Two Thursdays ago, a group of Hudsonians gathered at the home of beloved local gallerist Carrie Haddad to celebrate the closing weekend of Spectacle: Frederic Church and the Business of Art – an exhibition curated by The Olana Partnership that examined the historic painter’s use of showmanship in promotion of his artwork.
The event, subtitled “a conversation about art and commerce,” was helmed by The Olana Partnership’s Director of Education & Public Programs, Carolyn Keogh, and boasted a panel that included gallerist Lena Peterson, co-director of Carrie Haddad Gallery, and artists Carl Grauer and Jane Bloodgood-Abrams, who have both exhibited extensively with Ms. Haddad.
The setting itself was fairly spectacular: Ms. Haddad’s Union Street home is a Georgian house that has been conjoined with a chapel – so that, upon entry, you instinctively dig into your pockets to fish out a few coins for the collection plate. Guests were invited to help themselves to wine and cheese (a kind of communion, if you will), and, in the place of pews, an eclectic assortment of sofas and folding chairs made up the nave.
At the front of the congregation, Ms. Keogh welcomed her panel by asking the speakers to, in keeping with Church’s legacy, recount any interesting stories of how they’ve exhibited artwork over the years. Ms. Haddad, who has the face of a Reubens painting and the voice of a stage veteran, kept the room in near hysterics with tales of her early days in Hudson’s antique-and-gallery-era revival.
(It is to this writer’s regret that he cannot remember or recount any of these stories in detail. Suffice to say, they are delicious, and if you drop by the Haddad Gallery on a Saturday afternoon, it is more than possible that Ms. Haddad will regale you with them, upon request.)
Other panelists spoke of the sheer discipline that is required of artists with gallery representation; if you want your work to be shown, you have to produce it. Mr. Grauer described his artmaking as a daily ritual – not unlike waking up and going to the office – and Ms. Bloodgood-Abrams remarked on the influence of her resourceful father, who, as a young man, studied typing so as to avoid combat during the Vietnam draft.
It was a spirited, jolly atmosphere, with guests raising their hands or simply calling out observations about the evolution of Hudson as a gallery town. There was much praise directed toward Ms. Haddad for being a gracious patron of the arts, but she was quick to quip back: “Don’t forget – I made a few bucks, too!”
Carrie Haddad Gallery is currently exhibiting Tangled Up in Blue, a botanical-themed group show featuring the works of Julia Whitney Barnes, Linda Newman Boughton, Donise English, Owen Mann, and James O’Shea, through Sunday, April 21. Learn more at carriehaddadgallery.com.
And The Olana Partnership presents Third Thursdays, a monthly event of free community programming, this coming Thursday, April 18. Activities will include giveaways, scavenger hunts, a plant-paints watercolor workshop, and an ecology walk through Olana’s forests. Learn more at olana.org/ThirdThursdays.
Ben Rendich is a filmmaker and writer. He’s in pre-production on his first feature, Sweet Confusion, and has a blog where he writes movie reviews and essays called Reflections on a Silver Screen. He lives in Catskill.
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