Art Episodes

New York City has the energy, but Columbia County has the air. Two years moving here from just 20 minutes south in the Hudson Valley, host Mat Zucker still feels like a bit of a "cidiot" sometimes—always eager to explore more of the incredible 635 square miles of valley, hills, farms, and villages right in his backyard. In this special episode, produced in collaboration with Columbia County Tourism, Mat serves up a very personal seasonal guide. Whether you're a foodie chasing the ultima...

Just in time for Frederic Church’s 200th birthday, we’re taking you along for a "boots on" tour of the moving landscape he spent decades designing here in the Hudson Valley. I’m walking the carriage roads of the Olana Historic Site with Annik LaFarge, author of the new book Composing Olana: A Journey on Foot Through Frederic Church's Greatest Work of Art. It’s the first book about this thoughtful and artful landscape. You’ll hear the wind in the trees and the crunch of the gravel as we dis...

What makes the Hudson Valley special for creative people? This episode, Cidiot talks to Jordan Koschei about building ConnectHV, a creative “network of networks” for creative people in the Hudson Valley and Jordan’s idea of “digital terroir.” It’s about having a sense of place even for a digital network. And just as we’re building on the soil of Hudson Valley’s past, maybe the future will build on this. I think it’s the most thoughtful conversation about living in the Hudson Valley I’ve had in a...

After missing it last year, Mat explores the big annual event that is Upstate Art Weekend. More than 130 artists participate across the Hudson Valley, including Columbia, Delaware, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester counties. Mat shares the differences between culture in the city versus the country and talks to a New York-based artist, Lauren Cohen at “Brian’s Yard Sale.” It’s hilarious. Artists and galleries mentioned in this episode: Upstate Art Wee...

I love color. I’m fascinated by color. I have questions. Amy Krane is an architectural color consultant as well as a real estate broker. And get this: she has her own podcast on color called Let’s Talk (Paint) Color with colleague Amy Woolf. On this episode in three fun, chatty parts, Amy and I talk about her journey upstate (she’s not a newbie) and then becoming a color consultant and then into my thousand questions about color especially for rural homes, historical homes - starting with why...

Let's talk more broadly about this movement to the country and the experience for each of us. I speak to artist and photographer Alissa Hessler, founder of Urban Exodus, a project and podcast. She is also author of Ditch The City and Go Country: How to Master the Art of Rural Life From a Former City Dweller, which is how I first found out about her. You can already tell she's a role model for me. From her studio in Maine, Alissa talks about her move to the country, what she's learned, the imp...

When you think of art in the Hudson Valley, your head probably goes to the Hudson Valley School and the river, mountains and landscapes of Thomas Cole and Frederic Edwin Church. You know, dead old white men. Anne Sanger runs the Pinkwater Gallery in uptown Kingston. She’s an artist and her gallery focuses on women artists of the Hudson Valley. We talk about her journey to the Hudson Valley, taking a wrong turn—or was it a right turn—and becoming an artist. We also chat about the types of arti...

In this episode Mat relishes the dedication of a bronze bust of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in Tivoli and how they now share a hometown. It's also the big move out of NYC and the first weekend as full-timers. Wait til you hear listener Kristin's advice. Cidiot® has been featured on Hudson Valley Magazine's "8 Hudson Valley Podcasts for All-Day Listening," and in Chronogram's "6 Hudson Valley Podcasts You Should Listen To." For updates, visit cidiot.com, join our facebook page at facebook.com...