Terrain Biennial Newburgh is an exhibition of art installations hosted on front yards, porches, windows, and building facades throughout the city, free and available to all who pass by. Artists work with Newburgh residents to integrate art into everyday spaces where it is most visible and least expected. The exhibition opens during Newburgh OPEN Studios, September 25 + 26, and runs through November 15, 2021.

The exhibit theme for 2021, Keep In Touch, aims to find spaces of joy and community essential for collective healing in these times of isolation, public reckonings, and mourning. How can unexpected, in-person experiences with art connect us? How can we keep in touch with each other, deepen our friendships, and build new connections?

The exhibition is a satellite site for Terrain Biennial, an initiative of Terrain Exhibitions, founded in 2013 by artist Sabina Ott in Oak Park, Illinois. The biennial was created on a volunteer basis in the spirit of community building through free and accessible public art installations and events staged in residential neighborhoods across the US and worldwide. The Biennial relies on self-organization and as Project Coordinators, we are the point of contact for Newburgh participants and the Chicagoland Terrain Biennial team. This is the second time Newburgh is participating in the biennial.

Terrain Biennial Newburgh 2019 had 12 artists and 12 host participants, and was funded through a joint grant from Awesome Newburgh and Orange County Arts Council. This year’s exhibition has more than double the participants, includes bilingual signage and community partners, and expands outreach and educational tours. To date, we’ve held an open call for artists and hosts, convened a group of community members who are advising on the exhibition (aka “Cartographers”), and 27 artists and hosts have been paired according to concept, suitability and safety for outdoor installation, and coherence with the thematic focus of Terrain Biennial 2021.