Galleries and stores to stay open late
By Christine Simek
Second Saturday Beacon is a city-wide celebration of the arts held on the second Saturday of each month and marked by artist receptions, food and beverage tastings and entertainment along the city’s historic Main Street. This Saturday, July 14 will feature openings at seven art galleries, wine and beer tastings, live music and a comedy show as well as opportunities for late-night dining and shopping.
Launched in November 2002 when a group of artists and gallery owners — who eventually founded the Beacon Arts Community Association (BeaconArts) — came together and started an “art walk”, Beacon’s Second Saturdays have become one of the city’s most popular activities and the pulse of the community’s cultural heart. “This is a night when Beacon shines,” says Dan Rigney, vice president of the BeaconArts board.
Linda Hubbard, president of BeaconArts, concurs. “Over the past 10 years Second Saturday has grown to over 20 galleries and over 20 shops and restaurants. It is a wonderful opportunity to meet artists and talk to them about their work.”
Cooperation between the art and business communities of Beacon has been vital to the growth and success of Second Saturday, Rigney says. “It’s a different thing [for a business] to go from thinking: ‘I’ve got to pull a crowd in’ to ‘I know a crowd is coming … I need to have my doors open and I need to do something really exciting.”
This excitement often includes shop and restaurant owners deciding not only to stay open late, but to add special features to their menus, collaborate with artists on shop decor, plan sales or, in the case of Tim Buzinski and Mei Ying So, owners of the Artisan Wine Shop, to hold food and wine tastings.
“When we first opened, the galleries would buy wine from us for the openings — it gave us exposure to artists and artists exposures to our wines, and now we have relationships and a reciprocity with the galleries,” Buzinski says. “Winemaking is a craft itself,” Ying So explains. “We are interested in small production, organic wines; there’s creative stimulation in the work we do and through that [creativity] we connect with the artists through our business.”
Following are many of the activities and special events taking place on this Second Saturday, July 14. Most opening receptions are held in the evening and are free and open to the public. Galleries are open during the day as well. BeaconArts has created a Beacon Guide Map that highlights the locations of the galleries, shops and restaurants. The map is free and available at many of the shops on Main Street. You can also visit the BeaconArts website beaconarts.org for more detailed information.
ART OPENINGS
Hudson Beach Glass, 162 Main St., will feature artists Alison Palmer and Gail Cunningham. Palmer creates figurative sculptures out of stoneware by throwing and altering clay. Cunningham cuts single sheets of paper to create intricate, fragile imagery. 6 – 9 p.m.
BAU Gallery (Beacon Artist Union), 161 Main St. Artists Carol Flaitz and Laura Moriarty both play in an encaustic wonderland in Down the Rabbit Hole — Where Art and Science Meet. This collection of new works focuses on the artists’ burgeoning explorations with encaustics, a wax- and natural-resin-based medium known for its rich colors and translucent satin textures. 6 – 9 p.m.
RiverWinds Gallery, 172 Main St., is celebrating their ninth anniversary this month. On Saturday they will show paintings by Ellen A. Lewis. 5 – 8 p.m.
Gallery 508, 508 Main St., presents Jens O. Billie, Red Hammond, Jon Gallagher, Christine Hartman, Barbara Koffsky, Jack Lindholm,RPM and Herb Reichart in a group opening. 5 – 8 p.m.
Larry Lyons will present New Paintings at The Grand Foyer Gallery in the Beacon Theatre, 455 Main St. 6 – 9 p.m.
At the Marion Royael Gallery, 460 Main St. Barbara AG Riddle and Steven Paul Riddle will present 9 Target Paintings, Complete and Incomplete; directed by the artists. 6 – 10 p.m.
Theo Ganz Studio, 149 Main St., will show Summer Blues, a group exhibition of work by 14 artists from the Hudson Valley. The show includes paintings by Joseph Ayers, Samantha Beste, Gerardo Castro, Hiro Ichikawa, Maria Lago and Eleni Smolen; a chine colle etching by Elana Goren; a drawing/collage by Andrea Moreau; sculpture by Insun Kim; an installation called “The Sky is Falling” by Lori Merhige; video and mixed media sculpture by Pat Carullo (PC); photography by Jennifer Konig and Jim Metzger; and furniture, by way of cabinetmaker and designer Margaret McDuffie and her version of the classic summertime symbol, the Adirondack chair. 6 – 8 p.m.
MUSIC
The Costellos, Maverick Pop Music performers, will take the stage on the roof of Hudson Beach Glass at 8 p.m. (free)
Music on the Squares will present Executive Indecision at 4:30 and The Bar Spies at 6 p.m. Both shows will take place in the lot between Poppy’s and Little Boy’s Deli at the west end of town. (free)
The Howland Cultural Center, 477 Main St., presents The Trapps in concert to record their first live CD release. Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the door; available online at howlandculturalcenter.org.
TASTING
The Artisan Wine Shop will offer a wine tasting paired with homemade grilled pizza from 3 – 6 p.m. This week’s wines include an Arnot-Roberts Rosé, 2011 – organically grown, a Wind Gap Trousseau Gris, 2011 – organically grown and a Forlorn Hope Alvarelhão, 2010 – sustainably grown.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Community Day at Dia:Beacon
Area residents can experience Dia’s collections and special programs for free on Community Free Day, this Saturday, July 14 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Residents of Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester Counties should present a driver’s license, voter registration card or other government-issued ID for entry. The Dia Museum is located at 3 Beekman St.
Comedy Show at the Beacon Theatre
The Beacon is proud to bring two top national comedians to the Hudson Valley as part of their fourth “All Star Comedy!” at 9:30 p.m. The line-up starts with John Ivarone, known from the Broadway Comedy Club and the Mohegan Sun Casino. The headliner for the evening will be comic star Paul Lyons, loved by millions on Everybody Loves Raymond and showcased on Showtime and Comedy Central. All proceeds benefit the restoration of The Beacon, which hopes to be restored by the City of Beacon’s 100th birthday. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at The Beacon’s website at thebeacontheatre.org, or by calling 845-226-8099. Tickets will also be available at the door the evening of the performance.
Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries | Clarkson University’s CEIE Walk & Talk Series; Healing Environments from a Social Perspective with Claudia Mausner
Learn about the restorative aspects of nature from an environmental psychologist who studies the relationship between people and the natural world. The Walk & Talk will explore the Denning’s Point trail through the lens of social science, identifying the many restorative effects of the landscape surrounding CEIE.
The location is the Center for Environmental Innovation and Education at Denning’s Point, 199 Denning’s Ave. You can pre-register at bire.org/events.
Zumba® Fitness Classes
Free classes on Second Saturdays at Rosa’s Exercise Dance Studio, 261 Main St. Class times: 11 – 11:30 a.m. and 1 – 1:30 p.m. Call 845-417-4738 to reserve a space.
