NOW AND ZEN: CRAGSMOOR ART EXPERIENCE (DAY 2)

Tom Wolf, Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at Bard College, will be the guest speaker at noon on May 19, the second day of NOW AND ZEN, Cragsmoor's celebration of its rich history as one of the earliest art colonies in the country and the completion of the restoration of the Historical Society's 2010 landmark building. His topic will be "Women Artists in Cragsmoor and Woodstock at the Turn of the 20th Century."

Wolf's main areas of study are the Woodstock, New York art colony and Asian American artists. A selection of his publications and curated exhibitions includes Konrad Cramer: A Retrospective (1982); Woodstock’s Art Heritage (1987); Byrdcliffe: An American Arts and Crafts Colony (2003); The Maverick Art Colony (2006); “The Tip of the Iceberg: Early Asian American Artists in New York,” in Asian American Art, A History, 1850-1970 (2008); Peggy Bacon: Cats and Caricatures (2011), The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2015, and Carl Walters and Woodstock Ceramic Arts at the Samuel Dorsky Museum, SUNY, New Paltz, 2017.

Professor Wolf will be speaking in the main meeting room surrounded by masterworks by Cragsmoor's founding artists, including Charles C. Curran, E.L. Henry, Helen Turner, Eliza Greatorex, George Inness, Jr., and Arthur I. Keller. A special feature of the exhibit will be a re-creation of Curran's painting studio. Many of the paintings will generously be on loan from the private collection of Ron Berg.

Works by contemporary artists will be displayed in the community room. Among them will be pieces by Phil and Judy Sigunick, who were leaders of a renaissance in the 1970s, when a group of young artists rediscovered Cragsmoor. There will also be works by Milton Resnick, Pat Passlof, Ellie Hollinshead and Fritz Drury, among others.

The exhibit will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Professor Wolf's presentation will begin at 12 noon. Coffee and bagels will be served. Admission is free and open to the public. The Historical Society is located at 349 Cragsmoor Road, next to the library. Located on top of the Shawangunk Ridge off Route 52 between Ellenville and Pine Bush, the hamlet is surrounded by thousands of acres of protected land where the splendor of spring can be enjoyed before or after this Now and Zen event. Information at www.cragsmoorhistoricalsociety.com msocolof@gmail.com or 702-400-8253.