About

Teaser for the #Catskill Balloons project, Jason Hackenwerth’s AVIARY (reimagined), a sculpture created from 6000 balloons reconfigured in spaces throughout Catskill, NY.

Masters on Main Street (MOMS) was an innovative art program started in January of 2011 by the Catskill Arts Initiative to help attract creative community and new investment to Catskill’s Main Street. In five years, the project helped turn around 25+ empty storefronts with none remaining as of 2018. The village’s downtown momentum has attracted a maker space, a live theater, a dance residency and performance space, a bookstore, custom shoe and dress shops, galleries and gift shops as well as several distinctive restaurants.

MARK on MAIN installations by Wayne Montecalvo and Judy Thomas.

This storefront exhibition series began as a showcase for students and recent alumni from the top studio art programs around the country with participation from over 200 artists and over 20 colleges and universities. MOMS collaborated with nationwide artists from the Occupy Movement presenting Wall Street to Main Street, a groundbreaking expo with over 75 exhibits, performances, workshops and events.  A collaboration with the New York Foundation for the Arts exhibited its upstate MARK fellowship winners and offered a free portfolio review to the community for midcareer artists to meet gallerists and museum professionals. The summer 2013 exhibit Eastern Standard: Indirect Lines to the Hudson River School included noted artists from New York’s metropolitan and upstate communities who hold shared interests in the region’s environment, development, wildness and the sublime. The 2013 Glow Show illuminated Catskill’s Main Street storefronts with video siteworks spilling onto the sidewalks.

Glow Show exhibitor, Laeticia Hussain’s SOS video.

Each round of storefront exhibits features a Walking Salon led by a trio of artists, curators and bon vivants as well as artist designed events. Exhibitions are available to the public 24/7 through a self guided walking tour of four blocks, though some spaces are best seen at night or in the daytime. Masters on Main Street has sponsored  three Catskill Film and Video Festivals, with works selected each year by different  guest curators . MOMS has premiered new documentary films about the region and served as community sponsor for the inaugural performance of the Hudson Valley Dance Festival.

Masters on Main Street’s free screening of Tobe Carey’s documentary about the advent of train, industry and films in the Catskills.