Earl W. Brydges Artpark State Park (or Earl W. Brydges State Artpark) is a state park located in the Village of Lewiston in

Niagara County Niagara County is in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 212,666. The county seat is Lockport. The county name is from the Iroquois word ''Onguiaahra''; meaning ''the strait'' or ''thunder of waters''. Niaga ...

, New York. The park, which is officially named after former New York State Senator

Earl Brydges Earl William Brydges (May 25, 1905 – March 30, 1975) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was Temporary President and Majority Leader of the State Senate from 1966 to 1972. Early life Earl William Brydges was born on May 2 ...

, is generally referred to as Artpark. The Earl W. Brydges Artpark programs are managed by Artpark & Company, Inc for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation under a Cooperative Agreement. Artpark & Company is a not-for-profit 501c3 Arts and Education organization which serves the people of Western New York and Southern Ontario. Today Artpark programming attracts over 150,000 audiences over the course of its summer season (June-August) and serves a population of approximately 1.2 million Western New Yorkers and over 1 million Canadian residents. Over the course of its 40-year history, over 2.5 million persons have attended musical and theater performances at Artpark. more information: www.artpark.net The park overlooks the

Niagara Gorge Niagara Gorge is an long canyon carved by the Niagara River along the Canada–United States border, between the U.S. state of New York and the Canadian province of Ontario. It begins at the base of Niagara Falls and ends downriver at the ed ...

. The park is 1 of 80 New York State Parks that are in the path of totality for the 2024 solar eclipse, with the park experiencing 3 minutes and 25 seconds of totality.

Park description

The park is a venue for summer musical entertainment, in addition to offering picnic tables and pavilions, fishing, hiking, nature trail, a performing arts theater, recreation programs. Also located on the property is the Lewiston Mound, an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...

on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

Land art

Artpark was founded in 1974, one year after

Robert Smithson Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973) was an American artist known for sculpture and land art who often used drawing and photography in relation to the spatial arts. His work has been internationally exhibited in galleries and mu ...

's death, and had an artist's residency program in his honor. The park, created on the site of a former industrial waste dump, became an important site for works of the land art movement. It was the site of

Alan Sonfist Alan Sonfist is a New York City based American artist best known as a "pioneer" and a "trailblazer" of the Land or Earth Art movement. He first gained prominence for his " Time Landscape" found on the corner of West Houston Street and LaGuardia ...

's ''Pool of Virgin Earth'', a clay basin for catching aerial seeds, and projects by several women artists in the 1970s, including Michelle Stuart, Alice Adams and

Agnes Denes Agnes Denes (Dénes Ágnes; born 1931 in Budapest) is a Hungarian-born American conceptual artist based in New York. She is known for works in a wide range of media—from poetry and philosophical writings to extremely detailed drawings, sculptu ...

and

Nancy Holt Nancy Holt (April 5, 1938 – February 8, 2014) was an American artist most known for her public sculpture, installation art, concrete poetry, and land art. Throughout her career, Holt also produced works in other media, including film and pho ...

. It continued to be an important laboratory for outdoor sculpture, with over 200 artists and collectives creating art and installations at the site between 1974 and 1984.

Selected visual art at Artpark

Installations at Artpark were intended to be temporary. Works created at the park included:

Performance venues

The facility features an Amphitheater venue, a Mainstage venue, and gathering, vending, and services areas. The Amphitheater consists of an outdoor stage with seating for up to 10,000 viewers in the front-of-stage viewing area, tiered lawn sections for general seating and reserved seating, and a fabric-covered terrace for sponsored seating. The Mainstage consists of an enclosed performance stage with fly house, orchestra pit, and back of house service areas, reserved seating sections accommodating up to 2400 viewers, outdoor terrace and balcony areas for gatherings and events. The enclosure is opened along the back wall to a lawn area used for general seating for up to 2000 viewers. The Amphitheater holds musical performance on a weekly basis throughout the performance season. The Mainstage presents a number of musical and theatrical performances, presentations, school graduations, and other events during the performance season. In 2017, Artpark was qualified for the Empire State Musical & Theatrical Tax Credit Program and in 2020 as the Qualified Film Production Facility accreditation by the Office of Motion Picture & Television Development.

References

External links