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From left, theater designer David Korins, Millbrook Community Partnership CEO Cora Cahan and MCP President Oakleigh Thorne in the Thorne Building.
Photo by Judith O’Hara Balfe
MILLBROOK — More than 200 residents turned out for a community forum with the Millbrook Community Partnership on Sunday, Nov. 5, to discuss the nonprofit’s latest updates on two of Millbrook’s most visible civic projects: the transformation of the dilapidated Beaux-Arts Thorne Building, once the town’s first public high school, into the Thorne Community Center; and the opening of Bennett Park on the site of the former Bennett College.
The Millbrook Community Partnership (MCP) was formed in 2017 with the sole purpose of repurposing the two derelict sites, which had for decades sat untouched and moldering at either end of Franklin Avenue.
Cora Cahan, CEO of MCP, stressed the communal nature of the organization’s plans.
“This will be for the people who live here,” Cahan said. She described the Community Center as a place “where one can ply one’s imagination. There are all kinds of exciting possibilities.”
When MCP asked local residents what they felt that Millbrook needed some three years ago, residents responded that they wanted a communal gathering space: a community center that would further education, culture and the community spirit.
MCP’s renovation of the Thorne building aims to restore the original architecture and overhaul its technological capacity.
What will become the Thorne Community Center abuts the property that was formerly Bennett College, which MCP is now transforming into a 35-acre park. Plans include a network of trails, a museum, a visitors’ center and an outdoor arts venue.
According to MCP, the Thorne Community Center will include a performance center to show films, dance recitals, and theater; a technology center intended to support public access to digital resources; a kitchen for event catering and culinary lessons; co-working and meeting spaces; and a recording studio.
On Sunday, David Korins of Korins Studio, which will be designing the theater and other spaces in the Center, spoke about the importance of preserving the building’s history in its new design. Korins, whose studio has designed more than 20 popular Broadway productions, said that, often mistakes are made when a building’s past is erased.
MCP also presented on the three development phases of Bennett Park, two of which have yet to get underway.
They showed slides of the new Greek theater, designed by Lynden Miller; fields left open for fairs and events; and plans for wooded areas with hiking trails.
A wall made of the stones from Halcyon Hall, a stone tower in a play area for children, and a small bridge are also planned; so is a wildflower meadow and lodging for guest artists. The bandshell will be moved to a new location, and possibly added to.
Also in the future is the new Exmoor Visitors Center, and the Bennett Museum.
Of the $25 million in gifts initially sought, $18.5 million has already been raised. The Millbrook Tribute Garden made an anchor gift that will continue for 20 years. The Bechtel Osborne Art Gallery, the Donald Tober Culinary Center, the Community Workspace in Memory of David R. Hathaway, and the William Platt Harmonica Practice Studi have also made gifts.
Finally, a triumphant slide went up: “News Flash!,” it read, “As of this very moment the Eastern portion of Bennett Park is officially OPEN!”
The audience was invited to finish their cider and donuts, take another look at the bones of the building and appreciate the intricate architectural details that will remain, then adjourn to Bennett Park, to see and enjoy the first finished section.
Maxon Mills in Wassaic hosted a majority of the events of the local Upstate Art Weekend events in the community.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene during the Garden Tour in Amenia.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else. I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and
Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.