Groundswell Returns

The event that offers a compelling reason to spend time in the Olana landscape, exploring its undiscovered roads and natural scenes while witnessing site-specific works and performances, is back.

Groundswell, a collaborative presentation by The Olana Partnership and Wave Farm's WGXC, happens this Saturday and features installations and performances by more than a dozen artists, reflecting on and reacting to Olana and its integral viewshed. Groundswell takes place along Olana's historic Ridge Road. When Church created Ridge Road, he famously wrote: "I can make more and better landscapes in this way than by tampering with canvas and paint in the studio."

As they pass through native woodlands and recently restored meadows, Groundswell participants will interact with the artists and Olana's background elements: views of the distant mountains of Vermont and the nearby City of Hudson; the Mount Merino hillside recently protected by Scenic Hudson; the location of the proposed St. Lawrence Cement plant, the construction of which was prevented by a well-fought regional environmental battle; the original property of Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School and Church's teacher; high voltage power lines crossing the Hudson River along a route that may soon be expanded throughout the Hudson Valley; the site of the legendary Catskill Mountain House, America's great wilderness hotel; and Blue Hill, recently threatened with a larger communications tower breaking its ridgeline.

Groundswell takes place from 2 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, September 13, at Olana. Tickets are $20 if purchased in advance and $30 if purchased at the gate. The proceeds benefit The Olana Partnership and WGXC.
COPYRIGHT 2014 CAROLE OSTERINK