Well worth visiting including the on-site museum. I would say think about the historical context as…read moreto when this was being built.

This is an interesting outdoor place to come and visit. Words cannot describe the gentlemen…read morespending 40 years to complete this. You have to come and see for yourself the hours of shaping stones with hand tools to be an outdoor art piece that is beautiful to see, walk around to enjoy. There are park benches around where you can sit and enjoy a snack and take in all the different levels of this outdoor artwork. The entry to the park includes a road that you have to share with in/out traffic. Drive slowly and turn out if needed to let the other traffic pass. Be patient and you will enjoy the beautiful outdoors. Cost: $11 online. In person is $1 extra Tip: 1) Purchase tickets online. As we were leaving there was a sign that said park at full capacity and only those with pre-purchased tickets were allowed into the park. 2) Main parking lot can get full fast. It wasn't until after we parked and went to the ticketing office there was a sign for overflow parking. 3) I did not see a bathroom anywhere, so plan accordingly.

We visited the lovely or should I say deserted town of Pine Hill, NY. While visiting the area for…read morevalentines weekend with the love of my life we saw a huge sign along the main road welcoming us to the vast array of shops and restaurants Pine Hill offered. Well as we drove down the road from the main road all we saw were run down buildings and a deserted town like something out of an old western, only there were no horse drawn carriages. The saving grace of this small town is this small museum run by an absolutely amazing curator. When we arrived I wasn't even sure if the place was open but there was a huge sign out front that said it was in fact open so we ventured inside and was cheerfully greeted by the curator, an absolutely lovely lady that took her time in explaining the exhibits on display. She expertly knew her history of the items on display exceptionally well. While this museum is small it had two floors of artifacts, articles and historical displays on the bottom floor. The town should be absolutely grateful for Kathleen because had she not been there I would have completely dismissed this place but she truly made the experience and visit so wonderful. Admission is free however I did see a donation box that unfortunately I couldn't contribute to because this day and age I pretty much pay for stuff with my Apple watch (yea I'm real high tech like that) and never really walk around with actual cash. Bring a few bucks & drop that in the donation bin. I'll be sending in a small donation for my visit in the mail.

WOW! I've never enjoyed nor appreciated a museum as much as I did the Shandaken HIstorical Museum…read more A rainy Sunday drove us indoors and we thought we'd take a peek at this museum before we headed home We planned on staying 20 minutes or so and ended up staying 1 1/2 hours. Every minute was jam packed with information provided by Kathleen Myers, the museum director. She is an amazing advocate for this region and this museum. Her passion and knowledge is infectious! The coolest thing is that as we drove south on our way home, we were able to identify so many of the hamlets that Kathleen had told us about. I definitely hope this historical landmark gets the recognition and funding it deserves.

Coming from afar? Call ahead! I visited and they unexpectedly opened up a bit later than posted…read morehours but I think alien activity in the vicinity has spiked in recent weeks so the staff may have been abducted in the morning hours and returned to their homes late in effect making them late for work. Staff abduction aside, the staff were absolutely AMAZING! No humans are that nice so their morning alien abductors may have performed some type of lobotomization making them super nice as representatives of the alien coalition. The place is small but if you truly take in all that it has to offer you can spend about a solid hour in here looking at the different displays they offer. I won't say exactly what they have as to leave some mystery to your visit but it's certainly an interesting museum for sure. I love the paranormal stuff so "aliens" aren't completely off the table for me in terms of curiosity. I wish I had known this place existed because I would have visited a long time ago. The museum is I'd say 75% alien themed and 25% paranormal. It's certainly geared more toward the UFO theme but still interesting nonetheless. In my opinion if you are making your way north for a getaway and can make it here in 30 mins or less, off your main planned route, I encourage a visit cause it's worth it if you want to add an extra activity to your travel itinerary. If this location brings you more than 30 mins from your route, unless you are seriously into aliens and UFOs I wouldn't go out of my way to visit. With that said, it really was a cool experience and the staff made it worth the price of admission with their kindness and knowledge.

So fun! I'm a skeptic, but I really enjoyed my time there. The folks working there were very…read moreengaged and interested in the material and the photo opportunity at the end was great. Thanks for sharing your passion!

Definitely interesting, I love a non traditional museum and this was it. It was a rainy day so it…read morefit the bill for an hour's distraction

Such a prize to stumble upon on a cloudy mountain day with kids (9&6). When pulling up to the house…read moreour 9yr old says "this what we are doing going to some house "... getting him out of that "some house" was another story lol. Great experience . Steve was wonderful and full of life and passion . The place was set up so nicely such detailed displays. It's definitely a great place to explore and bring your inner child and your little critters as well.

I don't think I understand modern art, yet I spend hours here every visit…read more I usually prefer to wonder alone but sometimes tours are nice because then I can talk to others who also enjoy but don't understand the exhibits either.

