PKX Festival and Teen Art Exhibition Coming Soon!

The Episode Where a Gallery Exhibits Anime Art

Exhibition: February 23 – March 22, 2024

In this episode, the Trolley Barn Gallery called artists from all over the globe to celebrate anime, manga, and comic books through a vibrant exhibition of art inspired by Japanese animation, manga and comic books. The youth curators accepted a diverse array of art including: figurines, character designs, sketches, photography, collage, digital art and cosplay props to explore how anime is a language that articulates our unique identities.

In the last 30 years there has developed a unique exchange between youth in Black American communities and youth in urban Japanese cultures. The most obvious evidence of this exchange is in the influx of popularity in anime and manga in the US and in hip hop music and fashion in Japan. This summer the youth curators from the Trolley Barn Youth Curatorial Team investigated that exchange on a field trip to the Brooklyn Museum to view Oscar yi Hou’s exhibition “East of sun, West of moon”. Yi Hou, a British-born Cantonese artist now living in Brooklyn, usesd common Japanese and Chinese, Japanese and East Asian motifs to adorn portraits of his ethnically diverse American friends as an exploration of “Asia America.” The youth curators were inspired by this style and wanted to create an exhibition that also playsed with the influence of using Japanese pop culture onto explore the deeper questions of representation.

Reel Exposure International Teen Film and Photography Festival

May 5-7, 2023

Screening & Festival at the Trolley Barn Gallery

The Art Effect’s annual Reel Exposure International Teen Film and Photography Festival in Poughkeepsie, NY is open for submissions and celebrating its 10th year! This year’s festival will be even bigger and better than before as we return to an in-person festival featuring innovative photography and short films – narrative, animation, experimental, and documentary – created by talented young artists, ages 13-19 from across the world, plus family-friendly festival activities, panel discussion, and MUCH MORE!

New for 2023, Reel Exposure will be brought to you by The Art Effect’s PKX Festival, an exciting building block to the development of the Youth Arts Empowerment Zone, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Grant, establishing a youth-led arts district in and around the Gallery. In addition to youth-produced short films, and a photography exhibition, Reel Exposure: A PKX Festival will also feature youth-led public art installations and more TBD.

Reel Exposure: A PKX Festival brings together a diverse representation of youth-produced films and photography, from both newcomers to the craft, as well as established young artists. The selected films are screened in a showcase and the selected photography is hung as an exhibition at the Trolley Barn Gallery in Poughkeepsie, NY — The ONLY youth-led gallery in the nation!

Reel Exposure: A PKX Festival encompasses all of The Art Effect’s goals: to encourage youth creativity, to invigorate our local community through the arts, and to showcase the incredible work done by this next generation of media-makers.

The past two years of the festival went virtual and were a smashing success with more than 2,200 viewers from across the globe tuning in, along with a live Q&A panel with festival finalists. This year’s festival will take place in person on May 5-7, 2023, but will still allow international attendees to join us for the festival online with a virtual gallery and an online screening of the film showcase.

“Seeing a film you put all of this work into actually get attention, to have people genuinely enjoy something you made at Reel Exposure, it’s really special, especially when you’re just starting out. It was a call to action for me, like, ‘This is something you’re supposed to do, keep at it!” – Matthew Hamilton, 2020 Reel Exposure Participant

About the Photography Exhibition

Professional and youth jurors selected photographs from submissions from teens ages 13-19 across the world. In the past, submissions have come from Singapore, Italy, Islamic Republic of Iran, and the United States. Opening with a public reception, this exciting youth exhibition remains on display at the Trolley Barn Gallery and is accompanied by a virtual gallery tour for those unable to attend. Photography Exhibition opening will be on May 5, 2023.

About the Film Festival

Viewers can expect to see a mix of film genres in film festival lineup, including animations, documentaries, dramas, horror, and comedies from teen filmmakers on Saturday, May 6, 2023. In the past, submissions have come from The United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, Mexico, China, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Please consider becoming a sponsor to help support the youth arts programming taking place in the Hudson Valley right now!

This program is partially funded by monies received from the New York State Council on the Arts and is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Art Effect empowers youth to develop their artistic voice to shape their futures and bring about positive social change.

Is It Me? International Juried Exhibition

As we age we change both externally and internally; we transform and metamorphosis. We inevitably ask ourselves: “Is this who I am now? Who was I before? Is this me?” We find beauty in the confusions and the transformations. We are inviting artists that meditate on the disturbing reality of their own potential. Is It Me? invites art that unveils the roadblocks that impede self-actualization. We question whether the oasis of maturity is actually a mirage – a hazily reconfigured reality, distorted by the sweltering heat of generational expectations. This exhibition is about self and health, wellness and worry — as we examine our skin, our fears, and our personal growth.

