Serious Play, A Youth Arts Fundraiser
Saturday, July 20, 11am-6pm
Foreland
111 Water St.
Catskill NY, 12414
Foreland is thrilled to announce “Serious Play: A Youth Arts Fundraiser”. Focused on engaging youth in the arts through direct charitable support for arts programs & educators, “Serious Play” will take place on July 20th, 2024, during Upstate Art Weekend, with sliding scale ticket prices and an auction of local goods and services. Guests can sunbathe on our creekside lawn, visit a multi-discipline exhibition, and engage with a never-seen-before interactive sound installation. Food will be available by Seafood Steamery, refreshments by Frankie’s, and a dozen art and cultural partners will have items up for bid in a fundraising auction.
With the goal of democratizing the process of making and consuming art, an exhibition of ceramics by youth students from Cone Zero and work by the Columbia Collective will each be mounted in Foreland’s Waterfront. This exhibition will occupy 4,000 SqFt and be curated by Foreland’s Programming Director, Jesse Greenberg.
The cornerstone moment of “Serious Play” is a conceptual sound installation: “Open Play in the Tower Stair”. Foreland’s Tower Stair – a 6-story, wraparound staircase with a permanent sound system installed on each of the 6 landings – will be transformed from passive playback to interactive playtime. Various keyboards, marimbas, percussion instruments, and microphones will be scattered throughout the stairwell for event attendees to play and experiment with in order to make audio-art on-the-spot. Simple ambient backing tracks and clear instruction will provide a foundation for everyone – regardless of age, pedigree, skill, or background –“Open Play in the Tower Stair”, an endeavor never before seen in the Region.
“Serious Play” is not an exhibition for the virtuoso art-goer or art-maker exclusively. Instead, Foreland has honed in on the social aspect and potential of the arts campus in order to allow for a less mediated kind of cultural experience.
Throughout the day, visitors can bid on goods and services generously donated by artists, institutions, and local businesses in a fundraising effort that includes a two night stay at nearby spa and hotel, Piaule, among a dozen other items. All proceeds from this auction will be donated to the Cone Zero Youth Sponsorship program, the Columbia Collective organization, and MHA Clubhouses of Columbia Greene.
CONE ZERO CERAMICS, is a community ceramics school offering public classes, workshops, and independent studio time. Our mission is to provide inclusive access to ceramics facilities and ongoing education opportunities for individuals of all ages and skill levels, fostering a vibrant dialogue about the potential of clay. The studio is equipped with 12 pottery wheels, a slab roller, an extruder, a range of tools and molds, and a variety of cone 6 clay bodies and food-safe glazes. Cone Zero Ceramics is located in Catskill, NY at 111 Water Street. Learn more at conezeroceramics.com
The Columbia Collective is a group of emerging female/trans incarcerated/formerly incarcerated artists exercising creative freedom across states of confinement, named for the maximum juvenile secure center in which they lived and worked. The group currently comprised of six artists; Marshmallow, Jay, Juste-A, Marilynn, Torei and Toni, and was founded in 2020 by artist Maggie Hazen, which she co-directs with her curatorial partner, Sofia Thieu D’Amico. Foreland produced a show and reading room of Columbia Collectives work in 2022, and continued support this year starting with a donation of $2,500.
From 2019 to 2021, the group met weekly for arts instruction based on a graduate-school MFA model, in which artists cultivate their own visions and projects, outside of an established curriculum with grades and assignments. For the past five years, Hazen has cultivated artist communities in other NY state prison facilities, actively working with abolition-minded community partners to connect the Collective to resources and transitional support post-incarceration through fundraising, storytelling, and mentorship.
Since the formation of the Columbia Collective, the group has exhibited and collaborated with Pioneer Works, Red Hook, NY; the Moxi Children’s Museum, Santa Barbara, CA; Siena College, NY; Border Patrol, Bakersfield, CA; Shandaken Projects, NY; The Athens Cultural Center, Catskill, NY; and Girls Inc., Santa Barbara, CA.
Clubhouse of Columbia Greene, is a community based, peer-driven recovery program that encourages positive peer, family and community involvement. We promote long-term recovery through recreation, pro-social activities, skill building opportunities, education, and activities centered on overall health and wellness. Our clubhouses don’t only promote wellness, but provide windows to gain skills and a foothold in the community. Having a community to support you and a passion to chase is crucial to healthier living and the Clubhouse provides the space and connections to give that direction.
Community connections are designed to educate youth, families, and professionals to build sustaining positive support systems. We foster opportunities within the community for youth to overcome the current culture of addiction.
Participants of the clubhouse participate in activities that build learning and capabilities; they conduct a live radio broadcast, develop art, music, and dance projects, participate in events, even develop movies.