2011: Exhibitions and Events
At a Ceremony at the Historical Society of Woodstock on lower Comeau, the Town of Woodstock and HSW put signatures to a long-term lease for the Historical Societies continued use of the Eames building and Alf Evers Park. Pictured signing the lease are Supervisor Jeff Moran and Historical Society President Deborah Heppner. Witnessing the signing (from left to right) are: Councilwoman Cathy Margarelli; HSW board members Letitia Smith and Kathy Anderson, Councilwoman Terrie Rosenblum, and Town Clerk Jackie Early. The Historical Society will kick off the sumer season on June 18 with its new exhibit: “Faces and Places – A Small Town Portrait”. (Woodstock Times, June 2, 2011)
Summer 2011 Exhibitions and Events:
Exhibition: Faces and Places – A Small Town Portrait, June 18 – September 4, 2011
Anita Smith
Charlie Tiano
Wilna Hervey
Konrad Cramer
Pinball Palace
Longyear House
on Rock City Rd.
A unique look at the people and the places that are a part of Woodstock’s story. Open Saturdays and Sundays, 1-5 p.m.
Woodstock and the 1970s –
The Historical Society of Woodstock Takes a Look Back
The 1970s represented years of change in Woodstock. Buffeted by internal and external events alike, Woodstock entered the post-festival era facing a host of new issues, as a once quiet mountain town took on challenges presented by the arrival of individuals seeking utopia and finding reality, changing political demographics, the establishment of Family and the demand for its services, what to do with Woodstock kids, a rapidly changing music and art scene, changes in the local economy, battles over local welfare rolls and CETA workers, and debate over town-wide decisions such as the purchase of the Comeau property.
What was it like to live in Woodstock during those years? That will be the question put to a number of long-time Woodstockers this Sunday as the Historical Society of Woodstock examines Woodstock and the 1970s. On hand for the discussion will be D.J. Boggs, Brett Munson, John and Janine Mower, Tinker Twine and others. The event, as part of the Historical Society’s “On the Porch Series,” will be held at 3:00 p.m., Sunday August 31. Moderated by Town Historian Richard Heppner, the discussion will take place in the quiet beauty of Alf Evers Park at the Historical Society’s site on lower Comeau Drive. (In the event of rain, the discussion will be held inside the HSW museum.) Admission is free and refreshments will be served. While there, visitors are invited to view HSW’s exciting summer exhibit – with many new additions – Faces and Places: A Portrait of a Small Town. HSW’s gift shop will also be open, offering a variety of local history books and gifts relating to Woodstock. For further information, call 679-2143.
Snapshots of Woodstock – The Intersection of Photos in Family Albums with Local Historians
Woodstock: As it Once Was (Photo Credit: Janine Fallon-Mower)
Sunday, August 7 at 2:00 p.m. Author Janine Fallon Mower offers a slide presentation of images of Woodstockers in their everyday life – woven into the history of their community. What makes the seeming uninteresting family picture from the past valuable to a community in the future?
In compiling images to use in her Woodstock and Woodstock Revisited books, author Janine Fallon-Mower had the rare opportunity to sit with Woodstockers and review their personal photo albums and reminisce about Woodstock life as they remembered it. As a result, those photographs – thought simply as pictures of friends and family – were transformed into historic images of Woodstock life when Fallon-Mower included their memories in her work.
This Sunday, at the Historical Society of Woodstock, Fallon-Mower will present a number of those images, as well as photographs included in her American Tapestry, the Mowers of Maple Lane as she examines changes in Woodstock over the years and offers a community photo album as a fascinating way to view the evolution on one’s hometown.
The presentation begins at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday August 7 at the Historical Society of Woodstock on Lower Comeau Drive. Admission is free and refreshments will be served.
Film Screening: Aquarian Rushes
Ian Turner, 16 mm projectionist; John Sebastian, musician; Jud Yalkut, filmmaker – August 13, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 1:00,
Upstate Films/Woodstock, admission $10
On August 13, the Historical Society is presenting a film screening at the Upstate Films theater in Woodstock. A short 16 mm film on Clarence Schmidt, entitled Clarence, will be screened, as well as Aquarian Rushes, a documentary on the Woodstock Festival of 1969. Both films are by a sixties Woodstock filmmaker Jud Yalkut, who garnered international recognition on the film circuit. Aquarian Rushes was shown at the Montreal International Festival of Film and the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, among other venues. Jud Yalkut will give a brief introduction. Proceeds from this event will help support the Historical Society.
