2019 Exhibitions and Events
Thank you for your support!
Image: “Holiday Card”, Maud and Miska Petersham, circa 1940,
collection of the Historical Society.
“Christmas Sextet, Old-time Woodstock Artists Having Fun”, n.d., collection of the Historical Society
Historical Society Holiday Exhibit and Sale
December 6, 7 and 8, December 14 and 15, 12 – 4 pm
Reception: Friday, December 6, 3 – 7 pm
The holidays are upon us and the Historical Society of Woodstock’s annual Holiday Exhibit and Sale once again offers a unique stop on the way to honoring the season. This year’s celebration kicks off on Friday evening, December 6 from 3:00 – 7:00 pm. Those in attendance will enjoy a selection of great homemade soups, bread, hot cider, wine and other holiday treats. The exhibit and sale continues on Saturday and Sunday December 7, 8, 14, and 15 from 12:00 to 4:00 pm.
This year’s sale features an expanded collection of holiday cards and includes HSW’s popular tins of homemade cookies. Shoppers will also find a large selection of local history books and DVDs, hand knitted hats and mittens, locally produced maple syrup, Mira’s Naturals honey products, a selection of handmade crafts and much more. In addition, be sure to select from the Society’s offering of holly and greens – free of charge.
While shopping, visitors can also take in HSW’s exhibit of vintage holiday cards crafted, over the years, by noted Woodstock artists. This year’s selection highlights cards with a decidedly musical theme. Also on display will be a number of paintings depicting winter in Woodstock – all drawn from the Society’s extensive art collection.
This holiday season make sure you include a visit to the Historical Society of Woodstock as part of your holiday plans and take time to remember the joys of holidays past and the possibilities of those yet to come. The Historical Society of Woodstock is located on Lower Comeau Drive. As always, admission is free and parking is available either at the Historical Society or in the Lower Comeau parking lot. HSW is also online at www.historicalsocietyofwoodstock.org or on Facebook at Historical Woodstock.
Annual Holiday Card Making at HSW
Saturday, November 23, 10 – noon
Historical Society of Woodstock will host its annual Holiday Card Makingevent with artists Sarah Mechlem and Roberta Sickler on Saturday, November 23 from 10:00 a.m. till noon. The event, to be held at the Historical Society on Comeau Drive, is free and all materials will be provided. Both adults and children alike are invited to share in the fun (children need to be accompanied by adults). As there is limited space, all interested should make a reservation by calling Deborah Heppner at 679-2143 by November 22.
The Historical Society’s annual Holiday Exhibit and Sale will be open to the public on December 6, 7 and 8 as well as December 14 and 15. For more information on the Society’s activities, go to: www.historicalsocietyofwoodstock.org or visit on Facebook at Historical Woodstock.
Guitar Sculpture, Back to the Garden
by Nikki V. Hall
Historical Society To Celebrate 90 Years at Annual Meeting
Ninety years ago, a small group of Woodstockers gathered to hold the first meeting of the Historical Society of Woodstock in the home of Konrad Cramer. Dedicating the Society to the task of creating a permanent record of Woodstock history, HSW has, throughout its nine decades, remained faithful to the mission set forth by its founders. This Sunday, October 6, beginning at 3:00 pm, the Society will host its annual membership meeting followed by a celebration of its 90 years in service to Woodstock history.
As part of its annual meeting, members of the Society’s Board will review its 2019 activities and reveal plans for 2020. The election of new board members will also be held. Immediately following the meeting, the public is invited to a celebration of HSW’s 90 years. In addition to enjoying the usual sampling of great HSW refreshments and viewing the Society’s current exhibit, Woodstock Collects – ”Heritage Through Art,” Town Historian, Richard Heppner, will offer a brief talk on the history of the Historical Society of Woodstock.
