War on drugs
It began with a little girl admiring a shiny glass object and ended with a townwide ban of synthetic drugs and marijuana pipes. The girl was Supervisor Kelly Myers’s daughter. One day, she spotted some colorful pipes in a glass case at a local convenience store and asked her mother to buy her one—not because the pipes were used for smoking, she didn’t know that, but because they were pretty. That led the supervisor to wonder: why were pipes used to smoke marijuana being displayed at a child’s sight line in convenience stores? The crusade against corrupting items for sale in local convenience stores quickly expanded to include synthetic drugs, and that’s when the police chief—who had seen people stoned out of their gourd on legal substances sold all over town—got involved, speaking about the dangers and speaking with local businesses about removing the items from their shelves.
In the case of synthetic drugs, the town’s prohibition was in step with a nationwide consensus following some extremely heinous crimes performed by people on “bath salts” (the Florida face-eater was the most infamous). A state law passed concurrently criminalized so-called bath salts, as well as the marijuana-resembling chemical-coated herbal drugs, though the town’s law is a tad stricter. With pipes, despite some questions about enforcement, the ban and police visits convinced local merchants to stop carrying them.
Sports arena
It came to nothing, but the first half of 2012 was dominated by plans for a huge sports arena at Cantine Field. Businessman John Barese pulled plans for a $15 million indoor sports arena when the town board didn’t express support for the project within his timetable.
“They didn’t do anything,” said Barese, who said in June that the town needed to state its support at the July meeting. “I take that as a no.”
Barese had hoped the town would support his plan to build a sports arena on town land and operate it tax-free in exchange for a donation of a parcel of land the same size, cash payments of at least $60,000 per year from parking fees and free use of the facility by students.
The town never expressed opposition to the idea, but never embraced it either. It sought more information from Barese regarding funding (he wouldn’t say who was putting up the money) and it went back and forth with Barese over who should pay for a feasibility study for the project.
Barese previously expressed frustration that the town did not submit a request to the state to allow him to build on town land before the Legislature’s summer recess. He said the town could have still decided against the project. Failure to seek state approval set the timetable back another year, said Barese.
Meanwhile, the town said it wanted to see a study before doing anything.
Rise of an art scene
The year 2012 saw several new art galleries come on the scene in Saugerties. In April, the Saugerties Performing Arts Factory (SPAF) officially opened as a cultural center in a large converted factory space at 169 Ulster Avenue, and the Marleau Gallery held its first exhibition in its elegant space on Partition Street in the village on April 28. A week or so later, on May 4, the cozy Imogen Holloway Gallery opened just a few doors down.
Erica and Gerard Price opened The Saugerties Performing Arts Factory with the intention of holding special events and theatrical performances there as well as visual art exhibitions. The inaugural art gallery show was in June, a group effort of 16 local artists, and in September SPAF hosted “Blue,” an homage to the eponymous color and its complex cultural associations in a group show of paintings, sculpture and mixed media works by 24 artists.
From the beginning, local buzz about the place has been upbeat, with many in the community excited about the potential for the performance and visual arts at SPAF, with its 28-foot-high ceilings, its walls of windows and skylights letting in plentiful natural light, its movable display walls and its 12,000 square feet of exhibition space.
Things have been quiet since “Blue” closed at the end of November, but Erica Price says that they plan to continue exhibiting art and hosting events at SPAF in 2013. They’ll mount a photography exhibit at the end of March or the beginning of April, a show based on images of abstracted forms of nature and natural forms. It’ll be a group juried show.
“As people come to me and I like their ideas, we’ll move forward,” says Erica Price. Half of the building is devoted to the uniform business that she and her husband run there, with SPAF, she says, designed to take the stress out of that. She envisions SPAF becoming a place where people can enjoy art as a respite from the stress of their daily lives; to enjoy a performance together, view an art show or maybe even take classes there. She’s taking it slowly, though, careful to take on projects, she says, that relate to her vision for SPAF. “It’s a big undertaking, and I’m just trying to tread lightly in shallow waters before going into the deep end,” says Price. “I just want to make sure that each one of my events speaks of quality and of culture.”
The Marleau Gallery at 99 Partition Street in the village is housed in a long rectangular space with high ceilings and polished wooden floors. Owned by Kevin Hinchey and Richard Gamache, the gallery often shows work by the latter. The Marleau Gallery held four exhibitions in 2012; an inaugural group show that opened the gallery on April 28, followed by “Sensual Modesty” in July, an exhibit of the metal sculptural figures of Alex Kveton and paintings by Isaac Abrams and Helen Kaufman, swirling psychedelics and forms of nature. In September the gallery showed “Four Fellows,” an exhibit devoted to an artistic conversation of sorts between four fellow artists, painters Sara Conca and Richard Gamache and sculptors Robert George and Michael Ciccone. November brought “Nature Through the Looking Glass,” a solo show of paintings and terrarium art by Roy Owsley that closed December 23.
Gallery director Nicolette Cook says that while the gallery will close for the winter, the windows will display an exhibit of several colorful “fractured” sculptures of painted wood by local artist Ze’ve Willy Neumann. Look for the Marleau Gallery to re-open in spring.
Diane Dwyer’s Imogen Holloway Gallery at 81 Partition Street opened in Saugerties on May 4 with “Zoom In,” a group show of 13 artists selected to introduce the gallery’s vision to the community. After that, Dwyer changed her exhibits monthly, putting together seven more shows in 2012; a group drawing show in December and six other exhibits in between that interspersed on the walls the work of two artists, at least one of them local, along with a third artist represented in the window exhibition space. Having at least one local artist in each exhibit allowed for their availability for gallery chats that Dwyer held in the space monthly. While the works of each artist in an exhibit were unrelated to each other, when observed together on the walls of the space, Dwyer’s careful curating revealed aesthetic connections between them.
She plans to close the gallery for the month of January for a vacation, after the current drawing exhibition ends on January 6. In February, she’ll have work on the walls by a local artist, age 94, who didn’t start painting until her early ‘80s (but is done, now, says Dwyer). The gallery won’t keep regular hours in February, but look for them to be open on Saturdays and weekly for special events like an artist talk or storytelling night. In March, the gallery will return to a regular exhibition schedule.
First Fridays
This past July also brought on the inaugural “First Friday” event in Saugerties, when the shops, galleries and restaurants in the village extend their hours on the first Friday night of each month, and offer special discounts and sales, live music, gallery opening receptions, late night menus and other “happenings” in a community-wide demonstration of camaraderie and mutual support. An informal survey of local business owners showed a consensus of opinion: all said that it’s been good for business, and as it’s growing in popularity with each month, they expect it to become even bigger in 2013.
It started with Diane Dwyer of the Imogen Holloway Gallery who was inspired by the First Friday wine tastings that the Partition Street Wine Shop in the village has held at its location since 2011. The idea of doing a First Friday event at her new place of business appealed to her, and Rae Stang of Lucky Chocolates, along with Karyn Pavich of the Dutch Ale House and Dry Goods, quickly adopted the idea as well. From there it blossomed up and down Partition Street and from there onto Main Street, with a long list of participating venues in the village now giving art lovers, shoppers and diners a good reason to come around on the first Friday of each month and stay out late.
Kathleen Honzik of Light House Home & Entertaining Essentials on Partition will fill in as organizer for the vacationing Dwyer in January and February, and Rae Stang will continue to help promote the event as well. The next First Friday will be January 4, with after-holiday sales, live music, special menus, champagne cocktails, Stang’s chocolate fountain and extended hours and discounts at many restaurants and shops.
Join the family! 
