In an act of “un-silencing the opera house” during the pandemic, The Flow Chart Foundation teamed up with local Hudson Hall (home of the Hudson Opera House) to create a window installation featuring texts from Ashbery’s “The Recital” (from Three Poems ). The texts, showcased for Poetry Month as part of a City-wide effort to fill shop windows with art, traverses 6 large picture windows, with a seventh window providing a biography of Ashbery and listings of upcoming Flow Chart virtual events. The installation was featured in this piece from the Times Union (Albany, NY).
Hudson Hall on Warren Street has been displaying the poetry of John Ashbery in its windows (image courtesy Hudson Hall / Jeffrey Lependorf of The Flow Chart Foundation)
With storefronts closed, Hudson effort aims to fill windows with art
April 27, 2020Updated: April 27, 2020 4:47 p.m.
Shops have been closed. Galleries have been shuttered. Too many storefronts, if they're filled with anything these days, display the artifacts of long-ago sales and COVID-19 cancellation alerts.
But if all goes as planned, windows throughout downtown Hudson will display the works of its resident artists, turning sidewalks into open-air galleries showcasing art behind glass that can be seen from a distance.
“We can hopefully remind our community that we are a community full of artists and creative people -- and also that the arts bring a lot of joy, and life, and depth to our community and to life,” said artist Filiz Soyak, founder and director of the Hudson Arts Community, which is spearheading the Hudson Window Art project. “And we wanted to do something where people can enjoy art safely.”
Organized by Hudson Arts in partnership with the Hudson Business Coalition, the windows effort is still open to participants. Anyone interested should email hudsonartscommunity@gmail.com).
Warren Street -- Hudson’s long main street, crammed with small businesses -- “is probably a good place to start,” Soyak said. Even before the pandemic hit, many of those storefronts were empty. “Working with realtors to display art was an idea to begin with, before this all happened.”
The Hudson Window Art project is separate from the windows exhibit already on display at Hudson Hall at 327 Warren, which is showcasing the work of the late American poet and Hudson resident John Ashbery. Running through May 28, it will be followed by a display created by locally based choreographer Adam Weinert.
The hall aims to present such displays and “do it in a way that keeps it interesting,” said executive director Tambra Dillon. “You can continue to window shop, if you will.”
She compared strolling past windows to scrolling through images on Instagram: “It’s fun, and it’s engaging, and people have a lot more time to be introspective -- especially if you’re taking a slow walk up the street, it gives you something to individually engage with.”
For the Hudson Window Art project, participants are encouraged to take photos (“safely from outside”) and post them on social media with the hashtag #HudsonArtsCommunity, Soyak said. The group also hopes to create an online exhibit.
“At this point, it’s more of an experiment to see how we can create these virtual exhibits from afar -- and how do we track them, and how do we document them,” she said. “And the goal, too, is not just to have the art in the windows, but to promote artists.”
Amy Biancolli was born in Queens, grew up in Connecticut and holds degrees from Hamilton College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. A former movie critic for the Houston Chronicle, she first wrote for the TU from 1991-2000 and bounced back into the local-arts beat in 2012. She's published three books so far: "Figuring S--- Out: Love, Laughter, Suicide, and Survival"; "House of Holy Fools: A Family Portrait in Six Cracked Parts"; and "Fritz Kreisler: Love's Sorrow, Love's Joy." When she isn't consuming the arts or writing about them, she's fiddling around with the violin in a couple of bands, among them the gypsy-jazz group Hot Tuesday.