Scanning

Yesterday and today, I am working to scan the entire collection of historical photography for the Hyde Park Free Library. There is a plethora of images, documenting various areas of town. I'm making the transition from analog material to digital, as a part of the efforts to collect material for the project.

The photographs have been previously archived. To identify each image, they gave it a letter and number ID. P-37 or JRFL-272. My guess is that these reference people. Will have to dig further into this.

While scanning, I continue to think about who is documenting the life in Hyde Park now? At some point an individual put effort into collecting these images and had the forsight to donate them to the library for safe keeping. My guess is that this is no longer the case. Images are property and they are private. That is until they are given over to some public institution. Hmmm - I'm hoping that I can fill in material from this collection to the present. That is the major hurdle of this effort.

Maybe this is now the job of Flickr? I'm going to have to do some searching on the web for images. Why not go to Flickr and talk to them about local history collections???

Community Workshops

As this project continues to develop, I realized that I need to continue to make contact with the community. I cannot just be me sitting behind a table and waiting for the people to show up. So, I've been making every effort to engage the community by going to meeting and following up on exchanges.

The last example of this is a workshop that I am giving at the Hyde Park Free Library this weekend. Entitled - Saving your Memories: Digital Archiving your images, I'm going to show people how to best save their fragile materials so that future generations can see them. This primarily means showing people what standards are best for scanning images and then the best way to store those images.

This will take place monthly until the final project at the Drive In.

Here are the details

Saving your Memories: Digital Archiving your images
1-2pm
Hyde Park Free Library
2 Main St.
Hyde Park, NY
12538
845-229-7791

Camera's in the Community

One idea that came out of conversations recently with Greg Callahan at the Hyde Park Library was to make cameras available for people to document town life.

Last week I approached a locally owned and operated business in Hyde Park, Molloys Pharmacy, about the donation of several disposable camera to make this idea happen. Molloys and its owner Bill Irwin, being a vital business leader in the community, has graciously given a donation of 20 cameras to begin working on this part of the project.

I will be handing those out at my usual post on Saturday mornings at the farmers market. I hope that I might get the Hyde Park Townsman to do a little article on this aspect of the project.

Funding Support

I recently had a meeting with Steven Mann and Stephanie Mauri of the Dutchess County Historical Society. They were both very excited about the project and gave me several great sources for information. The Historical Society has written a letter of support and given a financial donation to help move the project forward. My great thanks goes out to them.

I also just received notice that I am a recipient of a NYFA SOS grant. This some of money allows me to continue my efforts to digitize material and cover the cost of some equipment.

Some Video - Carl Grieco

Off and On

As typical, remembering to post to the blog is not my forte. So many things have been taking place in the last month that I don't know where to begin.

I have been talking quite extensively with Pasty Costello of the Hyde Park Historical Society. Her knowledge of Hyde Park, past and present, is significant and I hope to be working with them more in the next few weeks. I understand that there is a file full of photos that need to be archived and I hope to help with that effort.

Last week I spoke with Steven Mann and Stephanie Mauri at the Dutchess County Historical Society. In talking with them, I got a understanding of Hyde Park and Staatsburg as it relates to Dutchess County. They have also are willing to provide support and put me in touch with their members. I look forward to this association.

Finally, this past Saturday was my first day at the Hyde Park Farmers Market. I will now be spending my Saturday mornings meeting and talking with people there instead of at the Library. This will be a much more public way of connecting with the community.

A night at the Drive In

As the Hyde Park Drive In Theater has opened for the season, I went over last Sunday to see a film. The comic hero cliffhanger, Ironman, was showing in the early slot and I very much enjoyed seeing the movie from the comfort of my car and at the concession stand. Though, I was more interested in the people at the space and the site than anything else.

I had an amazing time. Met with Barry Horowitz, the gentleman that runs the drive in. His family has been running the space since the 50's and he was very excited to here about my efforts with the project.

I also spoke to Ida, the woman who runs the concession stand. She also expressed great interest in the project and was willing to donate some material.

