A Guide to Visiting Red Hook’s Secret Oasis, Pioneer Works Gallery and Garden

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    Pioneer Works is Red Hook’s answer to the Dia Art Foundation, a place where anyone can wander in off the street, take off their shoes, and perhaps even lie down on the cool concrete floors to contemplate the art and the soaring ceiling and exposed beams of the former industrial space.

    If you’ve never visited the Pioneer Works Center for Art and Innovation before, you’re in for a treat and a surprise. Located in a former industrial space with an open garage door on a side street in Red Hook, inside you’ll find a sprawling complex with resident artists and scientists at work, galleries with art work on display, an extensive library of arts-related publications, and a well-maintained flower garden with sculpture outside.

    There are even drinks and food for sale, if you time your visit right. All in all, it’s a pleasant place to chill on a hot afternoon.

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    The upstairs gallery space. This level also houses offices and artists studios.

    What It Is
    The nonprofit organization was founded in 2011 by Director Dustin Yellin. It features educational programming, artist residencies, publications, performances and lectures. it’s also a popular wedding and party event space.

    It recently established a bookstore at the corner of Van Brunt and Pioneer Street, which serves as a helpful guide to the bigger space and also displays and sells arts-related books and periodicals.

    Events
    Regular events include Second Sundays, when the space throws open its doors to showcase site-specific works, open studios and host live music performances and DJs.

    Visitors can also observe artist interviews being recorded for radio broadcast. Swing-a-Ling, now in its fourth year, is an “all-day vintage reggae extravaganza” that takes place Sundays in warm weather.

    Concert Series include Found Sound Nation, which mixes “traditional and contemporary artists, community members and visitors” as well as local and international performers for a unique sound experience.

    Thursdays in the summer you will also find a local pop-up organic market with seasonal veggies and herbs, put on by the Red Hook Community Farm.

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    Artist Hyon Gyon at work.

    Residencies
    Pioneer Works’ residency program has been going since 2012 and covers science as well as art. Artists and scientists hailing from all over the world get working studios in the building, leading to “cross-disciplinary dialogue and collaboration,” according the foundation.

    Curators, critics, and other arts professionals make bi-monthly visits to the studios. Residents also teach classes and host studio visits with local students. For a complete list of current residents, see Pioneer Works’ page here.

    The Site’s History
    The building dates from the 1880s. It housed Pioneer Iron Works, from which it gets its name.

    The factory made all kinds of industrial machines out of iron and sheet iron, such as ships, boilers, railroad tracks, equipment for sugar plantations, and grain elevators. Originally built in 1866, the factory burned to the ground in 1881 and was later rebuilt. In recent years, it housed a storage facility for a moving company.

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    An installation in one of the galleries.

    How to Visit
    The building is open to public Wednesday through Friday from 10 am to 6 pm, and on weekends from noon to 6 pm. Tours can also be arranged. A donation is requested. The space can also be rented out for special events.

    More reading:

    Pioneer Works Bookstore Opened on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook Sunday [Brownstoner]

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    The exposed beams and soaring space.

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    The artists studios overlook exhibition space.

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    The garden out back.

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    Above, the garden gate leading to the street.

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    The front entrance, above.

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