The Campus, a Collaboration Between Six New York Galleries, Is the Hudson Valley’s Latest Art Destination

School may be out for summer, but art class is in full swing at The Campus, upstate New York’s new cultural haven. Situated just outside of Hudson in a school left vacant since the 1990s, the project represents an unprecedented collaboration between six New York galleries: Bortolami, James Cohan, Kaufmann Repetto, Anton Kern, Andrew Kreps, and Kurimanzutto. On June 29, over 2,000 people celebrated the opening of The Campus’s inaugural exhibition, organized by independent curator Timo Kappeller, which is on view through October 27. Yet with 78,000 square feet of exhibition space, there was still plenty of room for the works of 80-plus artists—including Cecily Brown, Yinka Shonibare, and Jenny Holzer—to breathe.

Kreps discovered that the old school, built in 1951, was available nearly three years ago, as the COVID pandemic was sending creatives upstate in droves. Charmed by its mid-century bones and nostalgic setting, he and his fellow gallerists banded together to acquire it, recognizing a ripe opportunity.

“The collegial spirit that is alive between the Tribeca galleries spurred us to believe in a project like The Campus,” says Stefania Bortolami, adding that the participating entities are “always in dialogue.” The Italian-born dealer’s gallery, as well as Andrew Kreps and Kaufmann Repetto, already share a space, 55 Walker, and regularly present exhibitions together. “This shared social fabric made it so that when the opportunity arose to acquire a defunct school, we already had the tools to move forward in collaboration.”