My efforts continue to come across interesting people like Barry and Ida, who make Hyde Park extremely interesting.

Memories of the Past

There are times in your life when you relive a moment that has long been forgotten. This happen last week for me at a meeting of the Hyde Park Historical Society. I was attending the meeting to give a short talk about my efforts with the Hyde Park Visual History Project.

Before I spoke, Vicky Goldman of the local Daughters of the American Revolution Chapter gave a presentation. Hearing her speak brought me back to a moment, when at the age of 11, I received an award from the DAR for a paper I wrote on George Washington. The ceremony took place at an old church in Green Bay with tradition wood paneling and a tall steeple. The members of the local DAR were dressed in period garments that connected them to the Revolutionary time period.

This makes me think about how early my interest in history started. I've always had a connection to events in the past as a way of thinking about where I am now. There is a strong sense of pride in where I come from and who I am.

I would make these same comparisons to people in Hyde Park. There are many people here with strong connections to the area and this is what I want this project to tap into. I think we forget how much the locality means to us and how rarely we take the time think about it. My hope is that in the future these connections will again be front and center. Especially with concerns about gas and food.

Week in Review

The last week has been blistering in pace and intensity. There has been so much happening and more that needs to be accomplish.

A major highlight of the week was meeting with Lisa Curtis at FDR High School. After a prolonged period of trying to reach each other, we finally had a moment to talk. FDRHS has a great program that was developed in the 80's focusing on documentary film made through the eyes of students. Under the rubric of English, History and Sociology, the students tackle ideas of subjectivity and engagement. I was delighted to hear what they have be working on in the hopes that I can engage the students in the project. Next week, I will be dropping off flyers for teachers in English and the Arts to pass around to students, including pick up some video of previous students efforts.

Meeting with these groups continually brings me back to to the underlying goals of the project, mainly this desire bridge the past and the present. Thus far, I have a good amount of material of the past and these efforts at the High School, I will have a connection to the present. The next goal being to fill in the space that spans these times.

Plus, I'll say that the more I've spoken with people, the more interested they are in getting involved. This type of project can fall outside the communities every day reality. So much so, that it takes time and a personal effort to meet with people. I've had to continually adapt the way I talk about the project to up it into terms that people can connect with. This has happened and it is opening up the dialogue.

Finally, I will say that I am continually amazed by the people here. They are so real and engaged in the community. In working on this project, I have begun to see the networks that connect Hyde Park, making such an interesting place.

Connecting the Past and Present

Thus far, I have been receiving numerous images of places in Hyde Park, many of which no longer exist. This had made me think a lot about how our environment evolves. Sometime for the better and sometime for the worse.
As one of the major goals for this project is to bridge the past and the present, I have decided to make a specific response to these images. What I plan to do is re-photograph the sites, allowing me to connect two moments in time. This idea is not something that I can take credit for. There have been a multitude of photography projects that have used this technique to document the urban structure of a place. What I think is interesting about is that makes apparent the effects the people have on their community and how the urban fabric is always shifting.

Pare Lorentz Film Center

Last week, I had a delightful meeting with Phillippa Ewing at the Pare Lorentz Film Center. Dedicated to understanding the Roosevelts, the center creates media for education from its historic holdings. Phillippa has graciously said that she would assist me in my efforts, plus given me a great number of contacts to follow up with. I look forward to collaborating with them.

Moments

There are moments in a project when the pace comes to a standstill. You are neither moving forward or backward, but are positioned ready to encounter the next step. Then there are moments when an event takes place which re-invigorates you, giving you endless amounts of energy to put toward your work. One of those experience took place last night for me in terms of this project.
I spoke with Susan Schryver at the EverReady Diner last night.
Her wealth of knowledge about people and goings on in Hyde Park further excited me. She gave me a sense of real life in the town, how it works and where it has come from.
I have a large list of people to contact and meet over the next few weeks, which should make for some exciting moments in the next few weeks.

