Artist-in-residence proposes program broaden visitor experience

Over the past few weekends, a new breed of visitors has arrived at the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park: campers.

Martin Hogue, an artist currently in residence who is trained as an architect and landscape architect, proposed Camping at the Art Park as a temporary installation to broaden the range of experiences available to visitors. Hogue carefully selected four campsites across the 104-acre property that highlight unique spatial opportunities (inside a meadow or a wooded area, for example), each in proximity of key sculptures or dramatic vistas of and beyond the park.

The campsites are situated within a few minutes walking distance of a communal service hub featuring bathrooms, drinking water, and even wi-fi and where campers can also prepare their food over the live flame of a communal fire pit. The picnic tables that mark the individual sites, as well as all related infrastructure of the campground (map, signage, flashlights, wheelbarrow) are painted in a bright shade of cyan to enhance their coherence as a system inside the Art Park.

Camping at the Art Park is scheduled to take place during every weekend in June, beginning on Friday afternoon and ending on Sunday morning. But in fact, this experience has begun a lot sooner: visitors have claimed their campsite weeks in advance using a map and online reservation system on the Art Park’s website, as is the practice in thousands of campgrounds across the United States.

As they arrive at the Art Park, wheelbarrow their equipment from the main parking area and later pitch their tents and lay out their sleeping bags, the campers take on dual roles as both consumers and participants: even if the park is open 365 days a year from dawn to dusk, camping provides a unique opportunity to spend 48 uninterrupted hours within the landscape of the Art Park; at the same time, the campers themselves also become part of the art inside the park, which is to say that they and their encampments are on display for visitors to see.

At the end of June, the picnic tables will go into storage, the fire pit will be dismantled, and there will be very little evidence that the Art Park was, for one month, a campground.

Only memories will remain—until next year.

With its 104 acres of conserved land and four miles of trails, Stone Quarry Hill Art Park overlooks the breathtaking rural landscape of Cazenovia and Madison County in Central New York. Inspired by the relationship between art and nature, the Art Park is dedicated to providing a unique environment for emerging and established artists to produce and showcase works in natural and gallery settings.

Its mission is to educate and engage people about landscape through exhibitions, workshops, tours, and community outreach programs in the arts. Since its incorporation in 1991, over 100 artists from 19 states and 8 foreign countries have created site-specific artworks, both permanent and temporary.

For additional information, visit sqhap.org/upcoming, or contact Martin Hogue at 315-425-1209 or [email protected].