When and why did you move to Peekskill?

My partner (now spouse) Cynthia Knox and I moved to Peekskill in 1992, very shortly after the city passed legislation to designate an arts community. We rented a loft space above what was then Rosenblum’s, a store that sold uniforms and other “practical” apparel. It was the lure of an arts community and affordable studio living/workspace that enticed me away from the city and up to Peekskill.  

You were one of the first artists to move into an artist loft in Peekskill. What did you and fellow artists do to forge a community? How do artists create community now?

Those early days were so open-ended. It seemed anything was possible. “Let’s have a show!”  “Can we put sculpture in your shop window?” “Have you been to that new little gallery that opened on Park Street?” “Can I hang my paintings in your restaurant?” “Are you going to the art party at the Country Kitchen on South Street?”

The Peekskill Arts Alliance (PAA) emerged in 2012. Westchester Community College opened an arts-focused extension site on Division Street, introducing an inviting, street-level, professionally equipped gallery and classes in computer arts. In 2006, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art (now Hudson Valley MOCA) brought a new level of arts professionalism, art world attention, important exhibitions, and a stunning exhibition space to town. The Hat Factory houses artists, designers, musicians, craftspeople, photographers, videographers, performers, filmmakers, and The Peekskill Clay Studio.

Every one of these things generates and supports our artists’ community helping us to create and sustain connections.

Currently, the PAA Open Studios, Peekskill Film Festival, and downtown music venues, keep creative juices flowing. Openings/receptions/events at creative spaces and galleries like The Artist Spot, The Flat Iron Gallery, or the Field Library Gallery bring us together. So do uniquely creative retail spaces: Bantam Tools’ Robotic Showroom, the Peekskill Coffee House, The Quirk Shop, Retake/Remake, Jo’s Body Shop, the Fern Tree, or Early Electric, not to mention stellar performances at Studio Theater in Exile (at HVMOCA), shows at the Paramount Hudson Valley, and our First Tuesday Salons. 

Local media help to sustain our arts community. The Herald’s generous coverage of the arts and its Events Calendar keep us informed. The PAA maintains a vibrant Arts Newsletter, and anyone can pick up for free “The Artistic License” at the BeanRunner Café to get irreverent coverage of the arts through “Satire, Humor, Information, and Truth! The Artistic License is published by the artist collective Thunder&Light (Marcy B. Freedman and Carla Rae Johnson). 

What policies can the city implement to support artists and other creatives?

There hasn’t been a year go by that I haven’t heard more than one artist say they would love to install something in an empty shop window in downtown Peekskill! Many have tried. 

It would be great to see local businesses and landlords take advantage of the enrichment that an arts community can offer, to our downtown, in particular.  So many street-level shops and window spaces sit empty or look dark and forlorn. Perhaps the BID or the Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce can find ways to encourage owners of vacant downtown buildings to enliven those windows. Of course, the city could impose a vacancy tax…BUT… it costs so little to install a few LED light strips and put them on timers, so they light a window from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Then, work with artists to install paintings, sculptures, or create installations that beautify, intrigue, and inspire. This would not only increase the value of that particular property but add value to everything around it.

You’ve also been involved in various community initiatives. For example, you created the life-size cow for the community garden which was where the Gateway Townhouses now are — how did that idea come about? What inspired the design? Did she have a name?

Oh, yes! That community garden was such a vibrant place. Talk about creating community!  Folks from Bohlmann Towers and surrounding neighborhoods came all summer long to plant, tend, and harvest vegetables and flowers!  The Department of Public Works installed hoses and dropped off compost. People exchanged gardening tips, seeds, cuttings, recipes, and stories!  To keep the generous exchanges going, we needed a garden bulletin board. That’s where the cow came in! She was, indeed, a life-sized Guernsey cow…well ½ life-sized, since she was a cow on the side facing the street, but in back she hosted a bulletin board beneath a hinged frame and Plexiglas. That’s where announcements, recipes, and garden tips were posted. You see, I thought a cow would be more interesting in our garden than a bulletin board! Our garden cow was painted to be a Guernsey, so her name was Guerty!

The most fun was carrying Guerty down Main Street. Three of my neighbors carried her and I carried a “Cow-crossing” sign that we installed at the corner of Main and Spring Street. The Peekskill Herald wrote an article about the cow! In a few years, when the paint had faded, Guerty got a face-lift. We painted her purple!  Then, no one in Peekskill could say, “I never saw a purple cow…”  It was udderly delightful!

In what ways has living here in Peekskill and the Hudson Valley influenced your artwork?

