ACE PEOPLE

LARAC ABSORBS GLENS FALLS ARTS DISTRICT, DRIVING DOWNTOWN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

March 2, 2026 By Corey Aldrich

You may remember, back in August 2022 when ACE! put together a street fest / creative economy panel discussion at the Park Theater. We had some coverage at the time examining the interesting structure downtown Glens Falls had for arts and cultural support. (Glens Falls: A Winning Team Sharing Secrets to Success). Fast forward a couple of years and progress continues to be made collaboratively with the Downtown Arts District and its distinguished members in a newer arrangement that sees LARAC (Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council) as the oversight entity. I connected with Phil Casabona, Executive Director at LARAC for an update.

Please state your name, organization and title. Can you add a bit about your background experientially and educationally?

My name is Philip Casabona and I am the Executive Director + Festival Director + Gallery Curator for LARAC, the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council, a mission driven, non-profit arts organization in Glens Falls, NY. Upon graduating SUNY Oneonta in 2009 with a BFA with a concentration in Photography, like many young people my age at that time, I immediately walked into my dream job making money faster than I could count it…oh wait, that’s the parallel universe me. I graduated college with the excitement of pursuing the arts, professionally, in some form. It was a longer road than expected, with a handful of torturous, non-art related jobs, but all teaching me something that has led to my current position. In 2012 at the age of 25, my wife a, who was my girlfriend at the time, and I, moved to Astoria, Queens, for a year. There I worked for a high-end clothing retailer, in their annex location in Tribeca, as their “Inventory Manager“. I was responsible for all locations day to day inventory, worked alongside the buyer’s department, as well as opened new store locations in other cities, like Boston, Atlanta, and a few others. This position, along with other managerial roles I had since I was 16, unknowingly taught me skills that would be most valuable in my current positions.

I have been with LARAC for 12 years, starting prior to that as a volunteer. Then, having support from my friend and the Gallery Curator at the time, I applied for an open part time position as LARAC’s Festival Coordinator, which I did for a number of years, before going full time and taking on the task of Gallery Curator. As LARAC struggled to navigate Covid-19, we managed to keep our doors open and our staff employed. When the opportunity came up to replace our previous ED, I entered the race. I have been acting Executive Director for the past four years as well.

Can you fill us in a bit about the mission of LARAC? Annual budget, number of employees? Also, I understand you expanded recently by absorbing the GF Downtown Arts District into your fold. Can you share a little bit about the history of that and what that means for LARAC and the artists you serve?

LARAC is a mission-based organization with a very simply mission. We are here to support artists and creatives, local, regional, and beyond, and nourish the positive cultural impact they make on our community. Financially, as a SCR site through NYSCA, we are able to support artists and organizations in Warren and Washington Counties. I am part of a three person staff, including fulltime employee Kori Albrecht, LARAC’sCommunity Outreach + Grants Director, and part time employee Diane Swanson, LARAC’s Program’s Director. The three of us are standing on the shoulders of giants that helped grow LARAC from a volunteer organization to a paid staff with a building that we own. We are beholden to our members and our community for keeping us in operation. As of 2025, we are operating on an annual budget of $360,000. This includes the $100,000 worth of NYSCA funding that Kori distributes to grantees within the counties we support.

Glens Falls Arts District Downtown Bike Racks | Image: Corey Aldrich

In 2025, LARAC also became the umbrella non-profit organization for the Glens Falls Arts District. GFAD, is a committee of local arts related non-profits that have been moving the needle, contributing as economic driving forces, and sculpting the landscape of the City of Glens Falls for decades. I firmly believe the arts are the foundation of Glens Falls. Recently the City, the Counties, and the region have begun to view us in the same light. Glens Falls is such a unique city. We are only roughly 15,000 people, yet we have such a strong arts scene. Thus, the AD was born. A collective effort to help solidify DRI funding from NYS, which GF was awarded 10 years ago. In the past few years, we have seen all the planning of that DRI to the tune of $10 million, come to fruition. The infrastructure efforts on South Street are accompanied by the public art, which is where the AD came into play! The AD consists of LARAC, the Park Theater, The Hyde Collection, the Charles R. Wood Theater, the Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra, the World Awareness Children’s Museum, the Chapman Museum, the Crandall Public Library, the Adirondack Theater Festival, North Country Arts, and The Shirt Factory. All arts entities in the city limits work together to beautify our city, encourage arts interaction by local and visiting populations, drive economic value to our city, and help each other all stay viable. These efforts have helped strengthen all of our relationships with each other and with the governing body of the City of Glens Falls, the EDC, and Warren and Washington Counties.

