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With a record 158 participants showing their work across 10 counties just north of New York City, Upstate Art Weekend is practically impossible to experience in full—even with the so-called weekend now spanning five days, from July 17 to 21. What began in 2020 as a loose constellation of 20-some galleries and art institutions opening their doors to visitors has evolved into an epic smorgasbord of exhibitions, performances, collaborations, and dance parties, not to mention sound, floral, and who knows what other kinds of installations.
“It all started [with me] coming up with itineraries for friends and artists visiting from the city,” says Helen Toomer, the founder of the annual Hudson Valley art crawl, who is known for her signature pixie cut and bottomless energy. “It’s grown to the point where seeing all the participating spaces is an impossible but glorious task.”
With the scene north of the city blowing up (see: The White Lotus star Walton Goggins’s AD house tour and DJ Mark Ronson’s recent Fourth of July residency at Hy’s Fried roadside chicken joint), it makes perfect sense that what started as a wee celebration of art and nature has become an extravaganza of overwhelming proportions. Below, half a dozen Hudson Valley insiders’ picks to help you whittle down your itinerary.
Dan Pelosi, cookbook author and content creator, Hillsdale resident: Art Omi, Ghent
Pelosi, better known to his Instagram fan base as @grossypelosi, is heading to Art Omi to see two exhibitions: Harold Stevenson’s erotic paintings and Erin Besler’s interactive installation Staging Area: A Barn Raising in Two Parts. “I am obsessed with all the barns in the area, and the barn-raising event is a tribute to the tradition of a community coming together to raise the walls and make the barn,” says Pelosi, whose sophomore cookbook, Let’s Party, comes out in September. Stevenson, on the other hand, was a queer cowboy from Oklahoma whose paintings focused on erogenous zones, including armpits, belly buttons, and mouths. “His works are beautiful. Some of them feel like landscapes,” says Pelosi. He plans to have breakfast at nearby Bartlett House before visiting the 120-acre art center. (There is a nearby Dairy Queen, too, for visitors’ post-viewing pleasure.)
Stef Halmos, artist and founder of Foreland in Catskill, Hudson resident: The Macedonia Institute x Ten Barn Farm, Ghent
Minutes from Art Omi is the Macedonia Institute, a family-run artist residency that will be displaying the work of more than 15 artists on nearby Ten Barn Farm, a farm, event space, and Airbnb participant with—you guessed it—10 historic barns. “The Macedonia Institute is often overlooked,” says Halmos. “It’s an artist-driven project that isn’t obsessed with being fancy and that does great things. They don’t make their artists go through an elaborate application process, and they also produce beautiful editions and publications. I have some of their past residents’ works in my home.”
Angela Pham, photographer and cofounder of Deitch + Pham content agency, Rhinebeck resident: Open studios at Foreland, Catskill
The highlight of Pham’s last Upstate Art Weekend was visiting the open studios at Foreland, the three-building, 85,000-square-foot campus that Halmos founded. There are galleries, studios, and coworking spaces as well as commercial tenants, including a hair salon, a boxing gym, and a popular cafe. “The spirit was very convivial and communal, and the crowd epitomized upstate,” Pham says of her visit to the complex. Plus, she adds, it’s an excuse to visit the town of Catskill. “If Hudson is Beyoncé, Catskill is Solange,” says Pham. “It’s a little lesser known but just as beautiful. It’s the more interesting sibling that’s always on the verge of revitalization and never quite hits the mainstream.”
R. B. Schlather, opera director, Hudson resident: The Campus, Claverack
Schlather’s production of the emotionally charged, Pulitzer Prize–winning, mid-century American opera Vanessa will be the first opera in 71 years at the legendary Williamstown Theater Festival, which is partly curated by playwright Jeremy O. Harris this summer. Schlather urges art lovers to visit The Campus, the abandoned mid-century school that a cluster of gallerists recently turned into an art megaplex. “It’s so cool to see that space in its new iteration,” Schlather says. “Growing up in Cooperstown, New York, I went to a school like that, and I love how they kept a lot of details, like the chalkboards, locker rooms, and science labs.”
Presley Oldham, jewelry designer, Hudson resident: Mary MacGill, Germantown
Oldham, whose gender-neutral pearl-and-wire creations sell at Bergdorf Goodman and who was a finalist for the 2024 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, sings the praises of fellow jewelry designer Mary MacGill, whose pieces are both serene and striking. “It’s fun to see a jeweler on the list this year,” Oldham says. MacGill’s work toes the line between fine art and jewelry, and she will be showing new sculptural pieces that take inspiration from modernists like Alexander Calder and Catherine Noll. “We have mutual friends, and I met her when we did the Stissing House Craft Feast together last year,” Oldham notes. “She uses lots of wire wrapping, as do I, but she interprets things differently. I can’t wait to see what she’s come up with.”
Sari Botton, writer, editor, Substacker, Kingston resident: Noisemakers Dance Party at Assembly, Kingston
Botton, who has called Kingston home for 11 years, was thrilled when a former Catholic girls’ school was converted into Assembly, a local events and coworking space that hosts concerts and offers Pilates and ecstatic-dance classes. Botton plans to attend the July 18 Upstate Art Weekend party, which doubles as an abortion-rights benefit. “It’s a lovely setting, and the acoustics are primo,” Botton says. “Normally it’s a little sleepy around here, but Assembly has been helping to change that.”