Let’s face it — even the most diehard New Yorkers need a break from the stench of sidewalk garbage and the sweltering humidity of the subway in the summer. Following the path taken by generations who have come before them, thousands escape the confines of their cramped apartments to seek refuge in the wide open spaces of the Hudson Valley and Upstate region.

This weekend, fresh air and shady trees are not the only things the north has to offer, as more than 145 arts venues will offer a slew of programs for the fifth iteration of Upstate Art Weekend (UAW). Featuring a mix of local galleries, arts organizations, museums, artist residencies, and studios, the event begins Thursday, July 18, and runs until Sunday, July 21. 

Since its founding in 2020, UAW has greatly expanded from its humble beginnings with fewer than two dozen participants to become a sprawling summer showcase. However, some members of the local arts community have raised fears of gentrification as the region continues to face growing residential displacement due to a steady rise in mortgage and rental prices. In January, local housing rights group Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition publicly called out the Foreland Catskill arts complex for allegedly pricing them out of their headquarters on Catskill’s Main Street after three years of tenancy. 

“It’s narrative we hear again and again from everybody including local employers, artists looking for space to work, folks moving to the area, and long-term community members who need to move,” housing rights advocate Nicholas Weist of Catskill Artists and Creatives for Housing Equity (CACHE) told Hyperallergic.

While artists and arts groups can strengthen communities upstate, Weist noted that they are also historically “first-wave gentrifiers” who can contribute to housing inequity. 

In order to help combat the effects of gentrification and increase mutual aid accessibility for the region’s year-round residents, local community group Celebrate845 compiled a resource guide highlighting free and low-cost services across the area including cooling centers, food fridges, and affordable wellness care.

With that being said, Weist reiterated that CACHE is invested in the Hudson Valley’s arts and cultural production. “We want everyone to succeed,” Weist said, emphasizing that artists can use their capacities to enact positive change in their communities. 

Among the many initiatives taking place this weekend, KinoSaito’s art center in Verplanck is offering a variety of programming, kicking off Friday with a “weenie roast garden party” alongside an outdoor presentation of Lauren Cohen’s anthropomorphized hot dog ceramics in an interactive booth installation. On Saturday afternoon, New York’s La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club will present a six-part performance by KinoSaito’s Artist-in-Residence Maiko Kikuchi. Tickets can be reserved for $20 online. To close out the weekend, the organization will hold its free weekly KinoKids workshop from 1pm to 4pm on Sunday; this month’s drop-in children’s classes focus on sound sculptures inspired by the work of Israeli artist Naama Tsabar.

On Saturday and Sunday, Cold Springs’s Magazzino Italian Art will screen five documentaries by Italian post-war artists for the seventh iteration of its Cinema in Piazza outdoor film series. Highlighting the evolution of Italian cinema through the lens of mid- to late-20th century Arte Povera and Transavanguardia, the first part of the series will kick off this weekend and resume in late August.

Further North in Kerhonkson, eight local visual and sound artists will share their work in The Barn on Berme‘s presentation of Water — a site-specific art event housed in a 1910 horse barn that has been in founder and curator Manju Shandler’s family since the early ’90s. Each artist will show solo projects in 10-by-12-foot stable stalls, while large-scale works will adorn the interiors and exteriors. Interactive activities will also be held around the barn, including collaborative drawing and sound bathing.

Shandler told Hyperallergic that while the space has always been “a beautiful natural oasis,” increasing attention to the region has helped share her venue with local community members.

“I have met countless neighbors and other visitors by opening the barn and welcoming artists to transform this space,” Shandler said.

In Kingston, visitors can check out photographs by Fred W. McDarrah documenting New York’s queer cultural life from right before the 1969 Stonewall Uprising through the ’80s protest movement sparked by the AIDS crisis, on view at the Center for Photography at Woodstock as part of the organization’s second Kingston Photo Festival. At The Gallery @ 107, the local organization Transart will present I’ve Known Rivers: The Diaspora Speaks! Drawing from Langston Hughes’s 1921 poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” the exhibition explores the African diasporic experience through the works of 11 artists.

Near Saugerties, Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum will display artists Rindon Johnson and Jordan Loeppky-Kolesnik’s site-specific outdoor installation “Sitting a little way off, beyond the trees, so as to remain in the full ambit.” The project consists of four chrome and steel sculptures situated in the nearby wetlands whose transformation in the environment will be livestreamed 24/7 for five years beginning Thursday, July 18. 

Across the Hudson River in Livingston, Interlude Artist Residency will host an Open Studios event with resident artist-parents Saul Chernick, Annette Wehrhahn, and Shanti Grumbine, plus a drop-in art project on Saturday afternoon. From 2pm to 4pm on Sunday, the Hudson Valley nonprofit will have family-friendly music and storytelling programming provided by the Storycrafters performance duo Barry Marshall and Jeri Burns.

Some of the most enticing offerings this weekend are also the least expected. Sleepy Hollow will be hosting its inaugural Mermaid Festival, as part of the village’s yearlong 150th anniversary celebrations. Beginning at noon on Saturday, the festival will include a costume parade through both land and water featuring a lineup of local performers like the legendary Headless Horseman and an eight-foot-tall mermaid puppet named Ondine, presented by New York’s Little Genii Puppets. 

The puppeteering group, which also made an appearance at this year’s Mermaid Parade in Coney Island, performs family-friendly bilingual productions “to foster intergenerational, interfaith and multicultural adventures in our area,” artist Jan Aiello told Hyperallergic.

“Count on the arts to dissolve language and cultural barriers and bring people together for some good fun,” Aiello said, encouraging visitors to come by and meet Ondine and “her surprise friend Godzilla.”