LARAC becoming the umbrella non-profit of the AD means the AD answers to the LARAC Board of Directors. However, what it really means is that it gives the AD a new opportunity to continue working together to positively impact our city. With the DRI initiative complete, we now have a new avenue to look for, and secure funding for future projects and have a collective voice stronger than any one of us does alone. This inherently helps LARAC further our mission of supporting our local and regional artists.

LARAC’s June Arts Festival 2025 in Glens Falls NY | Image: Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce

I really like your approach to getting your members art into hands of the general public. Between your full-time retail store and events like the annual LARAC ARTS FEST, how have you been able to leverage your relationship with the city and local businesses to advantage your members?

Part of our mission, in more detail, is to help artists become financially stable, grow their passion and abilities into potential income streams and help them start to take the next steps to becoming part-time or full-time professional artists. Helping artists get seen, whether it is in our gallery, our shop, our festivals, or our live music stages at the festivals…these are all avenues to get them in front of the general public.

Coincidentally, these same avenues to get the artist in front of the public also work as a platform to showcase and educate the public on the different forms of artistic expression. A venue to show our patrons obtainable local art, creating an environment for them to support these creatives. One of the biggest and most recognizable LARAC events that does this and truly showcases our wonderful relationship with the City and Warren County is our Annual LARAC June Arts Festival. An Annual event that started in 1972, this year will be our 56th event and will showcase over 165 artists, 10 non-profits, and 8 food trucks, all juried in from across the country to sell their handmade goods. June 13 – 14, 2026, LARAC will bring 15,000+ people from all over to the City of GF, creating the single biggest weekend economic driver event in the city and county. This event is made possible by our relationship with the City of Glens Falls, Warren County Tourism, and the local business which directly and positively impacts our members and our community.

Gallery Shop at LARAC in Glens Falls NY | Image: Corey Aldrich

Speaking of the city…you mentioned a group you are a part of called MOSAIC that includes the city and the IDA as I recollect. Can you tell us more about this group and where you see that going. It sounded like some really innovative stuff!

As I mentioned earlier, it is amazing what the city had going for it prior to intentional efforts to collaborate. In the recent present, as the organizations within the AD started working together in a calculated effort to improve our individual organizations by strengthening ourselves as a collective and beautifying the city, some wonderful opportunities have come up. Doors started to open in places we didn’t see coming. We started to build and strengthen relationships with our governing bodies and other entities that see the value in our efforts. One of those people, recently, has been Jim Siplon, the President and CEO of the Warren County Economic Development Corp (EDC). Jim and his office have created a collective group, many faces of the AD, as well as others from outside GF. This includes members of the IDA and leaders of non-profit groups and organization in Washington County who share a table and create a safe space to build ideas. Jim sees the value of the arts in GF and the potential we have as a springboard for positive growth and economic and cultural impact. Together we are working on ideas to unify and rally for future funding.

There is an inherent and immeasurable value in the positive impact of the arts and the culture it encourages. It is an effort worth our time, and LARAC, the AD, and MOSAIC understand this assignment.

LARAC Member Art Gallery Examples | Image: Provided

EXTRA CREDIT: Anything you would like to plug and additional things you would like to share beyond above?

LARAC is for everyone, join us in our Gallery, at our Festivals, and in our city.

