A growth stage of the most ambitious and far-reaching non-profit arts organization in Kingston history will be celebrated this Saturday, January 18. From 5 to 8 p.m. the Kingston-based Center for Photography at Woodstock — which prefers to be known as CPW — will host an open house at the cavernous former cigar factory at 25 Dederick Street in Midtown, where it will show off the transformation of two of the five floors of its multi-windowed structure into galleries, community spaces and offices, It’s the first phase of its plan to establish a substantial arts center in the entire building.
Hard-hatted construction workers were wrapping up their day’s work at 3:30 in the afternoon eight days before the celebration. They had been framing partitions in the rear gallery of the high-ceilinged first floor of the grand former Van Slyke and Horton factory, now the home of CPW.
There was still a lot to be done before photographer Mary Ellen Mark’s Ward 81 show could be hung on the walls. According to Wikipedia, Mark, known for her photojournalism and documentary photography, focused her work on people “away from mainstream society and toward its more interesting, often troubled fringes.”
The first floor consists almost solely of a reception area on the Dederick Street side of the building, a hallway, and four galleries of varying sizes. The second floor, like the others, offers 8000 square feet of space. CPW offices are in the front part, and community spaces of different sizes and uses, including a digital media lab, a 50-seat lecture hall or meeting room and a library, occupy the larger rear section of the floor.
The show entitled My Sister, My Self, the work of recently deceased Woodstock identical twins Colleen and Kathleen Kenyon, occupies the front gallery near the reception area. Another selection of their work is being shown simultaneously at the Kleinert-James Gallery in Woodstock. The Woodstock opening of this “twin show” is scheduled for 2 p.m. on the same day as the Kingston opening at 5 p.m.
Keisha Scarville makes photographs that consider her personal experiences. She often uses clothing and textiles belonging to her late mother. Her work appears in one of the two smaller galleries along the first-floor hallway.
The fourth gallery is a community room hosting the results of an open call to local artists to bring one framed work each to occupy wall space. As of last Friday, more than a hundred people had brought in works, with more trickling in hourly.
CPW’s offices are in the front part of the second floor, and community spaces of different kinds, sizes and uses occupy the larger rear section.
CPW doesn’t yet have firm plans for the unfinished top floors or the basement space.
All told, the cigar factory’s square footage amounts to almost an acre. The asking price for the structure was $2.85 million. CPW bought it for $2.1 million. With all the renovations, total costs of the rehabilitated structure are expected to be somewhere north of five million dollars.
The strategic plan
If you’re under the impression that city folks with little community involvement are dumping boatloads of money into attracting their own kind to cute little Kingston, think again. The recently adopted CPW strategic plan presents a quite different picture. It portrays the organization as a local change agent which can serve as a model for good causes in other places.
“The Center for Photography at Woodstock is a gathering place for critical dialogue and creative discovery in photography and visual culture,” the plan declares. “Our mission is to effect social change through innovative and inspiring programs that explore photography as an adept medium for understanding ourselves, our communities, and our society.”
The vision statement reinforces that community-based emphasis. “The Center for Photography at Woodstock is a community-based museum and school that encourages emerging artists, experimental ideas, and relevant debates about photography and visual culture.”
Tops on the organization’s list of goals is “[to] become a community anchor in downtown Kingston.” The second of the top five goals is “[to] reimagine the regional art museum in dialogue with a worldwide audience.”
How does one reconcile these two top goals with each other? “These two audiences are not in opposition to each other,” the document argues. “Rather, working with both can be a win-win, by exposing local audiences to global talent, and introducing artists and audiences from afar to authentic and compelling locally rooted stories.”
Kingston and the Hudson Valley don’t lack for compelling locally rooted stories, it suggests.
Hasn’t it always been Ulster County’s unrealized ambition to become the example of an enlightened society with a mix of residents who don’t want to leave and don’t have to, and talented newcomers attracted to it?
A new chapter
“I believe Brian Wallis will bring a fresh new vision and vitality to the center at a time of transition, when a strong, experienced leader is required,” said CPW founder and board chair Howard Greenberg upon Wallis being named executive director two and a half years ago. “He will lead the center to a great new chapter in its 45-year history of excellence in the world of photography.”
Wallis, for 15 years chief curator at the International Center of Photography, has taken on the role of organizational change agent. According to CPW’s annual IRS forms required of all non-profit organizations, his leadership has sustained the great leap forward in the CPW’s evolution
CPW decided in 2021 under the leadership of six-year executive director Hannah Frieser to relocate to Kingston. The next year it rented the ground floor of 474 Broadway and started to look for larger quarters.
The pandemic hadn’t made the financial picture any rosier. Frieser decided to seek greener pastures elsewhere.
Wallis recognized there were upside possibilities in Kingston, but he realized that a major change in organizational direction was long overdue. Wallis saw the untapped potential, he said, and applied for the job.
His introductory statement in the strategic plan provides insight into his feelings in having taken the job on. “This 2024 strategic plan outlines goals and objectives for the coming years, specific tasks that we at CPW must undertake to broaden our mission,” he wrote. “But it also attempts to encapsulate in words and plans the heartfelt ideals, passionate visions, difficult critical positions, and social-justice values that we at CPW aim to explore through photography and related media.”
Glances back and forward
In 1910 less two percent of the American population had access to electricity. Light is the primary element that allows an image to be captured, creating shadows, highlights, and contrast which contribute to depth, dimension, and the overall aesthetic of a photograph. The quality and direction of light is what shapes a picture, with photographers actively manipulating it to achieve desired effects.
With 188 exterior windows, mostly full size, the Dederick Street cigar factory fascinated CPW. Hundreds of workers had toiled there from dawn to dusk making Peter Schuler cigars. But buying and renovating 135-year-old gem of a building would be a lift well beyond the organization’s existing financial capacity.
Kingston’s city government’s own vision for the future, as expressed in its 2022 arts and culture plan, foresees a creative economy based on the arts. That same year, it submitted an application for a Restore New York grant on behalf of CPW. The political stars were aligned. In December 2022, five months into Wallis’ job tenure, the project received a $1.5-million state grant that was announced at a press conference in the natural-light-filled empty building.
The surge in income of the past few years has enabled CPW to add curatorial, development, communications and civic-engagement staff. Wallis sees increased understanding of the role that CPW could play as a cultural anchor: more shows in its galleries relevant to community issues; greater use as the word spreads of its media lab, library and community spaces; continued lively competition for space on the walls of its community gallery; a focus on photo programs at local educational institutions; and growing awareness among governments, foundations and private donors of CPW’s importance as a cultural economic engine.
Progress is being made.
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