The Catskills are cool! 
Both Travel & Leisure magazine and Fodor listed the Catskills among the best places to travel to in 2015. Also, Condé Nast Traveler has recommended the region for its amazing ski opportunities and delicious food. And also this year Vogue magazine did a beautiful feature of Woodstock, put together a weekend guide to the Catskills, and recommended the region for its abundant arts and crafts fairs.
This weekend there is a lot to do.
Woodstock Artists Association and Museum
Woodstock Artists Association and Museum presents Georges Malkine: Perfect Surrealist Behavior, an exhibit that opened in October and runs through early January. Twenty-five paintings are shown in this exhibition, as well as some drawings and archival work. Malkine had lived in Woodstock since 1953 until his death in 1970. He is the only artist named by André Breton in his Surrealist Manifesto in 1924 as a founding member of the movement. Malkine was also a writer, illustrator, and actor. For more information about this exhibit, visit http://www.woodstockart.org/.
Locust Grove Mansion
Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the electrical telegraph, used to spend his summers at Locust Grove mansion in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County. Locust Grove was built in 1851 in the Italianate style. The estate, overlooking the Hudson, includes a large park, and a flower and a vegetable garden, as well as the original ice house, a carriage house, and an art gallery. The Young family, who lived at Locust Grove after Morse’s death in 1872, had donated an extensive collection of art and decorative objects, now part of the museum. The collection includes European masters as well as exponents of the Hudson River School of Painting, exquisite furniture in the Chippendale, Federal and Empire styles, as well as European glass, and porcelain from around the world. Guided tours are offered year round. This time of year the mansion, decorated for the holidays, welcomes visitors daily from December 26 through 31. Twenty-five rooms are lavishly decorated, themed after famous Christmas carols. For more information about Locust Grove, visit http://www.lgny.org/.
Equis Art Gallery
For art and horse lovers, Equis Art Gallery in Red Hook, Dutchess County, offers some of the best equine paintings, photographs, and sculptures, both contemporary and vintage. During the holiday season all artwork is offered at a discounted price. To find more about Equis Art Gallery, visit http://www.equisart.com/. In 1980 the American Academy of Equine Art was founded to amass and exhibit the finest equine art in the country. For more information about this organization, visit http://www.aaea.net.
Bearsville Theater
Lindsey Webster Band will perform at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock this Friday, December 26 at 9 pm. A Woodstock native, Webster performs R&B, and other popular tunes. Bearsville Theater opened in 1989, and hosts many concerts and theatrical performances throughout the year. Celebrities who either live in Woodstock or come from afar perform on its stage. The theater is also home to WDST and Radio Woodstock. For more information, visit http://www.bearsvilletheater.com.
John Burroughs Association
If you have a little bit of time to write this weekend, it’s good to know that John Burroughs Association organizes an annual nature writing contest. The contest, launched in 1993, honors the legacy of the great Catskills’ naturalist. Submission deadline is January 23. Winners will be announced in early March. An Awards Ceremony will take place Monday, April 6 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
John Burroughs is best known for his collections of nature essay such Wake Robin (1871), and Signs and Seasons (1886). The naturalist writer was friends with many luminaries including President Theodore Roosevelt, industrialist Henry Ford, inventor Thomas Edison, and poet Walt Whitman. Burroughs went to school with financier Jay Gould. Born in Roxbury on April 3, 1837, he died in 1921, five days before his 84th birthday.
For more information about the nature writing contest, visit http://www.johnburroughsassociation.org
Enjoy a great weekend in the Catskills!
© 2014 Simona David
Art in the Catskills 