Performing Arts

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.

The Revolution WILL BE…In Person!

January 26, 2026 By Corey Aldrich

2026 is really kicking off with a bang. ACE! was on location for the grand re-opening of three major regional institutional arts organizations including The Egg (Albany), Saratoga Arts (Saratoga) and a new and expanded space for Albany Center Gallery (Albany). This represents some major investment in our region in community arts, culture and entertainment, and helps drive the Capital Region as a creative economy hub for work and play with an investment to the tune of well over $20M collectively. Find out what each organization was able to add and refresh with their reset and how that will impact future forward programming for our region.

THE EGG | YOUR EGG IS SERVED (ALBANY NY)

The Egg Staff Celebrates at the Grand Re-Opening Event | Photo: Megan Mumford

After a six month closure, state and local leaders cut the ribbon this month for a $19.5M renovation at The Egg. Though the project predates Governor Kathy Hochul’s $400m Championing of Albany’s Potential initiative, it complements the overall mission and direction being mapped out for Albany by her office.

The Egg : Crowd Shot at the Grand Re-Opening Event | Photo: Elissa Ebersold

The Egg : Dancing to DJ Hollywood at the Grand Re-Opening Event | Photo: Elissa Ebersold

The Egg is a performing arts center located in Albany, N.Y.’s Empire State Plaza. An unmistakable feature of the capital city’s skyline, the venue houses two theatres encased in a domed, egg-like concrete structure that took 12 years to construct and was completed in 1978. The Egg presents music, art, theatre, comedy, dance, and family entertainment year-round.

“The Egg is a meeting place for New Yorkers and visitors looking to immerse themselves in the thriving creative industries that are integral to our state’s bold identity,” Governor Kathy Hochul said. “As part of Downtown Albany’s revitalization, this long-awaited renovation modernizes one of the Capital Region’s most distinct cultural landmarks. This new chapter of The Egg showcases the value of spaces where the arts and culture converge...”

OGS (New York State Office of General Services) oversaw a project that modernized the interior of the building while honoring its original design and mission. Work included replacing seating and carpeting throughout both the Kitty Carlisle Hart and Lewis A. Swyer theatres and all public areas; installing a state-of-the-art, fully automated LED theatrical lighting system; and adding new dimmable LED house lighting that better showcases the building’s unique architecture.

The Egg : Hart Lobby Before Renovation | Photo: Megan Mumford

The Egg : Hart Lobby After Renovation | Photo: Megan Mumford

“The Egg is a place where art happens with no straight lines, and these renovations make it possible for us to serve Albany and all of New York in a bigger way. We are deeply grateful to Governor Hochul for believing in this building and making this investment in the arts possible ” said Diane Eber :Executive Director The Egg

The renovation also expands accessible seating in both theatres, upgrades restrooms, and adds an induction loop assistive listening system to improve the experience for guests who use hearing aids or cochlear implants. Public spaces have been refreshed with restored mid-century finishes and new custom furniture designed to complement The Egg’s ellipsoidal structure, aligning the interior with the boldness of the exterior for the first time since the venue opened in 1978.

“Updating The Egg reaffirms the importance of the arts scene in the Capital Region and supports our efforts to reconnect Downtown with its residents and visitors. ” Senator Patricia A. Fahy

The Egg : New Seating and Carpet | Photo: Megan Mumford

The renovation supports a renewed vision for The Egg as a statewide performing arts center and destination, where the building itself is an integral part of the artistic experience. The upgrades will enable more complex productions, improve comfort and accessibility for audiences, and ensure the venue can continue to serve as a gathering place for decades to come.

“When people come to visit our great City of Albany, The Egg is the first building they see on our skyline. This exciting renovation helps to solidify this structure as an icon of our downtown, and I am thrilled to celebrate its completion. ” Albany Mayor Dorcey Applyrs

WEB: theegg.org | IG: @theegg | ADDRESS: EMPIRE STATE PLAZA

ALBANY CENTER GALLERY | MORE ART EVERYWHERE (ALBANY NY)

Albany Center Gallery : Ribbon Cutting Event for the New Digs | Photo: Provided

Located in the old Pizza 54 space on North Pearl Street (Known by many back in the day as Pizza Timmy’s!). Albany Center Gallery has significantly expanded their space from 1700 sqft at their previous location to 6600 sqft. The new space features offices, storage, a kitchen, a larger education space that can also be used as a secondary gallery, and a large street front main gallery that currently is showcasing over 200 works in it’s annual member show.

Jankow Companies oversaw the fit up in conjunction with Platt Construction. This was partially funded with a grant from Capitalize Albany for build out costs. Additional funds to underwrite the move where funded via specific donations and / or were covered via a specified funding campaign.

