Eco Arts Week
Eco Arts Week at MKAD Returns for Its 5th Year: April 25 – May 2, 2026
Because We Care
A Celebration of Sustainability, Creativity, and Community in Kingston, NY
MKAD’s fifth annual Eco Arts Week will take place April 25 to May 2, 2026, including the annual Art Yard Sale, three weeks artist residencies with three artist groups, and six workshops of environmentally conscious art, conversation, and community action in the heart of the Hudson Valley.
Held at The DRAW Studio (20 Cedar Street) and Neighborhood Print Studio (49 Greenkill Avenue) in Kingston, this year’s event features multiple free events daily between 10am and 9pm. From interactive workshops to artist talks and panel discussions, each offering encourages creativity and sustainability through the reuse of materials, community storytelling, and eco-friendly art-making.
Humanity’s relationship with the environment is complex, intimate, and often fraught with contradiction. Consider the vibrant flora adorning our neighborhoods, the persistent chorus of cicadas on summer evenings, and the enduring presence of rocks and trees that shape our daily landscapes. Alongside these natural wonders stand the traces of human activity: ubiquitous manufactured goods, littered beverage containers on city streets, and oceans increasingly burdened by microplastics. This environment—at once cherished, familiar, and deeply scarred—compels us to reflect: What forces have shaped these changes? What responsibilities and choices confront us now?
The theme – Because We Care, marking the fifth anniversary of Eco Arts Week, this year’s producer Maxine Leu between Midtown Kingston Arts District (MKAD) brings together artists whose practices span diverse stages and disciplines, each offering nuanced responses to the environmental crisis. Their short-term residencies at Neighborhood Print Studio (NPS) provide a rare opportunity for the public to witness the creative process, engage in meaningful dialogue, and participate in special presentations, demonstrations, and workshops—all open and free of charge. Join us in exploring art’s vital role in fostering environmental awareness and collective action.
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Saturday, April 25, 10am–4pm
Art Yard Sale
Neighborhood Print Studio
Join the Midtown Kingston Arts District and The DRAW for our annual Art Yard Sale—and help us kick off the 5th Annual Eco Arts Week—on Saturday, April 25, from 10 AM–4 PM!
Browse a treasure trove of new and gently used art supplies, from drawing and painting materials to unexpected creative finds. Whether you’re a seasoned artist, a student, or just getting started, there’s something here to spark your creativity.
Opening Day of Eco Arts Week
Everything is pay-what-you-can
All proceeds support free and low-cost arts programming
Donate to Our Art Yard Sale!
We’re looking for gently used art supplies, tools, fabric, paper, and other creative materials to give them a second life in the hands of fellow artists and crafters!
What We Love to Receive:
Paints, brushes, canvases, and easels
Fabric, yarn, and sewing supplies
Sketchbooks, specialty papers, and cardstock
Beads, wire, and jewelry-making tools
Printmaking, sculpture, and mixed media supplies
What We Can’t Accept:
Picture frames
No books or DVDs
Single-use plastics or disposable items
General recyclables (bottles, containers, packaging)
Broken or unusable materials
Hazardous or toxic supplies
Wish-cycling
We want to keep this a treasure trove for makers—not a drop-off spot for difficult-to-dispose-of items. Thank you for donating with intention and helping us create a space filled with inspiration.
Donations accepted at the Neighborhood Print Studio, between noon and 5 pm, Tuesday – Saturday. Deadline for donations is April 24, 2026
Eco Arts Week artist residencies
Eco Art Lab, April 4-10
Eco Art Lab is an eco-collective of students and faculty at SUNY New Paltz. Through collaboration, sustainable practices, and socially engaged design, the collective cultivates biodiverse art and spaces that foster ecological awareness and community connection.
The Eco Art Lab is their first major project designed in 2024 by Professor Emily Puthoff’s Eco Art class in partnership with the campus community. The lab is a vibrant, biodiverse, learning garden growing outside the Fine Arts Building. Sculpted hügelkultur beds support native perennials for pollinators alongside species for natural dye, and papermaking. The lab also features a food forest, and sensory areas for reflection. The lab nurtures creative practices rooted in sustainability, interconnection, and collective care.
Artists:
James Biordi, Gabbi Bush, Ripley Butterfield, Adam Holland, Kaya Keller, Olivia Maxson, Tierney O’Brien, Risa Oshinsky, Carolann Paszek, Emily Puthoff, Deminica Richard, Adrian Rothpearl, Max Rosoff, Abigail Schwab, Morgan Tobio, Grace Van Pelt, Mars Weigley, Caelen Williams
James Fossett, April 11-17
Jim Fossett works primarily in photography, video, sound, installation, and performance. His work investigates narrative culture and storytelling. He is a principal and founding member of Cave Dogs, a shadow-based performance collective. He received his BA in Photojournalism from Kent State University, Kent OH, and his MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Fossett was born and raised in mid-coast, Maine and currently lives and works in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Sonya Blesofsky, April 18-24
Sonya Blesofsky is a New York based installation artist whose work is inspired by the built environment andexplores personal and collective memory. Her site-responsive work employs architectural interventions, cast sculptures, hand-built plaster forms and constructions made from found architectural objects. Blesofsky’s sculptural works look at how we remember places, and how that remembering shapes us. She currently uses historic plasterworking and traditional trade techniques to embody the process of remembering, and to act as both advocate and critic of historic ornament and its relationship to power.
