The Wassaic Project: A Pop-Up Museum and Pizza, Too

"Everybody is asking if this is an art installation or a real pizza oven," said Angelo Womack, who was splitting wood on Wednesday outside Maxon Mills (below), which is the headquarters for the third iteration of the Wassaic Project Summer Festival. "This is a real wood-fired oven. It will become part of the Lantern Inn on the other side of the railroad tracks after the festival. I have travelled all over Italy and I make real Italian pizza. I've been making pizza in Brooklyn for years." This weekend, August 5 - 7, you will feel like you're in a rural version of Brooklyn if you head a half mile south of the Wassaic MetroNorth train station. There will be hundreds of young artists and musicians decked out in artisanal T-shirts who'll be camping on the field outside the old Luther Barn. You can eat hand-crafted pizzas alongside them while listening to 23 live music shows and viewing on-site art installations, film screenings, and dance performances.

When RI met Wassaic co-founders Eve Biddle and Bowie Zunino two years ago, we were immediately smitten by their spunk and aesthetics, and soon they were discovered by The New York Times. The festival weekend is a true multi-generational, multi-disciplinary happening that is free (donations encouraged) so you don't have to make a major commitment to be on the cutting edge. As the Wassaic Project has grown, the founders have taken on a third partner (Jeff Barnett-Winsby) and brought in other curators: Ryan Frank and Risa Shoup have put together an exhibition called Ode Hotel; Eric Gleason and Ethan Greenbaum have organized The Finishers. Here's a preview of the 2011 edition of The Wassaic Project. (Our advice: Wear comfortable shoes if you plan on seeing all seven floors of art in the Maxon Mills granary.)