Since 1976 Unison has fostered culture & community in NY's mid-Hudson Valley, just 1.5 hours north of NYC. Unison's performances, outdoor sculpture exhibits, and workshops provide the opportunity to build diversity in an intimate and inclusive setting. Unison is located on 14 acres at the foot of the Shawangunk Mountains in the Town of New Paltz, New York. The Bartz family farmed the Unison proper
ty until the early founders of Unison, including Peter Pitzele and Stuart & Helene Bigley purchased the land. The Bigleys own the property to this day and continue to rent the theater and grounds to Unison. was incorporated in 1976; its first project was the Friends of the Mountain School, a pre-elementary school with an emphasis on creativity and the arts. The school closed in the early 1980s, when Unison began to evolve into the multi-arts center it is today by gaining funding from NYSCA to grow into a cultural center for the public. In 2012, founding, artistic, executive director Stuart Bigley retired, after leading Unison for 37 years. As arts funding became scarce, Unison faced a possibility of closure. In 2017, Alexandra Baer was chosen as the new executive director to revive Unison. Since 2017, the mission of Unison Arts has been bridging together 42 years of traditional art based community services with new learning patterns and innovative art practices that cultivates sustainability in our relations with the environment and each other. Unison's artistic vision has been and continues to be community minded, and is moving toward inclusive programming in sustainability and equality. We offer visual artists, musicians, actors, playwrights, dancers, and experimental artists an opportunity to showcase their talents and ideas and to also teach classes or workshops. We see Unison now as a newly reorganized vibrant heart of an already vital community with a rich history of quality programming. Unison is a place where everyone comes to experience the performing and fine arts in an intimate and inviting atmosphere. On the cutting edge from the very beginning, Unison presented poet Allen Ginsberg, Galen Blum, John Herald, and Priscilla Herdman and was one of the first venues for Playback Theater. Today Unison stays on the cutting edge launching programming such as the Prejudice Project; connecting arts and storytellers to address stories of discrimination, Owning Earth; an innovative 2-year land-based sculpture exhibit addressing issues in sustainability from multiple perspectives, and innovative creative education opportunities for youth, such as our Create! Online Series; a process & collaboration based creative after school program. The current climate for the arts has changed our programming to include more outdoor activities & online events. The good fortune of having a 14 acre area surrounding the Unison building is offering us many ways to serve the community, with a large open sculpture garden for guests to wander around in for no charge, and an outdoor stage which invites a lower-capacity audience in COVID times. Unison strives to maintain a safe, intimate setting where audiences get to interact with and hear personal stories from music, theater, spoken word, and dance performers. Unison has also adapted our in-person events to an online format such as the online event 30th Annual Craft Art & Design Fair, and the Unison Live-ish Online Fundraiser Performance Series that was launched in March 2020 to help bridge the quarantine gap. Unison has also adapted to and works within NYS guidelines to host successful, safe events in person such as low-capacity Life Drawing in addition to the outdoor performances. The true spirit of Unison lives on in the foundation that has been passed down to us for over 40 years. Unison will always strive to provide education, community, and connections through high quality cultural & artistic experiences. Unison acts on the desire to connect and celebrate true, interconnected human culture by creating space for it right here in the Hudson Valley. We do this work with hope that our history and our plans for the future become a beacon of light to serve the whole through arts and connection, as our society continues to evolve.
