Artists have long discovered that there’s something about life in the country that provides a different kind of inspiration. Come experience downtown Hudson, where dozens of galleries beckon. Start at the Carrie Haddad Gallery at the top of Warren Street and wend your way slowly toward the majestic Hudson River, stopping at the many galleries and shops that line this historic street. Be sure to visit the historic Hudson Opera House, tour the galleries or check the listings for music, readings and performances of all kinds. Or follow the country roads we’re famous for to the Fields Sculpture Park at Art Omi, wander the grounds to see astounding works of contemporary sculpture. Columbia County’s bounty of art is overflowing! Check out what’s on view.

It’s curtain time year-round in Columbia County. StageWorks/Hudson offers world premieres, award-winners, and thrilling performances. The nearby hamlet of Ghent offers the Ghent Playhouse, one of the region’s oldest and most popular community playhouses. At the Lighthouse Marina, Copake Lake, is the Taconic Stage Company offering dinner theater with modern classics. And you can catch staged performances and readings at such wonderful venues as the Spencertown Academy, Time and Space Limited. Come high season, the county is front and center with summer productions at Chatham’s renowned Mac-Haydn Theatre and The Theater Barn in New Lebanon.

If music’s your thing, listen to this: Tannery Pond Concerts present a season of chamber concerts from May to October in the Shaker-built Tannery on the grounds of the Darrow School in New Lebanon, featuring world-renowned musicians. PS/21, Performance Space for the 21st Century, offers dance, music and movies, screened under an architecturally-wondrous tent in a field outside the village of Chatham. Columbia County is home to the Diamond Opera Theater, a dedicated ensemble of artists, singers, musicians, actors, composers, and choreographers who stage costumed productions of works for the lyric stage. And, wonderfully unique venues such as Time and Space Limited, Spencertown Academy, and Hudson Opera House offer year-round music and performance events. Something for every ear!

Each October, Film Columbia presents premieres and screenings of world-class movies. Recent festival attendees have seen many Academy Award winners before their official opening, foreign films that rarely get screened outside of New York or LA, and films with direct local connections. Meet-the-filmmakers events, screenplay readings, documentaries, animation—there’s something for everyone at Film Columbia! And the festival sponsor, The Chatham Film Club screens art, independent and foreign films once a month in the historic Crandell Theatre on Main Street.