Albany Center Gallery : New Location Opening Night Crowd | Photo: Michael Joyce

“With more space, we are able to support more artists, present more ambitious exhibitions, and bring even more of the community together under one roof. Our new home at 48 North Pearl Street allows us to expand our programs, activate the gallery with evening events, and create dynamic, welcoming experiences where art becomes part of everyday life in downtown Albany.” stated Tony Iadicicco, Executive Director at Albany Center Gallery “It’s a big step forward for ACG and for the artists and community we serve. As we move forward, we remain committed to our mission, uplifting, showcasing, and advocating for the creative community while ‘Bringing Art Everywhere.’”

Albany Mayor Dr. Dorcey Applyrs marked January 16, 2026 as “Albany Center Gallery Day” inaugurating the day in City of Albany history.

Albany Center Gallery : Tony Iadicicco Executive Director | Photo: Corey Aldrich

WEB: albanycentergallery.org | IG: @albanycentergallery
ADDRESS: 48 N. PEARL ST.

SARATOGA ARTS | YOUR COMMUNITY ARTS CENTER (SARATOGA SPRINGS NY)

Saratoga Arts : Re-Opens After Upgrades | Photo: Spencer Sherry

I recently caught up with Amy Bloom, Executive Director at Saratoga Arts in Saratoga Springs, NY for an update on their renovation efforts. They just finished up a $2M+ space renovation / upgrade and recently re-opened to the public after a 6 month build out period. Funding sources included $1M from the City of Saratoga Springs, $766K through a capital grant from NYSCA (New York State Council of the Arts) with the remainder fundraised by Saratoga Arts’ board members, donors and a few other local foundations.

The renovation has resulted in several key improvements – a new gallery with programmable, energy efficient lighting, 2 renovated bathrooms, an upgraded theater (including a sound booth and new projector/sound equipment), and replacement windows throughout much of the building — in particular the curtain wall (The windows that face the carousel in the back of the building).

Saratoga Arts : *Shown* Allan Weatherwax (Board President), Amy Bloom (Executive Director) and Spencer Sherry (Grants and Community Outreach Coordinator) | Photo: Corey Aldrich

On the lower level you will find new lighting and ceilings throughout most of the classrooms, including a door from the main classroom providing direct access to Congress Park. To follow, a patio will be installed in collaboration with the City of Saratoga, slated later in spring 2026. The printmaking studio has new plumbing and a new sink was added in the smaller classroom. Additional improvements include upgraded wifi (especially on the lower level where there was none prior), a new boiler, new gutters, and electrical panels throughout much of the building.

“As a supporter of Saratoga Arts for over 30 years, NYSCA is proud to be a part of this extensive renovation project, which has created a multi-use facility to serve thousands of visitors. This new sustainable space will serve as a catalyst for creativity and collaboration for the entire region. Congratulations to the entire Saratoga Arts team, we look forward to decades more of your innovative and accessible programming.” Erika Mallin : Executive Director of NYSCA (New York State Council of the Arts)

Per Amy, the renovations will significantly improve Saratoga Arts ability to fulfill their programmatic mission to the community and provide an enhanced experience for community engagement.

WEB: saratogaarts.org | IG: @saratogaarts | ADDRESS: 320 BROADWAY

Kyra D. Gaunt PhD is Unapologetically Pushing Back and Taking Space

October 8, 2025 By Corey Aldrich

I recently attended an event hosted by the The New York Writers Institute with author Keach Hagey regarding her recent book on Sam Altman, The Optimist. Though I am not convinced of Sam’s motives I was pleasantly surprised at a post event dinner (that Paul Grandal and Elisabeth Gray were kind enough to include me in), to meet SUNY Albany’s AI and Society Fellow Kyra D. Gaunt PhD. Her perspectives on the AI tool set, her research on specific biases in the music industry, and in the roots of culturally driven video editing practices intrigued me so, I just had to find out more about this dynamic personality and pick her brain about the universe of things she has poured herself into.

Kyra D. Gaunt, PhD : University at Albany, SUNY | Image: Provided

Please state your name, current position(s) / organization(s). Can you also give us a bit of your educational background and personal path as well?

My name is Kyra D. Gaunt, PhD. I am an Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology in Music, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS), and Sociology.

Going to a community college, I never expected to become a professor. I am a proud graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where I received my PhD in ethnomusicology specializing in black girlhood studies and hip hop as music. All of my previous degrees are in classical voice. I started pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts while studying with the famed tenor, George Shirley. I am a singer, songwriter and jazz improvisational vocalist. I released an album in 2007 titled Be the True Revolution, named after a line from the poem When I Die (1970) by Nikki Giovanni.

I’m originally from Rockville Maryland from a community founded in 1891 called Linkin Park. My great great grandfather was a freedom seeker from Portsmouth, Virginia, escaping the free labor slavery camps in 1855. He changed his name from Robert Irving to Sheridan Ford and landed in Springfield, Massachusetts where my grandfather and his two brothers were from before they moved to the DC Maryland area. My great great grandmother also escaped from enslavement dressed as a man around the same time and migrated to Springfield, Massachusetts as well.

