![From renovation to innovation: Hotchkiss Library’s expanded offerings](https://lakevillejournal.com/media-library/little-ones-of-varying-ages-take-advantage-of-the-monday-morning-story-hour-led-by-renee-desimone.jpg?id=51656093&width=1200&height=900)
Little ones of varying ages take advantage of the Monday morning story hour led by Renee DeSimone.
Leila Hawken
Little ones of varying ages take advantage of the Monday morning story hour led by Renee DeSimone.
SHARON — Since its beginnings in 1893, Sharon’s Hotchkiss Library has been a landmark on the town green, imposing in its architecture and welcoming in its nature.
The same is true today. Following a local capital campaign that raised $3.7 million in support of renovation and expansion, the town celebrated the library’s reopening in August 2023.
While construction was ongoing, library services were offered at a temporary location at Legion Hall. The library did not miss a beat in continuing essential service to its community.
The months that have passed since the reopening have seen growth in programs and library resources. The community has continued to find that the library is central to Sharon life, only more so now that there is more space and flexibility.
“We have held 80 adult programs with over 900 participants,” said Gretchen Hachmeister, executive director of the library, on Thursday, Feb. 22, reflecting in the growth in numbers of programs and numbers of patrons.
“There is so much going on, and the numbers and variety far exceed our prepandemic and prerestoration volume,” Hachmeister added, citing as examples library book clubs, yoga classes, Qigong workshops, art courses, afternoon movies, and knitting groups, as well as evening and weekend programs.
Thanks to the energetically imaginative volunteer Guild members, Hachmeister noted the assortment of new Guild-sponsored offerings, including chamber music concerts, film screenings, artist and author talks, community coffees and group discussions on meeting food security needs in the area.
The “Little Women” Community Read Aloud was a particular favorite among local readers, Hachmeister said.
Younger readers and children are not overlooked in the renovated library. Hachmeister noted that Renee DeSimone, head of children’s programming, has offered 72 children’s programs that have included visits to Sharon Day Care and the classrooms at Sharon Center School.
Looking ahead, Hachmeister said that the library hopes to offer more programming for the town’s older adult population, including exploring how to combat isolation and loneliness.
“We are always looking for diverse ways to engage the community,” Hachmeister said.
Town committees have found the new Hayes Family Community Room to be a convenient and comfortable location for meetings. So far, a total of 17 such meetings have been held by six different town committees.
More people have been taking out library cards since the renovation, Hachmeister said, estimating an average issue of 18 new cards each month. Nationally, those statistics are falling, she noted. She said that more than 1,000 patrons visit the library each month.
With the renovation came new technology, Hachmeister said, praising the staff for embracing the new way of doing things and learning new procedures and systems.
While the old Victorian building stands as the visually striking architectural gem that it is, thanks to the generosity of donors to the capital campaign, the interior is serving the needs of 21st-century Sharon in the most productive and exciting ways.
“The Hotchkiss Library of Sharon has become THE community center of Sharon,” Hachmeister said.
For more info, go to www.hotchkisslibraryofsharon.org
Abstract art display in Wassaic for Upstate Art Weekend, July 18-21.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene from the Amenia garden tour.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else.
I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.