Hiking Orange County

Enjoyed a great hike from Cascade Lake in Warwick to Grandview overlooking Greenwood Lake today. Great picnic at Bellvale Farms also. Planning a kayaking trip soon on the Hudson and continuing with the hiking excursions. Orange County is a really cool place to live and work. Will post photos soon...

Wildlife at the Seligmann Homestead

Earlier this spring we were lucky enough to have two baby Great-Horned owls hatched at the Seligmann Homestead - right outside our office windows. They eventually moved a little further off to a quieter location, just in time for a new fawn to be born at the office. Last week, we got to enjoy the bleating of a very annoyed fawn who was longing for its mother (who was off feeding during the day). It was a lovely sight, made more so by the knowledge that we have a peaceful enough setting here that even protective mothers like our deer and owl feel comfortable raising their young at the Seligmann Homestead.

Metro-North RR Visits Citizens Foundation

Held an informational breakfast this morning with Howard Permut, President of Metro-North RR. Learned about current programs, ridership and new initiatives. Some good progress has been made but we have a long way to go before mass transit is where it could/should be for our residents. Now that we have to pay an additional tax to the MTA we need to constantly advocate for more and better service.

Sugar Loaf Mtn Hike

OCCF Trustee Bob Krahulik and OCCF Friend Al "Skip" Buckbee led a group of 160+ hikers up Sugar Loaf Mountain on Saturday. The weather held out for us - the hike was great (so I heard) and the hikers enjoyed the trip and the picnic lunch we supplied afterwards. For more information about events like these, sign up for our email list by emailing bonnie@occitizensfoundation.org.

Homage to: Grattage, Frottage, Fumage and Collage

Join this independent hands-on workshop that explores the Surrealist techniques of:

Grattage-Surrealist technique of grattage, which involved scraping off dry pieces of paint, resulting in random lines and shapes.

Frottage- (from French frotter, "to rub") is a Surreal and "automatic" method of creative production developed by Max Ernst. In frottage the artist takes a pencil or other drawing tool and makes a rubbing over a textured surface. The drawing can be left as is or used as the basis for further fantasy driven articulation.

Fumage-is a Surrealist technique attributed to Wolfgang Palen in which impressions are made by the smoke of a candle onto a piece of paper or canvas.

and Collage (from the French: coller, to glue) is a work of art, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. A collage may include printed material from magazine or newspaper, labels, ticket stubs and photos and may include found objects, portions of other artwork affixed and or glued to a piece of paper or canvas. The origins of collage can be traced back hundreds of years, but this technique made a dramatic reappearance in the early 20th century with the Surrealists many of whom visited and worked in the Seligmann studio

Our group will be working outside on the lawn of the Orange County Citizens Foundation near the studio of Kurt Seligmann so if it rains, we can all work in watercolor!

The date:

July 15th, 1:00 PM
Remember to bring your own supplies and lots of imagination!
Pot Luck Picnic- Bring something Surreal that you would like to eat and share

While this is an open free workshop an attendance registration is required please call Bonnie @ 845-469-9459 or contact Professor Slater-Tanner @ susan.slatertanner@sunyorange.edu for further details.

Tweeting with the Citizens Foundation

We're always eager to find ways to keep connected with our Orange County citizenry and so thanks to Citizens Foundation Chair Noreen Fennell, we now have Tweeting capability. That's right, you can now follow us on Twitter at occfny - learn more about our upcoming events and initiatives as they happen!

Susan Beth Pfeffer Visits Local Students

Award-winning author Susan Beth Pfeffer visited students at the CJ Hooker Middle School on May 13th as part of the Citizens Foundation's Read All About It traveling cultural exhibit. The students had read one of Ms. Pfeffer's riveting science fiction novels earlier this year and were eager to learn more about the author and her work. Thanks to Kathryn Loughran, Library Media Specialist at CJ Hooker Middle School and Ms. Pfeffer for their cooperation.