SAUGERTIES- Erika Mallin, executive director of the New York State Council on the Arts, announced that NYSCA will be allocating $32 million in capital project funding for organizations. One of those capital projects funding is $350,000 to Opus 40.
“The over 100 projects we’re supporting through this funding will showcase arts and cultural organizations across the state and spur economic development for decades to come,” Governor Hochul said. “From historic sites to new multi-use arts centers, these diverse projects will expand the accessibility and the sustainability of arts and culture organizations while growing local economies, driving tourism and creating jobs all across New York State.”
Opus 40’s grant of $350,000 will support a program entitled Living History: Fortifying and Developing Opus 40, which includes repair and conservation to the organization’s central sculpture, a 6.5- acre in-earth bluestone structure, created by the renowned artist Harvey Fite, that visitors can walk around, in, on, and over. The project also includes restoration to historic quarrying trails within the 63 acre site.
Opus 40 Board co-president Brigid Walsh noted that the staff and board of Opus 40 were deeply grateful to NYSCA, the Governor, and the State legislature for their support of capital projects within the State’s cultural organizations. She said, “I am proud that our organization can take further and continued steps to ensure that Harvey Fite’s incredible vision and work can be studied and preserved for decades to come. This is marvelous news!”
Opus 40’s executive director Caroline Crumpacker launched the organization’s program, including sculpture analysis and conservation as well as trail restoration, in 2021 with generous funding from the Save America’s Treasures program, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation. Since then, two years of repair work have been completed to the Opus 40 sculpture and the remainder was analyzed for future conservation work. A trail that winds through former quarries and quarry pools was reopened, marked and mapped. The former was done by Level IV Master Stone Mason Brian Post and a team of expert artisan wallers and landscape architects including some of the world’s most highly certified dry stone masons. The trails historically used by quarriers to move stone are being restored for walking by Tahawus Trails, LLC, committed to sustainable trail development.
Crumpacker stated, “It means the world to all of us to be able to continue this important work, especially with the brilliant artisans we have all learned so much from, and worked so happily with, in recent years. It is an honor to be able to take this project further and ensure that the sculpture at our center continues to delight tens of thousands of people each year.”
As part of the analysis of Fite’s sculpture done in 2021-2023, stonemasons noted that one wall and two plinths needed repair within two years or could face catastrophic collapse. This award will allow the organization to avert this crisis, adding to the three areas repaired in 2022 and 2023.