Back to the Garden, the intricate guitar sculpture now on display at the Historical Society of Woodstock’s Eames House, was a labor of love for artist and graphic designer Nikki V. Hall. The months-long process of hand-dying, painting and building the instrument proved gratifying as challenges were met and Hall’s euphoric vision took shape in serendipitous ways. The project is part of Rennie Cantine’s 2019 Woodstock Guitar Sculpture Exhibition, wherein artists created sculptures to decorate the town and then to be auctioned for the benefit of Family of Woodstock’s suicide prevention programs, Text-Me-Back, and the John Herald Fund. Back to the Garden will be on display at Eames until Sunday, Oct.13, when the auction will take place at the Kleinert/James Center for the Arts, 36 Tinker Street, at 4 p.m. Sabrina and the Gems will perform their original music from 2:00-3:30 pm. Hall has written a full report of her experience creating Back to the Garden, and credits many friends who provided invaluable assistance.
Nan Mason, “Abstract”, enamel on copper, 1967
Wilna Hervey, “Beach Scene”, enamel on copper, 1965
WOODSTOCK COLLECTS: Heritage through Art
September 14 – October 27, 2019
Opening reception September 14
Hundreds of formerly unseen treasures from private collections in Woodstock are presented in this first-time communal exhibition.
Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild
Woodstock Artists Association & Museum
Historical Society of Woodstock
Woodstock School of Art
Center for Photography at Woodstock
EXHIBITION WOODSTOCK COLLECTS BRINGS PRIVATE COLLECTIONS TO THE PUBLIC EYE
Five-venue exhibition celebrates unity among Woodstock’s arts organizations
With a town-wide reception on Saturday September 14, the multi-venue exhibition Woodstock Collects invites the public to bask in over a century of rich visual traditions making Woodstock the art colony to beat all art colonies. The exhibition, sourced entirely from local private collections, will be on view through the fall of 2019 at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, the Historical Society of Woodstock, the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum (WAAM), the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, and the Woodstock School of Art. This first-time collaboration among five of Woodstock’s key arts organizations includes regionally and internationally known artists like Milton Avery, George Bellows, Lucile Blanch, Manuel Bromberg, Konrad Cramer, Julio de Diego, Mary Frank, Marion Greenwood, Philip Guston, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Georges Malkine, Fletcher Martin, Zulma Steele, Eva Watson-Schütze, and many more.
Each of the five participating organizations uses a different curatorial approach, telling a story that illuminates that organization’s history. The Center for Photography at Woodstock’s exhibition, curated by Hannah Frieser, will be on view through October 20; featuring the experimental photographs of Konrad Cramer, Manuel Komroff, and Nathan Resnick, the exhibition focuses on their changes from Pictorialism to abstraction. Deborah Heppner, curator of the show at the Historical Society of Woodstock (on view through October 27), invited HSW board members to submit works of personal or historical significance, along with written narratives of how the artworks came into their possession.
WAAM’s contribution to Woodstock Collects, titled An Artistic Legacy: 1+1+1, presents three-tiered groupings based on a work by historic Woodstock artists from WAAM’s permanent collection and private collections, the work of one of the artist’s descendants, and the work of a contemporary artist selected by the descendant; curated by Janice La Motta, WAAM’s exhibition is on view through December 29. Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild’s Legacy of the Arts: Friends, Families, Lovers (through October 13) was curated by Tina Bromberg, Abigail Sturges, and Sylvia Leonard Wolf and celebrates artists from every stage of the Guild’s history, from Ralph and Jane Whitehead’s Arts and Crafts utopia, to the formation of the Woodstock Guild of Craftsmen in 1939, to the merger between the Guild and the Byrdcliffe Art Colony in 1976 and the addition of the Kleinert/James Center for the Arts in 1996. Finally, Jenne M. Currie curated the exhibition The Art Students League in Woodstock 1947–79 for the Woodstock School of Art, examining the vital role that instructors at the Art Students League (housed until 1979 at what is today WSA’s campus) and their peers in the artistic community have played in the town’s rich cultural history. WSA’s Woodstock Collects exhibition is on view through October 12.