Efforts

The project is moving forward well now. I've been getting content from several sources. Much of which I have tried to upload to Blogger, but I've been having issues with that. Will try to get them onto youtube.com in the next day or so.

Next week, I will be meeting with Phillippa Ewing at the National Park Service and several teachers at FDR High School. I also need to get in touch with Dot Chenevert at the Hyde Park Farmers Market.

As always, I'm applying for funding to cover equipment costs. The New York State Council on the Arts Grant is due at the end of the month.

Hyde Park Townsman

Matthew Renda of the Hyde Park Townsman wrote another great article about the project in this weeks paper. Here is a link to the article - Media Project.

Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce

I gave a short talk at the Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce this morning. So a thank you goes out to Liz Rogers and John Paxton for helping make that happen. I'm hopeful that the business owners of Hyde Park will support the project by talking about it and letting me post info.

Friday

Friday was a busy day meeting with several people in Hyde Park -

Was first at the home of former town supervisor Nancy Alden. As a resource for historical material about Hyde Park, she has a vast knowledge. I will be meeting with her through out the year to talk further and view some of the material she holds.

Next, I met with Herb and Barbara Sweet at Cranberrys Cafe in Hyde Park. Herb passed along two dvd's worth of material that I need to look through from his collections. While Barbara passed on her ideas of who I should talk to further.

Barbara was also kind enough to walk over to meet Dot Chenevert at her floral shop. Dot organizes the Hyde Park Farmers Market, which takes place at the drive in. As it is Easter weekend, I'll be following up with Dot in the next few weeks.

Finally, I caught up with Greg Callahan at the Library to talk further. The library holds several files of images that relate to Hyde Park History. As a part of my efforts, I have promised to digitize those images for the Library.

Hyde Park Welcome Video

Here is a link to some video footage that the Town of Hyde Park is supplying.
Town of Hyde Park - Click on community videos on the green image

Technology

I was just on the phone with New City Video, a equipment rental in New York City.
Was talking with them about renting a projector for the display of the video at the drive in. According to their recommendation, I need a christie HD projector (30,000 Lumen) with a 3.2 lens to cover the entire screen. Plus, there will be some peripheral costs with power and cabling. Needless to say that this has blown any conception that I had for my budget.
Balancing the technology needs and the overall costs of the project, is going to be a challenge. Though, I've decided to not settle for second best.
Looks like I will be hitting the pavement looking for funding.

Donations

For anyone interested in donating material!!!
You may contact me at hydeparkproject@gmail.com or call 845.889.8181. The Hyde Park Free library is also accepting donations for this project. As of tomorrow, you can stop by the library, drop off material and receive a receipt for your donation.

Video

It is always great to hear about content, in terms of this project.

Today, I heard form the Culinary Institute. They are donating some material from their vast library of resources for students. I thank them for that. Also on the horizon is a meeting with the Hyde Park School District. We will be talking further about working with students at FDR High School.

Funding

Last Friday, I had an application due for the Experimental Television Center. They have finishing funds that help to support the completion of projects. This would go a long way to supporting the technical cost of the project. As usual, I will hope and pray that they find my effort interesting.

I also applied for Fiscal Sponsorship through the Dutchess County Arts Council. This will allow supports to donate tax defer able contributions to the project.

At the end of the month, I have applications due to the New York State Council on the Arts.

Hyde Park Town Council Mtg

Was invited to a Hyde Park Town Council Workshop last night . After hearing about a law that is being discusses, I had my moment with the council to speak about this project. Attending were Pompey Delafield, Hannah Black, Robert Linville, Robert Perkins and Valerie Hail. Plus, a smattering of media. The council was interested in the project and will be supporting it in any way possible. This meeting ran live on Ch22 Public Access. So, I'll be putting a copy of it up on the blog when it becomes available.

I also had the opportunity to meet with Herb and Barbara Sweet. As active members of the community, they gave me some great incite into people that I need to contact. They asked me to contact them with a list of names, as they volunteered to put a good word in.