WEB: larac.org | IG: @larac_arts

FROM DUN AND BRADSTREET TO INDEPENDENT THEATER W/ TANYA GORLOW

March 2, 2026 By Corey Aldrich

Participating on a new committee that is endeavoring to pull together arts and cultural organizations across Rensselaer County (more on this in an upcoming issue), I had the privilege of getting to know Tanya Gorlow. I mean, I had met her before at Sand Lake Center for the Arts where she is the current Executive Director but seeing her up close and in action in this work group, her professionalism and attention to detail…well, I knew I had to know more. Having not done a piece on the organization before it just seemed that now was the time.

Please state your name, organization, title. Can you give us a bit of backstory?

My name is Tanya Gorlow, I am the Executive Director at Sand Lake Center for the Arts in Sand Lake New York. My history with the center started in late winter/early spring of 2024 in a show called Little Wars. I was cast as Lillian Hellman in the fictional historical play by Steven Carl McCasland. I loved the kind, creative community that was part of SLCA. During my interview, I shared that supporting and fostering that community was a large part of my interest in the role.

I come from a background that includes leadership, marketing, production, and business development. I hold a Bachelors Degree in Anthropology and Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. I’ve held leadership roles at Dun & Bradstreet and Butcher Bird Studios. My professional endeavors supported a semi-professional career producing and performing in theatre. I found that I was learning and developing as a professional no matter what I was working on: leading a team of marketing professionals working on a product launch, breaking down a character or fundraising for an independent play. The ED role of SLCA feels like the culmination of the skills I developed in my day jobs and in the pursuit of my art.

Brighton Beach Memoirs 2025 at Sand Lake Center for the Arts in Sand Lake, NY | Image: Provided

Can you tell us a bit about SLCA? What does your programming look like? Your annual budget? How do you fit in the tapestry of such a small community?

SLCA is a not-for-profit community arts center offering theatre, music, visual arts, educational programs and more. We have a theater space, with flexible seating; a lobby that also serves as our gallery; and a small cafe that provides refreshments for our events or a place for catering to land during a rental. My understanding is that we are one of the few theaters in the Capital region that is accessible with a ramp up to the stage.

We have a 5 show theatrical season. For 2026, we opened with A Raisin In The Sun on January 30th; 1776 on April 10th; The Wolves on June 5th; Agatha Christie’s Black Coffee on August 7th; and Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound on October 16th. We also have a free concert series sponsored by Troy Sand & Gravel and Bonded Concrete, youth concerts, and musicians throughout the year. Our gallery is host to local artists – currently we have photographs on exhibit by Phil Caruso from when he was a set photographer. Vincent Caruso NYC street photography has been in the gallery during the month of February. We have workshops for all ages throughout the year, as well.

As a not-for-profit, we have fundraising events, including a Broadway revue at a local venue, and our gala, Taste of Sand Lake, where local restaurants offer a sampling of the area’s delicious cuisine.

Our annual budget is about $230,000.

A Fine Family Performed 2025 at the Sand Lake Center for the Arts in Sand Lake NY | Image: Provided

We’ve been in our current location since 2002. Originally, when Circle Theatre Players signed the lease for the building it wasn’t ready for performances, visitors, or even staff. It was through the efforts of the community that the performance space was created, the backstage area set up, storage and offices established, etc. I have been fortunate enough to meet the community members who raised the barn, put the siding on the building, wired the building, put the ceiling in the performance spaces, and did just about everything else you can imagine. I was at an event where one of our community members walked up to me and said, “I have your organ in my garage.” The history of this building and this organization is in the community around it, both the immediate Sand Lake/West Sand Lake/Averill Park area and the wider Capital Region.

Currently, I am the only full-time employee. We have a few highly-appreciated part-time folks. Everything else is done by our community, from our volunteers to our sponsors to our artists to our audience. Without any one of those groups, we wouldn’t function. My hope is that through our programming that we are able to give back to the community that gives so much to us by providing opportunities to create and learn more about art, as well as experience it. I also hope that we’re a place to reconnect with old friends or meet new ones in the gallery over a coffee from Gipfel’s (ED NOTE: For our story on Sand Lake Merchant) or at a show on a Friday night after enjoying happy hour or dinner at any of the wonderful local bars and restaurants. Whenever we can collaborate with a local organization, we’re always very happy to do it and have ongoing relationships with several.

