How time flies: Upstate Art Weekend, the annual arts festival spread across the Hudson Valley, returns this weekend for its seventh edition. Since its founding in 2020, the festival has grown from 23 participants to 160, with an additional open studios event in May that featured 240 artists.
There are several additional changes for the 2026 edition. Most notably, the festival lands this weekend in the coveted post-Art Basel slot. (Previous editions were held in late July.)
There’s also a new partnership with Bloomberg Connects, which offers a centralized digital guide featuring an interactive map and venue listings, plus an itinerary planner that lets users build a personalized schedule complete with estimated drive times. That last feature is especially handy given that the festival sprawls across a whopping 6,000 square miles, with suggested itineraries organized by mood, region, or focus.
With so many shows on the calendar, the weekend can be a bit overwhelming to plan. We’ll assume you already know about major venues like Dia: Beacon, Jack Shainman’s The School in Kinderhook, Storm King Art Center, and the Campus in Hudson—here are five (or so) lesser-known shows worth the trek. Happy hunting.
