In Memoriam: Judy Grunberg

Judy Grunberg was an elemental force in the creation of Colombia County's modern artistic identity. Small in stature but bursting with positive energy (friend Deborah Lans called her a hummingbird), Grunberg built communities where there once were none and helped others with artistic vision thrive and proliferate. When she met void she saw not darkness but opportunity, then filled it with art, and beauty, and joy.

Judy Grunberg, mother of four, died August 31, 2019 at the age of 86 after a battle with cancer.

She was widely admired for her work as the founder of PS21 (Performance Spaces for the 21st Century) and owner of the Blue Plate Restaurant, both in Chatham, New York. Though she lived in Valatie, Grunberg found purpose in shepherding Chatham towards its artistic, economic, and culinary potential. She succeeded.

PS21 is the lighthouse of her legacy. The world-class performance space and art center started out in 2006 in a tent in an apple orchard and is now a beacon drawing lovers of music, dance and art to its elegant facility.

Grunberg’s generosity could not be contained and spilled from Chatham throughout Columbia County, the Berkshires and well beyond. She was a long-serving, integral board member of Time & Space Limited and WAMC Public Radio, and a generous patron of countless regional arts and civic organizations. She was key in establishing Chatham’s co-op market and an instrumental member of the team that saved the town’s beloved vintage movie house, the Crandell Theatre. She also opened an art gallery on Main Street in Chatham and founded ReWraps, a resale clothing store that helps finance PS21 and give the summer venue visibility during the winter months. And if that weren't enough, she opened the Blue Plate, a bistro in Chatham, in 1997.

She was a talented artist in her own right, working in woodcuts, photography and graphic arts, often sketching portraits of people at the many public meetings she regularly attended. She had a lovely gallery show of her work just last year at TSL, where her loss is now seismic.

The daughter of musicians, Grunberg was born an art lover; growing up in Manhattan she spent her childhood in the one-dollar standing room section of Broadway theaters. She attended the Dalton School and was an amateur flutist and choral singer. A graduate of Bennington College, Grunberg moved to Upstate New York in the 1960s with her husband, Paul, a founder and director of the tax preparation service Jackson Hewitt, who died in 1997.

Soon after coming to the area she became the first artistic director of the Columbia County Council on the Arts, which was founded in 1965 as a presenting organization. The Council brought a number of well-known dance companies to the area. 

Busy as she was, Grunberg was always focused on her three sons and stepson and was active in the Chatham school system. In 2000, she also joined the Board of Trustees of the Columbia Land Conservancy (CLC), inspired by CLC’s mission to preserve the county’s rural nature and connect people to the land. 

Grunberg was also a dear friend to Rural Intelligence. The presence of her support, as an advertiser and a confidante, was always reaffirmation that our brand of cultural coverage was valuable. Our paths crossed many times throughout the years, at one event or another, and she was always vibrant and present, no matter how busy the scene was around her.

The world she built is now ours to tend.

Grunberg’s family has not yet announced public memorial plans. A fund is being established in her honor to support PS21. In celebration of her life, loved ones ask you consider donating to PS21.