Wallkill Futures

Exhibition: July 17 - August 22

Wallkill Futures is a series of participatory, experiential public art projects with and for communities along the 88-mile-long Wallkill River in New York's Hudson Valley. As climate change sparks investment vehicles that extract value based on future scarcity or availability of water, this project is a platform for artist experiments in mobilizing social investment in water futures.

Artists:
- Matthew Friday
- sTo Len
- FICTILIS
- Lize Mogel
- Nancy Nowacek

The Wallkill River crosses multiple administrative boundaries and geologies to eventually spill into the Hudson. Its water is used for irrigation and hydropower, but also relied on for recreation and habitat. This is not the "charismatic megalandscape" of rivers — that honor goes to the nearby Hudson, or the Colorado, or the Mississippi. It’s a workaday river, one like those that exist all over the US — somewhat loved, mostly disregarded, voiceless. But as the warming planet impacts these "ordinary" rivers, their potential role in climate adaptation multiplies and ripples outward, and intervention becomes critical.

Through embodied research, workshops, performances, an exhibition, and local engagement, Wallkill Futures artists create essential points of connection to the river, offering creative ways to invest in its future resilience. Join us for Wallkill River encounters, events, and workshops throughout the run of the exhibition.

Wallkill Futures is initiated and directed by Lize Mogel. Community partners include the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance, the Hudson River Watershed Alliance, Wallkill Valley Land Trust, and others.

Wallkill Futures is funded in part by a 2024 Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information please visit wallkillfutures.com

Events - Free & Open to the Public