Welcome to the Catskill Culture Club — a new initiative started on a whim by me, Amy Lee. According to LinkedIn I’m a creative business leader, but in my heart I’m a painter, movie nut, museum lover and passionate supporter of art & culture in general. Ten years ago I married a writer and headed Stateside (I’m British, btw), and we now live in upstate New York with two small people that we made.
Coming of age in the late 80s into the 90s, and based on heavy movie consumption, I came to the conclusion that New York City was the place I needed to be. I wanted to fake an orgasm in Katz’s Deli, and have a real one in the apartment above a Brooklyn bakery like Cher in Moonstruck.
As it happens, I ended up living a block or so from that very former-bakery for the nine years I lived in NYC. So far, so cinematic — although Mazzolas (not Cammereri’s) was the actual Italian bakery we frequented and sadly Nicholas Cage wasn’t working the oven when I visited the kitchen on a field trip from my son’s daycare.
So, what would happen to this cultural dream when we moved out of the city?
Well, since moving to the Hudson Valley in August 2020, I’ve been amazed at how the area is teeming with artists and cultural energy, even in the midst of a pandemic. Writers, sculptors, musicians, designers, movie directors, actors… you name it, they’re all here.
Many of these creatives, like me, have moved here more recently; many others have been here for decades and are probably a little pissed off that so many Brooklynites have suddenly discovered their hidden gem. Either way, I am curious: with this thriving artistic community creating work and capturing their lives and ideas in many formats — songs, essays, TV shows, photographs, sculptures — in an area so rich in natural and human inspiration, how will upstate New York take shape in our cultural consciousness? Will there be a little British girl in years to come, watching movies and listening to music with her parents, quietly forming a plan to move to this place so clearly evoked through images and sounds, a mythical place called the Catskills?
So, I’ve started this newsletter as a way to give the culturally curious like me the inside scoop on the undercurrent of artistry that is bubbling away across the Hudson Valley, but so often gets missed off the marketing. And to showcase all the weird and wonderful people making the magic happen.
Sign up now so you don’t miss the first issue, where I’ll be interviewing movie director Casimir Nozkowski about his new feature ‘The Outside Story’ (available for streaming from April 30) and how growing up in High Falls with artist parents influenced his approach to creativity.
In the meantime, tell your friends!