from CAS at Sunshine Colony, also DJ’ed by Tikka.

 About the Artist

Sarah East Johnson, who worked in Brooklyn and NYC for 35 years, has been putting down roots in the Catskills region since 2017.  Her work with LAVA Brooklyn explored the intersections of feminism and geology using acrobatics and experimental dance for 20 years.  Her work with LAVA Callicoon is an exploration of our deeply personal community connections and how we can peacefully inhabit our bodies and our connections across differences, while still celebrating the courage, strength, and expressiveness in acrobatic movements combined with the tenderness and subtleties of contemporary dance Intimacy Creates is created with a commitment to the value of relating and gathering in peaceful and mutually respectful ways, which we need now as much as ever.

About CAS Pride

For its fifth year, CAS Pride will feature the artistry and talent of queer identifying people local to the region. Coordinated with Pride month celebration of LGBTQIA.

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100 Pink Smoke Flares
Jun
21

100 Pink Smoke Flares

100 Pink Smoke Flares is a series of ephemeral outdoor installations from Raphaele Shirley in which 100 smoke flares are ignited simultaneously, momentarily obscuring the landscape behind them. Presented jointly with Deep Water Literary Festival, on the occasion of the festival’s theme, metamorphosis, this transient mass of color interrogates the impermanence of both natural and urban environments, underscoring their continual transformation under human influence and societal shifts. The work engages with the aesthetics of disappearance and emergence, foregrounding the fragility of landscapes in the Anthropocene. This body of work serves as both a poetic and urgent meditation on environmental distress, the sublimity of nature, and its precarious temporality. The installations operate as performative gestures, wherein the act of activation becomes integral to the work’s meaning, emphasizing temporality and instability as fundamental conditions of contemporary landscapes. Live musical performances accompany the work, amplifying the emotional underlying context of the work.

About the Artist

Raphaele Shirley is a Franco-American multi-media artist practicing in New York City and Callicoon, New York. Her work ranges from video, painting and technology based sculptural works to public art, place-making social interventions and performance. Her solo or collaborative projects have been presented in venues such as S.R. Guggenheim, The Queens Museum, the Museum of Moving Image (New York), the NCCA, the 2nd Moscow Biennale (Moscow, Russia) and the Hermitage (St. Petersburg, Russia), and Art Basel, Miami to name a few. Her collaborators range from renowned composers to theater directors, architects, and technology experts from all fields. Currently she is collaborating with Montreal based architecture firm Atelier Apsis for the development of sustainable public arts projects. Their project TEAG was chosen among the finalists for the Land Ary Generator call for proposals for Manheim, Germany. Shirley is recipient with Algis Kizys of the Wave Farm Grant 2023 for their performance piece "20F" developed during the pandemic in Callicoon, NY. Shirley has been the recipient of several grants from the Norwegian Arts Council and received awards for her collaborative projects. She was artist in residence at Harvest works NYC with Rhys Chatham and GH Hovagimyan (2016) and The Arctic Circle (2009/2010).

 
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Thurman Barker TRIO
Jun
7

Thurman Barker TRIO

Celebrated jazz percussionist Thurman Barker will perform original music and jazz standards. The program will pay tribute to the great American composer Duke Ellington, marking 126 years since his birth. This special performance is an engaging and vibrant presentation from a living jazz legend.

About the Artist

Thurman Barker is a celebrated percussionist who built his career on innovation. As a professional musician, composer, and college professor, he brings endless passion and decades of experience together to entertain, educate, and expand the horizons of his art. Since creating Uptee Records in the early 80s, Barker has previously released six recordings as a leader. In 2016, Barker began writing for Chamber Orchestra. Barker’s wealth of knowledge was built through his association with countless incredible collaborators. Most notable musical experiences have been with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). As a charter member of the group, Barker first appeared in AACM productions with Joseph Jarman’s pioneering ensembles. He then went on to record and play with many members, including Dr. Muhal Richard Abrams, Amina Claudine Meyers, Anthony Braxton, Leroy Jenkins, Roscoe Mitchell, and Henry Threadgill. After moving to New York in the late 70s, Barker worked and recorded with Sam Rivers and Cecil Taylor. Thurman Barker became a Professor Emeritus of Bard College in Music/Jazz Studies in June 2021. He is a recipient of a 2022 NYSCA award for composition as well as numerous Meet the Composer grants.