Hiiiii!! Again Performed at the Sand Lake Center for the Arts in Sand Lake NY | Image: Provided

You have a strong arts and business background which gives you a rounded perspective. What would you say are the biggest challenges you have running SLCA and your methods for overcoming them?

Right now, I would say the biggest challenge is that there’s a ton of things to do that involve our programming, facilities management, fundraising, and community building and not enough time in the day. My joke last year was that I was keeping track of my surprise priority of the day: I’d go in to the center with a list of things to do, only to be surprised by something completely out of left field! Bees in the mailbox is still my favorite. My primarily method for figuring out how to tackle the growing to-do list is asking myself the following questions:

Does it impact the health and safety of anyone who comes into the building? I have shoveled the snow off the stairs more times than you can imagine because of this one. Also, the bees in the mailbox falls into this category!

Is there a deadline that affects our ability to operate? Our insurance and utility bills fall into this category, as do many other things.

Is someone waiting on me to move forward with something with will improve/impact the center? Grants, our committees, our employees and contractors, etc. are all part of this.

Is someone waiting on an answer that impacts their relationship with the center?
What will move us forward? That upper left hand corner of Stephen Covey’s Time Management Matrix for the biz nerds out there.

I’ll never get everything done, but I hope each day to be as effective as possible.

Exhibition Set Up in Barn Squares Gallery at the Sand Lake Center for the Arts in Sand Lake NY
Image: Provided

Barn Squares Gallery at Sand Lake Center for the Arts in Sand Lake NY | Image: Provided

You mentioned Arts Letter and Numbers in addition to Sand Lake Mechant above. How have you been able to synergize with local businesses and other mission oriented organizations in a way that creates a ‘there there’ for community?

Sand Lake Merchant has co-hosted the Merchant Market in the spring and the Holiday Market in the fall with us for a few years now. They’ve been fantastic partners, and also helped us in an incredible way during our Style on the Stage event in 2025. Brian Sheldon, who was SLCA’s previous ED for 7 years before me, worked with Arts Letter and Numbers and Nopiates for the Transformation project. There was also a performance experience that ALN held at SLCA in August of 2024.

In 2026, we’re working towards a collaboration in the gallery with ALN during the month of May. ALN does some really incredible work and there are a few things that I’d love to work with them on in the future, if we’re able. In my mind, collaboration between SLCA and ALN (and this applies to our other groups and businesses in the community) needs to take into consideration the needs of both organizations and ensure that both organizations, the artists, and the audience benefit. Since we both have physical spaces, I could imagine events in the future that has the audiences travel between the spaces to create a full experience.

Triskele Performs in 2025 at Sand Lake Center for the Arts in Sand Lake, NY | Image: Provided

SHAMELESS PLUG: Anything coming up we need to know about?

Yes! Coming up, we have our collaboration with AP Live, the Youth Music Showcase on 3/7, which highlights our areas local student musicians. We have an awesome ZenTangle craft workshop on 3/14, which is only $10 to register. We’re lucky enough to have Triskele here for St. Patrick’s Day on 3/17. And our next play is 1776, opening on 4/10.

WEB: slca-ctp.org | IG: @slca-ctp

Experimental Creativity as a Form of Inquiry w/ Exec Director Dena Beard

January 26, 2026 By Corey Aldrich

Long known as an organizational asset for resident artists and campus related endeavors, there is a new focus on finding ways to incorporate EMPAC (At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy) into the fabric of the downtown Troy community and beyond. Find out what is in process and in store from a recent conversation with newish Executive Director, Dena Beard.

Dena Beard : Executive Director at EMPAC in Troy NY | Photo : Emma Marie Chiang

Please state your name, organization and position. Can you share a bit about your experiential / academic background?

I’m Dena Beard, Executive Director of the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where I support artistic projects that challenge habituated forms of perception and invite new modes of engagement—across performance, sound, time-based media, and research-driven art.

