The O+ Festival: A Community’s Creative Approach to Development

  |  March 12, 2015
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Photo credit: Eric Townsend Photography. Photo source: https://www.facebook.com/opositivefest

Joe Concra and the rest of the team at O+ are shifting the paradigm in more ways than one in Kingston.

O+ was founded in 2010 as a three-day, community-run celebration of music and the arts. Participating artists exchange their contributions for healthcare services from local doctors, dentists, and other wellness providers at the O+ Clinic. It’s a grassroots solution to provide healthcare for the creative community. O+ supports and unites local businesses and residents, artists, musicians, and doctors; strengthening the fabric of a community to make it stronger, more sustainable, and more vibrant.

Mural by Scott Michael Ackerman. Photo source: https://www.facebook.com/opositivefest

Mural by Scott Michael Ackerman. Photo source: https://www.facebook.com/opositivefest

One of the major components of the festival is the installation of public artworks in the community. Featuring a wide spectrum of art forms, thirty artists selected by the O+ Art Committee exhibit sculptures, site-specific installations, films, light installations, and performance art in storefront windows and other public spaces in the uptown neighborhood. Internationally–known street artist Gaia, Kimberly Kae, and artist/activist LMNOPi have mural installations on uptown buildings.

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A Love Letter for You. Photo source: http://muralarts.org

O+ is hoping to expand on the efforts of these artists with the ongoing creation of murals at appropriate venues throughout the city, following in the footsteps of other locales that have been very successful in this kind of initiative. The Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia believes that “Art Ignites Change” – it transforms places, individuals, communities, and institutions. The program models new standards of excellence in the generation and maintenance of public and contemporary art; the process empowers artists to be change agents, stimulates dialogue about critical issues, and builds bridges of connection and understanding. Through beautiful, collaborative art, people are inspired to seize their own future.

In Kingston, we get that.

Kingston is gaining momentum every year. The creativity of this place is infectious!

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The Center for Creative Education performs outside of Keegan Ales. Photo source: https://www.facebook.com/opositivefest

About Gregg Swanzey

Gregg Swanzey, a longtime advocate for the Hudson River and the Mid-Hudson Region, first moved to the Rondout neighborhood in Kingston with his family in 1986 fresh off several years as Captain of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. Since then, he has crossed the Atlantic three times, served as Executive Director for a gubernatorially appointed Commission in Massachusetts, and traveled to far-flung places such as St. Petersburg, Russia; Reykjavik, Iceland; and the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. After four years in City Hall as Director of Economic Development and Strategic Partnerships for the City of Kingston, he has recently come aboard as Executive Director for the Winnakee Land Trust based in Rhinebeck in Northern Dutchess County. On any given day you might see him out jogging on one of several rail trails that converge in Kingston, kayaking the Hudson over to Rhinecliff, biking Uptown to the Farmer’s Market, climbing to the top of Burger Hill in Winnakee's Drayton Grant Park, or hanging out at home in a classic 1920's Dutch Colonial overlooking the Hudson with his wife, Emma. His two daughters live and work in New York City but are regularly up the River for the weekend.

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