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The Ardsley Dance Residency Presentation
May
23
to May 24

The Ardsley Dance Residency Presentation

Together with the Dance Gallery Festival (DGF), Catskill Art Space (CAS) is thrilled to welcome emerging choreographic and dance talent for a week-long residency. The residency brings together choreographers and collaborators for an immersive creative experience, unburdened by the logistical challenges that artists face in today’s contemporary world; increasing the deliberation and depth of the work that is created. In its eighth year, these moments have been fruitful for choreographers workshopping new dances, giving space and inspiration to create in the picturesque Catskill mountains. Our 2025 resident Brian Golden will premier a new work created during the residency. For the first year, we have invited Madison Hicks the 2024 resident to present an excerpt of her presentation debut at CAS in October 2024. Audiences are invited to view the dance workshopped over the residency, and interface with a talk back with the choreographer and dancers. Free and open to all.

Open Rehearsals
May 23, 3-5pm

Performance
May 24, 5pm

About the Artists

Brian Golden is a neurodivergent choreographer and movement director based between Los Angeles and New York. He is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Choreography at the California Institute of the Arts, with minors in Pedagogy and Integrated Media. A 2024 MAP Fund recipient, Brian will premiere a new immersive work in the fall of 2026. Brian’s choreographic voice is rooted in lived experience, exploring themes of conflict, sensation, and identity through movement. Under the mentorship of Spenser Theberge, he premiered Two Months Too Early, a full-length sensory performance examining dyspraxia and auditory processing disorder through the conceptual language of the Pop Art movement. Recent highlights include a choreographic residency at Jacob’s Pillow, mentorship with Doug Varone on choreographic devices, and being named the 2024 Choreography Fellow of Axis Dance Company. Through professional development stipends awarded by Jacob’s Pillow and Axis, Brian engaged in mentorships with Nina McNeely and Jillian Meyers, deepening his exploration of musicality, filmmaking, and creative process.  Brian holds a BFA in Dance and Film Production from Chapman University where he studied abroad in Israel. His work has been presented at notable venues and festivals including The Joyce Theater (as part of the Martha Graham Dance Company’s fall season), Battery Dance Festival, Southern California Institute of Architecture, New Century Dance Project, and the McCallum Choreography Festival. He has also choreographed commercially for artists such as Yung Gravy, Daddy Yankee, and Two Friends.

Performers: Liana Zhen-Ai, Frances Samson, Marcus Sarjeant, Bryan Testa 
Composer: Patrick Blaine
Dramaturg: Jamison Edgar 

Madison Hicks holds a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School and an MFA in Choreography from California Institute of the Arts. She is the Director and Founder of The Moving Forward Collective where she presents original work by herself and her collaborators. She has received choreographic residencies at Orsolina28, 14StreetY, Chez Bushwick, DanceLabNY, and was a Jacob’s Pillow Ann and Weston Hicks Choreographic Fellow. Madison has been commissioned by universities such as Loyola Marymount, The Fordham Ailey BFA program, Peabody University, University of Texas, and Wayne State University. She has also been commissioned by companies such as Vitacca Ballet, Ballet Arkansas, Avant Chamber Ballet, Mash-Up Contemporary Dance company, Ballet Project OC, and Water Street Dance Milwaukee. Most recently, she worked alongside Tony Yazbeck and Chip Abbott as Associate Choreographer for Manhattan Concert Production’s Children of Eden at Lincoln Center.