Before coming to EMPAC, I served as Director of the Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College and spent nearly a decade as Executive Director of The Lab in San Francisco, working on projects rooted in experimental music, performance, and cross-disciplinary practice. Earlier in my career, I worked as Assistant Curator at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

Across these roles, my focus has been on creating conditions for artists to work rigorously and experimentally, while also building organizations that are legible, humane, and porous—places where process is visible and audiences feel invited into how work is made, not just asked to consume finished products. I’ve been shaped by how powerfully art can activate space, community, and imagination. That’s why I do this.

EMPAC : Studio 1 at Rensselaer Polytech Institute in Troy NY | Photo : Provided

You have an interesting diversity in institutional leadership between your time on the west coast with THE LAB in San Francisco and in NYC at Brooklyn College’s Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts. What made you decide to take on EMPAC and how is that background informing you in your approach?

EMPAC is unlike any other arts institution in the country. RPI made a once-in-a-generation investment in experimental art, research, and technology—and that ambition is real, not rhetorical. Over the years, EMPAC has supported more than 700 artists whose works now circulate internationally and enter major museum collections. What drew me here was the opportunity to steward a program that operates simultaneously as a performance venue, a research laboratory, and a civic space in Troy.

My prior work taught me that institutional frameworks can either obscure creativity or make space for it. At The Lab, we foregrounded artists’ ways of seeing and making, creating conditions for experimentation rather than containing work within predictable program structures. That included commissioning artists meaningfully, offering $25K to $150K and forms of support still rare in the field: healthcare, legal representation, full access to space. What emerged was an adaptive ecosystem: when artists were trusted, they shared resources and reshaped the organization itself.

At the Tow Center, I worked within a large public academic institution, supporting Brooklyn College’s Conservatory of Music and Department of Theater while bringing local and international artists into deep conversation with students and New York publics. That work taught me how to bridge academic environments and professional artistic practice without flattening either.

Coming to EMPAC was about merging these two approaches, one rooted in generosity and adaptability, the other accountable to a complex academic institution and a broader public. My goal isn’t to change EMPAC’s identity, but to make its extraordinary work more legible, more durable, and more connected to the people who live and work in Troy and across the Capital Region.

EMPAC : TOPOS Remote Peformance at the Gasholder Bldg in Troy NY | Photo : Patrick Dodson

EMPAC has been largely misunderstood by the public historically. I see you have been working on raising awareness not only about what it is but also finding ways to bridge the gap, creating a more inclusive interaction with the regional arts community and general public. Why do you feel that is important for the institution? What challenges are your facing in the implementation of that approach?

EMPAC was founded on the idea that art and research aren’t separate activities—that experimental creativity is a form of inquiry, and that technological innovation often requires imaginative leaps we don’t always recognize as artistic. Nearly two decades in, that premise still holds. The question now is how EMPAC carries this work forward in ways that offer models of imagination and resilience to people living in this region.

EMPAC has sometimes been perceived as opaque or inaccessible—not because the work isn’t compelling, but because the processes behind it haven’t always been visible. I think experimental work benefits from context, from gracious welcome, and from trust.

Hanae Utamura Performs at EMPAC in Troy, NY | Photo: Tara Holmes

For me, accessibility doesn’t mean simplifying the work. It means offering tangible points of entry: clear language, open doors, a public space for informal gathering—for food and drink, for conversation, for being together. Anyone who comes here should feel it’s their public park, a place to meet friends, go on a date, step away from screens for an hour, or even just take a nap between commitment

The challenge is doing this without flattening complexity. The initial capital funding for EMPAC expired more than a decade ago, and today over 80% of staff time and resources currently support campus projects. We’re figuring out how to offer more to the broader public without overextending staff or compromising EMPAC’s standing in the arts. That requires careful pacing, discipline, and a willingness to listen—to students, to artists, and to our neighbors in Troy. It’s slow work, but it’s essential if EMPAC is going to function not just as a laboratory and campus auditorium, but as a cultural anchor for the Capital Region.

Victoria Shen and Mariam Rezaei Performance at EMPAC in Troy NY | Photo : Michael Valiquette

What’s a typical day in the life look like for you?

There’s no such thing as a typical day, which probably explains why I love this work!

