SEASONAL EVENTS
Kaatsbaan’s programs and capital projects are made possible thanks to the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
SATURDAY
OCTOBER 11
Conversation + Reception with Dawoud Bey
Saturday, October 11, 7:00 PM
$5–$15 Sliding Scale General Admission
60 minutes, followed by reception
Black Box Theater, Studio Complex
Dawoud Bey, acclaimed photographer and educator is in conversation with Sophie Landres, Curator, and Exhibitions Manager of The Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz. Bey and Landres will discuss his much celebrated bodies of work beginning with the 2013 Birmingham Project up through his most recent 2025 exhibition at the Sean Kelly entitled Stony The Road. After the conversation, attendees are welcome to join the artist and curator for a reception in the Lobby Gallery with books for sale.
Groundbreaking artist and MacArthur Fellow Dawoud Bey examines the Black past and present. His photographs and film installations have been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States and Europe. Bey’s work has been the subject of numerous solo museum exhibitions, including Dawoud
Dawoud Bey, Taylor Falls and Deborah Hackworth, 2014 (From the series, The Birmingham Project). Pigmented ink photographs (Diptych). Edition of 6 plus 2 APs). © Dawoud Bey. Courtesy Stephen Daiter Gallery / Rena Bransten Gallery / Sean Kelly Gallery.
Bey: An American Project organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art (2020-2022), and Elegy at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (2023-2024) and New Orleans Museum of Art (2025-2026); and Dawoud Bey: Street Portraits at the Denver Art Museum (2024-2025). He has been the subject of several monographs, including Elegy (Aperture/VMFA, 2023), which chronicles Bey's history projects and landscape-based work. Bey is the recipient of numerous awards including five honorary doctorates, and in 2024, the artist was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bey lives and works in Chicago and New York. He is currently a Critic at Yale University, where he received his Masters in Fine Arts, and is Professor Emeritus at Columbia College, Chicago.
Sophie Landres is a curator and art historian, specializing in intermedia, critical theory, and contemporary art. She is the Curator and Exhibitions Manager of The Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz, NY and serves as an Arts Commissioner and member of the Public Art Committee for the City of Kingston, NY. Sophie has organized exhibitions, performances, and discursive events in New York, NY, Marfa, TX, and Miami, FL and taught at Columbia University, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, The New School, and New York University. Her writing has appeared in Art Basel Stories, Art Journal, The Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, and PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art among other publications. Sophie holds a PhD in Art History and Criticism from Stony Brook University, an MFA in Art Criticism and Writing from the School of Visual Arts, and a BA in Political Science from the University of Iowa. She is currently working on a series of essays about policing.
THURSDAY
OCTOBER 16
NEW WORK PREVIEw: new york theatre ballet
Thursday, October 16, 6:00 PM
Free General Admission
RSVPs encouraged
75 minutes, includes Q+A
Black Box Theater, Studio Complex
New York Theatre Ballet opens its 2025–26 Season at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park with a creative residency, that culminates with intimate previews of two visionary, new works and a timeless masterpiece. Audiences will get a first look at these works ahead of their New York City premiere in the Spring of 2026. Featured Works include:
Letters to My Father: Final Chapter: Choreographer Kevin Iega Jeff, in collaboration with Darryl J. Hoffman (composer), adds his vision to the Letters to My Father series in its final iteration. This poignant exploration examines the complex, often challenging relationship between male-presenting choreographers, composers, and their fathers. It’s a deeply emotional and thought-provoking work that promises to be both powerful and moving.
All the Flowers Are Behind Us: Set to the evocative score Piano 2 by Julius Eastman, Julian Donahue presents his new work. The piece delves into the uncertainty of our shared future, contrasting the organic beauty of nature with the starkness of artificiality. It’s a work that speaks to the tensions we face in a rapidly changing world.
Photo by Tom Caravaglia. Courtesy New York Theatre Ballet
How to Pass, Kick, Fall, and Run: This revival of Merce Cunningham’s iconic 1965 work brings Cunningham’s experimental movement and the groundbreaking use of stories from John Cage’s 1958 lecture Indeterminacy back to the stage. How to... is a lively and playfully athletic piece with two readers onstage delivering Cage's stories in dynamic yet deliberately irrelevant one-minute bursts. This celebrated avant-garde collaboration pushes the boundaries of choreography and sound, and is one of Merce Cunningham’s most innovative works.
New York Theatre Ballet performs small classic masterpieces and new contemporary works for adults and innovative hour-long ballets for young children, all at affordable prices. The mission is carried out in the work of the Professional Company, its Ballet School, and its LIFT Program. Together these divisions reach adults and family audiences across the country building a love for dance and diverse audiences for the future.