The Rural We: Anita Durst
The founder of ChaShaMa in NYC talks about the organization's expansion in the Hudson Valley.
In 1995, Anita Durst founded Chashama (which means “to have vision” in Farsi) to celebrate the legacy of her mentor, theater visionary Reza Abdoh, after he died of AIDS. In recognition that there was a lack of affordable space in NYC for artists to produce and present their work, Chashama has partnered with property owners to transform unused real estate for 30,000 artists. It has hosted 4,000 public art events, provided 1,500 classes in under-served communities, and reached audiences of nearly a million. ChaNorth (Chashama North) is the organization’s upstate artist residency with headquarters in Pine Plains. Now, it’s adding to its residency program by instituting the property partnerships for artists that it established in New York. Durst tells us about plans for this upstate expansion, and about ChaShaMaFest, an interactive fundraising gala in Pine Plains on Saturday, Oct. 1.
I started looking for spaces for artists when I was 19 for Reza Abdoh. He wanted people to feel the power of arts. My family is in real estate, and I wanted to connect real estate to art. I’ve been coming up to this area for 30 years —my family has property in Pine Plains, which they donated to ChaNorth, and we have staff that live here that run the program.
ChaNorth has had monthly residency programs for about 10 years. We provide places for the artists to stay and work. ChaFest is the event that’s going to introduce our new program similar to what we do in NYC. We work with organizations who can offer space for three months, and we manage the space, serving as a broker between the artist and the space.
We’ve talked to a couple of nonprofits who are interested, like the Women’s Studio Workshop, who is introducing us to property owners. We’ll be partnering with the North East Community Center in Millerton, and The Stissing Center in Pine Plains. We find property owners to donate the space, and these organizations find the artists to put in those spaces.
We have to find out what the needs of the community are, and try to make these spaces fill that. A challenge up here is transportation. In the city we have transportation everywhere, but it’s not so easy upstate. Eventually we’d like to go way upstate, where it’s really rural.
ChaShaMa has had many gala events, with performers and a sit-down dinner. ChaShaMaFest will be like that, but on a smaller scale. We’ve put out the word for local performers. We’ll also have “The Bearded Woman” operatic cabaret and Sarah Tourmani’s “Sword Dance,” along with other performers and immersive activities.
I’ve been an actor, and have started acting again. I’m doing an independent film in the Catskills, where my character gets killed by a werewolf! It’s filming the week before the gala, so I’m going to be rushing from one to the other.
