Bringing culture to Small Town, USA
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There is a vast misconception that culture is limited to big city
living. Plays, opera, galleries, poetry readings are reserved for the
elite residing in Manhattan, Syracuse, even Utica. Throughout the
Leatherstocking region, small towns dispel this myth on a regular basis.
From high school plays to concerts on the green, to art gallery
exhibits, small town residents, like those found in Cherry Valley,
strive regularly to expand the horizons of their rural communities.
Cooperstown is probably the most well known tourism mecca in the
immediate area, with Springfield following close behind as home to the
Glimmerglass Opera. The spark of life is flickering in nearby villages,
such as Richfield Springs, with its soon-to-be-opened sulfur springs
establishment, Richfield Spa, and in Cherry Valley, home to the
Artworks Art Council.
This past weekend, the Cherry Branch Art Gallery, in Cherry Valley,
hosted world-acclaimed poet Brett Axel, as its first featured poet of
the new year. With more than 600 appearances world wide, including
Washington, Texas and the Bristol Poetry Festival in England, Axel has
meandered his way to Cherry Valley to perform just miles from his Utica
home.
Recently, art gallery owner Bill Isaac said he envisioned Cherry
Valley as the next cultural hotspot of central New York. With quaint
little shops like the Plaid Palette and It’s All Good, and his own
gallery, he just may be right.
Not too long ago, Senator James Seward toured the Richfield Spa,
located in the sprawling Victorian home known as the Bella Vista for so
long. After touring the nearly renovated four story residence, Seward
said he believed this business, and similar businesses to come, would
revitalize Richfield Springs.
In Springfield, $800,000 condominiums are being constructed. Owner
Bill Miller said he hoped to fill the condominiums with people willing
to pay that for summer homes, people from downstate. People hungry for
cultural events.
The opportunity to fertilize this area with cultural crops is now.
Like the local fields are rich with dark healthy soil, the communities
are rich with untilled talent. Vegetable crops are not all that can be
grown here.
Our area may be a farming community, but we must reap what we sow.
The fields are out there, waiting to be tilled, and eventually,
harvested.
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