Grateful for Our Journey at the Trolley Barn and Looking Forward for What’s Next

Dear Friends,

Over the past four years, The Trolley Barn has served as a home for countless exhibitions, performances, and young artists finding their creative voice. We greatly appreciate all of the support and community that brought the space to life. With heavy hearts, we announce that The Art Effect will be departing The Trolley Barn in early 2025. This move marks the closing of a significant chapter in the organization’s history, but our mission to empower youth through the arts remains more vital than ever.

It is not easy to say goodbye to a space, but saying goodbye to our amazing alumna gallery manager, Jaime Ransome, is even more challenging. Jaime has been instrumental in shaping the Trolley Barn into a vibrant hub for art and community. From curating thought-provoking exhibitions to mentoring young artists and amplifying underrepresented voices, her dedication has left an indelible mark on our organization and the creative community in Poughkeepsie. We are deeply grateful for her contributions and the incredible efforts of our staff, artists, and community members who brought the Trolley Barn to life.

The decision to leave the Trolley Barn culminates a four-and-a-half-year effort with the building’s owner, to develop a safe, sound, and affordable home for all of our programs and operations. During this period, the owner was unable to undertake the improvements that would allow the project to move forward and ultimately announced their decision to sell the building. Additionally, increased concerns about safety for youth participants, staff, and visitors has been a growing challenge. We are dedicated to providing safe and inspiring spaces for creativity within Poughkeepsie and will continue to collaborate with our civic partners on initiatives that support our community’s thriving.

As we prepare to close this chapter, we are reminded that The Art Effect has always been more than a physical space—it’s an experience and a movement built on passion, creativity, and the resilience of our community. While we are searching for our new home; our focus remains on the young artists we serve. 

The Art Effect is more committed than ever to continuing our flagship programs, including our workforce development programs, the PKX Festival, Art Institute classes and camps, Teen Vision exhibition, and Pollution Prevention initiatives, all set to continue throughout 2025 in our two long-standing Poughkeepsie locations—Pershing Ave and the Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory, as well as throughout the Hudson Valley in schools and community spaces.

The Trolley Barn Gallery’s final exhibition will be the Senior Project Showcase, open to the public this Friday, December 13, 2024, through January 10, 2025. The opening reception, free and open to the community, will take place on Friday, December 13, from 6–8 PM. This exhibition highlights new bodies of work from high school seniors and gap year students participating in The Art Effect’s most intensive Arts Institute program, Senior Project.

We want to thank all of you for being such an important part of The Art Effect’s story. Wishing you and your loved ones a warm, creative, and joyful holiday season.

With gratitude,

Nichole Fenichel-Hewitt, Executive Director
The Art Effect

Shailee Johnson, Board Chair
The Art Effect

The Trolley Barn Gallery Presents the Senior Project Exhibition

Featuring Artists Ava Hubner, Max Pyles, Hudson Segnit, Hannah Strano, and Saoirse Woods

December 13, 2024 – January 10, 2025

The Trolley Barn Gallery’s opening reception for the Senior Project Exhibition took place on December 13, 2024 from 6–8 pm. 

This exhibition runs from December 13, 2024 – January 10, 2025, see holiday hours below. The Senior Project Exhibition features innovative and diverse works created by advanced students enrolled in The Art Effect’s Senior Project course. This rigorous class empowers junior, senior, and gap year students to develop their artistic voice while launching their careers in the arts.

Featured artists in this year’s show include Ava Hubner from Red Hook High School, Max Pyles from Newburgh Free Academy, Hudson Segnit from Cornwall-on-Hudson, Hannah Strano from Wallkill Senior High School, and Saoirse Woods from Beacon High School. Each student pursued a theme of their choice, ranging from dystopian concept art to reimagined religious allegories, for 12 consecutive weeks. 

Exhibiting artist Hudson Segnit says, “Senior Project has been a really great growth experience for me. I have created meaningful pieces about my relationships with some of the people I am closest to, and I feel like my skills have improved immensely. Senior project has allowed me to see what an artist’s profession really consists of. The feedback I have received has helped me to create art I am truly proud of, and I am very grateful to have had this experience.” The Senior Project Exhibition will feature a variety of works from each student with displays of variations in mixed media.

The Art Effect’s Director of Artistic Advancement and teacher of the Senior Project course, Hanna Rose DeMarco states, “This year’s Senior Project Exhibition presents viewers with a unique glimpse into the future of fine art. Each student has passionately pursued their themes and individual media to create a sophisticated body of work that exhibits their talent and authentic concepts. Collectively, they have compiled a show that exhibits their generation’s curiosity, empathy, and worldview. I am incredibly proud of this group of young artists and the impressive work that they have created.” Proceeds from the sale of artwork will go towards the artist’s creative futures. 

About the Trolley Barn Gallery: The Trolley Barn Gallery provides youth with valuable job training in the arts through immersive experiences in gallery management, curatorial practices, exhibition design, installation, and professional networking. Since its opening in 2021, the gallery has become a cultural hub in the city of Poughkeepsie, presenting exhibitions that feature professional artists at all stages of their careers in a spacious 3,000-square-foot venue on Middle Main Street. 
About The Art Effect: For over 40 years, The Art Effect has been empowering young people to discover and develop their creative voices, shaping their futures and driving positive social change. As the largest nonprofit arts organization in the mid-Hudson region, The Art Effect provides educational programming to over 3,000 students annually, offering them opportunities to explore, experience, and excel in the arts. Additionally, the organization engages another 5,500 visitors through exhibitions and events. These programs introduce participants to visual arts and media, helping them build real skills and guiding them toward their academic and career aspirations.

The Duo Show opened on 10/10: a perfect date to reflect the duality of these two solo shows!

Guests and artists experienced the Trolley Barn Gallery’s fall flagship exhibition, co-curated by the Youth Arts Empowerment Zone Curators and guest curator, Indira A Abiskaroon, Curatorial Assistant at the Brooklyn Museum. Guests delighted in the opportunity to meet Kimmah Dennis and Marielena Ferrer, the artists behind “Capturing Echoes” and “Broken Monarchs.”

Dennis describes Chasing Echoes as “fusing inherited memories with [her] encounters of mobility, displacement, and assimilation, exploring diverse visual languages—painting, drawing, collage, and installation—and delves into personal, familial, and global storytelling.” Her pieces capture the delicate interplay between strength and vulnerability in young people, depicting their experiences with striking emotional depth.

Broken Monarchs by Ferrer creates a similar sense of immersive storytelling by inviting viewers to step into the fragile and resilient reality of the more than five thousand migrant children and infants separated from their parents. “As an immigrant myself, I believe in cultivating forms of everyday activism to contest social exclusion, so my art practice seeks to seize opportunities to educate others about migration,” Ferrer explains. “Broken Monarchs best showcases my thematic and methodological direction as an artist,” Ferrer adds, emphasizing the critical role of art in bearing witness to these harrowing events.Together, Dennis’ and Ferrer’s work sparks an essential dialogue about the roles humans have in nurturing or inhibiting the growth of the next generation. The Duo Show truly transforms the gallery into a space where themes of childhood, displacement, loss, and hope converge through Ferrer’s immersive installations and Dennis’ evocative mixed medium paintings. Each artist delves into the complexities of youth through selected mediums to explore how external forces shape identity and resilience in young people. The exhibit will run from October 10 – November 8, 2024.