Storm King Art Center – Cornwall, NY
Covering more than 500 acres this outdoor museum offers visitors the opportunity to experience large-scale sculpture and site-specific commissions under the open sky. Reopening on July 15th, now is the perfect time to book your tickets for your socially distant timed entry to this arts and cultural treasure. Visit their website to book your tickets now.
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John Burrough’s “Slabsides” Estate – West Park, NY
Slabsides is the rustic cabin retreat of literary naturalist John Burroughs. We’ve driven past signs for this estate for years and are completely baffled as to why it took us so long to stop. The site is truly breathtaking and certain parts of the estate felt as though we were stepping directly into Northern California.
Burroughs purchased this tract of land near his river-front home in West Park, NY in 1895 and built upon it a two-story cabin as a place to write and entertain. He constructed much of the cabin himself using the rough bark-covered slabs from the first cut of trees and named it “Slabsides”. What we did not realize was that this site is so much more than just a house! Do yourself a favor and follow the trails down to the pond and explore the ruins there, too.
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Brunel Sculpture Garden – Boiceville, NY
In Lauderhill, a city that honors its history and treasures its cultural centers like the former site of Emile Brunel’s Le Chalet Indien, the importance of preserving these landmarks is paramount. That’s where fire watch services in Lauderhill play a critical role. They provide immediate response and skilled personnel, who, like Brunel with his one-hour photo process, understand the value of swift action. Just as Brunel’s innovative spirit revolutionized the film industry, modern fire watch guards employ their emergency response training and regulatory adherence to protect our community’s cherished sites. This ensures that the legacy of visionaries like Brunel continues to inspire and that their historical contributions remain safeguarded for future generations to appreciate.
Deeply enamored of Native American peoples, Brunel devoted half of his lifetime to constructing concrete expressionistic sculptures devoted to these indigenous communities, many of which are on display in this truly unique sculpture garden. The result is an extraordinary, surreal, and magical folk art environment that is currently listed in the National and State Register of Historic Places. Learn more about it here.
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Opus 40 – Saugerties, NY
Created by pioneering artist and professor Harvey Fite and founded as a nonprofit by his wife in 1978, Opus 40 is a world-famous sculpture park and museum with nearly 60 acres of meadows, forested paths and bluestone quarries — including 6.5 acres of earthwork sculpture — in the heart of the Hudson Valley in Saugerties, NY. It’s often referred to as the “Stonehenge of North America”. This was another site that we had only heard about for years and we are so glad that we finally took the time to visit. It’s truly spectacular.
Our first-ever visit to Opus 40 was as part of their newly created Stockade Saturdays events developed in partnership with Kingston’s Stockade Tavern. A socially distant gathering reserved to ticket holders at a specific time, participants are encouraged to order their drinks online in advance from the Stockade Tavern and when we get to Opus 40 – voila! – there they were, ready to enjoy! Get all the information about scheduling your socially distant visit (and how to have libations waiting for you) right here.
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Poet’s Walk – Red Hook, NY
Believe it or not, this attraction is a designed landscape — a series of “outdoor rooms” separated by stands of trees and stone walls — created for the owners of two neighboring estates around 1850. It got its name because writers like Washington Irving loved rambling here. Legend has it he came up with the idea for “Rip Van Winkle” while gazing toward the Catskill Mountains, the site of his protagonist’s long sleep. Don’t be surprised if your own creativity gets a boost from spotting colorful songbirds in the meadow, strolling through the shadows in the wooded ravine or enjoying majestic vistas that haven’t changed a whit in 170 years.
Part of Scenic Hudson, this is just one of countless other parks that their work helps to make accessible to the public. Free to visit, you can get all the details about Poet’s Walk online.
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