Art in the Hudson Valley
A refuge amongst the trees
Written by Emily McElwreath
A short trip from New York City, the Hudson Valley is a bucolic storybook location. Historic estates dot the landscape, farm stands offer fresh produce, swimming holes beckon, culinary delights await in award-winning restaurants, and amidst it all, sizable art institutions celebrate some of the most talented artists in the world.
For nature lovers, the Hudson Valley weaves a tapestry of rolling hills, babbling brooks, and ancient forests. Whether you choose a challenging hike or to take it all in with a glass of wine from the porch of a memorable hotel property, a trip to the Hudson Valley promises to awaken the senses and bring each visitor in communion with our natural world.
Credit: Storm King
Credit: Laurie Simmons for Namacheko fashion campaign 2021
EXPERT TIPS
Laurie Simmons
Internationally recognized artist Laurie Simmons lives and works in New York and Connecticut. Here, she shares her Hudson Valley highlights…
IN-FLIGHT ESSENTIALS: Hotel slippers. Always. I take my shoes off immediately and honestly wet socks from the plane bathroom floor are gross.
A cashmere poncho. Planes are freezing.
All my devices, magazines and always Benadryl for weird bites, rashes, and allergic reactions like the time in Mexico when I ordered a hemp smoothie and my tongue and lips started to get numb..
PACKING TIPS: I love compressing clothes into packing cubes. Especially ones that have labels like underwear, t-shirts, socks even if the contents don’t match the descriptions.
THE FILM TO WATCH/BOOK TO READ BEFORE DEPARTURE: I always take a fully loaded kindle which still feels revolutionary. I remember the days of lugging multiple books in fear of not having the right one.
FAVOURITE HOTEL: Troutbeck.
MEMORABLE MEALS: Troutbeck.
THE DRINK TO ORDER: I’ve never gotten into cocktail culture or spirits, but I’ll try a mocktail anywhere which is basically soda pop for big kids.
FAVORITE ART SPACE: Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio in Lenox Massachusetts – a gorgeous modernist home where a husband and wife, painters George Morris and Suzy Frelinghuysen, lived and worked from the 30s through 70s and collected the art of friends and contemporaries including Picasso, Braque, Leger, and Gris.
FAVORITE SHOP: Michael Trapp Inc. in West Cornwall. It’s part museum, part curio shop and a destination for architectural remnants. It is 100 percent original, beautiful, and inspiring.
WELLNESS TREATMENT TO TRY: Anything with Lily at Tyte Medispa in Millbrook, New York. She’s a genius.
A short trip from NYC, the Hudson Valley is a bucolic storybook location.
STAY
The verdant Hudson Valley is home to many beautiful hotels and farmstays.
SAVOR
Known for its farm-to-table culinary scene, diners can savor the freshest ingredients, often harvested just miles away, at these special addresses.
-
silviawoodstockny.com
Address: 42 Mill Hill Road, Woodstock, NY 12498
Phone: +18456794242SILVIA is a family-owned restaurant connecting food and people through back-to-basics cooking. SILVIA’s open kitchen with a wood-fired grill is always busy cooking up locally sourced ingredients. Walking distance from Woodstock Way Hotel, it is the perfect summer night stroll with some of the best food the Hudson Valley has to offer.
-
wassaiclanterninn.com
Address: 10 Main Street, Wassaic, NY 12592
Phone: +18453738389This 100-year-old bar plates up some of the best food in the area. Run by Minh Le and led by Chef Johnny Dearth, the Lantern is a family friendly local hotspot with the best wood oven pizza in the Hudson Valley. Don’t miss bartender Mike Torress’s slushie created with his favorite natural flavors. Operating on a first-come, first-served basis, this multi-generation hangout ticks many boxes.
-
stissinghouse.com
Address: 7801 South Main Street, Pine Plains, NY 12567
Phone: +15187713064Clare de Boer, the chef/proprietor of Stissing House, is one of 20 semi-finalists for the 2024 James Beard Foundation Award as the best chef in New York state. So, you know the food is great. And the atmosphere? It’s a candlelit dream.
-
oakhurst-diner.com
Address: 19 Main Street, Millerton, NY 12546
Phone: +15185921313Stop for lunch at Oakhurst Diner. Serving up local and specialty foods along with diner comfort classics, grab a bowl of Ma’s Pho (local favorite), and finish off with a black and white milkshake. The ambience is timeless and a perfect backdrop for an instagrammable moment with the kids. Don’t forget to leave a large tip for the wonderful staff.
-
lildebsoasis.com
Address: 747 Columbia Street, Hudson, NY 12534
Phone: +15188284307A real oasis, Lil’ Deb’s has an atmosphere like no other, and lip-smacking food. A treat for all the senses, there’s no place quite like it. If you’re staying in Hudson, dinner here is a must. An explosion for all the senses.
Credit: Stissing House
Credite: SILVIA
A trip to the Hudson Valley promises to awaken the senses.
EXPLORE
-
Opened in 2005 in a reclaimed Nabisco box factory, this large gallery space calls itself a “daylight museum” thanks to all of the natural light provided by more than 34,000 square feet of skylights. The DIA Beacon museum has significant holdings of Warhol, including a full installation of Shadows.
-
Wassaic Project is an artist-run non-profit gallery, acclaimed artist residency, and education center in Wassaic, NY. Walk through one of two (winter/summer) large group exhibitions spanning the seven floors of The Mill featuring some of our favorite emerging and mid-career artists from around the world. The Mill is also home to The Art Nest, which is home base for their summer camps, kids programs, and workshops.
