KINGSTON, N.Y. — The Cornell Creative Arts Center’s mission reads like an ode to inclusivism.
“To provide access to education and support in the full spectrum of the arts for a diverse and underserved community in an environment that promotes equality and unity,” the mission statement reads.
The center’s new director, John Smith-Amato, is ready to carry that out.
Smith-Amato, the former executive director of Paramount Hudson Valley Arts, took on the directorial position at the Cornell Street facility owned by The Arc Mid-Hudson, located at 471 Albany Ave.
Smith-Amato, 71, who lives in Garrison in Putnam County, said in a recent interview that new life is being infused into the 10,000-square-foot building, where, at one time, 300 disabled people toiled at jobs but wound up jobless after state cuts to The Arc of Ulster-Greene forced the 2011 closing of the agency’s work center.
Today, the building has undergone a crescendo of renovations that has brought a sparkle to the place that houses the Cornell Creative Arts Center along with the 10-tenant Creative Business Center.
Smith-Amato, a New York City native who also has a private practice in institutional therapy specializing in alcohol and substance dependency, said the Cornell Creative Arts Center serves the general population as well as those in need.
Smith-Amato is also a former director of art therapy at St. Christoper’s Inn at Graymoor.
“We integrate most of these workshops into programming for the general public, not just for a certain population but for a diverse population in service for the art itself and in a therapeutic context for those individuals who might be in search for that kind of support,” Smith-Amato said in an interview.
The workshops Smith-Amato referred to include ones focused on dance, music, literature, digital display, painting and art therapy.
The center also contains a 2,000-square-foot gallery where showings rotate every month to six weeks, Smith-Amato said.
In April, the center is set to sponsor Greenwich Village-style coffee houses, with performances. Soon, Smith-Amato said, the Cornell Street Creative Arts Center will host a Black Box Theater.
Lori Ferraro, senior director of communications for The Arc Mid-Hudson., wrote in an email, “At the Cornell Creative Arts Center (CCAC), every person is supported, encouraged, empowered, and accepted into an environment where they are provided with rich opportunities to learn and grow their artistic talents.”
Ferraro added, “People who enroll in workshops offered by the CCAC will participate in a program that provides affordable and comprehensive access to the arts.”
The center promotes exhibitions and educational programming that offer classes, workshops, gallery exhibitions and community event space for people of any age, according to Ferraro.
The facility does include a 900-square-foot ceramic/sculpture studio, a dance/movement space, surrounded by mirrors and dance bars, and a mixed media studio as well. There are also rehearsal halls for music and creative writing along with a digital arts media studio.
“CCAC is undergoing a rebranding in 2023,” Ferraro said. “The 10,000-square-foot art center at 129 Cornell St. in Midtown Kingston will operate as a nonprofit agency independent of The Arc Mid-Hudson, which owns the building.”
“Under the direction of its new art director John Smith-Amato the art center will engage in a greater outreach to the underserved and diverse populations in the community,” Ferraro added.