I only learned this in 2014 cause it’s the kind of knowledge that isn’t passed down by word of mouth in most African-American families. So my ancestors trace their history back nine generations: see here.

You can find more information about my work on the TED Fellows Blog.

You have so much going on! Its hard to pick where to focus. That said, one of the areas that I have interest in is your writing. Can you talk a bit about that and how you came to be published? Are you still active as a writer?

When I was still young and naïve (a fledgling 19!), I had my diary invaded by my mother‘s boyfriend at the very moment I was coming-of-age sexually. I’ve never shared this publicly, but it’s what inspires my current research project for a book that will come out next year titled PLAYED: How Music, Mutes and Monetizes Black Girls on YouTube.

I suffered 20 years of stage fright. My love language became procrastination! (lol) Writers block of one form or another followed. I thought academia wasn’t for me and left to get my MRS Degree. After a 5 year adjunct with TED I ended up landing here at University at Albany.

What has helped me find my voice has been my art and my artistry, my exploration of being true to the ancestral voice inside me that loves to sing and dance. Be silly and to teach others to free their voice. The root of my trauma has been emotional manipulation, so my work is often about that from research to teaching. If you ask me what I do as a teacher, I tell people that I teach emerging adults to own their own greatness, and their intellectual, emotional and social fitness.

One of the areas you explore as an ethnomusicalogist and professor is music videos on youtube, specifically in the area of black girlhood and musical blackness. You cover a number of areas but one was of specific interest to me. Can you share a bit about what ‘supercuts‘ are and maybe elaborate on that as a feminist practice that has a genesis that has been largely overlooked historically, and why it matters? Also, do you see a larger meaning or influence of this style of editing specifically in our current, larger cultural and political context as a communications style / tool?

I have a featured Vlog on my YouTube channel about the history of ‘supercuts.’ Most people don’t know that the vidding community of girls and women, invented the idea of ‘supercuts’ something that has taken over video culture since 2007. Vidding is when amateur content creators remix clips from their favorite songs and television shows together into an emotional narrative. It’s an underground scene that’s over 40 years in the making. As frequently is the case, the contributions of the most marginalized communities gets co-opted or gentrified by mainstream entities for profit, and the real influencers are left behind. The vidding community was primarily white and Latina. I’ve tried in my collaborative research with undergrads to change that. I prioritize emotional and effective labor with my students, who are emerging adults. In academia we focus a lot on STEM and book knowledge but not on helping students learn to have greater empathy for themselves and others. When we do that, we have more empathy for black girls and brown girls and disabled girls and other marginalized girls whose lives are often not represented by headlines about the harms of social media that have been in the news the last few years, even to the point of leading to congressional hearings. The black girl is the most disrespected user in the precarious and unregulated spaces of online content creation for kids and youth.

The aesthetic found in the female vidding community are similar aesthetics to most communities, but particularly the African aesthetic found from remix culture to dub culture and music. I argue with my first book that these aesthetics come from black girls game songs from hand club, games cheers and double dutch jump rope play. It’s the musicianship of gaming that is the hidden obvious as we like to say as ethnographers.

Still from TED TALK by Kyra D. Gaunt, PhD : University at Albany, SUNY | Image: Provided

You are also an ‘AI and Society’ Fellow at SUNY Albany. When we met, you had an interesting perspective on AI and how educators should consider approaching the tool with regards to student use…care to revisit that?

I found a new home thanks to Elizabeth Gray in the AI & Society Research Center at University at Albany. Most people on campus are pretty conservative about technology because our infrastructure really doesn’t help us explore new media and new emerging technologies. I recently spent two weeks writing a proposal for a Guggenheim fellowship in which I explore how the nonverbal sonic aspects of musical blackness cannot be read by AI’s large language models (LLM).

‘They tend to be text and visual based, but even when they do and code voice like Siri or Alexa, how do they translate in eyes and oops of African musical aesthetics?‘

I transcribed that last sentence by audio and you see what it produced. Let me transcribe that with human ingenuity: How does AI translate the aahs, the umms, the James Brown screams and field hollers, the Cardi B rolled kitten r’s or the moans from spirituals to jazz without a micro archive to develop systems of artificial intelligence consistent with ways of thinking, feeling, believing and behaving that are not from the term forms of knowledge associated with WEIRD nations (White, English Speaking, Industrialized, Rich Democracies).

