The Catskill Art Society: The gallery as community center

Posted 8/21/12

On a Friday night or Sunday afternoon in the Upper Delaware region, one of the places you can frequently expect to find a crowd congregating is at the opening for a new art show. Of course you’ll …

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The Catskill Art Society: The gallery as community center

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On a Friday night or Sunday afternoon in the Upper Delaware region, one of the places you can frequently expect to find a crowd congregating is at the opening for a new art show. Of course you’ll find art there, but there’s also something more. There’s usually wine and cheese or hors d’oeuvres, live music, camaraderie, discussion and a healthy dose of gossip. These receptions create a culture that is at once welcoming and exclusive, a place where people are free to talk about the community and the way that artists interpret and create it.

The Catskill Art Society (CAS), located in Livingston Manor, NY, is one of the local art organizations that hosts a variety of gatherings in addition to its year-round exhibits, and has recently created two new spaces, the Elevator Gallery and The Laundry King, each with a different ambiance from the main gallery. Recently I asked CAS Executive Director Bradley Diuguid about the new spaces. He described the Elevator Gallery, located inside the main gallery building, as having been designed to be “more spontaneous.” The exhibits in the main gallery itself are lined up a year in advance; the schedule for the Elevator Gallery is more open. Diuguid said, “It’s another way that we decided to design this space to make us a better place for the community of artists and creative people to gather here and show off their work and talk about it.” The Laundry King is a new space a little way down the street from CAS, which hosts exhibitions, readings and more.

CAS also holds a public tour series, where people can get a closer look at the current exhibit and talk about it. “I love to walk [up to] people here and ask, ‘What do you see here?’ and unpack it a little bit past the point of ‘What do you like about it?’” Diuguid explains of hosting the tour. “Going past ‘I like this’ or ‘I hate this,’ and saying what makes you say that; what do you see here? It’s a much deeper way of having a conversation with people who are gathering here at the arts center.”

CAS also holds an annual fundraising dinner in the fall, with themes such as French, Moroccan and Jamaican that extend to the food, music and decorations.

Diuguid says they “try to bring that same creativity and sense of fun to these meals and gatherings” as they do with their regular programming, and they encourage people to dress up and dance to a live band.

Like a number of other local galleries, CAS holds Q&A sessions and artists’ receptions. Diuguid said, “People really love that opportunity not just to have a one-sided conversation, or be receiving a product, but to really respond to somebody and say, ‘Hey, here’s what I really liked about it.’ The artists really love to hear that too.”

You can even hold your own event at the gallery. The CAS website says, “The CAS Arts Center is an elegant, light-filled space that provides a perfect setting for your next gala event. Imagine a bride standing on our broad staircase receiving congratulations, a retiree being honored for service in our spacious reception hall, a child’s creative birthday party, or a gathering to celebrate anything you have in mind with fine art as your backdrop. Most important, it’s all right here in your community.” For more information on how to rent out their space, visit www.catskillartsociety.org/specs.

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