We were floored by the response and turnout of the 3rd annual Basilica Farm & Flea,  hosted in collaboration with the glamorous and hardworking women of Hudson River Exchange, which brought 12,000 visitors to Hudson. The wild and mythical ramp was again hailed, deliciously interpreted, and tasted at this year’s annual Ramp Fest held in collaboration with Swoon KitchenBar. Our 4th annual (FREAK) FLAG DAY presented our first-ever community flag-making workshops, so people could create flags to represent their individual identity, which may – or may not – be reflected in the Stars and Stripes. The Oral History Summer School honored six Hudson residents in an audio procession of cars departing from Basilica Hudson in Automotive Archive: A Roving Memorial. In the realm of community action, we were pleased to host and participate in the Buy Local Chamber of Commerce Expo and The Regional Alliance for a Creative Economy’s panel discussion on Creative Placemaking. And as always, we are proud to host the ever-curious children and educators of Kite’s Nest. Also, this happened.

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This year, Basilica launched the first annual stateside installment of 24-HOUR DRONE: Experiments in Sound and Music, an adventurous collaboration with Le Guess Who?, an annual festival in Utrecht, Netherlands. Summer began with our favorite ritual recognition of the (FREAK) Flag Day tradition in Hudson, helmed by darkwave goth queen Shannon F of Light Asylum with special musical guests and freak flag-making workshops. For the first time, the hallowed Main Hall was filled with opera arias when we collaborated with Il Cuore Canta (The Heart Sings), a workshop and concert series. It was wonderful to see our industrial church lend itself equally to chamber music by the rising young artists of the Catskill High Peaks Festival, the post-rock squall of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and intensity of talent at the fourth annual Basilica SoundScape. We wrapped up our season with CELESTINE V: A NIGHT OF ASTRAL SOUND, a celebratory sonic embrace of darkness and light. (more…)

This season in art was our fifth and one of our most expansive yet – we welcomed artist/poet/character Jack Walls to Hudson in his exhibition “Paintings, Et. Cetera” – an incredibly talented man who has served as a source of inspiration for a generation of young artists including Ryan McGinley, Dan Colen, and the late Dash Snow. Dan Colen also joined us for this year’s Basilica SoundScape, when he spent a week in residence in our factory to create his Tar and Feather paintings to adorn the space. Also opening that weekend, curators Michael St. John, Javier Magri, Carol McCranie, and Tyler Moore presented a smart, reflexive group exhibition entitled The Now Forever. Curated by Daniel Peterson, Psychic Green Trailer was a site-specific installation by Bard MFA sculpture candidate Alan Danielson housed in our very own former Hudson Handling trailer. CATCH, the rough-and-ready performance series headed up the river to conquer Hudson and possibly America. And, we were proud to incubate the first iteration of HQTBD, an innovative roving art project that showcased the work of local artists. (more…)