Inspiring the American Imagination

Inspiring the American Imagination. The Catskill Mountains. The imposing presence of the Catskills beside the Hudson River inspired America's first creative expressions in writing and painting., In 1825, Thomas Cole (1801 -1848) first painted and sketched the romantic and sublime mountains, cloves and creeks of the Catskill Mountains. , Asher B. Durand (1796-1886) was among many artists who followed Cole into the Catskill Mountains. Their paintings were imbued with a spiritual sense of wonder celebrating nature and are recognized as the Hudson River School of painting, active through the 1800s. , Henry David Thoreau (1817-1848) wrote that a house he visited atop Kaaterskill Clove… seemed high placed, airy, and perfumed, fit to entertain a traveling god… It was the very light and atmosphere in which works of Grecian art were composed, and in which they rest. , The Thomas Cole National Historic Site at Cedar Grove in Catskill offers the Hudson River School Art Trail with an online brochure matching paintings and present views. Visit www.thomascole.org. , Catskill Region Art Colonies: , Drawn by the beauty of the Catskill Mountains, artists arrived and communities formed in favored locations: Palenville in the 1830s, at Cragsmoor near Ellenville, Pakataken in Arkville, Onteora Park and Twilight Park near Haines Falls in the 1880s, Byrdcliffe in Woodstock in 1903, and the Maverick in West Hurley in 1904., Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead’s Byrdcliffe opened in 1903 with the Byrdcliffe School of Art in the present Byrdcliffe Theater building. It was the first art school in the Hudson Valley and is today a National Register site with 30 unique picturesque buildings on 300 wooded acres., John Burroughs, a Catskills Naturalist , The celebration of nature is felt in the writings of John Burroughs (1827-1921), born in Roxbury in Delaware County. The Catskills helped inspire him to become one of America's great naturalists who helped lead the conservation movement at a critical time in the nation's history. He visited all the Catskill Art Colonies. , Hervey White, a Catskills Character , In 1902 artist Bolton Brown brought Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead and Hervey White to Woodstock. In 1904 Hervey White, writer, social reformer and iconoclast, left staid Byrdcliffe to establish The Maverick Art Colony in nearby West Hurley, along what is now Maverick Road., Beginning in 1916 raucous festivals to raise funds for the Maverick Colony presaged the ebullient spirit of the Woodstock Festival., Paintings of the Woodstock School , With the establishment of Byrdcliffe and the opening of the Art Students League summer school in 1906, the 20th century Woodstock School style of landscape painting , more modern than the 19th-century Hudson River School style became influential. , Music in the Catskills: Folk, Rock and Roots , Camp Woodland brought city children to Phoenicia from 1939 to 1962. The progressive, integrated camp stressed folkways and folk music, with annual visitor Pete Seeger teaching, performing and leading songs. Camp Director Norman Studer compiled Folk Songs of the Catskills and Catskill Mountain Songbook., While the "Borscht Belt" of the southern Catskills was known for entertainment at hotels like Grossinger's and the Concord in Sullivan County, in the late 1960s, young musicians flocked to the Woodstock area in Ulster County. In 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair which was staged at Max Yasgur's farm at White Lake in Sullivan County took its inspiration from the cultural energy in Woodstock. , Artists, musicians, writers and actors continue to live and work in the Catskills. , The Woodstock Artists Association and Museum dates from the 1920s and has hundreds of active members. Many galleries and arts organizations in the region feature artists of all types, with communities supporting fine and performing arts presented at the Catskill Mountain Foundation in Hunter, the Roxbury Arts Group in Roxbury, the Erpf Gallery in Arkville, Arts Upstairs in Phoenicia, and Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild in Woodstock. The Woodstock School of Art now operates at the historic Art Students League campus. ,