Another member of the town administration that I met was Steve Hughes. As the town webmaster, Mr. Hughes has been documenting town events. He has said he can give me video of town council meeting, school district meeting, events, etc. This will be a great resource for material.

Drive in Specs

Screen is 82.6' wide and 40' high.
Distance from Screen to building - 261.52'

Tuesday

This morning, I had a meeting with Chris of Scenic Hudson at the drive in to see the site and discuss the installation. I was able to get a sense of how redevelopment talks were going for the site and how Scenic Hudson is using the site in the next two years. We are still negotiating how to access basic amenities, but those will be resolved in the near future.

I also spoke with Patsy Costello at the Hyde Park Historical Society. She was very kind to suggest that I come see what the Historical Society has in its archives. We also discussed attending their next meeting of March 25th, which I will do. This will be a great opportunity to get those interested in the history of the town involved in the project and have them think about the future history of Hyde Park.

DCAC Awards Banquet

On Thursday March 6th, I attended the Dutchess County Arts Council Grant Award Ceremony. At the meeting, I got to meet and talk to many people who are very excited about the Hyde Park Project. This really energized me with the belief that what I am trying to accomplish is positive effort for the arts and community. I appreciate all of the people who spoke with me and was very excited to meet them.

The ceremony include the distribution of the grant funding. I've received a small amount of money that will get the project off to a great start. Though, I am finding that the equipment, promotion and insurance needs will quickly use up this source. So, I will be out searching for more funding through state grants and local sources.

Moving Forward

The month of March is going to be filled with a focused effort on engaging the community of Hyde Park.

I will be attending a workshop with the Hyde Park Town Council on March 17th. Spoke with town supervisor Pompey Delafield two weeks ago and he has graciously provide this opportunity.

I spoke with Liz Rogers and John Paxton of the Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce. At present we are finding a moment when I can attend their monthly breakfast to speak with their members.

I've also spoken to Philippa Ewing with the FDR and Vanderbilt National Park Sites. In her role organizing public relations for the park site, she is excited to hear about the project and will be supporting its efforts. We will be meeting to talk about how connections can be made between the project and the park system.

In a one week, I will begin to hand out posters and mail cards out to local business and residents.

Drive In News

Great news from last Friday. The official word from Scenic Hudson is that they have granted me access to the Drive In. There is still some paperwork that needs to be sorted out, but a major hurdle for the project has now been achieved.

Hyde Park Library Meeting

Last Thursday I had the privilege of meeting with Greg Callahan and his staff at the Hyde Park Free Library. As the sponsor of the project the library is going to play a important role in the project as a meeting and drop off place for the project. Those at the library are vital to making the project a success.
My goal for the meeting was focused on meeting the staff and familiarizing everyone with the project. We discussed the ideas behind the project and the process that will be implemented for accomplish my goals. There was some great feedback on how best to accomplish those tasks and who might be interested in the project. They gave me multiple contacts to reach and many ideas on how to proceed further. Their energy and enthusiasm gave me great hope.

Hyde Park Drive In

Here is where this project started. One of several drive in theatres in the area, Hyde Park Drive is one of two still showing films in the summer. Sitting on land that once was owned by the Roosevelt Family, the site sits directly across Route 9 from the Roosevelt Historic Site, part of the National Park Service. At present, I am in negotiations with Scenic Hudson, the present owners, for use of the site in the Fall of 2008.

Busy - DCAC Meeting

I had hope to be a bit further at this point in time, but the last week has been a blur with my job and other projects coming to a head.

I did have the chance to attend the Dutchess County Arts Council Annual Meeting on Thursday at the Rhinebeck Center for the Performing Arts. Beyond the typical aspects of a business meeting, there was great excitement in the announcement that the council had funded three projects in Hyde Park. The Hyde Park Video Project, being one of these projects, was noted as an example of how the efforts of the council were working to make an impact in the community.

Getting footage

I have started down the long road of finding footage for the project. My first efforts focused on institutions that I knew would have some information. Thus far, I have spoken with the Roosevelt Library and the Culinary Institute of America. Both have been willing to discuss a donation and facilitate further dialogue.

