13 Stops for Upstate Art Weekend on Our Side of the River

Upstate Art Weekend (June 25-29) turns the Hudson Valley into a sprawling, decentralized art crawl, and Dutchess and Columbia counties host a big share of it: a converted school in Kinderhook that's become one of the region's essential art pilgrimages, a 19th-century knitting mill mid-transformation in Philmont, Frederic Church's hilltop estate hosting this year's official kickoff, a grain elevator full of artist studios in Wassaic, and more. Here are 13 stops worth the trip.

Columbia County

Olana State Historic Site (5720 Route 9G, Hudson) Frederic Church's hilltop estate is hosting this year's official UAW kickoff on Thursday, June 25, with a welcome toast, local refreshments, and a panel conversation among artists Jean Shin, Gabriela Salazar, and Ellen Harvey, moderated by UAW founder Helen Toomer. Stick around for site-specific installations by Harvey and Salazar on the grounds, and catch "Frederic Church: Global Artist" (on view through October 25), a bicentennial survey.

The School | Jack Shainman Gallery (25 Broad Street, Kinderhook) Jack Shainman's outpost in a converted 1929 schoolhouse has become one of the region's essential art pilgrimages, and this summer's show, "Modus Operandi," continues that tradition: nearly 20 artists working across painting, sculpture, textile, photography, and video, on view through November 28. The 30,000-square-foot building gives the work room.

The Campus (341 Route 217, Hudson) Now in its third summer, this collaborative project transforms the former Ockawamick School into one of the region's more ambitious contemporary art destinations. This year's edition (opening weekend June 27-28) expands the model further, adding eight United Kingdom-focused galleries to the six founding spaces, with artists responding directly to the building's old classrooms, hallways, and institutional memory rather than working around a single curatorial theme.

Hudson Hall (327 Warren Street, Hudson) Filmmaker and projection artist Karl Nussbaum's immersive installation Ghost Dance for America, 1890 (on view June 25-July 5) explores Indigenous dispossession and spiritual resistance via a 25-foot circular scrim that surrounds the audience. Shadow, movement, and pre-cinema illusion techniques turn the historic theater into a meditation on 19th-century American history. Nussbaum gives an artist talk inside the installation on Sunday, June 28 at 3pm, presented as part of UAW.

The Sphinx at Basilica Hudson (110 South Front Street, Hudson) The Sphinx is a roving curatorial project run by occult writer Pam Grossman and collaborators; this UAW they're taking over Basilica Hudson's Back Gallery with "The Swan's Script I," a group exhibition inspired by mystic painter Hilma af Klint's series of swan paintings. The opening reception (Friday, June 26) and closing reception (Sunday, June 28) both include live music and readings, including a performance by Melora Creager of the band Rasputina.

Art Omi (1405 County Route 22, Ghent) Art Omi's 120-acre sculpture and architecture park, with more than 60 large-scale works by artists from around the world, is worth a visit any day of the year. But UAW weekend is a particularly good time to go: on Saturday, June 27, from 3-7pm, Art Omi hosts its summer opening, unveiling two new exhibitions, Nayland Blake's "Haunt: Being the Folly of One Victorya Spectre” and Tschabalala Self's "Pioneer," along with newly commissioned performances by M. Lamar and DANIRO (RSVP required). A free shuttle runs that afternoon from the Pocketbook Hudson hotel in Hudson.

Farm & Field (338 Punsit Road, Chatham) "Tracing Paths" centers on painter Jill Duffy, who makes her own pigments from foraged, natural materials. The show spills well beyond the gallery walls into pigment-making demonstrations, guided foraging walks, open studios, and self-guided trail hikes across the 210-acre property. Open free to the public Thursday, June 25 through Monday, June 29.

Loom (27 Summit Street, Philmont) This first look inside the 1876 Summit Knitting Mill offers a preview of a massive historic factory mid-transformation into a future hub for artist residencies and public programs. Guided tours and open-access hours let visitors explore the restored industrial space and imagine what comes next.

Dutchess County

Kaatsbaan Cultural Park (120 Broadway, Tivoli) Better known for dance, Kaatsbaan's sprawling grounds also host an annual visual arts exhibition, and this year's edition, "Earthly Delights" (June 6-October 31), turns the property into a dreamlike ecology of sculpture and installation. Curated by Hilary Greene, the show features nine artists riffing on botanical forms, insects, and planets: Aurora Robson's recycled-plastic, tree-climbing installation, Ian McMahon's barn-mounted geometric relief, and Portia Munson's mystical banner return from past seasons, joined by new work from Thea Berman, Sharon Broit, Laura Battle, Kris Perry, Nadia Yaron, and Virginia L. Montgomery, all anchored by two monumental bronzes by Gaston Lachaise on long-term loan. For UAW, Kaatsbaan is holding free open hours with RSVP on Saturday, June 27, from 3-5pm.

CCS Bard / Hessel Museum of Art (Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson) Bard's campus offers two reasons to detour this UAW. At Stevenson Library, "Cagecircle: Composition for an Exhibition" (on view June 27-July 12) uses John Cage's procedures to assemble an unpredictable cabinet of curiosities pulled from 22 collections; the opening, on Saturday, June 27 at 1pm, is a free, UAW-timed performance of Cage's "Lecture on Nothing." Across campus at the Hessel Museum, "Uman: In Between" (opening June 27) offers the most expansive survey yet of the self-taught painter, tracing two decades of work shaped by memories of East Africa, Arabic calligraphy, and the natural world.

Mad Rose Gallery (5916 North Elm Avenue, Millerton) Iranian American artist Moshgan Rezania turns the American bison into both subject and symbol in "Eyes of the Unseen" (on view through June 28). Drawn from plein air sessions in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley, the blazing, expressionist paintings arrive as renewed political fights over bison grazing rights have pushed the animal back into the national conversation.

Millbrook Arts & Open Studios (Millbrook Library, 3 Friendly Lane, Millbrook) The all-volunteer Millbrook Arts Group turns its corner of UAW into a town-wide event. This year's edition runs Saturday and Sunday, June 27-28, with roughly a dozen open studios, a group show called "Un-Real" (featuring Fern Apfel, Monica Link, Kevin Mosca, Laura Von Rosk, and Daniel Walworth) opening at the Millbrook Library, and a bandshell concert with food vendors to close it out.

Wassaic Project (37 Furnace Bank Road, Wassaic) The seven-story Maxon Mills grain elevator shows dozens of contemporary artists across its floors, with additional public art scattered through the hamlet. UAW weekend brings a full day of programming on June 27—open studios, artist talks, a landscape painting workshop, a cyanotype workshop—spread across Maxon Mills, Troutbeck, the Garage, and the Luther Barn.