CPW: CPW in the Community

Situated in the midtown arts district of Kingston, NY, CPW works to build community and well-being through partnerships with individuals and local organizations. By joining with others in a welcoming, safe, and supportive space, we work to generate new ideas and programs for established and new audiences, and to foster shared appreciation of both differences and commonalities. Our Community Engagement Coordinator is Cesar Castro; he can be reached at cesar@cpw.org.

The programs below represent a handful of our ongoing collaborations with community groups in the Hudson Valley region.

FEAST

Created by artists Victoria Vesna and Ellen K. Levy in collaboration with CPW, FEAST is comprised of three interdisciplinary, roundtable discussions centered around a tasting made with locally sourced food. FEAST is both a conceptual framework and a public engagement platform. It aims to explore what a desirable ecosystem might look like by bringing into focus the interdependencies of food, climate, soil, and health—and by inviting new ways to frame and respond to our ecological crisis.

Sanctuary City: Stories of Immigration and Community

“Sanctuary City” is a multifaceted, multi-phase public art project in Kingston, New York, led by artist and MacArthur Fellow Wendy Ewald, and hosted and funded by the Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW). The initiative uses photography and text to explore critical themes of immigration, belonging, and language.

Community Gallery at CPW

The CPW Community Gallery is dedicated to amplifying and celebrating creative voices in our region. It will host a rotating schedule of month-long exhibitions featuring work by CPW members, local artists and students, and projects by local nonprofit organizations.

Bookmaking with Brenda Ann Kenneally

These free workshops, taking place in the summer of 2024 and 2025, invite local youth, seniors and community members, aka legends and legends-in-the-making, to work with photographer, storyteller, Guggenheim Fellow, and CPW exhibitor Brenda Ann Kenneally. For one month, participants gather together and create individual books or scrapbooks. Using photographs, writing prompts, and personal ephemera-and through intergenerational exchanges-participants explore their personal histories and unique life journeys.

Visual Storytelling and Media with Place Corps 2024/25

For its spring 2025 semester, CPW’s facilities serve as a creative hub for Place Corps Fellows, providing a dedicated classroom, studio space, and our state-of-the-art digital media lab. Place Corps’ program aims to empower young individuals who are exploring alternative paths after high school graduation.

Kingston Arts Commission Appointee

We are thrilled to announce that Cesar Castro, our Community Engagement Coordinator, has been appointed to the Kingston Arts Commission!