Please join artists Hovey Brock, Daniella Dooling, and Valerie Hegarty for an Earth Day-inspired discussion of their practices and how they relate to the climate crisis. Each artist will make a presentation followed by a Q&A session with the audience. After the session, the audience is invited to join the artists separately in their respective galleries to answer questions about their practice and techniques. CAS looks forward to this celebration of community and resilience.

Exhibition dates: March 2 — April 27, 2024
First Floor, Main Street Galleries

Artists Talk: March 2, 3-4pm
Second Floor, River Gallery

Opening Reception: March 2, 4-5pm
First Floor, Main Street Galleries

We live in an age where media across all platforms has come to reflect the toxic sensibility of an era dominated by a hyper partisan political discourse. DW Griffith’s film “The Birth of a Nation” is generally considered one of the most controversial films of all time, and could be considered a precursor to the media landscape of our time. Artist, writer and musician Paul D. Miller aka Dj Spooky has done a “multimedia remix” of the film and recast it as “Rebirth of a Nation.” Miller’s remix project encapsulates a new approach to thinking about applying the concept of “remix” to cinema - he calls the project a kind of scenario where “the director is the dj.” The remix of Griffith’s cinematic masterpiece has been performed mostly as a live concert from venues ranging from the Odeon of Herode Atticus at The Acropolis in Greece, to MoMA (New York), among others. Catskills Art Space is pleased to present a screening of one version of the film, with Paul D. Miller in attendance for audience questions and talkback. The music score he composed is performed by legendary ensemble, Kronos Quartet for the soundtrack. Please join us for a truly special and unique evening of contemporary art, cinema, and conceptual approaches to contemporary digital media.

About the Artist

Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky, is currently Artist in Residence at Yale University Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (2023-2024, extended). He is a composer, multimedia artist, and writer whose work engages audiences in a blend of genres, global culture, and environmental and social issues. Miller has collaborated with an array of recording artists, including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Metallica, Chuck D from Public Enemy, Steve Reich, and Yoko Ono amongst many others. His 2018 album, DJ Spooky Presents: Phantom Dancehall, debuted at #3 on Billboard Reggae. Miller currently lives and works in Roscoe, NY.

Celebrated percussionist Thurman Barker will introduce audiences to inspiring composers exploring their importance and context in the canons of American musical history. His lecture examines who was considered the first Jazz composer and the influence of their work on contemporary composers today. The narrative intertwines historical context with Barker’s own orchestral compositions, drawing on his experience writing for Chamber Orchestra and work with orchestras in Chicago and New York. The talk will be interspersed with performances from Barker’s trio’s latest release IMPACT!, an introduction to Barker’s music for chamber orchestra. This privileged event gives audiences the opportunity to engage with music and the musicians through live performance and a special talk back with the artist.

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.

Join Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky and Thurston Moore for a vibrant transcontinental conversation on art, music and experimentation Sunday, January 14 at 3pm. Moore will tune in on Zoom from London, while Miller will be present with the live audience at Catskill Art Space. A recording of the conversation will be available on the CAS YouTube account soon thereafter. 

About the Artists

Thurston Moore is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known as a member of the rock band Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Moore was ranked 34th in Rolling Stone's 2004 edition of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Moore is author of Thurston Moore: Sonic Life, a wide sweeping memoir tracing the author’s life and art—from his teen years as a music obsessive in small-town Connecticut, to the formation of his legendary rock group, to thirty years of creation, experimentation, and wonder. 

Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky, is currently Artist in Residence at Yale University Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (2023-2024, extended). He is a composer, multimedia artist, and writer whose work engages audiences in a blend of genres, global culture, and environmental and social issues. Miller has collaborated with an array of recording artists, including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Metallica, Chuck D from Public Enemy, Steve Reich, and Yoko Ono amongst many others. His 2018 album, DJ Spooky Presents: Phantom Dancehall, debuted at #3 on Billboard Reggae. Miller currently lives and works in Roscoe, NY.

Exhibition dates: January 13 — February 24, 2024
First Floor, Main Street Galleries

Artists Talk: January 13, 3-4pm
Second Floor, River Gallery

Opening Reception: January 13, 4-5pm
First Floor, Main Street Galleries

Join cello-bass duo VC/CB for a concert of classical, contemporary, and holiday selections. Brothers Nicky and Willie Swett perform sparkling New Year’s dances by Béla Bartók, recent music by Pulitzer Prize-winner Julia Wolfe, some of the very first pieces ever written for low string instruments, and other favorite duets. In the spirit of the season, they’ll weave in delights from the Baroque era and familiar holiday tunes and carols.

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

Exhibition dates: December 2 - 30, 2023
First Floor, Main Street Galleries

Artists Talk: December 2, 3-4pm
Second Floor, River Gallery

Opening Reception: December 2, 4-5pm
First Floor, Main Street Galleries

A program of short films curated by Elizabeth Ennis featuring the work of local artists. Filmmakers include Donald and Robyn Almquist, Marcus Brooks, Zarah Cabañas, Elizabeth Ennis, Tessa Hughes-Freeland, Evie McKenna, Michel Negroponte, and Jim Stratton.

