Tarrytown's Rockefeller Arts Center hosts free Community Day

The David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center, a gallery, studio and performance space on the Pocantico Center campus in Tarrytown, is hosting its annual Community Day on Saturday, May 18.

The free event taking place inside and outside the center features hands-on art and STEAM projects, bilingual Spanish-English story time, garden activities, face painting, and a Colombian music and dance performance by Folklore Urbano NYC’s Cumbia for Kids.

Activities will be presented by Sleepy Hollow High School Jazz Combo, Westchester Children’s Museum, Katonah Museum of Art, Warner Library, Rockefeller State Park Preserve, Sustainable Sleepy Hollow, Wild Art + Play, FunFaces by Brenda, Historic Hudson Valley, Blue Door Art Center, and Public Schools of the Tarrytowns.

Complimentary food will be available from noon to 3 p.m. by Abeetz Pizza Truck and Jimmy’s Soft Serve.

Admission is free, but tickets must be claimed online. The Pocantico Center is located at 200 Lake Road, Tarrytown.

The DR Center, as it is known, is housed in John D. Rockefeller’s former greenhouse. Named for his grandson, David, the center is located on the 216-acre Pocantico Center that also includes Kykuit, the family’s former estate.

One of the highlights of the DR Center’s Community Day will be an open studio by Chie Fueki, who was recently awarded the annual Pocantico Prize for Visual Artists.

A Japanese-born artist growing up in Brazil who now lives in Beacon, Fueki’s work draws upon the influences of all three cultures. Her paintings depict contemporary life in motion, featuring cryptic imagery ranging from American pop culture to traditional Japanese motifs.

Through a process of painting, drawing, cutting, and collaging, sometimes including glitter and graphite rubbings, her compositions fuse jewel-like tones and dynamic patterns.

Chie Fueki. Photo by Pierre Le Hors, courtesy of the artist and DC Moore Gallery, New York.

Rockefeller Brothers Fund established the Pocantico Prize in 2022 to recognize U.S. artists with a trajectory of artistic excellence who identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of color; disabled; women or gender non-binary; or from other groups that have been denied opportunities or recognition.

Visit pocantico.org/events for more information about the spring and summer season at the campus.

Robert Brum is a freelance journalist who writes about the Hudson Valley. Contact him and read his work at robertbrum.com.