A Paean to the Bygone “Borscht Belt”

LOS ANGELES — From the 1920s to ’60s, the Catskill Mountains, with its woody resorts and bungalows, were a playground for middle-class Jewish families traveling Upstate from New York City. Dads grilled while lounging mothers shielded beehive hairdos from their...

The Friendship That Transformed Frida Kahlo 

Frida Kahlo, “Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair (Autorretrato con pelo cortado)” (1940), oil on canvas (Digital Image © 2025 MoMA, N.Y.; © 2025 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)...

Chance Encounters at Upstate Art Weekend

The month of July brings Upstate Art Weekend (UAW), an annual summer cornucopia of art in the region. Launched in 2020 with 23 organizations, UAW has expanded to include more than 155 participants located across the map, from Nyack in the south and Kinderhook in the...

Bidding Adieu to Art Deco’s Democratic Dream

For sale: a 1,046-foot-tall, 77-story building with a footprint of 1,196,958 square feet, constructed in a steel frame and adorned in gray and white brick with reinforced steel accents, constructed 95 years ago. Located at 42nd and Lexington Avenue in New York City,...

Saya Woolfalk Toys With Future Worlds

In Caryl Churchill’s short play Imp, which ran at the Public Theater through May 25, an older British woman is soothed by the belief that she has an imp, or a mischievous spirit, trapped in a corked bottle. That belief gives her comfort, as her life in her armchair is...

Visa Denials Create Hurdles for Artist Residencies 

Every year, two dozen artists from around the world travel to the United States to participate in a month-long summer residency at the nonprofit arts center Art Omi. The highly competitive program is held at the organization’s 120-acre campus in Ghent, New York, where...

Rashaad Newsome’s Futurist Manifesto of Black Joy

Rashaad Newsome’s Assembly is technically a documentary about a performance. But calling it that feels small. Yes, it documents his installation at the Park Avenue Armory, but what it offers is a vision, a map, a speculative ritual for survival. At its core, Assembly...

10 Upstate Art Weekend Destinations Worth the Trip

It’s that time of the year again when the sweltering, swampy heat of New York City has even the cockroaches stumbling down its sidewalks. For those who find themselves among the swarms of city folk hopping aboard the Hudson Line this week to catch their breath and...

Stripper Collective’s Life Drawing Merges Sex Work and Art

Sketch from the East London Stripper Collective’s life drawing session in May by artist Jean-David Solon (image courtesy the artist) LONDON and BRIGHTON, England — Almost two decades ago, Stacey Clare began stripping to make ends meet. An environmental arts...