FishCastle Music featuring Cyril Caster and Catherine Selin
The Historical Society of Woodstock gratefully acknowledges support for this event from: Ametek Rotron, H. Houst & Son, Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, Rondout Savings Bank, Sunflower Natural Foods Market, Ulster Savings, Woodstock Building Supply, & Woodstock Meats … with special thanks to Nina Yankowitz.
HSW History Club
Talking Houses Exhibit: If you missed it at the Historical Society, The Woodstock History Kids Club, an ongoing program of HSW, will present their unique look at Woodstock buildings and their history at WAAM from July 23 – August 21. Opening Reception will be held Saturday July 23 from 4:00–6:00 p.m. Examples of some of the buildings are now on display in the window of the Golden Notebook.
The Woodstock Kids History Club at the Historical Society of Woodstock, under the direction of Jill Olesker, has been involved in a project called Talking Houses. Each member (including the adults helping) chose a building in the center of town that fascinated them. The reasons for their choices were varied , but once chosen the historical research began! They used the Woodstock Collection at the Woodstock Public library with the enthusiastic assistance from library director Amy Raff. They visited and worked with Town Assessor Mark Plate, interviewed people who own or remember how the buildings were used in the past and had an enormous amount of help from the Historical Society’s archivist JoAnn Margolis. Ms. Margolis both provided materials and taught them how to use them. Art teacher Linda Schultz took photos of the buildings on a walking tour with the kids so that we could use them later to help create large models. These models were constructed with Ms. Schultz’s help. Ms. Olesker helped each student choose a different approach or style to write a narrative using their research that would tell the history of their building. On Saturday, June 25, we will each duck behind our buildings and share our narratives one at a time, thus making it appear that the houses are talking! The culmination of the project will be Saturday, June 25 from 1pm-3pm at the Eames House on Comeau Drive in Woodstock. Our presentation will take place at 2 pm. Admission is free and refreshments will be served.
**Annual Membership Meeting – Historical Society of Woodstock, Sunday, October 2, 2:00 pm
Members of the Historical Society elected (left to right) Janine Mower, Sue Ostrander Reynolds, & Karen Vos, to the Board of Trustees.
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**Historical Society of Woodstock Open house – October 15 2:00-4:00 pm
Food, Music, Apple Pressing, Harvest Pleasures Raffle – exhibit: Faces and Places, the Woodstock History Kids Club. Learn more about HSW’s archives and HSW’s plans for the future. Enjoy a wonderful fall afternoon with friends, neighbors, and history. Help us preserve the past by building for the future.
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Thanks to support from: Woodstock Meats, The Golden Notebook, The Dove’s Nest, Diane’s Country Kitchen/Woodstock Hardware, Sylvester Bluestone, Michael Densen Framing
Winter 2011 Events:
**Holiday Sale – December 2,3,4,10,11***Holiday Open House – Friday, December 2, 5:00 – 9:00 pm
The Historical Society of Woodstock invites you to our annual Holiday Exhibit and Sale!
It all kicks off on Friday evening, December 2 from 5:00 – 9:00 P.M., and continues on Saturday and Sunday December 3, 4,10 and 11 from 12:00 to 4:00 P.M. Reflect on Christmas past in Woodstock through a display of original holiday cards crafted by many of capturing Woodstock’s most popular tradition. And, support one of Woodstock’s most enduring institutions by completing your holidayshopping as HSW offers visitors a wide variety of unique holiday gift ideas, including: an expanded collection of local history books, the “famed” HSW Cookie Collection cookbook, note cards and postcards, handcrafted ornaments, CDs featuring local artists, locally produced DVDs, tins of homemade cookies, locally quarried and crafted bluestone hearts, giclee prints, handmade Christmas stockings, children’s mittens, and much, much more.
Holiday Open House
Visitors, while enjoying a wonderful selection of food and drink, will be entertained by the music of FishCastle, featuring Cyril Caster and Catherine Braik Selin. FishCastle, featuring Cyril Caster and Catherine Braik Selin, will return to play the Eames House, 20 Comeau Drive, during the Open House on Friday, December 2, 2011, from 5 to 9 pm. Selin, a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, has performed with choirs nationally and internationally, as a solo artist, and as a member of FishCastle throughout the Northeast. Cyril Caster is a session musicianand musical performer and who has worked with Big Joe Williams, Allen Ginsberg, Bruce Mackay, Elvin Jones, Don Cherry, Pete Seeger, David Blue, Nico, and Colin Walcott.
It’s a Historic Holiday!
