The Art of Rural Resilience
The Prattsvile Art Center is a laboratory for creativity and rural recovery. The inclusive energy of the arts has helped to heal our flood-damaged region and strengthen connections between rural and urban communities. Bringing together histories and cultures through art, music, video, classes, residencies, festivals, community meals, & social services, the Center is a safe space for everyone. Celebrating the diversity that enriches us all, the Center’s programs have been free for 15 years.
The Art Center wishes to honor the Haudenoasunee Confederacy, on whose unceded homelands our Center is located. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy is made up of members of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca Nations, and are sometimes referred to as Iroquois. To learn more about the current Haudenosaunee Confederacy, visit www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com
Land acknowledgement
Rural Arts - creating a new Workforce
The Center’s new Digital Studios are part of our arts and workforce initiative to bring diverse new employment possibilities to residents, enabling them to stay in their rural community. Classes in robotics, coding, and computer IT servicing begin this fall. The labs are open for classes from 3:30 - 6. A new partnership with Google allows us to offer Google Career Certificate classes for free.
e-mail -nab2@nyu.edu to register
The Barn/Studio
The Center is seeking support for a translucent indoor outdoor workspace on the footprint of our flood-damaged barn. The Barn/Studio offers a freeform site for workforce classes, outdoor projects, large scale sculpture, and experimentation with reclaimed materials.
Music and Performance
The Music Box on Main Street theater hosts year round music performances, rehearsals, and recording sessions for the community. Events include an annual 3 day Summer festival, Headed for the Hills, which highlights experimental, electronic, and noise based performers along with multi-media events and theater workshops.
Free classes and workshops
PAC’s studios and Phoenix Web’s Maker Space host sewing, computer, music, and painting classes. The Digital Studios operate as a Creative Incubator and Co-Working Space for the community and Artists in Residence, who also participate in mentoring. Internships, clubs, and art therapy, welcome diverse and at-risk participants. Dream Link, BOCES, Greene County Health bring services to the Center, creating an outpost for wellness and learning.
Library & Learning Hub
The Center’s Free Library holds over 2,000 volumes, and our Community Computer Lab, supports workforce training, workshops in art, performance, and ideas. We are creating a new program of college and workforce development classes for rural communities across the Northern Catskills
A celebration of “Hands On” thinking
Artists and rural residents share a unique understanding of hands-on thinking and unconventional problem solving. The Center is working to build a future that brings together the skills and wisdom of these two communities to create new art and new solutions to the urgent problems we face together. By connecting rural experience and urban innovation, the Center has become a laboratory for the development of magical experiences that seek to foster a rich and equitable future.