An Abandoned School Becomes a Canvas for Art Galleries
The New York Times
Six galleries bought a 22-acre property in upstate New York that they are calling the Campus. Its first exhibition begins June 29.
In a spirit of cooperation, six midsize art galleries are extending their reach beyond Manhattan with the purchase of a sprawling abandoned school in Columbia County, N.Y., that will be inaugurated as a new exhibition platform called the Campus on June 29.
The galleries Bortolami, James Cohan, Kaufmann Repetto, Anton Kern, Andrew Kreps and Kurimanzutto pooled their resources to buy the low-slung 78,000-square-foot Ockawamick School and its surrounding 22 acres in Claverack.
“This is writ large of something that’s happening in the art world: a new way of working,” said Kreps, who initiated the real estate hunt. He called it a move “toward collaboration” and away from working in one’s “own little silo.”
The property is outside Hudson, which has become a mini-Mecca for art and design, and joins a host of homegrown galleries and other contemporary art institutions in the region. The School, a museum-size extension of Jack Shainman’s gallery spaces in Manhattan, and the nonprofit Art Omi center are both in Columbia County. Sullivan County includes newcomers such as the nonprofit Catskill Art Space and the artist Bosco Sodi’s exhibition space Assembly.
Most of the nearly 80 artists in the Campus’s inaugural exhibition are drawn from among the more than 200 artists and estates represented by the collective. A number have strong personal connections to the region, including Jenny Holzer, Rachel Harrison and Sanya Kantarovsky. Four works will be outdoors, including a sculptural installation by Maren Hassinger and a site-specific project from William Forsythe that will prompt visitors into a complex choreography on a former football field.
The Campus, which sits among livestock pastures, will be open on summer weekends.
