Back to 'The Land': Rockland's Legendary Gate Hill Cooperative Turns 70

Seventy years ago, a group of avant-garde artists came together to form a community on 116 secluded acres alongside the Minisceongo Creek in the Town of Haverstraw.

The Gate Hill Cooperative — better known as “The Land” — was founded in 1954 by Black Mountain College alumni Paul and Vera Williams, who bought the property for $15,000 and financed the building of the original homes that still stand today.

The first settlers included composers John Cage and David Tudor, musicians Patsy Lynch and her husband LaNoue Davenport, choreographer Merce Cunningham, and potter and writer M.C. Richards.

Many helped build their homes out of cinderblock, corrugated aluminum and rock found on the property, adopting elements of functional Bauhaus architecture.

The homes were owned communally, and the collective spirit included sharing their artistic pursuits and other endeavors such as child-rearing.

The community attained legendary status in the art world; John Lennon, Yoko Ono and baby Sean paid a visit one summer day in the mid-1970s.

The story of this fabled community the focus of an exhibit opening Oct. 19 at the Rockland Center for the Arts in West Nyack titled "The Land: Early Artists @ Gate Hill Co-op."

The Upper Square at the Gate Hill cooperative (c. 1960). Photograph by Walter Rosenblum. Courtesy of the Paul F. Williams Architecture and Design Archive. Digital restoration and reproduction courtesy of Mark Davenport / Landkidzink Image Collection.

For Mark Davenport, whose family moved to The Land in 1956, growing up was “very free, very liberating,” he told me during an interview in 2020. “No one ever locked their doors, in fact I don’t think the doors even locked. I certainly don’t remember ever needing a key.”

Davenport, who’s completing an extensive cultural history of the community, said there was “an open door policy and kids and adults as well could walk in and out of any of the homes. I don’t recall if we ever even knocked. There was this idea that you were living among an extended family.”

The exhibit, curated by RoCA Executive Director Daly Flanagan, will feature music by John Cage, David Tudor, Patsy and LaNoue Davenport, Sheila Schomburn and Chris Williams.

In addition to Richards and the Williamses, the exhibit will feature work by photographer George Ancona; artists Sari Dienes, Juliette Gordon, William Hochhausen, Paul Hultberg, Sam Weinrib, David Weinrib and Johanna Vanderbeek; composer Rip Hayman; ceramist Karen Karnes; and filmmakers DeeDee Halleck and Stan VanderBeek.

Sari Dienes, circa 1986. Photograph by Peter Moore. © Northwestern University.

Davenport, a professor at Regis University in Denver, Colorado, launched the website landkidzink to document the history of the Gate Hill Cooperative and its founders. 

He'll be giving a talk at RoCa titled "Life as Art: The First Year at the Gate Hill Cooperative" at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, to provide an intimate and introspective account of the early founders. 

Told through letters, journals, interviews and writings, Davenport's presentation, accompanied by a collection of archival images and photographs, will capture this extraordinary group of musicians and artists in their daily activities, in the backstage of making art as they were launching their careers, falling in love, searching for land, building their homes, and establishing one of the most influential communities in contemporary art and living. A Q&A follows the talk.

A separate event presented in conjunction with the exhibit will feature the Chapin Sisters in concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16.

Abigail and Lily Chapin, daughters of Tom Chapin and whose late uncle was Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter Harry Chapin, are known for their tight harmonies and folk-influenced melodies set to dark, humorous lyrics.

The Land's Next Wave

In addition to the exhibit’s historical emphasis, current Gate Hill Co-op artists will have their work showcased in RoCa’s Gallery One and Gallery Two. 

These include "Everything is Inside," photographs by Predrag Dubravcic; art installations titled "the body remembers, the vessel contains," by Alexis Elton and Bel Falleiros; and "Leaf Scores" by composer Eleonor Sandresky.

An image from "Everything is Inside: Photographs by Predrag Dubravcic" at the Rockland Center for the Arts.

Back to The Land

• What: “The Land: Early Artists @ Gate Hill Co-op”
• When: Oct. 19-Nov. 23, Mondays to Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; opening reception Saturday, Oct. 19, 1-4 p.m.
• Where: Rockland Center for the Arts, 27 S. Greenbush Road, West Nyack
• Information: 845-358-0877, info@rocklandartcenter.org or rocklandartcenter.org

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