While not as famous an “arts colony” as neighboring Woodstock, Saugerties has been a haven for artists at least since the days when Harvey Fite was first building Opus 40. And the township has been attracting even more creative types since the recent pandemic-spurred exodus from New York City. But the excitement of art as a tourist draw and a boon to the local economy has been building for decades, with the visibility of such public events as the summertime display of artist-decorated horses (or owls or lighthouses or whatever) throughout the streets of Saugerties’ downtown.
Arguably the peak of the arts year locally, however, comes in early and mid-August, when the lawn signs for the annual Saugerties Artists’ Studio Tour pop up around town. The Tour has been around for 21 years now, and it’s always a major treat, whether you live in the area year-round, are a longtime weekender or are simply planning a getaway. These folks have got the art of hosting curious art-lovers down to a science by now.
“The committee visits the artists,” explains Barbara Bravo, who has been the primary coordinator for the Tour since its second year. “Basically, we’re looking at the space. We need to see the access. Is it safe? Safety and the presentation of the studio are more important than the artwork itself – though we want to see that there’s some dedication to the craft.”
Indeed, an aspect of the Tour often commented upon by attendees is the revelation that artists’ home studios are extensions of their overall creative approach to life. Part of the fun of visiting them is simply getting to spend a little time as a guest in these well-loved and curated environments. “This is kind of part of the Tour,” Bravo says as she welcomes Hudson Valley One for a preview visit, beginning with the delightful sight of butterflies dancing atop a patch of purple coneflowers in her lovely dooryard. “The majority of them are in the countryside.”
Inside Bravo’s studio – a converted barn behind her home – artworks representing various periods of her life as an artist are displayed around a central space, while separate rooms hold the wheels and kilns from whence she and her husband long ran a thriving pottery business. She’s doing less ceramic work nowadays, due to tendinitis that makes it difficult to throw clay around and carry heavy trays. There are a few shelves stocked with her elegant tableware for sale, especially teapots and mugs; but most of her new ceramics these days are sculptural tiles.
Lately Bravo has been focusing much of her creative fervor on collages built from layers of painted paper. I wonder aloud whether she’s nervous about letting strangers mill around the big work surface where she does her assemblage, but she laughs off the idea of storing away all the components of various works-in-progress for safekeeping. “Everybody’s been really respectful. The most I’ve had in here at one time was about eight people.” It’s vital to the spirit of the Tour that art-lovers get to see the untidy heart of the artists’ swirl of creation, she tells me. In fact, watching some of the participating artists give demonstrations is a major piece of the weekend’s allure.
Some of the artists opening their studios this year have been hosting Tour visitors since the beginning, while others come and go depending on their schedules of working and exhibiting and the other demands of daily existence. “This year we have a lot of change,” Bravo notes. “Thirteen decided to skip it, and we have eight new artists.”
One permanent loss that has reverberated through the Saugerties arts community this past year was the death last autumn of a longtime Tour stalwart: linocut illustrator Carol Zaloom, whose works often graced the cover of HV1’s arts-and-leisure section, Almanac Weekly. “She was a really important facet of this whole thing,” says Bravo sadly. “For me personally, it was a big loss. She was my sounding board.”
On a happier note, new artists are signing up for the Tour each year, while some “well-established artists with international credits to their name” continue to invite the public into their homes and workspaces. “They’re at all different levels. We have artists who are just discovering their creativity – some young, some people who retire and now have more time… We have a couple who have been living in Saugerties three or four years; this was the first year their studio was ready.”
The 37 artists whose studios will be open to the public in Saugerties on August 12 and 13 include Isaac Abrams, Tara Bach, Josephine Bentivegna, Ana Bergen, Barbara Bravo, Michael Ciccone, Shelley Davis, Kirsten Doyle, Michael Doyle, Josepha Gutelius, Jennifer Hicks, Marsha Kaufman-Rubinstein, Kay Kenny, Alex Kveton, Anne Leith, Yvette Lewis, Emily Li Mandri, Justin Love, Ulf Loven, Brian Lynch, Iain Machell, Marjorie Magid, Jerelynn Mason, Elin Menzies, Kate Mitchell, Charley Mitcherson, Meredith Morabito, Hugh Morris, Aaron Myers-Walls, Gustav Pedersen, Lisa Pfitzner, Prue See, Viorica Stan, Raymond J. Steiner, Robert Troxell, Jan Wallen and Serena Wehr.
Bravo strongly recommends not trying to visit them all in the same weekend, though she recalls one woman who tried to do so one year: “She stayed for about five minutes… Realistically, people can do maybe six artists in a day.”
One popular approach is to choose an adjacent cluster from the Saugerties Artists’ Studio Tour maps; all but one in the Village together form a fully walkable mini-tour, for example. Another way is to pick a favorite medium and see how a variety of different artists apply it. A broad array of media are on view this year, as always: painting in oils, acrylics, watercolors, inks and with digital tools; collages and prints; photography; sculptures in metal, ceramics, wood, industrial debris and found objects; handcrafted furniture; and fiber arts including weaving, spinning and hand-sewing.
Open studio days are Saturday and Sunday, August 12 and 13, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Tour is free and self-guided. You can pick up a paper version of the map at various locations in the Village of Saugerties, including the Chamber of Commerce Visitors’ Center on Partition Street, Smith Hardware on Main Street and Town and Country Liquors on Route 212. “Most businesses have them,” Barbara Bravo says.
You can also view and download the map – whole or broken up into four geographical quadrants – at www.saugertiesarttour.org. The Tour website also provides plenty of information about the artists, including photographs of their work. The homepage includes links to videos profiling 17 of the participating artists and demonstrating their work in process.
Join the family! 
