Valley has long drawn artists and actors

By Rebecca Rothbaum
Poughkeepsie Journal

The most recent additions — Dia:Beacon, the permanent home to massive artworks by 20th-century masters, and The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, a Frank Gehry-designed building that is itself a work of art — cement the region’s national reputation as an artistic outpost, a place where the performing and visual arts exist side-by-side with a rural way of life. Both Dia and the Fisher Center are in Dutchess County.

And whether it’s theater, modern dance or classical music you want, you can see it all in the Hudson Valley. In fact, you can catch all three at The Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, an historic building saved from demolition in 1976.

Many melodies featured

The home of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the Bardavon also plays host to touring dance companies, jazz bands and theatrical productions.

The Fisher Center, in the hamlet of Annandale-on-Hudson, is truly multi-functional. Designed by world-famous architect Gehry, the center’s heart is a 900-seat auditorium that can be adjusted to accommodate everything from full-scale operatic productions to chamber music concerts. During the summer, it will be home to the Bard Music Festival, a 13-year-old event that annually draws thousands to the Hudson Valley.

Summer is also the season for the Powerhouse Theater program at Vassar College’s Town of Poughkeepsie campus. The Hudson Valley’s answer to summer stock, the program, in its thirteenth year, offers an opportunity to see some of the most talented actors and directors, including Mark Lin-Baker and Richard Nelson, in productions that will eventually make their way to New York’s Broadway and off-Broadway theaters.

Eisenhower Hall at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point is the place to see a show in Orange County. The theater is the host to touring musicals, orchestras and jazz bands.

If it’s canvas and sculpture you’re looking for, visit Olana. The former home and studio of Hudson River School painter Frederic Edwin Church is an absolute must for any visitor to the area.

Located just south of Hudson, Columbia County, the estate, which Church designed himself, allows visitors to see the Hudson Valley as Church saw it and painted it.

The New York state historic site features paintings by Church and his peers on display, as well as furnishings hand-selected by the Church family.

Past to present

If Olana represents the Hudson Valley’s past, Dia:Beacon can be said to symbolize its future.

Housed in a former Nabisco boxprinting factory, the Beacon, Dutchess County, museum is the latest and most prestigious addition to a community that has turned to art to revive a failing downtown. The museum serves as the home for the permanent collection of the Dia Art Foundation and features work by such leading modernists as Richard Serra and Dan Flavin.

Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate in Tarrytown, Westchester County, also boasts a stellar sculpture collection, although the setting could not be more different.

Pieces by Calder, Picasso and Malloil and others, selected by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, are spread throughout the stately mansion’s terraced gardens, which overlook the Hudson River.

The Center for Photography at Woodstock is another popular site. Situated in the heart of this legendary Ulster County village, the 26-year-old center regularly exhibits work by established and emerging photographers, in addition to offering lectures, workshops and classes.

The center has a fun history behind it, too: It is housed in the former Tinker Street Cafe, where the likes of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez once sipped coffee and people-watched.