FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
December 23, 2022
Anna Van Lenten
347-243-0009
anna@cpw.org
Kington, NY – The Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) is thrilled to share that it will be the recipient of a $1.5 million Restore NY grant that will enable it to begin rehabilitation of its future home: the historic Van Slyke & Horton cigar factory.
CPW is a community-based and artist-oriented organization dedicated to illuminating contemporary culture and society through photography. In late 2021, after 45 years in Woodstock, the non-profit moved to a small gallery in Kingston. In its larger city, CPW has begun expanding its exhibitions, programming, workshops, and digital lab services. But this new vision entails occupying more space: hence its bid to purchase the cigar factory. Constructed in 1907, the four-story, red-brick Van Slyke & Horton building is a 40,000-square-foot industrial space in Kingston’s Midtown Arts District (MAD). It has open-floor plans, twelve-foot ceilings, and windows on all four sides, with unobstructed views of the Catskills.
In its Kingston home, CPW aims to build a new model for a photography and visual art organization that is an anti-museum, anti-gentrification space. CPW will do this by meeting the needs of emerging artistic voices, and by effecting social change through innovative public events, engaging online media, stimulating courses and workshops, and provocative exhibitions and publications.
Once renovated, the majestic space at 25 Dederick Street will be used for exhibition galleries, a digital media lab, classrooms, community meeting rooms, staff offices, a film screening theater, and a state-of-the-art collection storage vault. The intended uses will create a significant cultural hub in an economically distressed area targeted for revitalization in the City’s Arts and Culture Master Plan. The building is located close to Kingston City Hall and the Kingston High School, and one block away from the Empire State Trail and the newly redesigned Broadway-Grand Street intersection, a key part of the City of Kingston’s recent business corridor improvements.
About the Center for Photography at Woodstock
Founded in 1977, the Center for Photography at Woodstock is a not-for-profit arts organization with a two-fold mission: to support artists working in photography and related media; and to engage audiences through creation, discovery, and learning. At the heart of CPW’s mission is programming that is community-based, artist-centered, and collaborative. To foster public conversation around critical issues in photography, CPW provides exhibitions, workshops, artists’ residencies, and access to a digital media lab. In 2022, CPW relocated from Woodstock to 474 Broadway in Kingston.
Press Images and Interview Requests
To request high resolution images for press reproduction and interviews, please contact CPW by clicking here.