Performers: Nicole Hagen, Lindsey Matheis, Nicole Morris
Composer: Azariah Felton

 

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CAS KIDS: ALICE IN SCIENCELAND
May
17

CAS KIDS: ALICE IN SCIENCELAND

Alice in ScienceLand is a vibrant, family-friendly theatrical adventure that whisks audiences down the rabbit hole into a wild and whimsical world where science springs to life! Perfect for children ages 4 and up, this magical 30-minute show—performed by the acclaimed Farm Arts Collective—follows a curious young student named Alice who dozes off while cramming for her science exam… only to awaken in the extraordinary realm of ScienceLand!

Through songs, dance, humor, and interactive storytelling, Alice in ScienceLand weaves critical climate science and environmental awareness into a joyful, thought-provoking tale. At every turn, Alice gains valuable lessons about the interconnectedness of our planet and the urgent need to protect it—returning home not just ready for her exam, but inspired to stand up for a healthier world.

Directed by Tannis Kowalchuk, and featuring a dynamic ensemble cast including live Foley sound effects, this enchanting show is both educational and electrifying. Originally developed from the Collective’s 2021 production The Scientists, it is part of the ongoing DREAM ON THE FARM climate theatre series. Stick around after the show for a 15-minute talkback with NASA Scientist Elaine Matthews, where kids and grownups alike can ask questions and dig deeper into the science behind the story.

Runtime: 30 minutes + 15 minute talkback

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Minds on Fire: A Conversation with Ada Calhoun & Susannah Cahalan
May
3

Minds on Fire: A Conversation with Ada Calhoun & Susannah Cahalan

Join Aaron Hicklin, founder of Deep Water Literary Fest for an electrifying evening with two powerhouse authors, Ada Calhoun and Susannah Cahalan, as they discuss their latest works—stories of obsession, rebellion, and the search for meaning. Calhoun’s Crush is a deeply personal and sharply observed novel about a woman unraveling the mysteries of a long-lost-now-reignited infatuation. Cahalan, best known for her bestselling memoir Brain on Fire, returns with The Acid Queen, a riveting portrait of Rosemary Woodruff Leary—the enigmatic wife of LSD evangelist Timothy Leary. A countercultural icon in her own right, Woodruff Leary was a beatnik, a fugitive, and a visionary who tested the limits of freedom, consciousness, and the roles imposed on women of her time. In conversation, these two acclaimed writers will explore the art of storytelling, the allure of obsession, and the radical figures who shaped history and their own lives. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear from two of today’s most thought-provoking voices.

About the Artists

Ada Calhoun is the author of Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me, named one of the Best Books of 2022 by The Washington Post, NPR, and Oprah Daily. The New York Times named it one of the year’s 100 Notable Books. Previous books include the New York City history St. Marks Is Dead, the essay collection Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give, and New York Times bestseller Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis. Her debut novel, Crush, will be published this May.

Susannah Cahalan is a #1 New York Times–bestselling author, journalist and public speaker. Her first book, Brain on Fire, has sold over a million copies and has been translated into more than twenty languages. Her second book, The Great Pretender, was shortlisted for the Royal Society’s 2020 Science Book Prize. She lives in New Jersey with her family.

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Earth Day Symposium: Creatives Respond to the Climate Crisis
Apr
26

Earth Day Symposium: Creatives Respond to the Climate Crisis

Catskill Art Space will host an Earth Day Symposium: Creatives Respond to the Climate Crisis on April 26, 3-5pm in the second-floor, River Galleries. Artists Lauren Daccache, Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, Elizabeth Orr, Eleanor White and architect Mitchell Joachim of Terreform ONE (Open Network Ecology) for an Earth Day-inspired discussion moderated by artist and writer Hovey Brock, where they will be addressing how their practices engage with the climate crisis.

Joachim and Miller will begin the discussion with a presentation on their 2025 Venice Biennale collaboration incorporating music and architecture on the theme of kelp, a macroalgae whose forests are foundational to ocean ecology. They will engage in a dialogue about the theoretical and applied dimensions of living architecture, biomorphic urbanism, and the implications of synthetic ecologies, speculating on how these frameworks might inform the future of climate-responsive cities and planetary stewardship.