I meet with Paul Scatoneto of the Hyde Park School District to see if there might be a way to make a connection to students. I was delighted to hear that they have a documentary film course which has similar goals and objectives as the project. I hope to hear from them soon about meeting and finding ways to move further with a collaboration.

At the moment I'm sitting in the Hyde Park Free Library. This is something that I will be doing every weekend over the next few months. It is not only an effort to get footage, but to be available publically for questions. In talking to the librarians, I have heard that interest has been expressed, which is very exciting.

Hyde Park in Film

Several months ago I spoke to a faculty at Vassar about the idea of doing a project in Hyde Park. He mentioned a film that had been made in the 70's about Hyde Park. I had the chance over the last week to view the film and speak with the director.

In viewing the film, I became aware of the ever challenging issues that a town such as Hyde Park faces. These battles between the past and future, the new and old are constantly being fought. With a such a deep history, I can see how Hyde Park might exemplify these struggles.

When I consider this dialogue, I see it as not being about which side is right or wrong. It is about taking the time to listen to what both sides have to say and negotiating a new direction that takes all those ideas into consideration. This is not an easy task.

What amazed me though about the film was the energy and beliefs of those who were involved with the town. Everyone was greatly concerned with Hyde Park. This to me was very exciting to see and something that I hope to get involved with now that I live in the area.

The Weekly Beat

Here is an article about the project in the Weekly Beat - http://www.weeklybeat.net/

Desperately seeking video
Hyde Park project hoping to compile historic, contemporary video footage
By Babette Fasolino

Calling all Hyde Park video shutterbugs: If you have video footage of Hyde Park from any era, from Fourth of July town parades to grandma’s backyard barbecue in 1956, artist Matthew Slaats would like to hear from you.

Slaats recently received a grant from the Dutchess County Arts Council through the New York State Council on The Arts Decentralization Department to create a video art installation focusing on life in Hyde Park. Slaats will collect video from town residents that will be edited, transferred to a digital format and screened at the Hyde Park Drive-In this spring with the potential for future screenings at other Hyde Park locales.

The artist’s final work, which includes cutting-edge motion-activated technology, will depict everyday life in Hyde Park spanning generations; he is also hoping to gather historic footage from the Roosevelt Library and local historic sites. “I’m leaving it open – I don’t want to exclude anything,” said Slaats. “I think of home movies, people having a barbecue or just living their lives in town.”

Slaats is an academic computing consultant for visual resources at Vassar College, where he is working on a large-scale project with the art, drama and film departments converting archival images from slide format to a digital system. “A lot happens at Vassar – it’s an amazing place,” he said.

A native of Green Bay, Wis., Slaats moved to the Hudson Valley a year ago when his wife began studying at the Culinary Institute of America. Slaats is interested in creating art in public spaces and previously created an art installation at a Works Progress Administration (WPA) Sports Stadium in Wisconsin that had been slated for demolition. When he visited Hyde Park, Slaats saw the potential for an innovative public art project that could combine history and everyday life.

“You can’t even turn around in Hyde Park and not see something that has some historical significance,” said Slaats. Hyde Park’s drive-in was particularly interesting to him, so he developed an art project that could combine video, digital technology, the drive-in as well as participation from the community. “I’m collecting a visual history similar to an oral history, but through images,” he said.

Slaats has been busy making contacts with community members, including teachers at FDR High School who lead a program in documentary filmmaking with Upstate Films. Slaats is hoping that budding filmmakers will contribute clips for the project, as well as families with video footages from years past. “I’m really looking at what fills in that space between here and now,” he said.


Examples of life

Brandon Berrian, a freshman at FDR High School, recently recorded some video with a classmate that he plans to submit to Slaats. “It would be awesome to participate in the project,” said Berrian, who was filmed as he snowboarded down a hill, completed an impromptu somersault and managed to unintentionally break his snowboard in half upon landing. Berrian’s video, he says, is a good example of everyday teenage life in Hyde Park. “It would be cool to show people how we act away from school,” he said.