While each venue’s exhibition has its own personality, the sum of the five shows reveals the mutual sustainability of the arts in Woodstock, held together by a community of artists, collectors, cultural leaders, and donors.
Art historian Susana Torruella Leval notes that together, the five organizations participating in Woodstock Collects “point to a common future as part of the town’s artistic alliance—confirming that creative energy and activity are alive and well in Woodstock.” The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated 72-page catalogue with essays by Leval and the exhibition curators.
Public receptions will be held on September 14, 2019 from 2:00 – 5:00 pm at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, the Historical Society of Woodstock, the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum, and the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild. The day ends with a celebration at the Woodstock School of Art from 5:00 – 7:00 pm.
Exhibition catalogue available – $20
WOODSTOCK MUSIC:
In Tune with the Times, 1600-present
June 29 – September 1, Saturdays & Sundays, 1-5 pm
2-4pm. Opening reception: Refreshments, music by Rennie Cantine and Sabrina Miller.
This exhibit travels through time from the music of the Northern Delaware tribes of the 1600’s to the musicians of today. In addition to indigenous music, the exhibit will include church hymns, songs of the workers in the 1800’s, music of the early 1900’s art colony, mid-century folk music, and the explosion of folk, rock and other contemporary music in the 1960’s and 70’s up to the present. The 1969 Woodstock festival, which happened in Bethel, NY, is included.
Photos Above: Lake Hill Band, c late 1800; Musicans, First Maverick Concert; Concert in Field with Betty McDonald; The Jupiter string Quartet with Daniel Gortler, Maverick Concert; Christmas Sextet; Tom Pacheco, Sunday Drum Circle, Village Green
Sabrina and the Gems to close Music Exhibit
Sunday, September 1 – music begins at noon.
Woodstock Music: In Tune with the Times, 1600 – Present The Historical Society of Woodstock’s summer-long exhibit honoring musicians throughout the town’s history closes Sunday, September 1 with a musical performance at 12 pm by Sabrina and the Gemsat the Eames House Museum, 20 Comeau Drive.
August 24, 12 pm.
The Improbable Community:
Camp Woodland and the American Democratic Ideal.
Book signing, talk and music, Bill Horne, Eames House, 20 Comeau Drive, Woodstock.
Author and civil rights attorney Bill Horne will give an illustrated talk based on his book, The Improbable Community: Camp Woodland and the American Democratic Ideal on Saturday, August 24 from 12-1 pm at Eames House Museum, 20 Comeau Drive, Woodstock, NY. Special tribute will be paid to Woodstock musicologists Eric Weissberg and Herbert Haufrecht, who were deeply involved with the camp. Former campers Pat Lamanna and Mickey Vandow will be on hand to play camp songs. Bill’s book will be on sale and available for autographing. Light refreshments will be available. Admission is free.
Camp Woodland was founded in 1939 by a group of idealists inspired by the New Deal who put American democracy into practice by creating an inclusive summer camp for city kids in the remote Catskill mountains near Phoenicia, NY. (Detractors would refer to it as “Camp Red” during the McCarthy era.) They helped to incubate the folk music movement in America, influenced music in Woodstock, and brought together city and rural communities through the collection and preservation of Catskills folklore and folk music.
Author: Bill Horne is an attorney who practiced trade regulation law in Washington, D.C., and health care, public construction and civil rights law in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up in Queens, New York, and was a camper at Camp Woodland from 1950 through 1960.
Folk Singer: Pat Lamanna learned to play guitar and wrote her first songs at Camp Woodland from 1955-1961. She recently won awards for her songs at the South Florida Folk Festival. One of her songs, “Peace Pilgrim,” is featured on Pete Seeger’s album, “The Storm King.” She has three solo CDs to her credit.
Folk Singer: Mickey Vandow went to the Little Red School House with Eric Weissberg, where they learned folk songs from Charity Bailey, the music teacher. He was a camper at Camp Woodland for many summers where they learned Catskill history, folklore, and the folksongs collected by Herbert Haufrecht and Norman Cazden from singers in the region. Mickey learned guitar from Laura Rosenblatt and Bob Claiborne and banjo from Pete Seeger. He taught theater, cinema, and video production at SUNY Cobleskill.
