WASSAIC — The year 2008 marked the beginning of what was to become an annual contemporary arts festival, where history and modernism would come together in this community. The founders of the Wassaic Project, Bowie Zunino, Eve Biddle, and Elan Bogarin, gained the approval of the Maxon Mills owners, Tony Zunino and Richard Berry, to use the mill as an artistic venue. In 2005, Zunino and Berry purchased and restored the mill, saving it from demolition. The Wassaic Project is therefore not only an opportunity for the expression of art, but is also representative of an initiative to bring new life into this historic area. The Wassaic Project Summer Festival, held Aug. 5 to 7, marked the culmination of the project’s annual art program. The festival featured more than 100 artists and 23 bands that performed for festivalgoers, who spanned the inside and outside of the mill buildings. The weekend also included poetry readings, dance performances, film screenings and artist talks, giving artists the opportunity to share their work with both the community and each other.For a first-time attendee, walking through the doors of the Maxon Mills on Aug. 6 was striking, as art was shown on all seven floors, utilizing every annex. Standing by her installation, “You Are My Anchor,” Sarah Hardesty explained the process of incorporating her work into this unique and intimate space, which inspired her to create a piece that would invite people to walk around it. The dark woods lining the interior of this venue offered the contrast that Hardesty sought for her hanging fluorescent pink installation of acrylic, wood and string. She noted her desire to convey that “some kind of process [is] still happening. I don’t want it to feel static.”Hardesty also described the challenge of adjusting one’s artistic vision to fit this unusual space and create site-specific pieces. Her sculpture was accompanied by three line drawings of hawks, which she said complement the hanging installation because of the correspondence of lines from the string and wood with the ink lines in the hawk drawings. Through all her pieces, Hardesty said she feels she has achieved her vision for the project. Several artists chose an interactive approach. Clara Creston, originally from New York City and currently living in Troy, N.Y., invited attendees to take a ride on her installation, the “Knowhere Machine,” which consisted of a stationary bike that, when peddled, spun a series of painted canvases to simulate a bike ride along a country road. The top of the stairs on an upper level saw a great deal of traffic as people stopped to have a drink from Ben Thorp Brown’s “Refuse, Refuse,” which included 123 water jugs arranged in rows on the floor. A sign indicated, for every jug consumed, another would be brought to the Arizona-Mexico border, where deaths have been on the rise. The art and interview collaborative work of Gala Narezo and Shaminade Gonzaga also raised awareness for global issues, in particular those surrounding immigration, through a series of portraits and personal interviews.At the top level, Jeila Gueramian’s “You Are Where You Are” literally transported visitors into what can only be described as a magical forest. Colorful draping fabrics lined the space that was teeming with flowers, trees and glittering hanging lights. Scott Anderson’s audio set the tone in this mythical scene, where children were invited to dress up in green cloaks and play inside. For adults, the installation fostered a sense of nostalgia, as this enchanted scene was reminiscent of a classic fairy tale. Once inside, it was hard to leave the mill, which drew people upward, immersing them in a world of art. However, the scene outside, with the vibe of an outdoor music festival, was also not to be missed. Here, locals and visitors of all ages from New York City and beyond melded together to enjoy good music and food. If the success of an event can be measured by the range of people it appealed to, the festival was a huge hit, as young children and parents took part in enjoying the same scene as the adolescent and young adult subset.Click here for another photo from The Wassaic Project.
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Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.
“I was a library kid. I walked to the library after school,” she said.
For Sher, the library is as much about the people as it about the books.
“Part of the job I love so much is that running the library is such a community,” she said.
She treasures the relationships she has built, whether recommending books, celebrating accomplishments or helping patrons through difficult times.
“I am thankful that our community is so supportive of the library, unlike what is happening in some other places where librarians are villainized,” Sher said.
Sher takes pride in the Hunt Library’s reputation for being “open and welcoming to everyone. People come in and see things and get pulled into things they weren’t expecting. Our library is seen as a positive force.”
Sher came to Falls Village after being awarded a fellowship at Adamah Farm, then a program of the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. She worked at pickling, in the greenhouse and later in the development office. She also worked as a nanny.
At the same time, “I was in the library all the time,” she recalled. “I’m a voracious reader. The library is where I met a lot of my first friends in Falls Village.”
She became assistant librarian at Hunt and worked in that position for almost a decade before becoming the executive director four years ago.
Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.L. Tomaino
Sher met her husband, Adam, while working at Adamah. They had their wedding there in 2012. He now emcees many events which she co-organizes with the Falls Village Recreation Commission.
Sher and her family live near the library.
“It’s an easy commute,” she said with a smile. “My kids run back and forth. I can go home to walk the dog if I need to.”
“My kids have grown up here.” Her oldest son, Eli, “loves volunteering. He helps with Augustfest and often helps set up chairs for ArtWall gatherings.” Her younger son, Noah, is often at events and was eager to taste cookies at last year’s holiday cookie swap.