Berrian is also intrigued by Slaats’ idea of combining archival video of the past with contemporary video, particularly as it relates to teens. “I think that the project should show the difference between teenagers of then and now, show differences between what teenagers did then and what they do today,” he said. If his video is included, Berrian is certain that people, especially adults, may have questions. “They’ll probably look at our clip and say ‘What the heck are these guys doing? What’s wrong with them?”

While Slaats is first to admit that his project is somewhat risky because it relies on the collaboration of many individuals and organizations, his ability to take a chance also drew attention of the Dutchess County Arts Council when his grant application was submitted. Loretta Spence, director of programs and arts services for the Dutchess County Arts Council, served as facilitator for the grant panel that reviewed Slaats’ proposal. “I was really excited to see the project because it is cutting-edge and he is a promising young artist who could really benefit from the council’s support.”

Spence, who oversees hundreds of applications each year, said that Slaats’ project stood out among others. “His project exemplifies exactly what this grant is supposed to do: support a goal on a county level to that involves a brand new artistic project or individual artist like Matthew.” Spence sees Slaats an artist with incredible promise. “One of the things that is so exciting is his creative and dynamic use of resources, such as Scenic Hudson and the drive-in theater,” said Spence, who commended Slaats’ willingness to “think outside the box.” “He could become an artist of national or international stature,” she said.


Setting up roots

Slaats and his family recently purchased a home in Staatsburg and are looking forward to getting more involved in their new community. “I lived in a very small town in Wisconsin outside of Madison before I moved here. I was always in Madison and never got involved in the town I was living in. I want to get involved in the community, be an active member and do something fun and interesting,” he said.

Slaats is hoping his art project will allow him to learn more about life in Hyde Park. “I’m not a new person trying to push ideas. I want the community to tell its own story. I hope people see that I’m trying to learn and talk to them,” he said.

Greg Callahan, director of the Hyde Park Library, stepped forward when Slaats was seeking a partnering sponsor for his grant application. “Finding a sponsor was a pretty major hurdle for me to overcome,” said Slaats. “Greg was the first person to respond and it was the perfect connection.”

The library, which serves as Slaats’ home base of operations, is an ideal partner because it serves such a vital role in the Hyde Park community, said Slaats.

Slaats will be at the Hyde Park Library every Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon through March to collect video submissions and answer questions about the project. He prefers video in DVD format, but will accept other formats; videos should be under five minutes in length, he said. Slaats is encouraged by the support he has received so far and is eager to review video from residents. “I’m always interested in people’s stories,” he said. Slaats can also be reached via email at mbslaats@gmail.com.

Funding and Support - Thanks

This is a note of thanks to the Dutchess County Arts Council for their support and funding. The grant that I received through them was established through funds from New York State Council on the Arts’ Decentralization Department.

Also to the Hyde Park Free Library, specifically Greg Callahan, for sponsoring my application and helping to provide a connection to the community of Hyde Park.

Press Release

Art Project to Involve Hyde Park Residents

Project focuses on gathering home movies of Hyde Park residents, both past and present, as part of a video installation to take place in Hyde Park in 2008.

Hyde Park, New York - In an effort to engage the community, artist Matthew Slaats is organizing a project that focuses on building a visual history of the Town of Hyde Park through the use of home videos. Entitled “The Hyde Park Video Project,” the artist will collect video from residents of the town, both past and present, to become a part of an installation of the video to take place in Hyde Park in the spring of 2008.

With funding from the Dutchess County Arts Council, administrator of public funds through the New York State Council on the Arts’ Decentralization Department, and sponsorship from the Hyde Park Library, the project will build a cohesive collection of visual material that represents life in the Town of Hyde Park. Starting with footage found at historical archives and libraries, the artist will be gathering material provided by residents to build this collection. The primary goal of the project is to engage the community in a conversation about identity and history that is defined by the residents themselves.