-
Storm King Art Center, a 500-acre outdoor museum in New York's Hudson Valley, offers visitors an immersive experience with large-scale sculptures and site-specific commissions beneath an open sky. Since its founding in 1960, Storm King has dedicated itself to preserving the hills, meadows, and forests of its site and surrounding landscape. Honoring the visionary thinking of its founders, the center supports artists and their most ambitious works. Changing exhibitions, diverse programming, and the beauty of the seasons ensure new discoveries with each visit, making it a favorite among both children and adults.
-
Ten Mile Table is an ongoing, ever-evolving dinner party. It's a collective of community events, encouraging connection between all of the dynamic food/farm/bev/craft folks in the region who make it so unique.
It features food pop ups, art-themed dinners, food-centric independent print publications, local wine and cider-makers, brick-and-mortar spaces, their very own Community Cookbooks, and much more. Ten Mile Table was founded by Erika DaSilva - her unrivaled taste in addition to being a local favorite beckons people all over the region.
-
Sign up to an artist-taught, all-level workshop created in the spirit of sharing unique methods and skills within the Hudson Valley community, Founded by artists Natalie Baxter and Polly Shindler. Courses are nomadic and locations, dates, and times can be found in each course description. Trust us when we say that these courses will make you want to move to a little cottage in the woods and embroider the days away with your favorite ladies.
Credit: Ten Mile Table
Antiquing
SHOP
FINCH hudson
Offering a curated collection of vintage and modern goods for the home, FINCH hudson was created by Andrew Arrick, together with his husband Michael Hofemann. A driving force for design houses Yves Saint Laurent, Celine, Carolina Herrera, and Vera Wang, Andrew’s years of experience in luxury retail in New York City gives him a distinct understanding of fashion.
Three Turtle Doves
A high-end vintage shop in the heart of Woodstock, Three Turtle Doves is owned and curated by Heather Nicosia. Shop here for rare, beautifully crafted pieces.
Antiquing
Some of the best antiquing in the world happens in the Hudson Valley. Spend the day looking and you can discover the most unique finds for your cottage or castle! Here are a few favorites…
Foley and Cox
The Antique Warehouse Hudson
Millbrook Antique Center
Newburgh Vintage Emporium
Hunter B
WELLNESS TIP
The Ranch Hudson Valley
The Ranch’s results-oriented program comes to the East Coast, set in the natural surroundings of the lower Hudson Valley. Set on a private lakefront estate, come here to embark on a total reset of mind and body.
Credit: The Ranch
Troutbeck gift shop
LOCAL FLAVORS
Spelt Shortbread Cookie with Toasted Fennel Seed
A favorite of Ariel Yotive's, owner of Vitsky Bakery, a small-batch bakery in The Hudson Valley.
I have recently fallen in love with shortbread. Incredibly easy to make, once you have a base recipe down, you can run with an infinite number of manipulations and creative twists. As I try to use local and whole grain flours as much as possible in my baking, I thought this recipe would be the perfect introduction on how easy it is to incorporate less conventional flours into everyday baking projects. If you are local to the Hudson Valley, I highly recommend sourcing your Spelt and All-Purpose flour from Wild Hive Farm based in Clinton Corners, NY. If that’s not available to you, truly, use whatever combination of flours and flavors you have on hand – have fun and enjoy these slightly savory, pillowy cookies. – Ariel Yotive
INGREDIENTS
Serves one
1 ¼ cups/ 150 grams all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cups/ 150 grams spelt flour
2 sticks/ 227 grams butter, room temperature
½ cup/ 65 grams confectioners’ sugar
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon toasted fennel seed, ground
DIRECTIONS
Add your flours, ground fennel seed, and salt to a mixing bowl and mix together with a fork or a whisk to distribute evenly. Set the bowl aside.
Add your room temperature butter and confectioners’ sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, start to incorporate your sugar and butter on the slowest speed. Once the butter and sugar are combined, mix on the highest setting and beat until pale and fluffy, roughly five minutes.
Add your flour mixture to your butter mixture and beat together in one second spurts on the lowest speed on your stand mixer. Do this repeatedly until the dough starts to come together but it still a touch crumbly. Be careful not to let the mixer go and overmix your dough. Scrape down the paddle and the edges of the bowl to gather and remaining butter
Tear a piece of baker’s parchment or plastic wrap roughly 18” long and set in front of you horizontally. Scraping down the paddle and the sides of your bowl, gently bring the dough together and place onto the bottom half of the parchment pressing the dough into a log shape – leaving about two inches of space from the bottom of the parchment and both ends. Once the dough is cohesive enough to hold together (it will always be slightly crumbly), pull the bottom of the parchment up over the top of the log and roll it into a sausage, making sure to pinch and twist the ends repeatedly until the dough is evenly distributed throughout. Chill your dough log for at least one hour and freeze for up to three months.
Prior to baking, pre heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. While cold, cut your log into ¼ inch thick slices and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the top appears matte and the edges are slightly golden.
ON OUR RADAR
Housed in an old school, The Campus is a collaborative art space run by some of the top names in the NY art world.
“Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields...Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.”
― Mary Oliver
IMMERSE YOURSELF
PLAYLIST: Discover our Hudson Valley playlist, available on Spotify.
READ: Any Mary Oliver poem.
WATCH: You Can Count on Me.
PLANNING SERVICES
Let Glimpse founder Jordan Rhodes help you plan your next vacation.
As an advisor independently affiliated with Brownell Travel, a luxury, Forbes endorsed, Virtuoso Agency, Jordan has a whole team helping plan her clients’ vacations.