Beyond the inspiration that comes from living in an arts community, residing in the Hudson River Valley and learning its history has been really important to the art I envision and generate. I have produced several sculptures and installations inspired by stories of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad here in Peekskill, also Sojourner Truth who lived near Kingston. In 2015, I researched Peekskill’s Rosie the Riveter (Rose Bonavita) and created a performance piece based on her story and her impressive skills acquired during World War II. 

You also host First Tuesday Salons at the Bean Runner. For readers who aren’t familiar with the event, how would you describe it? Again, what was the inspiration behind the event? How do you find new presenters? And how do you reach out to engage new audience members?

First Tuesday Salons are gatherings, free and open to the public, that are designed to help build and support the arts in Peekskill, but everyone is welcome. The salons host events, panels, presentations, discussions, and celebrations featuring artists from our local visual, verbal, and performing arts communities. I have found no shortage of local creative artists willing to inspire those who attend salons. I don’t have to reach out to gain new audience members either, because presenters all bring friends and creative colleagues who eagerly sign up with an email address to stay informed of upcoming salons. My e-blast list now has over 250 contacts and continues to grow each month.

Begun in 2010, at the suggestion of Drew Claxton [co-owner of the Bean Runner], First Monday Salons drew our creative communities together for 10 years. We hosted presentations, poetry readings, show & tells, open-mics, interactive and hands-on events, festive potlucks called “Right-Brain Buffets,” and brainstorming sessions relating to local cultural or civic concerns. Immediately prior to our scheduled 10 Year celebration, the salons were abruptly cancelled with the arrival of the pandemic. Resuming in March of last year as “First Tuesday Salons” (the BeanRunner is currently closed on Mondays) the salons have been playing to record crowds each month since then.

What is the most important policy change that needs to happen in Peekskill?

I think our city needs to work harder to keep housing affordable. Many families who have called Peekskill their home for generations are struggling to survive here. Artists and other newcomers who arrive from the five [New York City] boroughs say they chose Peekskill because of its diversity. We need to ensure that those who live here can stay here. It would be wonderful if the city would set up a Housing Task Force (like the existing Conservation Advisory Council) that would look into possibilities and solutions being utilized in similar municipalities that are finding ways to maintain and strengthen affordability and diversity in their communities. Such a task force could help develop a comprehensive plan for the city, its landlords, and the developers who seek to build here, that will maintain and grow who we are as a multicultural, multiethnic, creative, and inclusive municipality. 

Earlier this month, you gifted the City of Peekskill a framed copy of its 2016  “Resolution Affirming Peekskill’s Commitment to Be an Inclusive Community…” What motivated such a gift at this time? How have the council and the public responded to this gift?

In early December of 2016 we hosted a First Monday Salon that was a community “brainstorm” about how to address the impending assault on values, institutions, and our democracy. From that session there emerged several initiatives. One was to write a “resolution,” inspired by the 1948 “United Nations Declaration of Human Rights,” that affirmed Peekskill’s commitment to inclusiveness. The resolution was presented to the City’s Mayor and Common Council. It was accepted unanimously and published on the city website. 

In recent years, we have not been able to find the resolution on the site. Now, more than ever, with fundamental rights and values under attack, I believe it is vitally important to affirm that we are a city committed to the inclusion, equality, health, and well-being of ALL who live or work here.  

I wanted to think of a “positive action” that would encourage the city to make this document visible and accessible. The solution was to present to the city an enlarged, framed print of the resolution and an easel that would allow it to be displayed prominently in City Hall and then to ask it to be made accessible and easily found on the city website. At the meeting, Mayor Vivian McKenzie promised to look into getting the resolution back up on the city website. It is now, indeed, accessible under “Community” in the “About Peekskill” section. The Common Council will soon vote on a resolution for the city to accept the framed resolution.

What’s your favorite place to go in Peekskill, and why?

My studio! It is a haven where I find serenity and energy.  I always feel it is where I belong when I walk through that door. 

In downtown Peekskill, however, it is the BeanRunner Café where I go to get nourishment for body and soul. I love how Ted Bitter and Drew Claxton have created a space that beckons our diverse communities not just with good food, but with artworks, events, positive energy, and great music.  

What would you like to say to the Peekskill community?

As artists, we live our lives outside-the-box! The arts and artists are committed to contributing to community life in our city. We are eager to offer enrichment, beauty, ideas, and creative solutions. We have trained for years not just in how to paint, or carve, or write, or perform…we have trained ourselves to problem solve and to find creative solutions both within and beyond our studio walls. Please remember to take advantage of one of Peekskill’s most important resources and tap the creative energies of the artists in your community. Invite an artist to the table next time your church, or school, or organization needs a solution to something. They may offer up several strange, weird, impossible ideas, but if you stay open and listen, they might just come up with something you would never have thought of, and it just might WORK!