Review by Trixie Starr
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As I drove up to The Campus, on Route 217, less than fifteen minutes outside of Hudson, I could not help but notice the cars parked along the side of the road. Some were half-parked on the street and half on people’s front lawns. As a “downstater” who has lived in Columbia County for almost twenty years, I said to myself, ‘Oh, this is not good.’
The first three friends I saw at the show thought the same. We talked about the parking situation more than the art. One of my friends said, “There was this one guy who said, ‘There’s a sign that says No Parking, but I parked there anyway.’ Is he crazy? People own firearms!”
Another friend commented, “Could you imagine the glee as he watches a Tesla get towed off his lawn?”
The New York Times article about The Campus opening starts:
In a spirit of cooperation, six midsize art galleries are extending their reach beyond Manhattan with the purchase of a sprawling abandoned school in Columbia County, N.Y…
New York Times, May 8, 2024
“In a spirit of cooperation” …with whom? The people who live on the same block?
Former New York City dwellers (some of us are self-described Cidiots), see the culture clash coming. There will be dozens/hundreds of comments in the Facebook community groups and at town hall meetings. Those of us in Hudson can sit back and eat our proverbial (kettle) popcorn and watch it play out.
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The art is bold, impressive, immersive, political and timely. The art installations contrast with stuffy cinder block hallways, wood paneling, and un-mowed fields. While walking around the former elementary school, I found myself wondering, “What is art?”
Does art stop at the large structures and statues, or can art be the yellow eye wash fountain in the former chem lab? Is art an eraser left on a chalkboard which has not been used in over twenty years? Or is art bathroom stall graffiti?
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An art gallery inside an abandoned school can also been seen, in itself, as a symbol of where we are as a society – at least upstate New York society. As the upstate population continues to decline, we are left with more abandoned school buildings (there’s another one right across the street from me). If we are not going to fill these buildings with children, then why not art?
Busloads of downstate New Yorkers will come upstate, breathe fresh air, eat dinner and shop, spend money, feel refreshed, then head back to their busy desk jobs Monday morning. If you need any solace while watching the crowds of pushy, entitled New Yorkers, remember, their “vacation” time is our everyday life. They go back to the stress and hustle and bustle, sit all day in beige cubicles and prepare high-level powerpoint presentations for senior management.
After the downstaters go home, we still have the fresh air and quiet mid-week days under the trees.
Shuttle parking for cidiots indeed!
My first thought was “there goes the neighborhood !”
The best art there was the school room artifacts and accidental art (like your photos in your article and missing tiles on the wall) but especially the well pump truck and the guy operating it in the middle of the front lawn when I left (and I told him so…he was very appreciative)