Is It Me? challenges artists to submit art in an array of media, including digital, film, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, textiles, video, and installation art. For our juried exhibitions, the Trolley Barn Gallery brings together an international roster of vital voices in art and culture, presenting thought-provoking artwork and ideas in a renovated industrial space that is the hub for the area’s thriving arts scene.
Is It Me? is the most recent exhibition from the Trolley Barn Curatorial Team.

This international juried exhibition will be held March 10 through April 14, 2023 at The Art Effect’s Trolley Barn Gallery, 489 Main St., Poughkeepsie, New York, with an Opening Reception Friday, March 10, 6-8pm. 

Opening Reception Events
6:00: Opening Reception with light refreshments
7:00: Welcome and Awards
7:30: Open Mic

Open Mic Details
In order to allow the community of Poughkeepsie to fully engage with the difficult themes presented, the opening reception will also include a half hour Open Mic session. Gallery visitors will be encouraged to sign up for a short slot where they are free to read poetry, speak honestly, perform music or dance and continue the conversation about wellness and aging in real time. The opening reception is 6 -8pm. At 7pm Trolley Barn Awards will be presented to the winners of the “Guest Juror’s Prize”, the “Youth Juror’s Prize” and the “Honorable Mention Prize”. After the awards the open mic session will start at 7:30pm. This opening reception is free and open to the public, like all Trolley Barn Gallery openings.

About the Curator
Emilie Houssart is a Dutch American artist and curator based in Poughkeepsie, New York. Her performance and installation works explore ideologies and ecologies of landscape, rupturing toxic norms in public spaces, and generating dialogue about alternative ways of being. As The DIRT Project, she leads experiential, collaborative workshops for all ages that nurture our relationships with invisible life forms inside the body and underfoot.

Houssart’s work recently featured in Metabolism of Cities for the Urban Soils Institute, curated by Margaret Boozer, LMCC Arts Center, NYC. Her 15-month evolving installation Co-co-codac! was part of Owning Earth at Unison Arts Center, NY, an outdoor exhibit curated by Tal Beery. As 2021 Artist in Residence at the Samuel Dorsky Museum, NY, she curated the exhibition DIRT: Inside Landscapes and led a series of interactive public projects, including DIRTdoors at Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary for Rooted: Art + Land with the Dorsky Museum and Walkill Valley Land Trust. Previous residencies include Women’s Studio Workshop, NY, Frans Masereel Centrum, Belgium, and Print to the People, UK. She co-curated an/aesthetics: Rosekill, Rosekill Art Farm, NY; pop-up show EARTHBOUND, NYC; and international exchange show EXPORT 19 at Poughkeepsie Trolley Barn, NY.

Originally from Norwich, UK, Houssart gained a BA Hons. in Modern Languages from the University of Durham, UK, and studied drawing, painting and sculpture at the Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence, Italy. She is Adjunct Professor of Art, Sustainability Faculty Fellow and member of experimental collective Eddy at SUNY New Paltz, where she completed an MFA in Sculpture with Printmaking in 2022. Houssart has taught at Vassar College, Women’s Studio Workshop, West Point Military Academy, the Woodstock School of Art, Fall Kill Print Works, the Charles H. Cecil Studios and the British Institute of Florence.

Gallery Hours
Exhibition: March 10 – April 14
Wednesday-Friday: 2-5PM • Saturday: 12-4 PM
(during exhibitions only)

Senior Project Exhibition 2023

Senior Project is the capstone of The Art Effect’s portfolio development programming and is the most rigorous course currently offered at the Art Institute. Modeled after a senior thesis college course, students work on a personal theme for 12 weeks with an artist/mentor in their chosen art medium. Focusing on developing a cohesive body of work, how to prepare for an exhibition, and how the gallery viewer will interact with the work, students complete the program with a strong portfolio of work around their chosen theme. The Senior Project exhibition is a celebration of the accomplishments of these young artists.

Exhibition Dates: December 16, 2022 – January 13, 2022
Opening reception: December 16, 2022 5-7pm
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Friday 2-5pm, Saturday 12-4pm (during exhibition only – the gallery will be closed 12/23- 1/2)

Featured artists:

About the Instructor: Rick Price is the chair of the fine art department at the Harvey School. He has extensive teaching experience at Buck’s Rock in CT, mural painting in San Francisco and Beacon, illustration commissions, and has exhibited his fine art work nationwide. He holds an MFA from Savannah College of Art & Design.

Senior Project Virtual Gallery

Wonderland International Juried Exhibition

Wonderland reimagines the Trolley Barn 3,000 square foot gallery as an otherworldly empire of wonder, illusion and surprise. We invite work that disrupts standard notions of reality through sensory excess (texture, color, light, sound) and/or unexpected visual mischief. We ask, and wonder, how can this kind of art help us reimagine our reality and create positive change in our community?  

