Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports: Lovers of animals, food, art, and music converge in Hudson this Friday as Club Helsinki hosts Rock ‘n Roll Rescue, a star-studded benefit for Art for Animals, an organization dedicated to helping animal rescue groups and educating young people about humane issues through the arts. Art for Animals dates back to 1998, after journalist Elizabeth Hess, then an arts writer for the Village Voice, took a ride in New York City’s animal ambulance, which resulted in a cover story that revealed the dire fate of dogs and cats who ended up in the city’s shelter. The concept of artists banding together to help rescue organizations extract animals from the city’s broken animal control system and give them better chances to survive, thrive, and be adopted seemed like a natural to Hess, a founding board member of Art for Animals who now lives in Columbia County: “I just don’t know artists who don’t have animals,” she says. “Artists and writers who work at home tend to have animals.”
Initially based in New York City, Art for Animals attracted marquee names such as Michael Graves, Agnes Gund, Mary Tyler Moore, and Bebe Neuwirth to its Advisory Board, and received support through generous donations of work by countless renowned artists, including Kiki Smith, Ross Bleckner, Cindy Sherman, Richard Serra, Louise Brougeois, and—naturally—William Wegman. High-profile events such as canine cocktail parties at the Gagosian Gallery were a huge success. In addition to raising money through the sale of donated artworks, says Hess, “We filled the gallery with adoptable dogs. All the art sold, and all the dogs were adopted.” As members of Art for Animals migrated upstate, so did the organization’s activities, which included a benefit art sale at Spencertown Academy last year and the development of free arts curricula for the
schools. “New York public schools have to offer a certain number of hours of humane education per year,” explains Hess, noting that Arts for Animals is able to help schools meet that requirement while also bringing arts programs to schools at a time when budget-tightening may have cut them. Conducted by working artists, these classes include life drawing, with rescued-dog models whose back stories are told as students work on their portraits; on-site photography, drawing, and video classes at animal sanctuaries; and writing workshops in which students create short biographies of animals they know. The beneficiaries of the funds raised by Art for Animals have also drifted upstate, though Hess points out that many of the animals helped by nonprofits such as Peppertree Rescue (specializing in older dogs in need of adoption), Out of the Pits (pit bull rescue), and Animalkind (cat adoptions) may have been rescued from New York City, where the kill ratio at shelters remains abysmal. As an all-volunteer, zero-overhead organization, “Whatever funding we get goes right out to the rescue groups,” says Hess, who currently has two adopted pit bulls, included Anakin, captured in this portrait (above) by artist Valerie Shaff.
Friday evening’s benefit begins with a cocktail party hosted and “curated” by famed food writer Ruth Reichl, a longtime supporter and advisory board member of Art for Animals, who describes herself a serious cat person: “I've had cats my entire life, don't feel that life is really very good without a cat companion or two,” she says. Though it’s hard to imagine anyone in the food world shutting the door when Reichl comes knocking, she says all the chefs were a happy to help. “I assumed that every chef was sympathetic to the cause," she says. “People who work with food tend to have a deeper understanding of our obligations to animals than others.” Local donations came from Rubiner’s Cheesemongers and Swoon Kitchenbar, while New York City will be represented by such extraordinary restaurants as Dévi, The New French, Telpan, and the cafés at the Museum of Modern Art. While snacking on this all-vegetarian smorgasbord, guests can purchase student portraits of horses from the Chatham sanctuary Equine Advocates.
The Rock ‘N Roll part of the evening begins at 8:30 with performances by folky/funky/bluesy NYC Subway Girl, aka Cathy Grier (above), who has opened for Joan Armatrading and Laura Nyro and toured the world on her own, and who splits her time between the city and Columbia County; multi-instrumentalist Joy Askew, who has played with everyone from Joe Jackson to Peter Gabriel; and performance-art icon Laurie Anderson, an Art for Animals Advisory Board member, who is bringing her beloved rat terrier Lolabelle to show off her canine skills on the keyboard. The ticket price for the entire evening, including cocktail party and reserved seats for the performance, is $150. A limited number of tickets for the performance only are available for $50. All proceeds benefit Art for Animals. We’re sure this evening will be the cat’s meow. Club Helsinki HudsonHudson, NY
