Palenville, New York - Palenville Interarts Colony

Palenville Interarts Colony

In 1982 the Bond Street Theatre from New York City came to recreate the home of America's first arts community as the 'Palenville Interarts Colony'. The Colony had a day named in its honor by NY State and received the prestigious Genius Award from the MacArthur Foundation, the first time an organization ever won this honor. The programme, led by Co-Artistic Directors Joanna Sherman and Patrick Sciarratta was generally called Interarts. As creativity attracts creativity, thus the Palenville Interarts Colony was born. Start-up funds came from the State of New York Legislature, who thought it a good idea to bring a major new arts center to a small town. This helped us to revitalize broken down buildings and create studios out of old walls. The vision and enthusiasm of a few initiators must be mentioned: painters Francis Cunningham and Allen Barber, director Torben Bjelke, Dave Brubeck and sons (who gave us two benefit concerts), Kevin Kennedy (who owned the camp), and, of course Bond Streeters all: Mary Dino, David Feder, Stephen Ringold, Luanne Dietrich, Fred Collins, Marlene Abraham, Michael McGuigan, and Directors Joanna Sherman and Patrick Sciarratta. Lasting 12 years, the Colony was a feather in their personal, creative caps – for which they received the prestigious MacArthur Foundation (“Genius”) Award in recognition of theior groundbreaking work. The award consisted of $50,000 for three years – and it is not a grant but a gift for, well, ‘genius’ work and service..

The Colony provided facilities and inspiration to over 1500 artists, and produced performances by New York city based artists who resided there: Paul Zaloom, Charles Moore African Dancers, Sachiyo Ito Japanese Dance, Bread and Puppet Theatre, Eiko & Koma, Gail Conrad Tap Dance, the Chinese Acrobats of Taipei, the Brubecks, and many more, as well as the first US International Conference on Theatre Anthropology featuring key speakers Eugenio Barba, Richard Schechner, and Edith Turner.

Between adjudicating and facilitating artists’ applications for residency, producing other artists’ shows, managing the household, staff, and fundraising, the resident theatre company was also creating and performing its own new works, such as Of Sand and Thunder (1987, directed by Carey Perloff), The Case Of the Missing Universe (1988, directed by Pat Sciarratta), Accidental Death of an Anarchist (1989, directed by Marlene Abraham), Heartbeast (1989, directed by Stephen Ringold, with his new ensemble), and Nightmare On Wall Street (1990, directed by Polina Klimovitskaya). Patrick returned to the stage after many years to perform a one-man show, Feynman (1995, directed by Peter Von Berg), about the famous physicist. Meanwhile, Michael spent a year performing The Tempest in New York City’s famed Delacourt Theatre, with Patrick Stewart, then at the Broadhurst on Broadway directed by George Wolfe. The arts community had a real and direct effect on visual and performing arts during its run.

The Colony brought the actors into the richly creative worlds of sculptors, poets, painters, musicians, dancers, and writers, and gave the founders an opportunity to make this distinctive world open to a local, rural community that had never experienced this type of serious, engaging, international art up close. In recognition of its success with all constituencies: theatre and other residents, artists, and visitors, former Governor Cuomo and then NYSCA Chair Kitty Carlisle Hart succeeded in naming a day in its honor throughout the state in 1984.