Those interested in donating video or film footage to the project may contact the artist at mbslaats@gmail.com or 845 889 8181. All those that donate material to the project will be included in the final presentation. Material will be returned in the same condition they were received with a DVD version of the footage used.

You may also drop of material and meet the artist, Saturdays from 10 to noon at the Hyde Park Free Library, through out the month of January, February and March.

Any further inquiries can be made to Matthew Slaats at 845.889.8181 or mbslaats@gmail.com.

This Saturday and on

Starting this Saturday, I will be at the Hyde Park Free Library from 10am until noon accepting donations for the Hyde Park Video Project. The public is welcome to come, talk, and donate footage for the project.

In the News

Several weeks ago, I sent a press release to area newspapers. The other day I was contacted by Matt Renda of the Hyde Park Townsman and Babette Fasolino of the Poughkeepsie Beat. We spoke about the project and articles will be published in the next few days.

The ideas behind this project

The main ideas behind this project focus on engaging a community of people and energizing a space that has significant history.

The project began with an interest in using the Hyde Park Drive-In. As one of the few functioning outdoor theaters left in the mid Hudson Valley, this is a place that has significant meaning. It represents a vanishing public space in the history of the United States where families and friends could meet to relax outside of the home. Screens such as these have cult status and hold a vivid connection to a nostalgic point of view that remains prevalent in our culture. These types of environments allowed those attending to escape into another world that they could share with the stars of Hollywood.

Much of my artistic practice has been about bringing people together to meet and discuss ideas. In this type of work, I see myself as a facilitator for interaction. I provide a reason for meeting, which is documented and then translated into visual and auditory media. In this case, I was interested in developing a visual history of a specific community. Much like an oral history, I wanted to go out into the community to collect their ideas of who they are or were, leaving this open to all who are willing to donate their time. This is not about me trying to exert my understanding of what Hyde Park is. As a new member of the community, I could not begin to accomplish such a massive feat. My goal is to give the residents of the town themselves, the opportunity to describe who they are and how they want to be represented.

Upon gaining permission to use the site (which is being negotiated presently) and collecting these moments in time, I want to place this representation of the community up for everyone to see. It will allow all of us to take part in showing the meaning of the past and our hopes for the future.

The last part of this project that I would like to mention is how the video will be seen at the site. This is not going to be a historic film of Hyde Park. It will be a collection of moments that represents life in Hyde Park. These moments of video or film will be put into a computer and processed using a piece of software that will integrate them into environment. This is accomplish by putting out a video camera that documents motion, which then sends a signal to the computer to show a specific clip. The more motion in front of the camera, the more video will be seen on the screen. There will also be a audio aspect to the installation.

How this started

After completing school and relocating to the Hudson Valley in the fall of 2006 with my family, I was eager to get involved in a new community and continue to working on projects that I had been working on elsewhere. Most of these efforts focused on exploring unfamiliar territory, learning about its history and meeting new people.

Late last summer, I was at a meeting of the Beacon Art Community Association (BACA) that took place at Long Dock Beacon. At this event, I had the opportunity to meet Benjamin Krevolin, director of the Dutchess County Arts Council, and Margery Groten from Scenic Hudson. I spoke to both of them about an idea I had concerning the Hyde Park Drive In. Benjamin supported the idea of doing a project in Hyde Park and recommended I apply for a grant through the arts council. Margery and I spoke about Scenic Hudson's effort at the site.

So, I endeavored to apply for funding for this project through the DECA Art in the Community Grants that the Dutchess County Arts Council administers. A major hurdle of applying for the grant was to get a community sponsor. I contacted several organizations eventually speaking with Greg Callahan of the Hyde Park Free Library, who was gracious enough to sponsor the project. So, I applied for funding in late September.

In mid December, I heard that the project was accepted and have proceeded to move forward.

Welcome

I would like to welcome you to the Hyde Park Video Project blog. The purpose of this site is to document the project's process and as a way for the community to access information about the project. I will be adding to this blog often as a way to reference information and show progress. Feel free to leave comments as you see fit.