Contemporary Art Reinterprets, Deconstructs Peekskill As We Know It

Thank you to the City of Peekskill for submitting this information from HVCCA:

(HVCCA) is pleased to announce Peekskill Project V: a citywide art festival devoted to bringing cutting edge contemporary art out of the museum and into the community. Using the city as a stage, Peekskill Project activates the urban environment and its inhabitants

through site-specific art exhibitions, performances and screenings sited in multiple venues throughout Peekskill.

Peekskill Project V is a departure from previous installments of the project, which were limited to a weekend of events and exhibitions. This year’s festival begins with an exciting opening weekend on September 29th & 30th, 2012. Related events will continue through the end of July 2013. Programming occurs on the second Sunday of each month, October 2012 – July 2013.

This year’s festival features a wide variety of painting, sculpture, photography, installation, video, film, sound, and performance art by over 75 emerging and established artists currently living and working in Peekskill, the Hudson Valley and the Greater New York City region.

The Project calls upon artists to reinterpret the contemporary landscape and the urban and suburban condition. These works aim to deconstruct ideas of home, history and place in the context of the modern age of technology, information and mobility.

Artists’ installations, exhibitions, performances and screenings will be held in venues throughout the city, with HVCCA as the main hub of the project. Venues include parks, local businesses, former industrial spaces, vacant lots and storefronts.

HVCCA is partnering with the City of Peekskill, Paramount Center for the Arts, Field Library, Westchester Community College and others for programming and exhibition space. Downtown Peekskill and the Peekskill Waterfront also serve as major sites of the project.Peekskill Project V artists were selected by a team of curators: Cristina Arnold, Paul Clay, Evonne Davis, Kerry Cox, Marcy B. Freedman, Matthew Leonard, Cheryl McGinnis, Wilfredo Morel, Lise Prown, Alix Sloan, Livia Straus, Lilly Wei and Emma Wilcox.

Participating artists include: Justin Allen, Andrea Bianconi, Erik Benson, Huma Bhabha, Grayson Cox, Leonardo Drew, Ian Davis, Purdy Eaton, Cara Enteles, Geoff Feder, Jeff Gibson, Greg Haberny, Charles Harlan, Tommy Hartung, Katarin Jerinic, Mike Kenney, Virginia Martinsen, Charles McGill, Maria McMahon, Martha Mysko, Bruce Odland, Daniel Phillips, Elisa Pritzker, Andy Ralph, Leon Reid, Daniel Roberts, Brie Ruais, Christine Sciulli, Nancy Shaver, Skewville, Matthew Slaats, Jonathan Stanish, Chad Stayrook, Ian Swanson, Ouattara Watts, Adrienne Wheeler, and Michael Zelehoski among many others.

Peekskill Project, previously organized in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008, has become a highly anticipated event, attracting thousands of visitors each year as it offers children and adults alike the opportunity to explore the city’s rich social, cultural and geographic history, through the lens of contemporary art.

Peekskill is located in the historic Hudson Valley, a region that has long been a haven and source of inspiration for a diverse range of artists. It is the landscape that inspired the romantic Hudson River School of painting, which beheld nature in its most idyllic form, the untouchable, untamable frontier. Today the region remains a potent source of inspiration and an ideal site to explore the Hudson

Valley, the post-industrial city, socio-economic redevelopment, and ecological preservation.

Peekskill Project is organized and implemented by HVCCA in collaboration with local government, organizations, businesses, and property owners. These important partnerships create a wide network of spaces for artists and viewers to investigate.

*Editor's Note: Photos originally used in this article have been replaced with HVCCA approved images.