)
Side 1
Hermitage/Ray Johnson
Beacon, NY
Hermitage is a recently opened space in Beacon, NY residing in an early 1900s house adjacent to the Howland Cultural center, at the end of Main St, amidst the interesting landscape and historical architecture of Beacon. Hermitage houses a revolving gallery space consisting of two floors, showing current artist working in various disciplines. It also is home to a comprehensive book shop focusing on (but not limited to) the small press poetry movement in America between the 1950s to 1970s.
The focus of the book shop is to contextualize this important literary period in which poets and writers across the country published themselves and each other, and held a rich ongoing dialog through correspondence and activity amongst each other. By having the book shop in the space, Hermitage is drawing on a lineage through this fertile early period of the second half of the 20th Century, and showing current work in the visual and literary arts side by side.
The mission of Hermitage is to engage people working now into the space, and to develop a programming of shows, events, readings, and other gatherings to build momentum as a group of people interacting and collaborating together.
Hermitage is run by directors Jon Beacham and Christian Toscano. Both are artists working in the visual fields who have studied in art institutions, and lived steadily on the East and West coast. Hermitage resulted from the frustration of the current model of how much of art and culture is presented by galleries, institutions, and other organizations.
The primary focus of Hermitage is how space, and use of space in a presentation context, can affect not only the viewers themselves, but what is also actually being shown. To radically redefine the art viewing experience, and participation amongst regular art viewers and new comers to this venue, is a primary consideration to what is shown here. New in it's inception, Hermitage has lined up a list of shows, screenings, and readings to engage this spirit.
http://hermitagebeacon.googlepages.com/
Price: