The Foundry at Hudson will be the new team organizing Winter Walk in Hudson this year. On Friday, September 20th, Hudson Hall announced that they will no longer be the coordinators of Winter Walk. On Thursday, September 26th, the City of Hudson Mayor Kamal Johnson’s office released the following press release, stating:
Just six days after Hudson Hall announced it could no longer produce Hudson’s Winter Walk this year, Mayor Kamal Johnson has formed a partnership to revive plans for the event. The City of Hudson and the new producing organization Foundry At Hudson will work together, in conjunction with former Winter Walk producer Hudson Hall, to ensure that this highly attended, anticipated, and beloved street festival moves forward in 2024.
Foundry at Hudson, the new partnering organization and Galvan affiliate, is led by Executive Producer Tim Banker. Slated to open in the old Gifford Foundry building at 726 Columbia Street sometime in 2025, Foundry Hudson aims to produce highly participatory civic gatherings and live performances for Columbia County and beyond. “We know what a treasured event Winter Walk is for the whole region, so we’re going to follow in the footsteps of the talented staff at Hudson Hall and immediately leap into the organizational trenches to make something beautiful happen on December 7th.”
-City of Hudson Mayor’s Office
Trixie’s List sent Timothy Banker and Daniel Osofsky a Q/A, to help the community meet the new pair and talk about their goals for the event.
Q: Everyone is wondering, what now? What are your plans?
A: What are our plans? Basically it’s all Winter Walk planning all the time. Those are our plans. No going out to dinner, no frivolous goofing around, and laughter only if it’s related to Winter Walk. Seriously, using the superb initial resources and contacts for vendors and artists provided to us by Hudson Hall — thank you Sage and Tammy!!!!!!! – we’re immediately digging-in and we see Winter Walk planning as the focus of our lives until it happens. It’s a tight window to get it all done, but we’re happily engaged.
Q: At this point, do you know what will change? What will stay the same?
A: It’s just a bit early for us to know exactly what will change yet with the festival … we do hope to make some additions and collect ideas. We met with the Student Council leadership at Hudson High today who let us in on what they as teens enjoy about Winter Walk. Of course we do hope many of the wonderful things about Winter Walk will stay the same including costumed and circus performers, plenty of great music, holiday decorations galore, community performances and pro performances alike and lots of yummy street food.
Q: How can people and local businesses get involved? What can we do?
A: If you want to get involved, please contact us as soon as possible. You can reach out to our coordinator, Daniel Osofsky at dosofsky@foundryhudson.org. We’re going to be going door to door to all the businesses along the festival map and asking for their ideas and participation this week.
Q: Where can we go for more information as planning progresses?
A: Uh, Trixie’s List of course, but also we hope to get a count-down page up on the web with all sorts of updates sometime in the next week or two.
Editor’s Note: I did not ask them to say that.
Q: Tell us a little about yourselves, your background, and what brings you to Hudson.
A: Tim Banker speaking here to say that I come to the area from Western Mass. My background is in theater and in music having been a founding member of Cornerstone Theater Company (now in Los Angeles) and having worked as a founding producer for the NPR and PBS series about young musicians called “From the Top.” My partner and I moved to the area after our kids left the house being, well, grown-ups themselves and we were looking for a big creative change in our lives. We knew the beauty and fabulousness of the area from my wife’s affiliation with September Gallery and friends in the area (now in Kinderhook) and so decided to make our new home here a couple of years ago.
A: Daniel here… As a young, vapid homosexual born in the woods of New Hampshire, it was destiny for me to make my way up from NYC to Hudson to plan a big party. My background is in production and graphic design for film (a proud member of USA 829!) and formerly ballet and theater. After bopping around on sets of various scales from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel to a sapphic inde horror feature still stuck in post-production, I was thrust from the late stage capitalist hellscape that is Williamsburg into the pastoral late stage capitalist farmland that is Columbia County where half my family has lived for over 100 years. I am indeed related to the Ronnybrook Farm folks, including Jonathan Osofsky of Kasuri, another degenerate who calls Hudson home.
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