Concurrently exhibiting at Catskill Art Space, Daccache, Orr, and White, will follow with presentations on their respective practices and the narratives they pursue in their work that address the climate crisis. The many themes explored through their artworks will include international waste management, the destructive side of the move to the “green” technology of lithium batteries, and the impact of supply chains on the planet. The presentations will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience. After the session, all are invited to join Daccache, Orr, and White in the first-floor galleries to answer questions about their art on the closing day of their exhibitions.

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MANOR CAMERATA HOLIDAY CONCERT
Dec
28

MANOR CAMERATA HOLIDAY CONCERT

Manor Camerata returns to perform a rousing program for the holidays.


Mendelssohn String Quartet Op. 44 No 1 in D Major
Debussy String Quartet 

1st Violin: Naho Tsatsui
2nd Violin: Jennifer Ahn Misner 
Viola: Angela Pickett
Cello: Alberto Parrini

This event is realized thanks to generous underwriting support from Country House Realty.

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Some Observations in the Galapagos (and Elsewhere) a screening and reading by Michel Negroponte and Benjamin Swett
Dec
27

Some Observations in the Galapagos (and Elsewhere) a screening and reading by Michel Negroponte and Benjamin Swett

Appearing in Swett's new essay collection, The Picture Not Taken: On Life and Photography, and also in the Winter 2024 issue of Orion Magazine, Swett's essay "Some Observations in the Galapagos (and Elsewhere)” explores the visual and philosophical suggestions of Negroponte’s 14-minute 2021 film A World Before God—a transportive romp with creatures under water and above who, unafraid of humans, seem to ask us to question who we really think we are. A screening of the film will be followed by a reading of the essay—and a short conversation and questions.

About the Artists

Michel Negroponte is an award winning filmmaker who has been making feature length documentaries for more than 40 years. His films have been screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the New York Film Festival and countless others. JUPITER’S WIFE, a portrait of a beguiling homeless woman named Maggie, won a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the prize for Best Feature Documentary at the Vancouver and the Santa Barbara Film Festivals. The film was also awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Documentary. It premiered on HBO/Cinemax before getting a nationwide 35mm theatrical release. His other films have been broadcast in the United States on PBS, HBO, and the Sundance Channel, as well as in England, France, Germany, Spain, and Japan. His work has been shown at the Sundance Film Festival, The New York Film Festival, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and in festivals in Berlin, Rotterdam, Vancouver, and Japan. In addition to his own work, he has worked in a producing capacity on many films, among them the Academy Award-nominated CHILDREN UNDERGROUND by Edet Belzberg, MANHATTAN, KANSAS by Tara Wray, and ORTHODOX STANCE, by Jason Hutt. Michel has also taught in the graduate and undergraduate film programs at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Temple University, the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and The Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Benjamin Swett is a writer and photographer whose books include the new essay collection The Picture Not Taken: On Life and Photography (October 29, 2024) and the photo-text narratives Route 22 and New York City of Trees (winner of the 2013 New York City Book Award for Photography). Recent essays have appeared in Agni, Arnoldia, Salmagundi, Orion, Prism International, and Fiction magazines. He was named the 2024 Larry Lederman Photography Fellow at the New York Botanical Garden. Swett is the author and photographer of guidebooks to the Hudson Valley and to New York City’s Great Trees, and collaborated with the singer/songwriter Heather Woods Broderick to produce the collaborative book/CD of tree photographs and songs Home Winds. A writer and photographer for the New York City Parks Department for thirteen years, Swett founded the Parks in Print program, which produced books, brochures, maps, and guides for parks around New York City’s five boroughs. He currently teaches writing at City College in Manhattan and is senior photographer for the Notion Archaeological Project in Turkey.

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Dudunya The Art & Many Hats of Vladimir Radunsky
Dec
7

Dudunya The Art & Many Hats of Vladimir Radunsky

Dudunya, the Art & Many Hats of Vladimir Radunsky (2023, 57 min.) is a tribute to an extraordinary artist and author. Vladimir Radunsky (1954-2018) was born in the Soviet Union, studied architecture, dropped out of college, then emigrated to the United States, where he found his true calling – children’s books. He created, illustrated and designed more than thirty books in the United States and Europe that received numerous awards including the New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year.

