Open House Poughkeepsie opens today.

I'm not exactly sure what this is, but it's awesomely cool.  

Through the window I saw see shelves full of reclining baby Jesuses.

A crazy (and shapely) work progressing outside Red Bone Tattoos, 444 Main St..

Yesterday I met up with Matthew Slaats in Poughkeepsie to stroll along the stretch of Main St. known at Middle Main.  Matthew is organizing an art event called Open House Poughkeepsie.  Beginning today with an afternoon VIP tour followed by a reception at the Clinton House and continuing through July 30th, artist installations, performances and guided tours will inhabit the roughly 6 block stretch.

OHP's opening reception is happening at Clinton House, 5-7pm.

In addition to today's opening, a series of walking tours, a movie night and a closing reception are planned, as well as other performance based events.  Click on the flyer image below for those details.

While strolling, we had occasion to speak at length with one of the property owners who has a resevoir of thoughts on the topic development of Main St. in the area. Open House Poughkeepsie is one part of the broader effort to develop and promote the neighborhood at the heart of the mission of the Middle Main organization and more conversations like the one we had yesterday are the ideal kind of results of projects like this.  Culture is not just about art, and there's a lot of pressure brought to bear on the field of art to reinvigorate cultural and economic development of a place.  The best thing that art as a discipline - in all its forms can do in an instance such as this is to start a conversation - even to set the conditions in which a conversation can start - but then the rest of the constituent parts that make up "culture" need to come to the table. 

While walking, we met Kirsten Olson installing her exhibit at Barrett ClayWorks, which is among the art offerings that are tied in with the OHP project, but will have its own opening reception on 7/17 at 6pm.  Olson, whose exhibit caps of her time as artist in Residence at the ClayWorks, is a new member of bau in Beacon and will be exhibiting her work there in August. 

I dig how the reflected grass rhymes with the forms of the Olson's sculpture....and vice versa.

An installation of t shirts by John McCartin at Yalexa, 519 Main St

The kork project space is acting as an auxiliary site for the OHP project, documenting and linking the cultural happenings in one part of the city with another. 

 Some lunchtime options for the staff of Bailey Browne CPA & Associates on the kork project space.

So often, (speaking from experience here) projects like this have a very limited impact on areas outside of the immediate area, and we at kork's recognize difficulty and we're lending a little cross town moral support.  Further, for the month of August, after the project has concluded, kork extend it, serving as repository for reflections on the project from artists and curator and visitors

OHP Participating artists include; Dana Bol, Teresa Cichra, Roberto Cruz, Kate Drag, Simon Draper, Stasia Fernandez, Nestor Madalengoitia, Linda Malave, Ty Marshal, Humberto Rodriguez Maya, John McCartin, Kirsten Olson, Shannon O'Leary, Franc Palaia, and Amos Scully.