Following is a list of 2023 predictions from local Hudson businesses:
As an insurance agency, we’ve seen more employers hiring, offering comprehensive benefits packages and looking for creative solutions to attract top talent. As fiber internet continues to expand in Hudson, and around the county, I think we’ll continue to see this growth. I look forward to discussions with other business owners in finding ways to create training opportunities to job seekers looking to find new career opportunities, which will benefit employers who are looking to hire new talent.
Rob Bujan, Managing Director, SDL+GHS Insurance Agency
Life in Hudson will continue to provide troubles and triumphs, outrage and contention for me to write about on The Gossips of Rivertown.
Carole Osterink, The Gossips of Rivertown
ART: There has been an explosion of great art in Hudson over the past couple of years and I think the opportunities for Artists from the area are going to continue to grow.
CULTURE: One of the venues in town will start a regular poetry night – Hudson is full of poets with nowhere to share their work!
FOOD: Wunderbar Bistro will remain my favorite restaurant in Hudson.
Jeremy Bullis, Window on Hudson
For the year 2023, we are feeling very positive about the retail and real estate market in Hudson. Now that Hudson is established as a destination and there are so many large projects in process, we believe that will keep drawing a new audience. With a new audience, more hotels will be booked, there will be more foot traffic and people will spend more money here which will benefit all of us including the retail market, restaurants, entertainment and real estate. Hudson will always be a unique place because of its historic architecture, development, cultural diversity and location on the Amtrak train line, 2023 here we come!!
Kylah Campeta, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson, Nicole Vidor Real Estate
As more people continue to move upstate and more people work remote or hybrid, we should see both an increase in services to support businesses (operations, marketing, real estate) and in collaboration among businesses that are here (events, promotions, real estate).
Mat Zucker, Cidiot Podcast
I predict that 2023 will see a diverse array of art and cultural programming, both at Olana, and across our region. I believe this will be a key factor in increasing tourism to Hudson and the Upper Hudson Valley.
Sean Sawyer, Ph.D., Washburn and Susan Oberwager President, Olana Partnership
My 2023 prediction for Hudson’s art scene is that it will continue to skew towards its local artists. From major art institutions, such as Art Omi and Olana, to for-profit galleries along Warren Street, and non-profit initiatives, such as The Hudson Eye and Upstate Art Weekend, we are noticing that curators are paying more and more attention to artists in and around the Hudson Valley. We are delighted with this trajectory—as there is a rich and diverse body of visual artists making their best work!
Susan Eley, Susan Eley Fine Art
Hudson will continue to host a steady stream of visitors throughout 2023, as we are already seeing a large increase in repeat visits with folks who came initially during the pandemic that are now making Hudson a quarterly/biannual excursion. Group travel for both corporate retreats and bachelorette celebrations will also be strong. The unique variety of businesses on Warren Street and the trend to shop small, paired with the opening of new breweries on Upper Warren, Hudson will continue to see growth in retail and hospitality.
Ricky and Dennis, Poured Candle Bar
Half of the buildings on Warren Street will be painted with multicolored stripes.
There will be a brewery on every block.
@thehudsonwail Instagram account will move from being a meme-based account to a news-based account.
Tom McGill, Circle 46 Gallery
When considering the legacy of the Hudson Valley region, one must first look to the work that has been done by arts and culture makers who have called the region home for decades. The looming legacy of the Hudson River School is ever present as weekenders traverse the valley taking in the scenic vistas, captivating sunsets, rolling summer storms and the lifeline of the valley–the Hudson River itself. While the seasons and tourists come and go and the landscape remains picturesque–the artists remain and continue to hone their crafts, explore their internal selves, build their works and commune together in support of one another. From an outsider’s perspective, the region could be thought of as an area for escape and a place to withdraw from the day-to-day grind of their regular activities, but for those of us who have generational roots within the region there is so much more than weekend trips. The legacies of the region tell the stories that the weekenders come to hear, the legacies of the Hudson Valley are deeply rich and ever layered by the artisans that have continued to make their homes here.
This iteration of The Hudson Eye seeks to look ever inward at the legacies, mythologies and folklores of the region and the artists within (those that have lived here and returned, those who have grown within the region and those who have newly adopted their physical homes), working to uplift those voices as a mode of empowerment for the artists and actively archiving the work being done within the region to sustain a memory of this place and time. The series of happenings, performances, exhibitions and lectures dive into the internal and emotional paths artists have gone down while making the Hudson Valley home. To share the works of nearly 50 artists and speakers is our greatest joy.
It is our duty to preserve the past for the present and present for the future.
Aaron Levi Garvey
Chief Curator of The Hudson Eye, Vice President of Programs
Having grown up a little bit west of here, when I began making choreography in Hudson in 2006, I used Artspace Residencies as the most generous possible strategy to support the already-existing arts and cultural fabric of Hudson: Adam Weinert, Davon Rainey, Chris Garneau, Daniel Arsham, and many others were the first resident artists I brought to the town. I created The Hudson Eye as an outgrowth of these efforts, with a pure and simple mission to support “Local Artists & Local Venues” as a distilled cause that can benefit as many creatives and small businesses as possible while acknowledging our unique real estate past and present, in this beautiful region. COVID-19 visited many difficulties, and many opportunities for change and adaptation – but it also brought a surge in new visitors, and often new audiences to Hudson. This brings me to anchor a 2023 prediction that is very deeply felt:
Hudson will continue to grow; its arts community will continue to grow; its price point will continue to grow; its audiences and in particular its LGBTQIA+ community will grow – but I also predict that its audiences will remain variable, dynamic, changing, anomalous, and that audience behavior in Hudson may defy prediction. This comment is anchored in the audience behavior I have seen since 2006, but also from the SalesForce and Patron Technology data that we have seen from many editions of The Hudson Eye festival. The audiences are unique, irregular, and they defy the norm. As an artist, I suppose that’s what keeps me continuing to choose Hudson in art, and in life.
Jonah Bokaer, Choreographer, Artist, Founder of The Hudson Eye
Tom McGill’s prediction is right on target. The other predictions are just “sky’s the limit” chamber of commerce platitudes.