August 3, 7 pm. Concert –
Rock Academy Alumni Reunion
with Liz Mitchell, Nancy Chusid & Children’s Chorus.
Blast from the past! Rock Academy and the Historical Society of Woodstock is welcoming back some of your favorite Rock Academy All-Star Graduates for a one night only show on Saturday, August 3rd. Some graduates will be playing and singing rock covers accompanied by the current Rock Academy Showband, while others will be presenting original music! The show is part of the Historical Society of Woodstock’s “Woodstock Music: In Tune With The Times” show currently on display Saturdays and Sundays 1-5pm at the Eames House, 20 Comeau Drive.
The concert will be held at the Church of Christ, Scientist, 85 Tinker Street. Opening the show will be Elizabeth Mitchell and Nancy Chusid present young people performing selections from the songbook Folk-Songs and Other Songs for Children, edited by Jane Byrd Radcliffe-Whitehead. Tickets $10 Doors 6pm
Show 7pm
Aug 4, 4 – 6 pm.
Art and the Counterculture in 1960s Woodstock
Lecture by John Murphy, PhD, at the Byrdcliffe Kleinert/James Center for the Arts, 34 Tinker Street, Woodstock, NY
Dr. Murphy will explore Woodstock as a ferment of art, experimentation, and creativity in the 1960s, a period in which artists, writers and musicians contributed to a growing counterculture opposed to mainstream values. John P. Murphy PhD is the Hoehn Curatorial Fellow for Prints at the University of San Diego and a specialist on Arts and Crafts colonies. He has published work on Ivan Albright, Bolton Brown, William Gropper, and Charles White. His dissertation examined the colonies of Byrdcliffe, Roycroft, and Rose Valley. His research has been supported with grants and fellowships from the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, the Huntington Library, and the Wolfsonian Museum. He was a 2014-2015 Luce/ACLS Fellow in American art.
“Sound Out Poster”, 1960s
Arlene Schechet, “Parallel Play: Anymore”, 2012, cast pigmented cotton, (approx 40 x 30 inches)
July 27, 12 pm.
Illustrated Lecture and Performance on Native American Music
The Development of Local Native American Musicfrom Lithophonics to Shakers, Drums and Flutes, an illustrated lecture with music by best-selling Native American author and musician Evan Pritchard. Free
Evan performs songs that survived years in the Hudson Valley and the long trek to Oklahoma. Identifying Native American influences in music of today, he links Charlie Patton, Hank Williams, Elvis, Peter LaFarge, Johnny Cash, Buffy Ste Marie, Hendrix and more to Robbie Robertson, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and other singers. The founder of the Center for Algonquin Culture, Pritchard wrote the highly acclaimed Native New Yorker, studied music at Juilliard and taught Native American culture at universities in the Hudson Valley. (free)
Saturday, July 13, 12 pm.
Panel discussion
The Impact of Music on Woodstock CultureThe Impact of Music on Woodstock Culture
Moderated by Woodstock Town Historian, Richard Heppner. Panelists: Happy Traum, Gilles Malkine, Rennie Cantine, Michael Birnbaum, Barbara Pickhardt. Applehead Studio, 1835 Route 212, Saugerties.
Panel Discussion, Applehead Studio, 7-13-19
Saturday, June 29, 7:30 p.m.
Performance, Woodstock Community Center.
Colonists, Warriors, Witches,
happen at the Woodstock Community Center, 56 Rock City Road, Saturday evening, June 29, 7:30 p.m. Katie Jeannotte of the “Bows and Chords” music studio in Shokan will direct a musical ensemble of adults and children, and the Gnomon Shadow Theater, under the direction of the Rowan family from Saugerties, will tell a story with shadow puppets. Visuals and special effects will enhance the experience. Come sing along! $5 donation benefits the Historical Society of Woodstock. The performance celebrates the opening of HSW’s summer exhibit, Woodstock Music: In Tune with the Times, 1600’s- Present, June 29-Sept. 1, Saturdays and Sundays 1-5 p.m.
