On Thursday, November 14th, the Crestwood Library and Yonkers NNORC toured the Hudson River Museum’s DRAW:HEAT exhibit with Professor Val Franco. This incredible experience was made possible by the $25,000 in grant money received from NYSCA. This grant has enabled Crestwood to offer programs that embrace the arts and other cultures, as seen in our Diwali celebration and Val Franco’s other museum tours, allowing our patrons to experience a wealth of new perspectives.
The Hudson River Museum’s website describes DRAW:HEAT as a collection of “fifty contemporary artists from across the United States, including Westchester County and the Hudson Valley region, [coming] together for the first time to explore 'heat' in literal and metaphorical ways.” We saw one work comprised of painter’s tape and smoke stains in the shape of Snoopy figurines. Another was a collage of fabric that was painted and sunbleached. A third ‘sculpture’ was a collection of old computers used to display images of the moon (aside from one that had a skull instead). It was all interesting to look at, but the experience was made even better by Val’s commentary, as she had notes on every piece and their artists (who you can meet on December 14th!), helping us better understand what we were seeing.
In an email correspondence regarding the trip, Val had this to say regarding the museum and its pieces:
V: My favorite spot in the Hudson River Museum is the “new gallery space” that is right up against the Hudson River with those beautiful full length windows. It really allows you to experience the various exhibits, like the current one, Draw:Heat, in such a remarkable way - with the flow of the river and the beauty of the Palisades facing the museum. The Majesty of nature is in contrast to and is in dialogue with these incredible, thoughtful, man-made pieces, and the space explodes with thought and consideration for the creative works it showcases.
Also, you know we had such a great group seeing so many different aspects of the art from the show. One of our group, J, made a great comparison between Day, a painting by Sarah Sze and the work of Kandinsky while another one of our group really loved the Kara Walker piece. Another favorite, and this is so great considering that we were a group from the library, was the sculptural utilization of books - and how these two pieces literally held up various words. You could interpret the pieces in so many ways: as words coming out of a book, words supported inside the book, the book supporting literacy, but also promoting specific ideas. They were wonderful pieces - a bit whimsical, but also with deeper levels of meaning. We also looked at Red Grooms’ permanent installation, which is so fun and always reminds us of the power and joy of both libraries and bookshops.
I really hope that everybody enjoyed the exhibit and I think there’s so much to be gotten out of this show and the way that various artists explore the concept of heat -whether it’s through the use of color or motion or myth. It’s really hard to say what was my favorite piece because so many of them intrigued me.
I hope this post encourages you to check out the DRAW: HEAT exhibit before it leaves on January 11th. Wishing you as much fun as we had!
Hanora Woodruff is a Part-Time Clerk and patron of Yonkers Crestwood Library since childhood. She recently graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in Biology and Creative Writing. Her favorite reads at the moment are Sylvia Plath’s poems.