The Alchemy of Art and Commerce
Posted by: Marilyn Bethany
Posted on: Sunday, March 27, 2011
Comments
I am very excited by this. I will definitely see more art this way and it addresses something that has perplexed me about Hudson for years. I have always been surprised by how little merchants on Warren do to attract people. Stores open up SO late on weekend mornings and close relatively early. I would love to do more than window shop after dinner - I would love to go in and buy things! Maybe Thur-Sun, they could stay open until 9? and maybe they could open at 9am Sat & Sun? I have always wished for a downtown movie theater, too.
Oh, I wish you were right about East Hampton (I have a house there). The town’s Main Street has been plagued by empty storefronts for the past several years, due to astronomical rents. Many are occupied only as ‘pop-up’ stores in the summer season, selling things local year-round residents can’t begin to afford. The rest of the year, the town is fairly dead, not just at night but even by day. Yes, there’s a five-plex cinema, but it’s part of the Regal chain and rarely shows interesting movies, and there are only two or three bars/restaurants within walking distance of it. There’s a dearth of places to go for lunch or coffee, good or otherwise. Sag Harbor might be a better example of a town with potential street life, but it, too, is pretty darn quiet most of the time. A movie theater in Hudson would be nice, but overall, I think Hudson already has more to offer in the way of Main Street life than East Hampton does, sadly.
Cara, My description of East Hampton was based on memories of what it was like when we had a house in Sag Harbor (1977 - 1994), assuming it would only be more so now. The movie theater then was not a Regal, Book Hampton, practically next door, stayed open until 10 on Saturday nights (as did other shops, including the ice cream store), and the ever-hopping Nick and Tony’s was right down the block. So much for rose-tinted nostalgia. Meanwhile, you are right; Hudson gets better and better by the day!—Marilyn
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Full Article
Last Blues of Dusk by Susanna Heller at the John Davis Gallery
There is a hardly-secret, yet too-seldom-applied formula for enlivening Main Streets at night. Rather than play favorites, let us offer one example of a town from outside our region that applies it brilliantly: East Hampton, on eastern Long Island. There is a movie theater right in the thick of things, always an excellent traffic generator. But a movie theater alone is insufficient. Restaurants, a book store, an ice cream parlor, a candy store, galleries, shops, must all conspire to capture the attention of movie-goers before and after the show. Eventually, traffic builds, and people just out for a stroll, not necessarily movie-theater bound, join the parade. That’s how a noon-to-six town transforms itself into a hive of evening activity that serves 24/7, 21st-century sensibilities.
Now, the Hudson merchants group, BeLo3rd, in its on-going effort to draw traffic down to the lower end of Warren Street, have taken one simple step toward realizing that Avenue of Dreams’ full potential: coordinated gallery openings. This Saturday, seven galleries will hold openings on the same night (most, but not all, are below 3rd). As Ellen Thurston, Hudson’s semi-official Appointments Secretary, asks in her .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), “What to call this explosion of activity? A Crawl? A Stroll? A walk on the wild side, perhaps?”
Let’s just call it smart.
The galleries that will be holding openings this Saturday afternoon into evening are the Davis Orton Gallery, Gallery at Tommy’s, Gallery 135, Hudson Opera House, J. Damiani Gallery, John Davis Gallery, and the Limner Gallery. For details see Art Intelligence, above.