Free admission.
Free popcorn will be served.

Catskill Art Space and Catskill Mountainkeeper will present discussion and screening of Michel Negroponte’s Herd, an art film on the herd of cattle neighboring his home of Livingston Manor. A herd of shaggy Belted Galloway cattle is delivered to a neighboring pasture in the Catskills and instantly inspires a new film. The filmmaker’s growing fascination with the cows leads him to reflect on the modern idea of animal personhood. Michel Negroponte’s essay film is equal part rumination, observation, and meditation. It reveals the cow’s essence and challenges us to think differently about our fellow living animal beings.  2023, color, 60 minutes. Popcorn and light refreshments will be served.

World Premiere - The Thessaloniki International Film Festival

Best Documentary - The New Jersey International Film Festival

Best Documentary and Best Cinematography - The Choice International Film Festival

Nancy Davidson, exhibiting artist at Catskill Art Space will be joined in conversation with art historian and writer, Nancy Princenthal on art, feminism, and the power of women’s laughter.

Nancy Princenthal is a Brooklyn and Cochecton-based writer and the author of the biography “Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art” (Thames & Hudson, 2015). Her most recent book is “Unspeakable Acts: Women, Art, and Sexual Violence in the 1970s” (Thames & Hudson, 2019). She is also the author of the monograph “Hannah Wilke” (Prestel, 2010). She is a former senior editor of Art in America. In addition to The New York Times, she has also written for Bomb, Hyperallergic, Apollo, the Brooklyn Rail and other publications. Having taught and lectured widely, she was a longtime faculty member of the M.F.A. Art Writing program at the School of Visual Arts. She was also a visiting lecturer at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.

Nancy Davidson is a contemporary artist whose practice encompasses sculpture, installation, drawing, and photography. She has focused on exploring the female form, power dynamics, and societal expectations. Davidson's work is characterized by its innovative use of materials, such as inflatable latex sculptures that challenge conventional representations of femininity. Her works are imbued with a keen sense of humor and playfulness, while also addressing deeper issues of gender and power. www.nancydavidson.com

Exhibition dates: October 21 - November 25, 2023
First Floor, Main Street Galleries

Artists Talk: October 21, 3-4pm
Second Floor, River Gallery

Opening Reception: October 21, 4-5pm
First Floor, Main Street Galleries

Together with the Dance Gallery Festival (DGF), 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 sixth year, these moments have 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 interface with a talk back with the choreographer and dancers. Free and open to all.

Adapted from The Disco Project (1995), Greenberg’s recollection of lives lost to AIDS and an acceptance of his own HIV+ status, this updated remix stages elements of its original choreography for the CAS space. The work addresses experiences of liberation, trauma, and survival through a transvisual inquiry into the power of LGBTQIA vocal anthems like RuPaul, Sylvester, and Jimmy Somerville, while witnessing post-modern dance. Described in The New York Times review as “a drama of defiance in the face of adversity,” a combination of movement for five dancers (including Greenberg), projected text, and an assemblage of recorded audio, the work authentically recalls lives affected by AIDS, with diary-like directness. Influenced by his seven years as a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Greenberg expanded Cunningham’s radical methods that fostered an autonomous relationship between choreography, music, and scenography. Free and open to all. 

Exhibition dates: September 2 - October 14, 2023
First Floor, Main Street Galleries

Artists Talk: September 2, 3-4pm
Second Floor, River Gallery

Opening Reception: September 2, 4-5pm
First Floor, Main Street Galleries

The Art and Times of Frosty Myers, documents the career of sculptor Forrest “Frosty” Myers over the past half-century. Coming to New York City from San Francisco in 1961, he entered a rapidly changing art scene. American artists were ripping away established European traditions, replacing them with Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Earth Art, Hard Edge painting and sculpture, and embracing Art and Technology. The cultural changes of the social justice movements and the anti-war protests were intertwined with the daily lives of Frosty and other artists. Their camaraderie at the famed New York City bar Max’s Kansas City created synergies in art, music and culture. These artists pioneered living and working in abandoned lofts and led the urban renewal in what became the downtown scene in lower Manhattan, Soho and ultimately Brooklyn. Frosty’s wide-ranging works include NYC landmark artwork The Wall (aka the Gateway to SoHo), The Moon Museum, which was the first art placed on the Moon, and his radical furniture that blurred the lines of art and design.

Special talk back with the film’s producer, Debra Arch Myers and subject, Frosty Myers to follow.

Online ticketing for this event has closed. You are able to make your ticket purchase this evening at Callicoon Theatre.

Weekend of Chamber Music’s first Composer in Residence returns after ten years! John Harbison, Pulitzer Prize-winner, MacArthur Genius, composer of nearly 300 works for everyone from the Boston Symphony to the Metropolitan Opera, and one of the preeminent musical figures of our time, comes home to WCM for a week of intense musical collaboration and fellowship.

 $20

Join Weekend of Chamber Music artists for an evening of duos and trios featuring the shimmer and mystery of the cimbalom, the hammered dulcimer of Eastern Europe! With Ensemble Accroche Note, and Aleksandra Dzenisenia, cimbalom.

$20