The Woodstock Arts Consortium exists

• to advance and enhance the economic vitality of the nonprofit arts community;
  
• to promote the cultural life of Woodstock to the local community, the Hudson River Valley and beyond;
  
• to expand, exchange information and share existing individual resources and collaborate on future grants to better serve the community; and
  
• to collaborate with others to encourage ongoing economic growth for Woodstock.
  

Check out the Woodstock Arts Consortium Map

The following text is drawn from two Woodstock Arts publications: Woodstock History and Hearsay by Anita M. Smith and Roots of the 1969 Woodstock Festival: The Backstory to “Woodstock,”edited by Weston and Julia Blelock. Special thanks to Weston and Julia Blelock.

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Woodstock’s Catskill Mountains date from the Paleozoic or Primary Age. Their more recent aspect inspired such artists as the Hudson River School painters and Washington Irving. The opening lines to Rip Van Winkle include, “Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains.” It is this heady elixir that excites the creative senses. Native American lore suggests that Overlook, the mountain that dominates the Woodstock Valley, is sacred and that it exerts a magnetic energy upon its inhabitants. It is said that once a visitor has experienced its pull, (s)he is fated always to return to Woodstock.

This area was known as Woodstock as far back as 1778 when Robert R. Livingston Jr., a local landowner, mentioned it in a letter to an English acquaintance as an established settlement. The name is derived from two Saxon roots: wudu and stoc, meaning a woody place. In 1787 when the town was incorporated, local industries consisted principally of farming, logging and trapping. In the early 1800s, with the outbreak of the war of 1812, the fortunes of the Bristol Glass, Cotton and Clay Company (BGCCC) rose when the British Navy blockaded American ports. As a result, domestic suppliers were forced to make up the shortfall. The BGCCC produced windowpane glass, vases, pitchers, domes and fancy pieces such as glass canes and animal figurines. This period marks the beginning of the Arts and Crafts era in Woodstock.

Other industries that flourished during the 1800s included animal skin tanning and bluestone quarrying. Samuel Culver had a tannery near a stream that runs through the village. To this day the creek is known as Tannery Brook. Hemlock forests covered the neighboring hills. Their bark held the acidic ingredients necessary for the curing process. As a result the trees were cut, and animal hides were brought to the area from as far away as South America. The number of old bluestone quarries dotting the Woodstock area attest to the profitable nature of this enterprise. For years the stone was ferried down the Hudson River to New York City to provide sidewalk paving stones. This industry gradually petered out with the advent of cement. Still another early economic engine was tourism. In the late 1800s urban visitors began making their way to numerous boarding houses and hotels in the Catskills. The Catskill Mountain House in Haines Falls, New York, was one of the more famous destinations, but the Overlook Mountain House attracted a goodly share as well.

In 1902 Englishman Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead co-founded the Utopian community of Byrdcliffe with writer Hervey White and artist Bolton Brown. “Byrdcliffe” was derived from the middle names of Whitehead and his wife, Jane Byrd McCall. Whitehead had studied at Oxford University under John Ruskin and William Morris. His family’s felt-making fortune underwrote the acquisition of 1,500 acres from seven farms along the flanks of Mount Guardian. Further, he commissioned the building of nearly 30 houses, studios and cottages. These he stained earth brown to better integrate them with the natural hillsides. He sought to create a pleasing space for his artists and craftsmen so that they might produce beautiful things in a place that was healthy for mind and body alike. Artisans joined his fledgling colony from California, Illinois and Connecticut. Soon the studios were buzzing with activity. There were metal craftsmen, artists, musicians, lithographers, bookbinders, poets, writers and intellectuals. Byrdcliffe prospered, but did not bring in nearly enough to cover all its needs. Soon many of the artists were moving to places closer to the Woodstock Valley.

One of those who decamped from Byrdcliffe was Hervey White. In 1905 he selected some low land for his own colony in the Woodstock Valley, on the outskirts of town. He opined, “One gets so tired of climbing a hill to go to supper. Better [to] live in a valley and climb the hill for a view.” White was a generous patron, allowing artists to live in his colony nearly rent-free. By 1915 the burgeoning colony had outstripped its water supply. White concluded that he would have to hire an artesian well driller. To raise money for the well Hervey organized a classical music festival. The fundraiser proved so successful that he continued to produce similar festivals until 1931. Over the years White suggested themes for the events—one season the Arabian Nights, other times pirates and the circus. Attendees who took note of the themes and dressed accordingly were charged half-price. Thousands came. Along the way artists were invited to exhibit their art. White also built the Maverick Concert Hall, which opened in 1916 and currently houses the longest running summer chamber music series in the United States.

After the Second World War Woodstock welcomed numerous artists from the West—such as Manuel Bromberg, Bruce Currie, Reginald Wilson, Ed Chavez, Fletcher Martin, Lucile Blanch, Doris Lee, the Magafan sisters (Ethel and Jenne) and a number of others. These new residents invigorated the arts in Woodstock.

During the 1950s folk music began to surface in the Woodstock area. By 1964, with the arrival of Bob Dylan, the art colony was increasingly turning into a folk music scene. A number of venues like the Sled Hill Café, Café Espresso and the Woodstock Playhouse were booking folk music acts. Then in the late sixties folk/rock happenings called Sound-Outs began occurring on Pan Copeland’s farm at the edge of town. Performers such as John Herald, Happy and Artie Traum, Kenny Rankin, Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys and the Blues Magoos came and performed. By 1968 Michael Lang, fresh from his success at the Miami Pop Festival, ventured up to Woodstock. He began to dream of locating his next festival in the country. He embraced the Sound-Out concept and named his festival Woodstock. In August 1969 his mega-concert took place in Bethel, New York.

After the Woodstock Music and Art Fair the town underwent another transformation. Albert Grossman, Dylan’s manger, established a recording studio in the nearby hamlet of Bearsville. Musical talents came to Woodstock from around the world to record their albums. These acts included The Rolling Stones, REM and Todd Rundgren. In 1971 Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso co-founded the Creative Music Studio, and ‘Worldjazz” artists like Don Cherry, Jack DeJohnette and Pat Metheny gravitated to the area.

This was also a time when art organizations that had been founded in the early 1900s—such as the Woodstock Guild (today the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild) and the Woodstock Artists Association (today the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum)—achieved a sounder financial footing. In 1975 Peter Whitehead bequeathed the Byrdcliffe Art Colony to the Guild. Other groups were formed, such as the Center for Photography at Woodstock (1977), the Woodstock School of Art (1980), Bird-On-A-Cliff (1995), the Woodstock Poetry Society (1996) the Woodstock Film Society (1999; today the Woodstock Film Festival) and the Woodstock Fringe (2003). In 2004 these organizations, along with the Maverick Concerts and the Historical Society of Woodstock, joined together as the Woodstock Arts Consortium. This organization supports the arts through town-wide celebrations on Second Saturdays from May through December.