Dia Beacon

I can't believe I am just finally getting around to visiting Dia: Beacon. It is one of the coolest museums I've ever been to, located in a little town on the Hudson River called Beacon. Beacon is about an hour and twenty minutes from the city, with trains leaving hourly. As I mentioned in the Cold Spring post, this train ride is beautiful. The Dia has a variety of important works, which you can read about on Dia's Website but if you are not that knowledgeable about art they have works by Warhol - heard of him?

An aerial shot of the museum below (photo courtesy of Dia). You can see the train tracks to the right of the museum, alongside the river. It's easy to walk to Dia from the train- signs are everywhere.

Below is a temporary instillation featuring tons of line drawings by Sol LeWitt, custom made for the Dia space.  I asked the museum guide what would happen when the exhibit was over, as these were drawn right on the walls, and he said they'd be painted over. Kind of sad. Photo courtesy of Dia.

Much of the Dia work revolves around the concept of space, which is why Michael Heizer created these holes in the floor of the museum. I love his quote in reference to this work: "Awe is a state of mind equivalent to religious experience, I think if people feel commitment they feel something has been transcended." Also, check out this very cool shot on Smithsonian Magazine. I'm not sure I have the rights to share.

On the topic of space, this sculpture is meant to feel awkward within its confines (Richard Serra sculpture, courtesy of offmanhattan)

The town of Beacon was nice  - not quite as quaint as Cold Spring but there were definitely some nice features. There was a great little waterfront with a Sunday farmers market and a big grassy area to picnic (with playground for kids.) There is allegedly a roped-off area to swim in the summer on the river.

There was a Puerto Rican Day parade in Cold Spring, same day as the NYC parade.

Finally, I had a delicious white bean & tomato soup at this artsy cafe called The School of Jellyfish

Beacon also has a monthly festival called "Second Saturday" ... on the second Saturday of each month... which is a citywide celebration of the arts. I'll check it out sometime and let you know what that's like!