The Catskill Mountain Foundation Launches Its 25th Anniversary Season

The Catskill Mountain Foundation (CMF), one of the largest multidisciplinary arts organizations in upstate New York, has launched its 25th anniversary season by greatly increasing its service to Catskill Region full time and part time residents and tourists visiting the area and supporting the local economy.

Partnerships with regional and New York City institutions are enabling CMF to expand its performance schedule from 25 annual events to more than 80. CMF's Sugar Maples Center is changing its summer schedule of studio art classes for kids, teens, and adults to run year-round starting in 2023. Building projects initiated this year will enhance CMF's theatrical capabilities and provide two new studios for the Foundation's dance program.

As part of its 25th anniversary celebration the CMF is deepening its partnership with Works & Process at the Guggenheim and is launching a new partnership with The Joyce Theater. In both partnerships the CMF is providing funding, use of the Orpheum Performing Arts Center and housing to support creative residencies for dance companies curated by The Joyce Theater or Works & Process at the Guggenheim.

In recognition of CMF's importance to the region, New York State has provided a $1.75 million Empire State Development grant to upgrade theatrical equipment at the Foundation's Orpheum Performing Arts Center and to build two dance studios adjacent to the Orpheum, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has made a commitment to provide up to $940,000 in energy efficiency grants for the dance studios. With the addition of a $1.75 million matching grant that has already been secured, CMF is beginning its 25th anniversary with almost $4.5 million in new capital investment funding as testimony to the Foundation's impact.

Peter Finn, Chairman and Co-Founder of CMF, said, "The pandemic showed us all the vital importance of the arts to the resilience of both the spirit and the economy of the Mountaintop community. We are now proud to emerge in our 25th anniversary season with a dramatically expanded artistic program and improved facilities to bring us together and sustain the region. We are deeply grateful to New York State for its vote of confidence in investing in our work and helping us grow."

Sarah Finn, President and Co-Founder of CMF, said, "We were thrilled to present a sold-out moving concert by the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine as one of the first performances in our 25th Anniversary celebration, and we look forward to presenting many more performances throughout the year: from dance residencies/performances in partnership with The Joyce Theater and Works & Process at the Guggenheim to theater, ballet, jazz, chamber music, puppetry, films, and our unique international series of fortepiano salons."

Empire State Development President CEO and Commissioner Hope Knight said, "New York State's Downtown Revitalization Initiative transforms downtown neighborhoods, and upgrading and expanding the Orpheum Performing Arts Center will add to the many cultural attractions that draw residents and visitors to the region."

Lee McGunnigle, Mayor of Tannersville, said, "I offer my respect and gratitude to the Catskill Mountain Foundation's leadership for their personal and financial commitment to our Mountaintop community over the past two decades and more. With the upgrades to the Orpheum and the addition of the new dance studios, the Orpheum Performing Arts Center will become a landmark for international performances and artists and anchor Tannersville's downtown revitalization."

A partner and supporter of the region's arts organizations, CMF helped launch the Maude Adams Theater Hub in 2022 and will host its first full year of performances in 2023, at the Orpheum Performing Arts Center and the Doctorow Center for the Arts. CMF is also host to Catskill Mountain Shakespeare, a new festival that began in Ulster County in 2021 and is now moving to the Foundation's facilities in the Village of Hunter. The Foundation will host CMS's performances of Shakespeare's As You Like It at its Red Barn facility in July 2023.

Visiting artists on the schedule for 2023 include Cécile McLorin-Salvant, the Pedrito Martinez Band, dancers from the New York City Ballet in a tribute to Jacques d'Amboise, the OMNY Taiko Drummers, Chanticleer, Moss Quartet, and artists presented in partnership with The Joyce Theater and Works & Process at the Guggenheim, including Kyle Marshall Choreography, Hope Boykin Dance, Olivier Tarpaga Dance, Ronald K. Brown Dance. These partnerships comprise both residencies and performances.

Duke Dang, Executive Director of Works & Process at the Guggenheim, said, "Although the performing arts ecosystem prioritizes finished product, the reality is that artists spend most of their time and energy in the studio, rehearsing and crafting their art for the public. It is rare to have a partner like the Catskill Mountain Foundation that shares our understanding of the process and our values. The Foundation will be providing resources to artists where support is critically needed. Similar to New York City's watershed, originating in upstate reservoirs, the projects incubated at CMF will flow onto the world's most prominent stages, but not before providing the CMF community with a first look and supporting artists with an essential and inspired sanctuary to create uninterrupted."

The new CMF dance studios will be home to the Foundation's Orpheum Dance Program, offering daily ballet classes for aspiring local dancers. This program culminates each year with six performances of The Nutcracker, with a cast of pre-professional dancers from the New York City area and many young dancers from the Mountaintop community. Audiences come from the Catskill Mountain and Hudson Valley regions and from as far away as the New York metro area.

Founded in 1998, the Catskill Mountain Foundation is one of the largest multi-arts organizations in upstate NY. Since its inception, the Foundation has presented over 700 performances of music, dance and theater in its two performing arts centers, has shown over 1,000 films in its three-screen movie theater, has offered approximately 500 studio arts courses at its 120-acre Sugar Maples Center for Creative Arts, is home to the Piano Performance Museum which is a collection of 25 historic playable pianos, some of which are from the time of Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin, has published almost 300 monthly issues of the Catskill Mountain Region Guide magazine, which is the premier four-color monthly magazine featuring arts in the Catskill Region, and has hosted many performing arts residencies, including three residences with Twyla Tharp, the iconic choreographer. During the pandemic, in partnership with Works & Process at the Guggenheim, the Foundation provided pioneering bubble residencies so performing artists could safely gather, rehearse, and create, culminating in New York State's first permitted indoor performances in the Guggenheim Museum on March 20, 2021. The Foundation operates in the Villages of Hunter and Tannersville. In the Hamlet of Maplecrest the CMF has converted over 10 underused or abandoned buildings into thriving arts centers via approximately $15 million of capital investments. CMF has raised and generated more than $50 million dollars to fund its programs and operations. The Foundation has a year-round staff of approximately 30 people.

CMF's mission since its inception over a quarter century ago is to contribute positively to the economy of the area, to bring the finest in the performing arts and fine crafts to its regional audiences, to support the work of performing and visual artists through residencies, performances, and workshops, to create educational arts programs for local children and adults, and to partner with local and NYS arts organizations to strengthen the arts in the Catskill Region. Despite economic downturns and a pandemic, CMF has succeeded in its goals due to the support of local residents and patrons, Greene County, NYS and private funding sources, including the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation, and the CMF Board of Directors and staff.

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