June 15, 12-4pm. Exhibition Preview – NYS Path Through History. 12 pm talk by Woodstock musician, Rennie Cantine. Eames House, 20 Comeau Drive, Woodstock.
This event is a special preview of the exhibit, “Woodstock Music: In Tune with the Times, 1600-Present,” featuring a talk and performance by Woodstock musician Rennie Cantine. Rennie founded the popular Woodstock Guitar Festival, fronts for the band Rip Van Ren and plays a duet with Sabrina Miller. He will speak and perform with Sabrina at 12 noon at HSW’s Eames House, 20 Comeau Drive.
Sabrina Miller & Rennie Cantine
Elly Wininger
Jennifer Maidman Band
with special guest, Elly Wininger
Concert: May 24, 8 pm, doors open at 7 pm
Christian Science Church, 85 Tinker Street, Woodstock
The Jennifer Maidman Band with special guest Elly Wininger will kick off The Historical Society of Woodstock’s 2019 celebration of the town’s 400-year history in the field of music on Friday, May 24 with a benefit concert at the Christian Science Church, 85 Tinker Street.
Maidman, a versatile UK and US based instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and producer, is currently a member of The Orchestra That fell to Earth (the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra), Soupsongs (the music of Robert Wyatt), the Murray Head Band, the Terry Reid Band and the reformed seminal 1970s funk soul ensemble Kokomo. She enjoyed chart success from the start of her career by recording and mixing Marc Bolan’s “I Love to Boogie” in 1976. She has performed with Joan Armatrading, Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knopfler, Gerry Rafferty, Van Morrison and Boy George.
For more information, see http://jennifermaidman.weebly.com/
Elly Wininger, a 2014 inductee into the NY Blues Hall of Fame, got her start in the coffee houses of Greenwich Village and has deep roots in Woodstock. Her CD, Little Red Wagon, hit #8 on the Folk Music DJ Chart in 2018. Having played historic NYC venues, Elly now tours nationally and is an annual feature at the Woodstock Invitational Luthier’s Showcase. Festival promoter Kurt Henry called Elly a “folk-blues legend.” She was the first artist to perform at CBGB and was offered a recording contract with Red Robin Records at age 16. For more about Elly Wininger’s impressive career, see http://www.ellywininger.com/bio.shtml.
Advance tickets for the benefit concert are $15. The day of the show, tickets are $20. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 pm. Buy tickets at the show, or on-line at buy now
The concert is the first in a series of events planned by the Historical Society of Woodstock to complement the 2019 exhibit, Woodstock Music: In Tune with the Times, 1600 – Present, which previews at the HSW’s Eames House Museum on June 15 from 12-4 pm with a talk by Woodstock musician Rennie Cantine. The exhibit is open June 29 to September 1st, on Saturdays and Sundays from 1-5 pm.
Thank you to our sponsors for making these events possible:
The Emerson Resort & Spa
Radio Woodstock 100.1 WDST
Ulster Savings
Mid-Hudson Valley Credit Union
The Improbable Community
Elliott Landy
Catskill Art and Office Supply
Willow Mixed Media
Bread Alone
Bushwhack Books
Colony
H. Houst & Son Inc.
Overlook Bikes
Shakti Yoga
The Woodstock Dress – Reimagined
Sunday, May 5, 2019, 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Woodstock’s Christian Science Church, 85 Tinker St.
A fashion and history program presented by the Historical Society of Woodstock and Workday Wear.
Join us for a special program that explores the history of Augusta Allen’s original Woodstock Dress presented by Woodstock Town Historian, Richard Heppner and, for the first time in eighty years, the unveiling of the “reimagined” Woodstock Dress as designed by Sarah Stitham of Workday Wear.