I want to study with what Legacy Russell calls Glitch Feminism. The ghosts in the machine of artificial intelligence, the missing links, the faux pas that signal that you can’t read blackness. It begs the question: Does AI have any black and female friends? Like the old saying goes, ‘there’s truth in jest.’ Unless we have more ethnomusicologists interpreting non-western cultures in LLMs, more of us doing work with supercomputers like what’s available at the University at Albany, and having those systems made available to scholars like me – – a black women, brown women, people with disabilities, neurodivergents – the true revolution will be lost and left to only the most privileged in WEIRD Nations as we move into the age of post human AI intelligence. We are inhabiting the world that Octavia Butler imagined in ‘Parable of the Sower’. And I for one, will will do my best not to let that happen. I may be 63 years old and not considered somebody who is interested in new technology just because of my age. But my wisdom and ancestors who speak through me have so much more to offer than many of my students at a public university who have not been educated to trust their own thinking, take liberties and have compassion for people who are ‘not like us.’ (to riff off last summers Kendrick Lamar hit)

Presentation Board with Kyra D. Gaunt, PhD : University at Albany, SUNY | Image: Provided

In 2018 you had a TED video called “How the Jump Rope Got Its Rhythm” that has a total of over 7M views with translations in 29 languages. While covering the history of jumping rope and its importance as a tool of young female identity you also discussed how that playground practice then moved on to influence popular culture, specifically with black artists. Care to share a bit about this? I was intrigued by the concept of ‘Kinetic Orality‘ as a tool for memory. Please elaborate!

Kinetic orality and aurality is our first technology, both musical and otherwise. Hearing is the first sensory cognitive organ to develop in the womb. Nonverbal communication is our first language, it’s why in my opinion you should teach kids sign language before they can speak. There’s a gene in our DNA that prevents us from being able to say certain things with our tongue until a certain age. It’s just part of human development. However, kids can start to speak before they learn English by using sign language. We communicate all kinds of emotional knowledge and effective information by eye contact, tone, voice, facial expressions, gesture, timing, body posture, intensity, and our reactions to other human beings around us. Neuroscientist Daniel Siegel says that this is how you build an integrated brain in a child or in an adult. How does AI do this without hormones, without all of those factors of an integrated brain so that it can reproduce knowledge that I’d identify as African or African-American in tone, feel, touch and other sensibilities? Not just literate and visual communication?

Kinetic orality lives through the embodied action and percussion in games like telephone that we all remember from childhood. Black girls game songs have that added dimension of rhythmic intricacy and contrast expressed in polyrhythms, complexity and touch. We share hormones that keep us alive through touch, through hugs, through smiles and through laughter. AI doesn’t know how to tell a good black joke is my bet. It doesn’t know how to give sass and clap back to boys and men who think they can turn you into a joke or a punch line, whether it’s the Charlie Kirk‘s or the Drake’s of the world. Whether it’s the bullies or the sexual predators.

Kinetic orality is a term invented by Cornell West from 1989. He called it, the passionate physicality and embodied communication we used to survive and dream of freedom. I call it a technology, our first. Socio-biologists believe that music is our first technology. It’s what let us to walk upright to be able to sing a lullaby to a child swaddled on your back while you’re foraging or hunting. It led to how we language beyond the present to tell stories about the past and the future. Musical tone speech became the languages we all speak. Sets of pops and hisses as neuropsychologist Lera Boroditsky says turns into thousands of different languages among a single human race sharing 99.8% of the same DNA.

Embodied scripts of epigenetic or ancestral memory as behavior becomes part of our learned ways of being musical blackness. The earliest formation of a black popular music culture learned by kids, taught by girls, happens at a very young age; girls are taste makers of Black popular culture but they receive no royalties for them because they are children, they are female and they aren’t literate yet.

Finally, you also a singer songwriter in the jazz genre. How often do you gig and where can we find some of your music?

Right now I’m writing a memoir which I call a vocal memoir due to the fact that it’s based around several micro stories regarding my teaching after receiving hate mail my first year in the profession back in 1997, pertaining to various dimensions of my song life. A spiritual accompanies a story about why isn’t there a chapter on love in an anthropology textbook. The first song I ever wrote about meeting my dad at age 40 is accompanied by a story about daddy’s and daughters in the black community and the way people talk about deadbeat dads and won’t forgive the human experience. It’s my one woman show called Education Liberation: A Vocal Memoir. The tag is, ‘I know why the caged bird won’t sing.’

I performed it at University at Albany twice. The last time was in 2022. I sit in at a jazz jam sessions when I can, but now that I have arrived at having tenure, I can do more of the things I love. I’ve been cultivating the idea of doing an Albany First Friday event where I sing, tell stories and read poetry in the cozy lounge at the Argus Hotel in downtown Albany…

You can find my CD on all major platforms from iTunes to Spotify. But if you want me to make a few coins, then buy it on CDBaby. I love doing small gigs, parties or celebrations and I’m also a voice over artist. People love the voice that I was born with. I did the last national campaign for Planned Parenthood before Roe v. Wade was overturned. In fact, it was my first voice over gig ever.