The Wonderland International Juried Exhibition is the point of entry to the PKX Wonderland Festival, September 15-17, 2022. The PKX Wonderland Festival will feature the unveiling of original public art commissions, performances, and creative activities in and around the Trolley Barn Gallery. 

The Art Effect is pleased to announce Allison M. Glenn as the guest curator for the international juried exhibition, Wonderland. The exhibition will take place at The Art Effect’s Trolley Barn Gallery at 489 Main Street in Poughkeepsie from September 15 through October 20, 2022.

Glenn worked collaboratively with The Art Effect’s Youth Curatorial Team to curate the Wonderland exhibition, selecting artworks from submissions from around the globe. The Art Effect’s dynamic youth curatorial program brings together established arts professionals and local youth to present high-caliber international art exhibitions and opens pathways for youth to pursue educational opportunities and careers in museums and professional art galleries.

“As a curator and writer deeply invested in working closely with artists to develop ideas, artworks, and exhibitions that respond to and transform our understanding of the world, Allison is a wonderful fit to collaborate with our youth to curate Wonderland,” notes Nicole Fenichel-Hewitt, The Art Effect’s Executive Director. “By collaborating with curators like Allison, young people in our curatorial program create exhibitions that bring together vital voices in art and culture from around the globe and present thought-provoking exhibitions for the community in the center of Poughkeepsie.”

Glenn received substantial critical and community praise for her curatorial work in the groundbreaking exhibition at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky titled, Promise, Witness, Remembrance, an exhibition that reflected on the life of Breonna Taylor, centered on her portrait painted by Amy Sherald. The New York Times selected the exhibition as one of the Best Art Exhibitions of 2021.

This year, Glenn was listed as one of the 2022 ArtNews Deciders and on the 2021 Observer Arts Power 50 List. She is one of the curators for the Counterpublic triennial, opening April 2023 in St. Louis. 

From 2018-2021, Glenn was Associate Curator, Contemporary Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, where she shaped how outdoor sculpture activates and engages Crystal Bridges’ 120-acre campus. Prior to working at Crystal Bridges, Glenn was the Manager of Publications and Curatorial Associate for Prospect New Orleans’ international art triennial Prospect.4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp. 

Click here or more information about the PKX Arts Festival

Oaxaca Week: July 29 – August 5, 2022

Oaxaca Week in Poughkeepsie celebrates our city’s connection with traditions from the diverse Mexican region from July 29 – August 5. Click here for more more information and a full lineup of events. At the center is an exhibition of authentic Oaxacan textiles in “Tlazotl, Weaver’s Wings,” showcasing actual indigenous garb, on display at the Trolley Barn (489 Main Street, Poughkeepsie). 

It’s sister exhibition, “Art in a Suitcase: Women Creators of the World” at the MASS Design Group (289 Main Street, Poughkeepsie), features six Oaxacan female artists in a variety of media: photography, ceramics, oil and watercolor painting. 

The public is invited to the joint opening of these exhibitions at the Trolley Barn on Friday, July 29 from 4 pm to 6 pm, where food will be served that highlights the diverse culinary traditions of the Oaxacan region. The curator, Nora Isela Ortiz Muro, will present a talk at the Trolley Barn on Wednesday, August 3 at 5 pm.

Gallery Hours
Wed-Fri 2-5 PM • Sat 12–4 PM
(during exhibitions only)

Call for Entry: Wonderland

Wonderland International Juried Exhibition
Juror: Allison M. Glenn in collaboration with youth from The Art Effect’s Curatorial Program
Exhibition Dates: Sept 15 – Oct 20, 2022
Deadline: May 27 2022

Wonderland reimagines the Trolley Barn 3,000 square foot gallery as an otherworldly empire of wonder, illusion and surprise. We invite work that disrupts standard notions of reality through sensory excess (texture, color, light, sound) and/or unexpected visual mischief. We ask, and wonder, how can your art help us reimagine our reality and create positive change in our community?  

Reel Exposure Film Festival

Reel Exposure Film & Photo Festival features photography and youth-produced short films – animations, documentaries, dramas, horror, and comedies – created by talented young artists from across the world.

Reel Exposure encompasses all of The Art Effect’s goals: to encourage youth creativity, to invigorate our local community through the arts, and to showcase the incredible work done by this next generation of media-makers.

The Art Effect’s annual event encourages youth creativity, invigorates the local community through the arts, and showcases the incredible work done by the next generation of artists from around the globe and right here in Poughkeepsie!

High Contrast International Juried Exhibition

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