Augusta Allen, born in 1869 and raised as a child along the Ohio frontier, arrived in Woodstock, NY with her husband, artist and entrepreneur, Willard Allen. Urged to make Woodcock their home by artist Birge Harrison, the couple, upon their arrival, constructed a remarkable three-story home known as Allencrest. As time progressed, however, declining family fortunes would call upon Augusta to put her considerable skills as a seamstress to work, in an effort to support her growing family. No stranger to hard work – family members recall hearing the treadle sewing machine she used whirring well into the early morning hours – Augusta drew upon the early lessons of the frontier and an innate creativity to fashion what would become known as the Woodstock Dress.
The dresses, made of cotton, velvet, taffeta and other select types of fabrics were soon in high demand by the women of Woodstock. It could, for example, be either a casual everyday dress to wear to market or easily worn formally at a reception. The dress became a favorite of women within the art colony and was also worn by many of the Cheats and Swings square dancers during a number of exhibitions, including one memorable performance for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt at their home in Hyde Park.
Though styles would change as time progressed, the history of the Woodstock Dress has been kept alive over the years through the efforts of the Historical Society of Woodstock and Augusta’s great-granddaughter, Deborah Allen Heppner. Over the decades, however, though the dress has attracted considerable interest by designers who have marveled at Augusta’s intricate work, the reproduction of the dress and its return to fashion seems to have been waiting these many years for the right person to take on such a task. That long wait is about to end.
Enter Sarah Stitham, owner of Workday Wear. Founded as a clothing company, Stitham’s vision behind Workday Wear was to focus on elegant, well-made clothing, using all natural fabrics that hearken back to a time when things were constructed sturdily, sewn beautifully and made locally. A child of the Catskills, Stitham’s own life experiences and her connection to both land and community made Augusta Allen’s dress an obvious focus of her creative imagination. Allen’s ability, despite the financial hardships of her day, to draw upon the pioneering and homesteading skills of her youth to produce the Woodstock Dress, was, to Stitham, the underlying “ethos for Workday Wear since the beginning.”
As a result of her discussions with Heppner, who also serves as President of the Historical Society, Stitham began to pursue the idea of bringing back the Woodstock Dress. “I became obsessed with Augusta’s ingenuity, fortitude and design style,” offered Stitham. That obsession has magically led to the first successful recreation of the Woodstock Dress in more than eighty years.
As a result of Stitham’s creative efforts and collaboration with the Historical Society of Woodstock, the Woodstock Dress will return to the town that gave it birth on May 5, 2019. On that date, through a program that combines both history and fashion, Stitham’s “new” Woodstock Dress will be unveiled along with Augusta Allen’s story as presented by Woodstock Town Historian, Richard Heppner. The program will be held at the First Church of Christ, Scientist, 85 Tinker Street in Woodstock, NY from 3:00-5:00 pm. An Afternoon Tea and further discussion will follow the program. Music interludes by Reggie Earls and Timothy Hill will also be presented. Tickets for the event are $20.00 and can be purchased at the door or online by going to the Historical Society’s web page at: www.historicalsocietyofwoodstock.org.
For further information and press inquiries, email: [email protected]
To contact Sarah Stitham, email [email protected]
Program also includes an Afternoon Tea, discussion and musical interludes presented by Reginald Earls and Timothy Hill.
Tickets: $20.00 Tickets: buy now
Note: You do not need to be a PayPal subscriber to reserve online tickets. All major credit cards will be accepted.
Thank you all for your support of this event!
Community Estate Sale
From eclectic to practical …
Something for everyone including: furniture, paintings, children’s toys, books, tools, jewelry, art supplies, costumes, baskets, collectibles & vintage household items … and much more!
In addition, baked goods and coffee will be on sale.
Saturday April 6 9:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Sunday April 7 10:00 – 3:00 p.m.
All proceeds benefit the Historical Society of Woodstock.
“Wisteria at Alf’s House”, circa 1950
“Overlook Mountain”, 1914
