Historic Huguenot St Planning 2020 Womens Rights Events

Historic Huguenot Street (HHS) has been awarded a $20,000 New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Implementation Grant for FY2020. NYSCA grants support the performing, literary, visual and media arts in New York State.

The grant is expected to be used to educational programs related to women’s rights and history. This includes lectures, a book club, partnerships, a new school program, exhibits, and an immersive theater experience. The programs are expected to be implemented in 2020 in honor of the national centennial of many women being allowed to vote in the United States.

Programs include artistic and innovative interpretations of local women’s history as well as educational sessions that address current issues related to women’s rights.

The feature is an immersive theater program called “Pathway to the Ballot Box,” coproduced by Clock Jack Productions. It combines art, history, and the humanities to focus on the history of the historical female figures who lived on and around Historic Huguenot Street. HHS is working with PJ Griffith of Clock Jack Productions to assist with the program’s conceptualization, development, and production.

Other major implementations include a new school field trip program; a speaker series, featuring Meredith Bergmann, Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, Dr. Susan Goodier, Dr. Elsa Barkley Brown, and Dr. Karen Pastorello; a concert highlighting the Baroque period; and readings by five authors from the NY Votes for Women: A Suffrage Centennial Anthology.

There will also be four separate exhibits with selections from the HHS Permanent Collection and Archives relating to prominent women with ties to Huguenot Street. Women to be highlighted are renowned composer, pianist, and artist Ruth Lynda Deyo (1884-1960); philanthropist, artist, and collector Emily DuBois Hoysradt (1893-1983); and Christian missionary to Japan, Mary Deyo (1858-1932). Jane Deyo Wynkoop (ca. 1804-1870s), born enslaved in New Paltz and believed to be the first African-American to purchase land in the town, will be featured in an exhibit, as well.

A National Historic Landmark District, Historic Huguenot Street is a 501(c)3 non-profit that encompasses 30 buildings across 10 acres comprising the heart of the original 1678 New Paltz settlement, including seven stone houses dating to the early eighteenth century. More information is available online.