Beacon, NY - virtually every person I've brought to DIA has had the exact same reaction of "WTF is…read morethis?" when they glance upon the pile of dirt, roomful of garbage, or giant monochromatic canvas, and throw up their hands in irritation and bewilderment. It's part of the fun (at least everything's a conversation piece, as you argue what is the point/meaning of this), but I appreciate the BS check called out by my philistine friends and husband who are unmoved by the academic hoo-ha that I, a pretentious art twat fed a steady diet of "theory & criticism" at university, so love to make a cerebral meal out of. Conceptual and contemporary art aren't everyone's cup of tea, but you don't have to understand or even appreciate art to bask in this massive gallery of space, light, airiness, minimalist beauty, and contemplation. To walk through these open spaces is meditation. And if you stay into the afternoon, the light is spectacular. Plus, like in any art museum, it's always fun to check out the hip international street fashion people are sporting. In addition to the changing exhibitions and installations showcasing both established voices and next-gen up-and-comers, DIA boasts works of magnificent scale by the likes of Richard Serra, Andy Warhol, Louise Bourgeois, Gerhardt Richter, etc. in its permanent or longterm collection that to me is worth the price of admission alone. The collection highlights works by many important artists of the 60s & 70s, the era in which DIA was founded to help artists achieve visionary projects that were ambitious in size or scope. The basement level always has cool special exhibits, so don't miss it! And if you think "jeez my kid can make this!", take them to the family friendly events and programs like Saturday Studio where your little Mondrian or Damien Hurst in the making can create projects that are surely refrigerator- if not gallery-worthy. Then save it for 40 years and auction off their "Untitled #1" or tape a piece of fruit to a wall for buckaroos when they become famous. If this experience really leaves you miserable, you can escape to the quaint towns of Beacon or nearby Cold Springs after, where there's lots to do, shop, eat & drink. This is a fantastic stretch of the Hudson Valley to explore! To conclude, I'd love to invite you to my next performance art happening, where I light a pile of debris on fire and title it "Hot Trash."

Unfortunately this place was closed when we got there as it doesn't open until May like a lot of…read morestuff up in the Catskills. I was angry because I looked online and there was no indication that it wasn't open yet. I give it 3 stars because it looks pretty cool From the outside and the river nearby offered a great distraction for my kids to check out. Hopefully we will be back and get to actually do the tour one day.

Stopped by in October during their annual fall festival. The mill was running, thee was music,…read moreEaton rides, and vendors. My wife bought a beautiful pair of mittens from a local woman who knits the from yarn from the wool of her own sheep. The mill is amazing to see in operation. You can see the water wheel running, watch volunteers run a shingle mill, and see an incredible variety of old tools and machines. For their festival they even had free tastings of local Ommegang beer. I could have spent an entire day at this small but impressive museum.

Came here for my sister's art show opening. She's doing her masters in Curatorial Studies at Bard…read moreCollege and this art museum is affiliated to it. This college is quite prominent, as is the Hessel Museum of Art, and has housed some great art works. It's also given a name to many curators that are now highly regarded. Granted, it's in the 'middle of nowhere' but wow - it's remarkable. From its design, to the space within and layout.

A lovely museum in a bucolic setting. Hessel makes a great stop on a day trip from the city, easy…read moreto combine with visits to DIA Beacon or the Storm King sculpture park if you've got a car. If not--then you can't do them all in one day, but be advised that the Hessel runs complimentary shuttles from Manhattan when they have openings. Beer, wine, soft drinks and pretzels at the opening are complimentary as well. All in all, a great place. But couldn't give it five stars because I'm not into the new shows. One is Haim Steinbach, an artist who never really got my juices running. His work is about shelving, display, minimalist art, the museum retail, etc.--a kind of third-wave pop/appropriation art (if you just read that and you were like "so what?" you feel me). What makes this show interesting--perhaps more so than others of his that I've seen--is what he did with the Hessel's permanent collection. A cool thing about the Hessel is that it's endowed with a small collection of important works of contemporary art but rather than put them up in the standard museum display they let invited artists and curators incorporate them in their shows, using unconventional and experimental display methods, the likes of which you would never see in your run-of-the-mill museum. Steinbach put up this construction-site scaffolding in the big gallery and arranged works above and below it, so you could glimpse the pieces (both museum works, Steinbach's own stuff, design objects, knickknacks etc.) in horizontal and vertical layers, that made you think about the status of each thing as an object or artwork. The other exhibition was Helen Marten, a young British artist. It was a smart pairing with Steinbach, though I like her work even less. It's also about objects and display, and coming up with quirky convoluted relations between things. Everything is about weight, balance, and borders, and everything is solid and in tension. There are papery woodcuts that look flimsy but hold up to the weight of loaded key rings hanging off of them, for instance. The paintings have stuff attached to the bottom of the frames, so they don't end with the canvas. It's about surfaces and repetition, too--there are cans of olive oil positioned on the floor around the galleries, and the olives and vines from the logo are repeated on the wall--yet nowhere in the show do you find the mess of the oil itself. This is also true in her videos. Digital media can be slippery, glitchy, pixelly, liquid--but when Helen Marten gets her hands on it she makes everything robust and shiny and glossy, crafting digits into beautiful perfect objects, just as hard and solid as the commodities she appropriates in her sculptures. Yawn. Great museum though!

This museum is visually stunning from the outside but less impressive inside; it's quite a small…read morecollection. It's definitely worth a trip of you're in the area or combine it with a visit to Howe Caverns in the same area. They have an extensive collection of arrowheads and some beautiful and moving art and history well worth studying. Nice that they have a lot of activities and space for kids and the community. I was expecting a bit larger museum but am still glad I checked it out.

A fun museum, very well done. I learned a lot and enjoyed the interactive nature of it all. Walking…read moretrails and scenery are also beautiful.