The 2024 Cunneen-Hackett Lecture in Hudson River Valley History Living Together: 20th Century Experimental Art Communities in the Hudson River Valley
Wednesday, March 27, 2024 5:00 p.m.
This panel discussion will be offered in person on the Marist College campus AND virtually via Zoom.
IN PERSON:
Hancock 2023 | Marist College 3399 North Road | Poughkeepsie, NY
Doors open at 4:30 p.m. Event will start at 5 p.m.
VIRTUAL:
Via Zoom: https://marist-edu.zoom.us/j/81762742097
Should you need assistance logging in or during the webinar, please email hrvi@marist.edu.
The Woodstock Art Colony, Karen Quinn Long before the famous music festival in 1969, Woodstock, New York was home to what is considered America’s first intentionally created, year-round arts colony—Byrdcliffe, founded in 1902 and still thriving over 100 years later. Subsequently, other groups of artists, including those at the Maverick, the Art Students League, and more, came to Woodstock. The vast array of artists who worked there reflected a wide variety of styles and their collective output represents a body of work that shaped art and culture in New York and forms a history of national and international significance. Elverhoj: The Arts and Crafts Colony at Milton-on-Hudson, William Rhoads Elverhoj was an Ulster County Arts and Crafts colony at Milton-on-Hudson. It was founded in 1912 by Anders Andersen, a Danish-American artist and craftsman, who was its leader until the colony's demise in the 1930s. The colony, established in a mid-19th-century ship captain's home on the river, attracted designers and makers of jewelry and metalwork, tapestries, paintings, and etchings. They arrived from Europe and the American Midwest to live and work together selling their wares at a shop in Poughkeepsie, where they also developed connections with Vassar College. Later, Andersen opened a theatre on site which operated for a few years before the colony closed.
The Women of Elverhoj: The Scott Sisters and Beyond, Leslie Melvin Sisters Bessie and Henrietta Scott were among the earliest members of the Elverhoj colony, where they established a cabin studio dedicated to textile production and taught art tapestry weaving during the colony’s annual summer school. However, their artistic careers at Elverhoj, like so many women artists of the time, are not well documented. In the 1920 and 1930s, local newspaper articles on Bessie and Henrietta’s work with women’s organizations in Poughkeepsie, and later the management of Vassar College’s first craft studios, provide some insight on the influence of two of Elverhoj’s women. USCO: We Are All One, A Meditation on Technology, Mysticism, and the Creation of a Psychedelic Aesthetic, Paige Rozanski USCO, also known as Company of US or US Company, was a group of visionary artists, poets, filmmakers, engineers, photographers, and weavers that formed a cooperative work and living space in a former Methodist church in Garnerville, New York. From 1964-1967, the church became the locus of operations where USCO created multimedia, multisensory, ephemeral, and participatory artworks that featured an assortment of innovative tools and techniques. There they also installed the Tabernacle, an immersive environment which utilized the talents of many USCO participants. Embracing a collective spirit, they adopted a philosophical framework steeped in mysticism and influenced by visionary thinkers that contributed to the 1960s counterculture and the creation of a psychedelic aesthetic.
"The Communication of Experience is Art:" The Millbrook Commune and the Psychedelic Style, Devin Lander The Millbrook Commune, Timothy Leary's "Grounded Space Colony" housed on a 2,500-acre Dutchess County estate, became the infamous "East coast Mecca" of the 1960s psychedelic counterculture during its existence from 1963-1968. Less well known than the wild stories of eccentric living and police raids are the influential forays the group made into the world of psychedelic art and experimental theater. For Leary and his group, art was a way to describe and possibly embody the psychedelic experience without ingesting the substances themselves. The art and artists at the Millbrook Commune played a major role in defining both the commune itself and its role in popularizing the 60s psychedelic style. About the presenters:
About the Hudson River Valley Institute: The Hudson River Valley Institute (HRVI) is a Center of Excellence at Marist College that studies and promotes the history of the Hudson River Valley. The Institute provides information about the region’s culture, economy, environment, and educational resources through www.hudsonrivervalley.org, public programming, and The Hudson River Valley Review. This biannual peer-reviewed journal covers all aspects of regional history. Visit HRVI on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/hudsonrivervalleyinstitute