Directed by Andrei Zagdansky and produced by Kim and Rob Rayevsky, the film spans Vladimir’s life in Moscow, New York, and Rome. An incredibly talented artist, designer, author, and illustrator, Vladimir enriched the lives of all who knew him.

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The Clouds are Always Dancing Above Us
Nov
30

The Clouds are Always Dancing Above Us

The Clouds are Always Dancing Above Us is a durational dance performance from Patricia Zhou, a London-based freelance dancer, choreographer and award-winning filmmaker. The performance is set to the music of Phillip Glass, exploring the relationship between the repetitive nature of Glass’s music and the lone performer’s interpretation, creating serendipitous moments of endurance and rest over the span of an hour.

Patricia Zhou is a London-based freelance dancer, choreographer and award-winning filmmaker. She has previously danced for the Royal Ballet in London, Staatsballett-Berlin and Benjamin Millepied’s L.A. Dance Project. After only four years of serious ballet training at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington D.C., she was awarded gold and silver medals at the 2010 Beijing International Invitational Ballet Competition and at the Youth American Grand Prix Competition in Paris, was a prize winner at the Prix de Lausanne and was also featured on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, becoming the first solo performer to dance on the show. In 2020 Patricia went freelance to pursue choreographing and directing her own dance films as well as dancing on a project to project basis. She recently made her West End debut performing in Dr. Semmelweis and created the role of the “Sugar Plum Fairy” in the recent McOnie Company jazz remake of The Nutcracker.

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Guitar: The Shape of Sound with Ultan Guilfoyle, Paul D. Miller aka Dj Spooky and Gerry Leonard
Nov
29

Guitar: The Shape of Sound with Ultan Guilfoyle, Paul D. Miller aka Dj Spooky and Gerry Leonard

Join us on Friday, November 29 at 5pm for a program led by DJ Spooky (Paul D. Miller) and Ultan Guilfoyle. Inspired by Guilfoyle's book Guitar: The Shape of Sound, the interactive discussion will include live demonstrations from Gerry Leonard, David Bowie's guitarist. This is a special event that will take the audience on a journey through the history of the guitar and how it changed the world.

Ultan Guilfoyle is an award-winning producer, director, and writer, whose films include Sketches of Frank Gehry (2006) and Making Space, Five Women Architects (2015). His books include The Motorcycle, Design, Art, Desire (Phaidon, 2020). His most recent book Guitar: The Shape of Sound, is a visual history of how guitars changed the world. It is a tour de force of history, literary theory and the way tuning systems alter our perception of pop culture. The book includes guitars from iconic legends like Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The White Stripes, and many other legendary figures from the world of rock, blues, and beyond.

Miller aka Dj Spooky is a globally recognized figure in electronic music and is in the middle of finishing two books - one about art, AI, and the geopolitics of data, and the other, is a mediation on how algorithms are changing the way we think about food.

Gerry Leonard ( is an Irish guitarist known for his harmonic and ambient guitar style and for his work with David Bowie, Suzanne Vega, Rufus Wainwright, Laurie Anderson, Duncan Sheik and many others. He has a solo project called Spooky Ghost.

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ARDSLEY DANCE RESIDENCY
Oct
11
to Oct 12

ARDSLEY DANCE RESIDENCY

Together with the Dance Gallery Festival (DGF), CAS is thrilled to welcome emerging choreographic and dance talent for a week-long residency in Livingston Manor. The residency brings together choreographer Madison Hicks and collaborators for an immersive creative experience intended to enhance the deliberation and depth of the work that is created. The annual residency has been fruitful for choreographers workshopping new dances, giving space and inspiration to create in the picturesque Catskill mountains. Audiences are invited to view the dance workshopped over the residency and participate in a talk-back with the choreographer.

Open Rehearsals
October 11, 11am – 5pm

Presentation
October 12, 4pm
Second Floor, River Gallery

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