John Pike cover for Colliers Magazine, 1951
John Pike cover for Colliers Magazine, 1951
Mr. M’Tavish, one of Bullard’s more endearing “characters”
December 3
Holiday festivities continue on Saturday, December 3 from 12:00 to 4:00 P.M. with special activities for young and old alike, including holiday card making from 1:00 – 3:00 P.M. with Beth Humphrey from WAAM and, at 2:00 P.M., a special reading of Woodstock author Marion Bullard’s children’s stories as presented by Jill Olesker. (see below)
The Historical Society of Woodstock is located on Lower Comeau Drive, across from the old firehouse.
As always, admission is free. Parking is available either at the Historical Society or in the Lower Comeau parking lot. On Friday evening, December 2, during Woodstock’s Open House, look for the trolley… it will take you right to our door. For more information, contact 845-679-2143. HSW is also online on Facebook at Historical Woodstock.
And, as the calendar counts down to the holidays, it all continues on Saturday, December 10 and Sunday, December 11 from 12:00 to 4:00 P.M., as the Historical Society of Woodstock offers the best in local gift ideas for the last minute shopper while surrounded by memories of Woodstock’s rich holiday traditions.
Sunday, December 4 from 1:00 – 3:00 P.M., visitors to the exhibit and sale will have the opportunity to meet local authors and Woodstock Times columnists, Michael Perkins, Will Nixon, and Spider Barbour as each will read from their works, take questions and offer other musings. (see below)
Reading from Children’s Author and Illustrator, Marion Bullard – Saturday, December 3, 1:00-3:00 pm
Sunday, December 3, the Historical Society of Woodstock will present a story hour featuring excerpts from the works of Woodstock artist and children’s author, Marion Bullard. The reading, a part of the HSW’s Woodstock History Kids Club program, will take place from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. Marion Bullard arrived in Woodstock in 1911 to study with the Arts Students League. During her time in Woodstock, she also turned her attention to writing and illustrating children’s books featuring “local” animals who found exciting adventures in Woodstock and beyond.
Marion Bullard’s wonderful stories, to be enjoyed by children and adults alike, will be read by Jill Olesker and will take place at the Historical Society of Woodstock on lower Comeau Drive (just across the street from the old firehouse.) Admission is free and refreshments will be served. For more information call, 679-2143.
Michael Perkins latest book: Carpe Diem: New and Selected Poems,
Michael Perkins latest book: Carpe Diem: New and Selected Poems, Sunday, December 4, 1:00 pm
Michael Perkins, Woodstock Times columnist and co-author of Walking Woodstock, will read and sign copies of Carpe Diem. The latter is Perkins’s new collection of poetry from Bushwack Books. Perkins is the author of six collections of poetry. His poems and essays have appeared in The Village Voice, Younger Critics of North America, The Nation, Mother Jones, Rain, Taxi and American Book Review. He is the recipient of the 2007 Obelisk Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Joining Michael will be Will Nixon and Spider Barbour. Will Nixon is a fellow poet of distinction, and co-author with Michael Perkins of Walking Woodstock in (2009). Nixon has two poetry collections, My Late Mother as a Ruffed Grouse and Love in the City of Grudges. Nixon will read from all his published works. He actively blogs on these and other writing matters at www.willnixon.com.
Spider Barbour grew up in Canton, Ohio with twin interests in natural history and classical music composition. With the upswing of rock in the Sixties, Barbour’s musicology bent turned to rock and roll. He achieved a modicum of success with his band Chrysalis. Their album was re-released in 2005 by the Brit label Rev-Ola. In 1977 Spider and his wife, Anita, began writing “Nature Walk” for the Woodstock Times. Barbour will read from these and other musings.He presently works as an ecological consultant for the towns of Saugerties and New Paltz, and performs locally as a member of The Curmudgeons.
Perkins, Will Nixon, and Spider Barbour will be reading from their respective works and will be signing them as well. This event takes place on Sunday, December 4th at 1:00 pm. Refreshments will be served and it’s free and open to the public.
Spoken Words of War and Remembrance”
Saturday, November 12, 12:30-4:00 pm
The Historical Society of Woodstock and the Woodstock Poetry Society are co- presenting a special Veterans Day reading entitled “Spoken Words of War and Remembrance.” Featured readers will include Jay Wenk, Walt Nygard and Dayl Wise. The reading will take place on November 12th at 12:30 to 2 pm. From 2 pm to 4pm the regularly scheduled Woodstock Poetry readings, hosted by Phillip Levine, will include poets Matt Spireng and Suzanne Cleary. The event will take place at the Eames House, 20 Comeau Drive, Woodstock, NY. This special presentation is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.