Ancramdale resident Jeff Daly is the retired head of Museum Design for Exhibits and Capital Projects at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But he's still heavily involved in that world as board chair of the Shaker Museum Mount Lebanon and a museum design consultant for projects around the world, which he is thrilled to be able to do from the comfort of his country home. I grew up in Troy, New York, then moved to Manhattan in the late 1970s to begin my 30-year career at the Metropolitan Museum. In 1994, my now-husband Gary and I bought land in Ancramdale to build a weekend home. We desired to have a base close to family and in a rural area since Gary spent a lot of time on his family's farm in Michigan. We moved up here full time in 2010 when we both retired and I started a museum consulting business which, luckily, can be run from here thanks to the Internet and Albany airport. I've loved art and museums since I was a kid and my parents would take us to MoMa and the Met. I went to graduate school for industrial design and then got my very first museum job at the Shaker Museum in Old Chatham, which I am now lucky to be the board chair of! I've come full circle. I love taking people to the Jack Shainman School Gallery in Kinderhook and then just driving around to visit the many wonderful spots around the area from the Hudson to the Berkshires and Northwestern Connecticut. There are so many wonderful spots and activity options plus just the driving about to see the beautiful changing views no matter where you go. Ancramdale is blessed with some wonderful quiet roads that wind up and through open farmland and hills. We love to do a five-mile loop by the Chaseholm Farm and Ronnybrook Farm with our neighbor Eugenia Zukerman. I tend to linger to say hello to the cows and horses and dogs along the way. The first thing that makes our area so special is that it amazes me and all our visitors from other cities that you can be so close to Boston and New York and yet live in such a lovely rural region. And a region where there is a big effort being made to protect the farmland and encourage younger farmers. I tell anyone who moves up here to support the CLC and Scenic Hudson and their own local CSAs and land protection groups. The second thing that makes it so special are all the interesting people you meet who live and work here either full time or part time. I deeply admire the efforts of so many people who live and work to make the area vibrant.
