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Old-Time Catskills Square Dance
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
CATSKILLS FOLK
CONNECTION
Catskills Folk Connection is also putting on its biennial folk art exhibit – it is the third in a series based on the material used for folk sculpture. This one is called Folk Art in Metal and has attracted artists that work in iron, copper, or stainless steel, and artists who recycle old equipment to make entertaining sculptures for indoors and outdoors. The exhibit can be seen at Hanford Mills Museum, East Meredith NY, on Wednesday – Sunday between 10 and 4. All visitors are offered a tour of the historic mill (admission info on the website www.hanfordmills.org) While there is a fee for the mill tour, the folk art exhibit is free. Just sign up at the admissions office. In addition to visiting the exhibit on regular museum tour days, there will be a special program called “Exploration Day” at the Mill on Saturday, September 24, in which some of the artists will demonstrate their artistic technique or talk about some unique aspect of their art work. Check the above website for details.
Also on tonight’s program on WIOX will be a description of the biennial Catskill Mountain Quilters Hall of Fame exhibit, this year called “Festival of Quilts”. It will take place at Roxbury Arts Group, 5026 Vega Mountain Rd, in Roxbury on Saturday and Sunday, September 17 and 18. 10 am – 4 pm. I am hoping to have on the air tonight one of the Festival reps, Lucci Kelly or Pat Cumming. There are many events associated with the Festival of Quilts, not the least of which is the induction of master quilters from the region into the Catskill Mountain Quilters Hall of Fame. These are quilters nominated by their guilds to be vetted and inducted by the Hall of Fame. There will also be quilters’ history books, a memorial display, raffled baskets, door prizes and the big one – a special quilt raffle. I believe the raffled items will be announced on Sunday. Call ahead if you can’t go both days. To see the raffle quilt, visit https://www.catskillmountainquiltershalloffame.com and click on “2022 Show & Raffle”.
Stay with us tonight on WIOX to hear quilt tradition bearer talk about their work and why the quilt show and the Hall of Fame are so important to them.
This weekend there are even more quilts and quilt events. The Delaware County Historical Association is presenting an exhibit "Quilts Along the Delaware" Saturday & Sunday, September 10 & 11 - 17 & 18: 10am - 4pm. After the opening weekend, quilts from the "Delaware County Town and Country Quilters" will be on display Tuesday September 13 - September 18 from 10am to 4pm. The Raffle Quilt, Vendor and Boutique will take place on the weekends. The raffle quilt drawing is Sunday September 18th at 3pm. Admission: $5.00.
And to top it all off the Balkan Mountains Music Festival is taking place on Saturday September 17, 3 to 7 pm at Glenbrook Park in Phoenicia NY. For more information go to www.phoenicialibrary.org. The festival features ethnic musical artists Zlatne Uste, Bourbon & Breast Milk, and Cherven Tractor. This Cabin Fever Concert is sponsored by the Phenicia Library and Ulster Savings Bank.
Folk art usually brings to mind carved wood or quilted cloth. But folk art in metal has an equally long history and astonishing variety. You’ll be able to take in this profusion of creativity in copper, iron and steel at Catskills Folk Connection’s exhibit “Folk Art in Metal,” beginning Saturday September 3 at Hanford Mills Museum’s Feed Mill gallery, 51 County Route 12, East Meredith, NY, 13757. The next day, Sunday, September 4, there will be an artists’ reception at 1:30 pm. And on Saturday, September 24 several of the artists will demonstrate or present their work at the Museum’s Exploration Day.
Coppersmith Mark Swanberry took part in Catskills Folk Connection's first sculpture exhibit in 2019, “Folk Art in Stone,” but since then has immersed himself in making copper into naturalistic forms. Inspired by three generations of creative people in his family, he shapes the copper into leaves, nests, bark and other forest litter that he has seen on his regular woods walks. For the title panel of this exhibit he is bringing a large wall hanging in copper of a carefully stacked woodpile.
Lucas Novko is a blacksmith that you may have encountered as an interpreter of historic blacksmithing at the Farmer’s Museum and at Hanford Mills Museum. “While my work is based on historic pieces and I try to keep to certain ironworking traditions, it is still me making the decision (or even making aesthetic decisions on a whim while I'm forging) that fulfills my own sense of creativity.“ While he makes carefully crafted reproductions, Lucas will also display some of his original contemporary pieces.
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Michael Radu comes from an artistic Romanian family that moved to the US when he was a child. He joined his father in operating a foundry to cast art and architectural commissions, but moved to the Catskills to raise his family and create his own business. His original works are mostly in steel, and in other metals, and are a surprise as folk art because they are consciously mid-20 century in style. His chair and side table, as well as his sculpture, would fit into the 20th century glass houses that epitomized the modernist style.
