Sustainable Communities Program

The CAC proudly supported the efforts to get a Sustainable Community Certification from Audubon International.  Visit the Art Boxes!

Art Boxes around Red Hook

There are currently four host sites for the Art Boxes: Greig Farm (by the goats), St. Margaret's (by Holy Cow), Red Hook Community Center (by the free Clothes Closet) and Key Bank (across from Equis Art Gallery).

Art Boxes Revealed May 2025: Emerging Artists, Flora & Fauna, Celebrating the Hudson Valley

Watershed Keepers, Bethany Nohlgren  (Location: Key Bank, Village of Red Hook)

This installation explores the importance of the amphibians in the Hudson Valley’s watershed through the medium of needle felting.  Amphibians—frogs, salamanders, newts, and toads—are more than creatures of a child’s fascination; they are vital indicators of the health of our watershed. Each creature in this work is hand-felted from regionally sourced wool, echoing the textures and tones of the forest floor, vernal pools, and mossy banks where these animals thrive. 

To learn more about Bethany Nohlgren’s art:  DougandSuesMercantile 

To learn more about amphibian migrations in the Hudson Valley (NYSDEC) and in Red Hook

Here comes the spring, dwive (Location: Greig Farm, near the goats)

Creatives’ works blossom from inside but are not inspired by external circumstances. External circumstances are always means, not ends. These photos bloomed within me. I came from the equatorial region with your classic dictator narrative country. In Burma, there is neither snow nor cold, only heat and guns. When I arrived here in Hudson, all I saw was snow—white, lifeless things with heated locals and students who tried to warm themselves up in their cocoons. Like that, spring came. I made friends with classmates and connected more with faculties. Now when I go back to my place in Red Hook on the shuttle, I can still see that little silhouette of an individual in -15°C holding his 3 bags, waiting for the taxi to pick him up, in every lasting field of white sparkle. 

More about dwive's art

Collages: Route 308 and Route 199, Diane Moroff (Location: St. Margaret's by Holy Cow)

The collage of route 308, heading north out of Rhinebeck, is meant to appreciate how the town’s roads open out in all directions to tall trees, hills, and mountains—sometimes, as in the photo that I worked from for this collage, lit by a pink sky and bright, yellow moon.

The collage of route 199 depicts the layers of landscape in the Hudson Valley, how the roads unfold, curve after curve, into something different to look at.

Autumn On the Hudson, Aine Casey (Location: Red Hook Community Center, by the Clothes Closet)

This piece was inspired by the beautiful foliage the Hudson Valley sees in the fall. Autumn has always been one of my favorite seasons, primarily because of the breathtaking colors the trees take on as they change into something new. They've inspired my work for years now, and since moving to the area to study art, I've gotten to continue the tradition and incorporate it into my formal training. The variety of oaks, maples, beeches, and other trees native to the Hudson Valley make the region a delight to live and study in. This painting was made on location at Blithewood Manor on the Bard campus, using acrylic on canvas.

Art Box Summer 2024: Emerging Artists, Flora & Fauna, Celebrating the Hudson Valley

The Summer of 2024 art boxes celebrate the vibrant ecosystem of our region.

Looking Delicately, Raven Iris Atsalis-Gogel   (Location: St. Margaret's "by Holy Cow") 

Using bittersweet and grape vines, and buckthorn bark twisted into rope I found in my backyard, I suspended and contorted them with rope I made from my old family fabrics. This helped me visualize and work through the complexities of my memories from the fabrics.  Like memories, vines are not only large, tree strangling things like bittersweet, but also small, and delicate like snap-pea vines. Even within intense memories, there are delicate parts I see when looking carefully and lovingly, and the more I see them, the better my relationship to those memories can be.

I was around six years old when I was taught at an outdoor adventure camp to make rope out of grass and other natural fibers. I am called back to making rope, over and over; no matter the project, I find my hands wanting to twist and wrap. Vines were the natural cousin to my creations, as I worked with the vines, suspending and contorting them with rope from old family material, I started to feel like I was entangled with and working through memories connected to my old fabrics. In this pisome buckthorn bark twisted into rope. Like memories, vines are not only large tree strangling things like bittersweet, but can also be small, and delicate like sugar snap peas, cucumber vines, and the like. Even within strong and overpowering memories, there are delicate parts we can see when we look carefully and lovingly. Those are the parts of our mind and relationships with nature and other people I wish to help strengthen and grow.   

I use young bittersweet and grape vines that I have found in the woods nearby, and some buckthorn bark twisted into rope. Like memories, vines are not only large tree strangling things like bittersweet, but can also be small, and delicate like sugar snap peas, cucumber vines, and the like. Even within strong and overpowering memories, there are delicate parts we can see when we look carefully and lovingly. Those are the parts of our mind and relationships with nature and other people I wish to help strengthen and grow. 

Field Book,  Kev Street (Location: Key Bank, Village of Red Hook)

2023 Artists: 

Mimi Czajka Graminski, a multi-disciplinary artist working in a variety of media - sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, photography, video. Her work is wide ranging, and is consistently based in the exploration of materials, light and color.

Barbara Westermann, a sculptor and installation artist. Her sculptures, prints, and drawings are minimalist and conceptual, with an emphasis on social sculpture, urban planning, geometry, geophysical mapping, and music. Barbara uses site-specific work that involves sculpture, prints, architecture, and engineering. She uses sculpture to ‘embody’ utilitarian objects.  

Perry Allen is a multi-disciplinary artist often using film/video, performance, music, and civic space. He likes to think about nature, place, and the boundaries of subjectivity.

Daniel Baxter is an award-winning illustrator and fine artist. His goal is to create clever & witty solutions for each project he works on. He provides creative content for magazines, newspapers, children's books, websites as well as creating his own fine artwork.  www.danielbaxter.com