Beacon artists featured in lamppost project
The work of 43 artists, including several from Beacon, is blowing in the wind in Wappingers Falls.
Banners featuring the work of Sarah Davida, Chris Ams and others artists overlook a roadway in the Village of Wappingers Falls. (Photos provided)
Banners featuring the work of individual artists adorn lampposts there and will hang through Nov. 1. The Beacon artists include Chris Ams, Elizabeth Castagna, Alyssa Follansbee, Margot Kingon and Anna West.
A group called Wappingers Rises organized the display after putting out a call to artists to submit a piece that best reflected each one’s work, style and aesthetic. The invitation also went to arts organizations in the Hudson Valley and nearby schools, senior centers and galleries.
While founder Courtney Kolb focused on logistics, Sarah Davida, who lived in Beacon for eight years before recently moving to Newburgh, created a unifying design.
She initially offered to help format the banners, but when Kolb explained the project in more detail, Davida “felt it could use some proper branding. The event was Courtney’s idea; I just added some sparkle to her vision.”
Davida adds that the exhibit is not only helping artists get exposure for their work, “it’s creating a sense of community. Our area is filled with immeasurable talent and it can be difficult to find and/or connect with one another. It’s not easy for artists to find exposure outside of social media.”
Highway crew members installed the banners.
After the call went out, the women received more than 60 submissions for the 43 posts. They placed the Wappingers Falls artists first and then held a lottery for the remaining spots.
The banners were hung earlier this month by the village highway crew. “It was a lot of work getting the pole holes to align with the banners and art,” Kolb says.
The project was funded by local sponsors and the banners printed at The UPS Store in Wappingers Falls, which provided a generous discount and “worked nonstop on customizations to make sure the banners looked perfect and each artist’s work was exactly as it was meant to look,” Kolb says.
Details about the artists and their pieces are online at bit.ly/streetside-artists.
