From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Thu Apr 03 2003 - 06:19:11 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: cunews_at_cornell.edu
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2003 4:56 PM
To: CUNEWS-ARTS-L_at_cornell.edu; CUNEWS-CAMPUS-L_at_cornell.edu
Subject: Cornell News: Byrdcliffe preservation project
Woodstock's historic Byrdcliffe Arts Colony to get help from Cornell
preservation students, experts April 3-6
FOR RELEASE: March 31, 2003
Contact: Linda Myers
Office: 607-255-9735
E-mail: lbm3_at_cornell.edu
WOODSTOCK, N.Y.-- A historic arts colony here that has been home to
some of the most celebrated American artists will get a helping hand
from Cornell University preservation students, scholars and
practitioners this Thursday through Sunday, April 3-6.
In celebration of the centennial anniversary of the Byrdcliffe Arts
Colony in Woodstock, N.Y., the Cornell group, helped by Woodstock
community members, will participate in a weekend of stabilizing
deteriorating structures at the site, which is on the National Park
Service's National Register of Historic Places.
In recent years, faced with mounting budget cuts to arts
organizations, the colony has not been able to maintain its historic
property as comprehensively as it would have liked. Now coming to its
rescue are a group of volunteers led by students in Cornell's program
in historic preservation planning. The group also includes Cornell
faculty who are preservation experts, alumni who are professional
historic preservation planners and members of the Woodstock Guild,
the organization responsible for the stewardship of the arts colony.
While stabilization can be costly, the group is offering its services
and expertise for free. In undertaking such a project, they hope to
attract attention and support for the continued rehabilitation of
this important historic site.
Byrdcliffe was one of the earliest arts colonies in the United States
and helped found and define a heritage in rural upstate New York of
experimental art production and communal living. The utopian
craftsman community was constructed in 1902-1903 just west of
Woodstock. Dancer Isadora Duncan, writer Wallace Stevens, painters
Milton and Sally Avery and educator-philosopher John Dewey were among
its most famous past residents. The colony also housed a collection
of furniture prized by museums and collectors for their design,
workmanship and rarity. Some pieces are now at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, while others remain at Byrdcliffe.
Byrdcliffe is still in operation today as a residence for visiting
visual and performing artists, writers and poets. Thirty buildings on
300 forested acres comprise the arts colony. Most of the buildings
resemble low, rambling Swiss chalets with dark-stained indigenous
pine siding, gently sloping roofs with wide overhangs, and ribbons of
windows painted "Byrdcliffe" blue.
The project will include a variety of cosmetic projects on the
cottages and community buildings: Repairing porches and rails;
removing overgrown vegetation and digging swales, or drainage
ditches, adjacent to buildings; replacing leaking and failing roofs;
restacking local quarry slate walls; and completing historic
structure and landscape documentation -- an important, and often
costly, step in the formulation of a long-term preservation plan.
Materials and equipment are provided by the Woodstock Guild.
Organized by Cornell preservation students Erin Coryell and Sara
Shreve, the volunteers -- 40 students, 20 alumni, plus faculty and
members of the community -- will work under the direction of site
coordinator Michael Tomlan, the director of Cornell's Historic
Preservation Planning program. Tomlan has extensive experience in
building stabilization. In the past, Cornell historic preservation
students and alumni have stabilized buildings at such heritage sites
as Fort Totten Battery in Queens, N.Y., and Ellis Island. The annual
"work weekend" is a way for the volunteers to engage in a hands-on
preservation project as well as give back to the community.
The project will begin at the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony on Thursday,
April 3, at 1 p.m., with a site tour and work orientation. On Friday
at noon, Carla Smith, the executive officer of the Woodstock Guild,
will present an overview of the colony, followed by an informational
conference. The project will conclude with a VIP inspection of the
site on Sunday, April 6 at 1 p.m.
-30-
EDITORS: Byrdcliffe is located west of Woodstock at Glasco Turnpike
and Lark's Nest Road. Members of the media who plan to attend should
contact Sara Shreve in advance of the event, at (607) 592-1236 or
<sds38_at_cornell.edu>. For directions and general information about the
Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, contact the Woodstock Guild at (845)
679-2079, weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or visit its Web site at
<http://www.woodstockguild.org/>.
The web version of this release may be found at
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/March03/Byrdcliffe.proj.html
Cornell University News Service
Surge 3
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
607-255-4206
cunews_at_cornell.edu
http://www.news.cornell.edu
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