A day might include a technical walk-through with engineers and artists, a budget or infrastructure meeting with RPI leadership, a rehearsal, a conversation with faculty, and a late-night performance. In between, I’m thinking about long-term strategy: how EMPAC’s research mission aligns with RPI’s, how we care for a very complex building, and how we support a brilliant staff who are doing deeply specialized and deeply weird work.

A lot of my time is spent translating: between artistic and technical languages, between academic culture and public-facing programming, between ambition and sustainability. It’s demanding, but incredibly generative.

Leslie Cuyjet in Ephemeral Organ Festival at EMPAC in Troy NY | Photo : Michael Valiquette.jpg

SHAMELESS PLUG: Anything on the horizon that you have planned that you would like to share?

Absolutely. EMPAC is entering a really exciting phase.

This year we’re hosting three festivals that invite audiences from Troy and across the region into different ways of experiencing contemporary work: staging grounds (February 20–28), focused on time-based visual art; Corpus (April 23–25), dedicated to dance and movement-based practices; and Topos (September 3–5), centered on music. Each festival premieres new work we’ve produced alongside projects we’re eager for audiences to encounter—sometimes at early, evolving stages.

We’re also developing Interface, a more informal series designed to bring people into EMPAC through conversation, experimentation, and social exchange, hopefully with a drink in hand.

EMPAC is very much a living instrument, and I’m excited to invite more people to play it with us.

Troy Based Context Collective is a Creativity Hub for Local Artist Community

November 24, 2025 By Corey Aldrich

Mariah Kitner got on the ACE! radar a few years ago when we featured her clay art work on a social media post. Fast forward a couple of years and I am beginning to hear a buzz about a new gallery space in Troy called Context Collective. At the time, I did not make the connection but I kept hearing about well supported openings and great exhibitions. When I finally got in the loop it all came together and I realized that there was so much more to what was happening there than I could have possibly imagined. Mariah is a talented artist and a skilled business woman who puts the economy in creative, all the while creating a supportive space for artists and makers of all stripes in her little kingdom in downtown Troy.

Mariah Kitner: Director and Co-Founder at Context Collective in Troy, New York | Image: Debi Gustafson

Please state your name(s). What is your position in the company? Can you share a little about your educational or experiential background?

My name is Mariah Kitner, and I’m the Director and Co-Founder of Context Collective, a gallery, workshop, and private event space I run with my studio-mate and collaborator Ash King. I have a BFA in Painting with a minor in Art History from Pace University and have worked in galleries and artist management in New York City for nearly a decade before pivoting to ceramics in 2020. My studio practice, Context Clay, explores the intersection of art, design, and storytelling through hand-built and wheel-thrown ceramics. Ash and I share a commitment to building a creative community here in Troy, and Context Collective grew out of our desire to create an inclusive, intentional space for artists and the public to connect through art.

Opening at Context Collective in Troy New York | Image: Provided

What is the mission of CC?

The mission of Context Collective is to support emerging and underrepresented artists through exhibitions, hands-on workshops, and collaborative experiences that center accessibility, curiosity, and craft. At its heart, Context Collective exists to nurture creativity, connection, and care. We believe in creating space for artists and community members to come together, to make, to feel, to reflect, and to be seen. Our programs are designed with intention, offering moments of pause and presence in a fast-moving world. The space serves as a hub for creativity and community, where art becomes an act of togetherness.

Main Gallery Space at Context Collective in Troy New York | Image: Provided

Can you walk us through the different areas of the space?

Context Collective is located in downtown Troy in a space that’s both functional and inspiring. The front of the building serves as our gallery and workshop area, where we host exhibitions, artist talks, and creative gatherings. Upstairs is mine and Ash’s shared ceramic studio loft for wheel throwing and hand-building, and the back showroom displays our small-batch ceramic collections. Downstairs, we have our production and glaze room, a full events kitchen, and a kiln area where the behind-the-scenes magic happens. Every part of the space is designed for making, showing, and sharing art in the community.

Workshop at Context Collective in Troy New York | Image: Provided

Can you tell us a bit more about sustainability and what you see as income streams for the project?

