Chatham Area Business and Arts Blog

December 28, 2022 | Times Union

A group that has slowly worked to develop a rail trail through eastern Dutchess and Columbia counties received a $375,000 state grant to plan the trail’s next leg.

The Harlem Valley rail trail, first conceived of in the mid-1980s, currently stretches along the foothills of the Taconic Mountains from Wassaic in Dutchess County north to Copake Falls in Columbia County. But the Harlem Valley Rail Trail Association has always envisioned it leading all the way to near Columbia County’s northern border.

The state grant must be matched with $125,000 raised by the association to foot the $500,000 bill for the design, engineering plans and permitting process for the new length of trail, according to Lisa DeLeeuw, the association’s executive director. Donations can be made on the association’s website.

Read the entire story.

Dear Chatham Business Owners,

Ready or not, the holidays will soon be here!

This year, as a part of our “Winterpalooza” celebration, which has different activities featured each weekend before Christmas, we are encouraging you to join our Holiday Window Contest. This is a chance for your business to showcase its unique personality.

All businesses within the Village of Chatham are eligible to compete. Windows should be attractive for both day and nighttime viewing. To be eligible for the contest, windows must be completed by Monday, December 5th.

Voting for the contest will begin on Wednesday, December 7th, through the CABA website. Additionally a QR code will be given to all participants to display in their window, which will lead the voter directly to the site.

Voting will close on December 20, with the winner being announced on Facebook, Instagram and in the Columbia Paper on Thursday, December 22.

Please email and let us know that your business will be participating.

The winning window will be pictured on our website, visitchathamny.com as well as in The Columbia Paper. The winner will also receive a free membership to CABA for 2023. Displays should be family friendly and free from any political endorsements.

We hope you will participate in the Holiday Window Contest.

Wishing you a Happy and Prosperous Holiday Season!
– Chatham Area Business & Arts

We love the holidays so much we’re extending the activities. Rather than a one day event, we’re spreading it out throughout the month of December. The festivities begin December 2 and run through December 24. Don’t miss “Light Up the Night” our kick off event with a visit from Santa and the start of our Holiday Window Contest. There will be open houses, beverage tastings, an Ugly Sweater contest, a free movie, caroling and even a Holiday Pop Up Shop. For details, visit the Winterpalooza page of our website.

November 10, 2022 | TheTravel.com

Upstate New York has everything for everyone. These towns are even more beautiful in winter.

#7: Chatham

Beautiful mansions, set in the backdrop of sprawling horse farms and a bucolic landscape, make Chatham a beautiful winter destination. To believe that the town is small, its Main Street, that’s known to get busier as Christmas nears, has only about three blocks. Still, one will find several restaurants and shops in its main business district for stuff to bite or buy.

Read the entire article.

Saturday, October 8, 2022 | BerkshireOnStage.blog

The season opener at the Ghent Playhouse is a charmer. Sam Reilly turns in a totally endearing performance in this solo piece. BUYER & CELLAR may best be described as a “fantasia.” The actor tells us at the beginning it is fiction, not a real story. It is an imaginative “what if” story based on a reality almost as strange as fiction. 

Read the entire article.

October 5, 2022 | ArtNews.com

In July, I joined a small group for a tour of the collection of the Shaker Museum in Old Chatham, New York, where we meandered among metal shelves filled with thousands of wooden boxes and benches, baskets and tables, brooms and bureaus, chests and ladder-back chairs, all meticulously catalogued and digitized. Despite the obvious care invested in the objects’ documentation and organization, however, the institution’s old barn and outbuildings are “not appropriate storage for the world’s most significant collection of Shaker material culture,” according to Shaker Museum Executive Director Lacy Schutz. “We just can’t keep [the HVAC system] running anymore,” she said, adding that the facilities aren’t compliant with accessibility standards, and that it would be prohibitively expensive to bring everything up to code.

Read the entire article.

October 1, 2022 | Chronogram

Illustrator James Christopher Carroll says he could never envision anything other than pursuing his chosen path. “I’ve always wanted to be an artist; nothing else made sense,” he says. “What a blessing it is to be able to make art every day! Though I’m sure that it may be the most selfish thing that a person can do. Perhaps, after all the words and colors have dried, they can bring some beauty to others.”

Read the entire article.

September 9, 2022 | theBerkshireEdge

Here each member of the Mac-Haydn Theatre corps gets a perfect moment alone on stage to show what they can do, and how to stop the show cold.

Read the entire article.