NADA Ventured, NADA Gained

Last year NADA Hudson, the New Art Dealers Alliance Art Fair at the Basilica, made our hot little city even hotter. Artists and acquirers of art flocked to the Basilica and spilled out into the city, filling it with a new energy and vibe. Ellen Thurston, in her most recent list of "Ellen's Picks," remembers the weekend as "a giddy moment right here in River City." It was rumored, Thurston recalls, that "restaurants ran out of food, LICK ran out of ice cream, and some ATMs ran out of money." It was even rumored that Amtrak ran out of seats on every one of its trains traveling between here and New York City.

This year, Hudson is poised to make sure that no one coming to Hudson for NADA gets off the train, walks to the Basilica, walks back to the station, and gets on a train home without exploring the rest of Hudson. Local artists have organized to supplement NADA Hudson with pop-up galleries, open studios, installations, and performances. To structure all of this, the Hudson Independent Artists Trail was created to provide information and a map.

Earlier this week, someone on the Hudson Business Coalition listserv suggested it would be nice if there could be shuttle buses so people wouldn't have to walk uphill on a July day to get to Hudson's galleries, shops, and restaurants. Several business owners offered to help underwrite the expense. But making plans like that happen fast sometimes takes municipal government involvement, so Common Council President Don Moore took on the task and, with the help of Alderman John Friedman (Third Ward), Victor Mendolia, Bob Mechling, Mayor William Hallenbeck, DPW Superintendent Rob Perry, and the board of HDC, made it happen.

An eleven-passenger shuttle, underwritten by the Hudson Development Corporation, will operate from 1 to 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. It will start out at the Basilica and travel up Warren Street, stopping at the train station and, on Warren, at Second Street, Fourth Street, and Sixth Street; then it will turn around and head back to the Basilica, making all the same stops in reverse order. [SEE ROUTE CHANGES BELOW.] Signs, created by Bob Mechling, will identify the stops and the NADA shuttle, to distinguish it from the shuttles that will be taking visitors to Olana and to the inaugural exhibition at CR10 Contemporary Arts Project Space in Linlithgo.


SHUTTLE ROUTE UPDATE: Don Moore has informed Gossips that there have been modifications to the route of the NADA shuttle. Basically, it's making more stops and stops at odd streets instead of evens above Second Street. The new route is described in this way: "It will begin and end at the Basilica and will make stops at the Amtrak Station, 2nd and Warren, 3rd and Warren, 5th and Warren, and 7th and Warren. The shuttle's return route will take it around to 7th and Union, where it will stop, the locus of the Hudson Independent Artists exhibits, then back to 6th and Warren. . . . There will be stops marked with free shuttle bus signs on both uptown and downtown corners. The shuttle will loop around to 7th and Union and then back [on] 6th to Warren."