Jonesing for an injection of the lively arts into your life after a long rainy bout of cabin fever? This weekend, the City of Beacon is the place to be: It’s offering a quadruple threat of opportunities to get your art fix.
First off, May 13 is Second Saturday in Beacon, a monthly community event in which businesses stay open late, and local art galleries, restaurants and bars host openings, tastings and music performances. And this month it coincides with the annual Beacon Open Studios weekend. From noon to 6 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, more than 50 artists throughout the city will throw open their studios to the general public, admission free. You can download a map of participating destinations at www.beaconopenstudios.org/studio-map.html, or pick one up at Hudson Beach Glass at 162 Main Street.
The venue that seriously put Beacon on the modern art map in recent decades, the former Animal Crackers box factory down by the waterfront now known as Dia:Beacon, is also getting into the act. This Saturday will be the art museum’s quarterly Community Free Day for the spring season, offering free admission to residents of Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester Counties from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on May 13.
Already seen what there is to see in all 240,000 square feet of Dia’s collections? Still worth a visit, this weekend and next, are the site-specific dance performances by Paris-based choreographers François Chaignaud and Cecilia Bengolea that will take place in the museum’s lower level. On May 12, 13, 14, 19, 20 and 21, a program that “evokes the industrial architecture of the former factory space, and is further textured with echoes of alternative art scenes and spaces that have impacted the artists,” will get underway at 3 p.m. each day. The show is included free with admission to Dia:Beacon. Reservations are not required, but recommended, and can be made at (845) 440-0100. Visit www.diaart.org for more info. Dia:Beacon is located at 3 Beekman Street, right across from the Metro North station.
Join the family! 