Our sustainability model is rooted in diversity and collaboration. Context Collective generates income through a mix of workshops, private events, gallery rentals, retail ceramic sales, and exhibition sales. We also pursue grant funding and community-based crowd-funding to keep our programs accessible while supporting fair pay for artists. This balance allows us to maintain a high level of quality and care while growing sustainably within the local arts ecosystem.

Group Show at Context Collective in Troy New York | Image: Provided

What are your future plans for the space? Any expansion plans programmatic or otherwise?

As we move into our second year, our focus is on deepening the programs that have brought people together since we opened. We’ve hosted twelve exhibitions in our first twelve months, ranging in medium, theme, and scale, from local group shows to national open calls. In that same time, we’ve led fifty-four workshops focused on ceramics, craft, ritual, and artistic development.

Looking ahead, we’re expanding our partnerships, refining workshops, and building out our customizable private event packages for groups looking to celebrate through creativity. We’re also developing programming that brings new audiences into contact with contemporary art and craft. One of our most popular exhibitions was an open call community portrait show that featured seventy-one artists, and we’re planning to bring back our pilot Clay Play Days, which offered pay-what-you-can handbuilding sessions that were met with incredible enthusiasm. To keep these community-centered events accessible, we’re inviting donations through our ongoing PayPal campaign to help fund materials, artist stipends, and future programming.

Context Collective Co-Founder Making Ceramic Chains | Image: Provided

BONUS: Anything coming up we should know about?

Our most recent exhibition Love Note closed on Saturday November 22nd, marking the end of our first full year of programming. The show featured my large scale castle in the cloud ceramic vessels and Ash’s ceramic chains celebrating connection and imagination, it feels like a beautiful reflection of the year we’ve had.

We’re excited to open our next exhibit, The Context Winter Market, a winter market featuring twelve artists who have exhibited or led workshops with us in the past year. The market opens on Shop Small Saturday, November 29, and runs through December, with special events during the Troy Victorian Stroll on December 7 and Meet the Makers Day on December 13. Our regular gallery hours are Saturdays 11am-4pm and by appointment, with extended holiday hours in December on Fridays from 4pm-8pm.

WEB: contextclay.com | IG: @context.collective.troy

Tapping Into Creative Community Design with TAP’s Barb Nelson

October 8, 2025 By Corey Aldrich

If you have spend time in Troy in the arts scene you know her work. Breathing Lights, Uniting Line, Creative Crosswalks, Troy Alley Action…the list goes on. Barb Nelson is more than just a public arts instigator and supporter. Her firm TAP Inc has been at the forefront of the arts and affordable housing for decades. I caught up with her to hear about what she has percolating currently and it’s impressive. A public recreation space in Troys Little Italy neighborhood, an affordable for purchase condominium project, and a month long riff of NYC’s ARCHTOBER…a Troy Edition! with over 25 events in October ranging from lunch and learns, hard hat tours, TAPpy hours and a killer art exhibition. And this is just a small sampling of the projects currently in process, all done enthusiastically and with an on eye on community building.

Barb Nelson : Executive Director at TAP Inc in Troy, New York | Image: Corey Aldrich

Please state your name, company, title. Can you give us a bit of your back story as well? Education, the path to how you got here? Interesting tidbits welcome!

I’m Barb Nelson. I became the Executive Director here at TAP Inc. exactly 10 years ago. I first worked at TAP as an intern right out of school RPI from 1980 to 1986. I managed my own practice from ’86 to ‘91 then returned to RPI to work in Campus Planning. I spent 24 years with RPI as an architect, planner and adjunct professor. But I had never wandered far from TAP’s community development mission and as such, I jumped at the chance when they needed a director in 2015. Along the way I’ve married, raised 2 daughters, renovated 2 homes, painted a dozen public murals, produced some circus shows, and served on a dozen boards, task forces and commissions. I like how easy civic engagement is in Troy.

TAP Inc Office Building in Troy, New York | Image: Provided

What does a typical day look like for you?