Musician Figure, made from musical instruments by John Jackson
John Jackson did not anticipate being captivated by metal fabrication until he found himself already entranced by it while travelling and visiting an artist who showed him a few of his techniques. Since then self-taught, Jackson has become a prolific creator of figures in metal, but metal that comes from a surprising source: discarded tools, equipment, household utensils, and musical instruments. While he makes outdoor sculptures primarily of animals, his collection of figural sculptures includes mostly two-legged creatures in amusing poses and activities: most memorable are the figures made of musical instruments and ones of musicians playing musical instruments.
Hans Hohn spends most of his energy in his career as a car mechanic, skills he initially gained from his father who started the business. Hans would tell you he is not an artist, but there are surprising things around his shop that show his tendency to make intriguing things. In the Catskills Folk Connection exhibit will be whirly gigs made from Volkswagen Beetle parts. For the rest of his creations pause on the side of Route 28 in Margaretville to see his business sign, made from half a VW Beetle. You may also be able to see a customer waiting area made from the back seat and back end of a Beetle. If you can look more closely (don’t block the business driveway!) there are on office doors Hans’s rope and pulley door closers, with weights also made from VW parts, simple enough to be a modernist design.
For exhibit viewing, Hanford Mills Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 am through 4 pm. The address is 51 County Route 12, East Meredith NY 13757. For free admittance to the exhibit, go to the Admissions Office. You may also wish to participate in Museum tours of water-driven wood-working machinery and an overshot water wheel, for which admission is $9.00. Consult the Hanford Mills Museum website for numerous discounts. For more information about tours call the Museum at 607-278-5744. For more about the exhibit “Folk Art in Metal” contact Ginny Scheer at gscheer.mcs@gmail.com.
Unlike the past two years, August 2022 does not mark a significant rise in Covid infection rates. As a result Catskills Folk Connection is planning more square dances. Of course, should conditions change, we will abide by necessary Covid precautions. Check here just before the dance date to see if there will be additional precautions.
This month, the CFC square dance will be at the Catskills Visitor Center 5906 NY-28, Mt. Tremper NY12457 on Saturday August 20 at 1 p.m. Notice the afternoon time. The dance will take place in the Center's outdoor pavilion. Tremperskill Boys will again be the band, with the possibility of a special guest. They will play and call square dances and offer tunes for waltzing, polka and maybe a two-step.
Join us for an afternoon of summer fun. Families are welcome. Admission is free. Donations are gratefully accepted. Refreshments will be available.
Eastern traditional square dancing is a family and community affair. It derives from the old house dances that were common in the Catskills through the middle of the 20th century. A farm family would pass the word that there would be a fiddler at their house on Saturday. Everyone would finish evening milking and go to the designated farm where they would help move the furniture out on the porch (or out on the yard!). The children would snooze on top of the pile of coats in the bedroom and be awakened by their parents for the ride home. This inclusive community event had a very different origin from the way "western" square dance clubs were formed. Clubs were extremely popular in urban areas after World War II, with recorded music, a universal curriculum, and required skill levels. In the country, people just grew up square dancing.
Whether you are an experienced Catskills square dancer, or a newcomer wanting to participate in local traditions, come to the dance on August 20 at the Catskills Visitor Center on Route 28 in Mt. Tremper. For more information refer to our blog www.catskillsfolkconnection.blogspot.com or contact Ginny Scheer 607-326-4206 or gscheer.mcs@gmail.com. dancing.
Catskills Folk Connection is sponsored by the Roxbury Arts Group and is funded in part by the NYS Council on the Arts Folk Art Program, by Gov. Hochul and the NYS Legislature, by HumanitiesNY’s Action and and Vision Grants, and by the O’Connor Foundation.
On Tuesday, August 2, Catskills Folk, our biweekly radio program on WIOX 91.3 FM, focused on the quilt show being presented by the Catskill Mountain Quilters Hall of Fame this September. Lucci Kelly, a member of the Catskill Mountain Quilters, and Pat Cumming, a current inductee into the Hall of Fame, joined folklorist Ginny Scheer in a discussion about quilting, about the history of the Hall of Fame, and about the current biennial exhibit called "A Festival of Quilts."
The Hall of Fame was formed in 1982 with representation from quilt guilds in four Catskills counties (Ulster, Sullivan, Delaware and Greene) adding Schoharie County in 1983. Nominations are submitted to the Hall of Fame by the guilds and the inductees are celebrated every other year at the quilt show, displaying their quilts along with submissions by guild members.
The "Festival of Quilts" will take place 10 am - 4 pm on September 17 and 18 in Roxbury Arts Group's Hilt & Stella Kelly Hall, 5025 Vega Mountain Road, Roxbury, NY 12474. Admission each day is $5.00. In addition to a spectacular display of quilting talent, the show will include "A Catskill Mountain Hometown" raffle quilt, door prizes, raffle baskets, Hall of Fame history books, a memorial display of inductees recently passed away, and - on Saturday - the official induction of current nominees. For more information go to:
https://www.catskillmountainquiltershalloffame.com/biennial-quilt-show-2020
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