Community Calendar

Time is the framework for my drawing and painting practice. In working with the figure, I seek to capture both a moment and the internal landscape of the sitter. Daily drawing sessions function as a meditation—repetition that sharpens vision, timing, and the choices I make with color, line, positive and negative space, and other principles of art-making.

Between looking and seeing, there is a fleeting gap: a split second where an image imprints itself on my mind before I translate it to canvas. This gap, described in Buddhism as a place of stillness and equilibrium, is central to my work. It is a space beyond words or thought—just presence.

Roses are also a recurring motif in my practice. For me, they serve as a metaphor for the human spirit. Through the use of multiple roses and mirrors, I explore light, reflection, and metaphor, creating spaces that attempt to hold and extend a moment.

Ultimately, my work is an inquiry into memory, perception, and the impossibility of holding on. To capture the fleeting is like trying to grasp smoke before it disappears into a black hole.

Opening Reception: Sept 20 - Oct 25, 2025
No On-Site Parking

Time is the framework for my drawing and painting practice. In working with the figure, I seek to capture both a moment and the internal landscape of the sitter. Daily drawing sessions function as a meditation—repetition that sharpens vision, timing, and the choices I make with color, line, positive and negative space, and other principles of art-making.

Between looking and seeing, there is a fleeting gap: a split second where an image imprints itself on my mind before I translate it to canvas. This gap, described in Buddhism as a place of stillness and equilibrium, is central to my work. It is a space beyond words or thought—just presence.

Roses are also a recurring motif in my practice. For me, they serve as a metaphor for the human spirit. Through the use of multiple roses and mirrors, I explore light, reflection, and metaphor, creating spaces that attempt to hold and extend a moment.

Ultimately, my work is an inquiry into memory, perception, and the impossibility of holding on. To capture the fleeting is like trying to grasp smoke before it disappears into a black hole.

Opening Reception: Sept 20 - Oct 25, 2025
No On-Site Parking

$25 a drop-in, $80 ($20 a class) for a 4 session punch card, Venmo, CC, check or cash.

Figure Drawing Long pose Open Studio Sessions for experienced adult artists with a live model in a supportive atmosphere. No instructor. Bring your own art supplies/drawing boards. There are a few easels and we also have tables and chairs. Poses for three 1 hour or one 3 hour. Limited to 15 people per session.

For more information, call or email us!

For updates on scheduling and closures, check out our website or social media.

Come one, come all and climb aboard the Hudson River Maritime Museum’s solar powered boat Solaris for a ride of historical scares, appropriate for all ages. Settle in and prepare to be spooked as our storytellers captivate you with specially selected tales for the Halloween season. You’ll hear about a headless horseman, ghosts stalking the river, and other local lores. These stories have floated along the Hudson River and beyond for generations, and they’re sure to delight. Cozy up with some hot cider and treats and enjoy the smooth, quiet ride only Solaris can offer as you learn the haunted tales of the mighty Hudson.

250 years ago, eight Shakers fled England, bound for New York in hopes of finding religious freedom. Named for their trembling “religious ecstasies,” the Shakers received gifts of revelation; communications from the spirit world. Led by a woman whom they called, “Mother Ann”, they were subject to bloody persecution. Shakers were beaten, imprisoned, abducted, and chased out of town on both sides of the Atlantic. Undeterred, they persevered to build their vision of Heaven-on-Earth right here, in Albany. We invite you to join us as we pull back the veil separating this world from the next at America’s First Shaker Settlement.

Tours are on Oct. 15, 16, 17, 24, & 25 at 5:30pm.

*This ghost tour touches on sensitive topics including sickness, mental illness, suicide, physical abuse, religious persecution, and death, both of children and of adults. If these topics hit too close to home, we hope that you will take good care and join us for a regular tour another time

Mendings of Time, a dynamic percussion duo formed by Jeff Tripoli and Sam Fishman, will be performing live at the Bridge Street Theatre on Saturday, October 17, 2025. Their debut release, “Wilburland Sessions” is a beautiful blend of improvisation, meditation, and minimalism—designed to transport listeners to a higher plane of existence through the power of rhythm and sound.

The connection between Jeff and Sam was nothing short of destiny, and together, they create a performance that is both transcendent and deeply immersive. The duo’s unique ability to blend deep listening and transformative percussion offers an unforgettable experience that your patrons will not want to miss!

Next up in the Berkshire Nature Talk Series:

Professor Brian Donahue presents a radical approach to healing the relationship between humans and forests through responsible, sustainable use of our local Berkshire woodlands.

Drawing from his acclaimed book Slow Wood and his personal experience building a timber frame home using trees from his own land, Professor Donahue will explore how we can address the modern housing crisis while protecting our region's diverse forests. Rather than relying on lumber from global extraction systems, he advocates for “worst first” forestry—a sustainable practice that allows us to have both healthy forests and the wood we need for building.

About the Speaker: Brian Donahue is professor emeritus of American Environmental Studies at Brandeis University, a farmer, historian, and conservationist, and author of prize-winning books about New England farms and forests.

Next up in the Berkshire Nature Talk Series:

Professor Brian Donahue presents a radical approach to healing the relationship between humans and forests through responsible, sustainable use of our local Berkshire woodlands.

Drawing from his acclaimed book Slow Wood and his personal experience building a timber frame home using trees from his own land, Professor Donahue will explore how we can address the modern housing crisis while protecting our region's diverse forests. Rather than relying on lumber from global extraction systems, he advocates for “worst first” forestry—a sustainable practice that allows us to have both healthy forests and the wood we need for building.

About the Speaker: Brian Donahue is professor emeritus of American Environmental Studies at Brandeis University, a farmer, historian, and conservationist, and author of prize-winning books about New England farms and forests.

(United States, 2023, 30 minutes, color) Directed by Bill Morrison.
Nominated for a 2025 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short, "Incident" is a groundbreaking nonfiction film that attempts to reconstruct the disputed events of a 2018 police shooting using a collection of body camera and surveillance camera footage.

Screening and discussion
7 p.m. Friday, October 17
Screening with commentary by director/producer Bill Morrison and producer Jamie Kalven
Page Hall - University at Albany Downtown Campus
135 Western Avenue, Albany NY 12203
Watch the trailer at https://www.nyswritersinstitute.org/incident

Public talk: Jamie Kalven
6 p.m. Saturday, October 18
"The View from the Ground: The Practice of Guerrilla Journalism on the South Side of Chicago"
Arts Letters & Numbers
1548 Burden Lake Road, Averill Park, NY 12018

Both events free and open to the public.

Cosponsored by the NYS Writers Institute, Arts Letters & Numbers, and Metroland magazine.

The Mushroom Cure is the true story of how comedian Adam Strauss treated his debilitating OCD with psychedelics. The New York Times praised it for “mining a great deal of laughter from disabling pain.” The Chicago Tribune called it “arrestingly honest and howlingly funny.” Michael Pollan described it as “brilliant, hilarious, and moving.” And Time Out New York named it a Critics’ Pick, calling it “a true-life tour de force.”

About Adam Strauss:
Adam Strauss’s work has been called many things—mostly adjectives. He won the New York Fringe Festival’s Overall Excellence Award for Solo Performance, the Eddy Award for Best Solo Show in San Francisco, and the Leffe Beer Craft Your Character Storytelling Competition. He’s lost too many things to list here. Strauss performs nightly at many of New York City’s best comedy clubs—and most of its worst ones.