What’s a typical day? Some days are quiet, focused on the work of running a business. Some days are anxious grant deadlines collecting and formatting data for applications. We are a storefront so someday’s are busy with unscheduled walk-ins. I spend a lot less time on project sites measuring or monitoring construction work these days. we have a strong focus on place-making through participatory public art so on any given day we could be painting bridge abutments! Whether I’m designing a stair detail or connecting a client with grant funding, every day involves creative problem solving. TAP is like that, there’s always something different to take care of.

Barb Nelson Review Plans with Stakeholders | Image: Courtesy of Breathing Lights

How many staff do you have and what disciplines do they represent?

We have an amazing team of eleven ‘Totally Awesome Professionals!‘ 3 architects, 1 construction admin specialist, 4 license track designers, 1 sustainability director, an operations wizard, and a director of finance. Among us we have dancers, musicians, runners, builders, makers, artists, cooks and performers!

The Arts Center of the Capital Region Facade Project | Image: Provided

Habitat for Humanity Housing Plan Rendering | Image: Provided

What is the mission at TAP and as a NFP architectural firm, how do you fit in compared to other architectural and design professionals, the overall ecosystem?

TAP has been restoring, rebuilding, and revitalizing historic structures and urban neighborhoods since 1969. Many architects develop specialties, like schools, hospitals, homes, or retail. TAP’s niche is bringing vacant, damp, burned, and deteriorated structures back to life. When you do that, you bring life back to a neighborhood. We are partly funded by NYS so we can reduce our fees for qualified clients. We also can help neighborhoods envision change through community design. We can assist other non-profits in accessing grant money for their facilities. We’ve helped Habitat for Humanity build about 90 homes in the region. We’re big on collaboration with other organizations. We believe that ‘Together Anything’s Possible.’ TAP is one of 8 regional non-profit partners that make up the Capital Region Clean Energy HUB, managing energy saving upgrades for low income homeowners, and promoting clean energy job training.

Left to Right: Mayor McCarthy (Schenectady), Mayor Sheehan (Albany), Barb Nelson, Mayor Madden (Troy) and Adam Freland | Image: Courtesy Breathing Lights

Breathing Lights Installation in Schenectady, New York | Image: Courtesy Breathing Lights

Uniting Line Project | Hoosick Street Bridge in Troy, New York | Image: Provided

Any projects you are especially excited about right now?

We have so many! We are working with Affordable Housing Partnership in Albany to disseminate hundreds of home improvement grants for Low to Moderate Income Homeowners. In Schenectady, we have vacant homes being renovated by Better Community Neighborhoods Inc.

Closer to home, construction will start soon at Troy’s Little Italy Market Park, where TAP helped obtain grant money to transform the asphalt lot into a pocket park. We always have accessibility projects, making homes more livable for people with disabilities. We also just completed the restoration of 140 historic window sash at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy.

Adler Place Site Plan : Future Affordable Condominium Project | Image: Provided

Finally, our biggest effort these days is the development of Adler Place, 32 affordable courtyard condominium units in Troy. Our plate is full for sure but there’s always room for more. Our project list proves out our mantra, ‘Trusted Affordable Proactive.’

Shamless Plug: Anything we should know about that you have percolating?

Yes, we just kicked off a new initiative called ARCHTOBER: Troy Edition! A month-long festival celebrating architecture, architects and all the creatives responsible for our built environment. Did you know we have over a dozen architecture firms in Troy? Most are within a few blocks of each other downtown.

To find out more about this exciting series go to the TAP website and see the robust calendar line up of TAPpy Hours, films, trivia, hard hat tours, webinars, book talks, lectures, and a great closing party that will see us form a collaborative event with fellow arts organization Collar Works and their annual Mad Collar Party. Collaboration is a big part of this series and we have partnered up with several for profit architectural firms, and arts and cultural organizations including the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, the Arts Center of the Capital Region, Tech Valley COG, the Hart Cluett Museum, 518 Film Network, Picture Lock One, WMHT, Architecture +, Mosaic Associates, ME Studio, Lightexture, the North Eastern New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and more!

If you know a young person who’s curious about the profession please bring them to ARCHTOBER one of our events.