Saturday, September 14, 10:30 AM, Catskill, NY. Arrive early, wearing good walking shoes, with umbrellas in hand in case of foul weather. This event begins with a bagels and coffee brunch hosted by interior designer & lighting specialist Bradford Ellis in his Lighting Showroom at 356 Main Street. Expect to spend two hours walking and talking… and come away with both new ideas and new friends.
Consider the salon… a 16th century adaptation of a High Renaissance Italian idea where people gathered under the roof of an inspiring host to amuse one another, on the one hand, and refine each others’ tastes and increase knowledge, in the optimum. The concept was born from Aristotelian ideals of beauty and Platonic goals involving truth, midwived by the great Roman philosopher Horace’s definition of the aims of poetry “either to please or to educate.”
Jason Middlebrook — cast concrete bottles 2 — 2008
Move on to the present day and the new concept of a “walking salon” pioneered by the already inventive Masters on Main program wedding small town economic development with storefront arts exhibition… where a crowd comes out to join artists and curators as they stroll Catskill’s Main Street, initiating and following a conversation on what the art on view means… along with the greater role culture plays in the contemporary lives of communities like Catskill.
Lisa Sanditz — Cheetos
Joel Griffith — Montgomery Street Trailer
These events started two summers ago with an impromptu session involving local artist/conceptualists Matt Bua and Brian Dewan. They went on to include various figures from the Occupy movement come north for Wall Street to Main Street, and later involved leading art teachers from the region’s top arts masters programs, and, last autumn, New York Foundation for the Arts project coordinators and artists Chad Weckler, Keiko Sono and Michael Asbill.
Carolyn Marks Blackwood — Cloud Series #77. 2011
Next on the bill, on Saturday, September 14 at 11:00 a.m., a new Walking Salon will explore the current exhibit, Eastern Standard: Indirect Lines to the Hudson River School. The exhibit is curated by Kate Menconeri and features the work of participating exhibitors: Carolyn Marks Blackwood, Tim Davis, Sandy Gellis, Joel Griffith, Ruth Hardinger, Kysa Johnson, David La Spina, Alex McKay, Nadja Verena Marcin, Alan Michelson, Jason Middlebrook, Ben Ruggiero, Lisa Sanditz, Ann Katrin Speis, Lauren Sansaricq, Susan Wides and Linda Weintraub.
David LaSpina — Olana Vanished x4
Featured image: Thinking Box by Anne Katrin Spiess
For maps or more information call the Greene County Council on the Arts
518/943‑3400 or visit www.greenearts.org