PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century is a contemporary arts venue in the Hudson Valley.

PS21 presents innovative programming by leading and emerging artists in music, dance, theater, contemporary performance, and the visual and multimedia arts.

Since our state-of-the-art theater was inaugurated in 2018, PS21 has evolved into the Hudson Valley’s mecca for innovative programming by leading and emerging artists. Jesse Green, writing in The New York Times called PS21’s open-air Pavilion Theater a “beautiful, reconfigurable indoor-outdoor space that appears to have landed like an exotic bird in the midst of a 100-acre former apple orchard.”

In addition to earning a reputation as “a Hudson Valley outpost of the avant-garde” (The New York Times, June 2022) for its exceptional seasons of interdisciplinary dance, theater, and music, PS21 has created PS21 PATHWAYS: Blazing Trails to a Sustainable Future, an ambitious, multi-faceted series of spectacle, performances, art installations, educational workshops, international contemporary circus, and participatory events designed for young and old, individuals and families, all offered for free or at very low cost. Community engagement, education, and free performances will continue to form the heart of PS21 PATHWAYS 2023 season.

PS21 fosters creativity through artists’ residencies and encouraging collaborations between performers working across disciplines and genres. PS21’s mission is to provide support for innovative performing artists and creators and to introduce their work to broader audiences, while also providing the surrounding region with opportunities for arts engagement regardless of economic status, cultural background, or age. In its new, green facility, PS21 offers resident makers and performers involved in the creation of new work the tools and flexibility for successful innovation and collaboration in the development of sophisticated multi-media work.

PS21 has emerged from the pandemic poised for growth, with strong finances, enhanced artistic vitality, a dedicated board, and many new donors. Read more about our programmatic agenda on our news page and see photos of recent productions on Instagram.

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MISSION

PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the performing arts. We are committed to:

• • Presenting innovative performances by leading and emerging artists in our state-of-the-art black-box and open-air pavilion theaters.

  • Fostering creativity through residencies and collaborations between performers working across disciplines and genres

  • Serving the community via free and low-cost workshops, performances, and other programming.

  • Preserving our 100 acres of open spaces, meadows, woodlands, and orchards as an important resource for artists and the community.

  • Extending opportunities for arts engagement to all, regardless of age, economic status, and cultural background.

Our commitments are incorporated in the design of our new theater and the surrounding grounds: open, inviting, and optimized for the public’s enjoyment and to encourage citizen expression and participation.

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FACILITIES

PS21’s facility, completed in 2018, is a 300-seat open-air proscenium stage protected by a pavilion roof, which converts in cooler months to a geothermally heated and air-conditioned black box theater seating 99. The new facility is built with technologically advanced systems that can accommodate all levels of artistic needs–from the analog use of our extensive system of sprung dance floors so critical for the safety of movement-based performance, to our state-of-the-art lighting and sound capacities. The theater features one of the only fully LED green theatrical lighting systems in the country.

Our new facility sits above a nineteenth-century apple orchard at the apex of over 100 acres of beautiful Hudson Valley land, at the foothills of the Berkshires. Just five acres have been developed; the rest are meadows and woodlands. Nearby are the Dance Barn, a rehearsal and performance venue, and two artists’ residences accommodating sixteen visitors. The PS21 property is also host to the Chatham Farm Animal Rescue.

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HISTORY

PS21 was conceived in 1999 by our founder and long-time board president Judy Grunberg to bring world-class performances to Columbia County and the surrounding region. Our first season, 2006, was held under a temporary tent in Chatham: performances of classical music, modern dance, and theater, film screenings, and workshops and free performances for kids.

Our programming and audiences soon outgrew the saddlespan tent, and in 2018 PS21 moved into its new, state-of-the-art theater just a few hundred yards up the hill from the former tent site. Geothermally heated and air-conditioned, the visually arresting structure houses a 99-seat black box that in warm weather expands to a 300-seat open-air pavilion theater. The building also houses PS21’s offices, a kitchen, artists’ dressing rooms, and rehearsal space.

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