When she is not at the library, Sher likes to hike with her family. Bella, their Portuguese water dog, often accompanies them.
Sher enjoys seeking out people to offer events at the library.
“I do a lot of different community programming. It is one of my favorite parts of the job.”
Augustfest, featuring food, music and an auction, is the library’s biggest fundraiser.
“This summer we had a record 152 attendees, which was pretty incredible.”
Yonah Sadeh, a filmmaker from Falls Village, inaugurated the VideoWall this year, Sher explained.
“I’ve known Yonah since he was two. It’s wonderful to work with him as an adult.”
The VideoWall complements the library’s ArtWall, which showcases a new artist each month. Sher praised the ArtWall committee for its work and highlighted December’s popular “12x12 Show,” featuring works by local artists, each measuring 12 by 12 inches and priced at $150.
Sher added that some of the artists who exhibit at the ArtWall offer workshops to students at Kellogg School, next door to the library. In September, artist Danielle Mailer worked with the children. Vincent Inconiglios taught a class last November.
Being next to the school, said Sher, is a great advantage.
“Kids are coming after school, to see friends, work on projects, find a great book. Kids that love the library end up using the library as grownups.”
This past year, in partnership with Adamah, the library and school created a garden, with excess produce made available at The Center on Main.
This year is Sher’s second year participating in the Troutbeck Symposium in Amenia with James King, director of the library at Salisbury School. The Troutbeck Symposium is “a gathering of a year of student historical inquiry across the region” in which students “uncover stories that have been overlooked, forgotten, or never recorded.”
Last year, Sher and King began a project with a group of students researching Irish immigrants in Falls Village, exploring ancestry and creating small magazines about their findings.
They continued this year, visiting St. Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery on Dublin Road, cleaning seven gravestones and even righting one with the help of stonemason and gravestone restoration expert Karl Munson. Paul Kozeazny, a representative of the Catholic archdiocese, helped secure access to the site.
A film documenting their activities will be shown at the symposium in spring 2027.
A full schedule of programs and events, ranging from tech help to ceramic mug-making, can be found on the library’s website.
Despite spending her days surrounded by books, and a busy schedule of programming, Sher still loves to settle in with a book at home.
For more information on library programs and events, visit huntlibrary.org
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Touré was born in northern Mali in 1981. His father, the renowned guitarist Ali Farka Touré, came from a family of soldiers and wanted his son to join the army. The younger Touré studied drums and the calabash and practiced guitar in secret. He earned his father’s blessing to pursue music shortly before Ali died in 2006, and they played two tracks together on Vieux’s debut album.
Touré is known for his deft, polyrhythmic playing, and his songs grow out of riffs that repeat and layer to hypnotic effect. He draws on rock, blues, Latin music and various African traditions. This distinctive blend builds on his father’s work adapting the sonic traditions of Mali’s arid north to the guitar.
Vieux’s album “Mon Pays” (“My Country,” 2013) honored Mali’s culture after Tuareg separatists and extremist groups seized the north in 2012. “Samba” (2017) was recorded before about 50 listeners in Woodstock, New York. In 2022 came “Les Racines” (“The Roots”), a return to his father’s desert blues, and “Ali,” on which he and the trio Khruangbin reworked eight of the elder Touré’s songs.
Touré leads the Ali Farka Touré Foundation, which focuses on cultural and educational work in Mali. Around the anniversary of Ali’s death, it holds a festival in Bamako, Mali’s capital. Bamako has been under blockade for much of the past year, besieged by JNIM, an al-Qaeda affiliate. Against this backdrop, Touré continues to carry the music of Mali to audiences abroad.
At the Nov. 5 concert, Touré’s desert blues will share the bill with Gnawa, the music LanGus plays, which developed in Morocco among West Africans who were brought north across the desert as enslaved people. Gnawa is religious music traditionally performed at all-night healing ceremonies called lila, intended to carry participants into trance.
Samir LanGusProvided
LanGus was born and raised outside Agadir, Morocco, and began learning Gnawa from its masters at age 8. He plays the sintir, a three-stringed bass lute made of wood and camel skin. The player strikes a low string with the thumb to create a deep, resonant pulse. Iron castanets clatter over the sintir’s bass line, and vocalists trade call-and-response refrains.
LanGus infuses the tradition with jazz and improvisation. In New York, he founded the ensemble Innov Gnawa. His first solo album, “Gnawa Love,” came out in February.
Touré and LanGus’s Nov. 5 concert is one of the last public events at Race Brook Lodge, which is for sale and ended full-service operations at the end of 2025. The lodge’s final scheduled event, on Nov. 6, is an evening of Rumi’s poetry with translator and vocalist Haleh Liza Gafori, cellist Isabel Castellvi and ceremonial bard James Bird.
For tickets, visit rblodge.com.
James FitzGerald is a student at Yale Law School, where he focuses on ecological restoration and international environmental cooperation. He splits his time between Lakeville and New Haven.
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