Rachelle Spero: Opening Doors for Inclusive Art

August 24, 2016 by Kathryn Scudier

The C H R C H Project Space has been the scene of several large art installations.

When the Medieval builders began using stained glass, the intention was highlighting the brilliant interior of the cathedral. Light was tinted with vibrant colors to cultivate a transcendent atmosphere.

Likewise, the stained glass windows of the Dutch Reformed church in Cottekill illuminate an inspirational space. Today, light shines through as artist Wayne Montecalvo designs a backdrop for an ongoing performance piece. He’s not the first to use the hall as a studio/stage hybrid nor will he be the last, according to Rachelle Spero’s plan.

Rachelle owns the church, yet in her eyes it belongs to artists, farmers, and concerned citizens of the Hudson Valley. She is the founder of the C H R C H Project Space, an interdisciplinary workshop in the church hall that invites the community to collaborate with artists on and address local and global social concerns.

A permanent transplant from New York City, Rachelle positions herself in league with local organizations and individuals who seek to enrich the blood that runs through the valley’s cultural veins. “Lucky for us, some of the most innovative artists working today call our area home,” she says.

Rachelle and her dog, Ginger, moved to the Hudson Valley in 2012. Photograph by Rikki Snyder.

Instead of making her way into a big city, Rachelle slowly made her way out. With a Journalism degree from Northeastern University, she strategically navigated New York’s public relations world, working with high-profile clients like Gap, PepsiCo, and Visa, and adjunct teaching in New York University’s Public Relations and Corporate Communication program. Meanwhile, Rachelle supported charities aligned with her personal and professional interests, yet felt disconnected from their causes and the populations they served.

“I invested 20 years building my professional career in Boston and Manhattan without really knowing the people in the communities where I lived,” Rachelle recalls. “When I moved to the Hudson Valley I made it my mission to know the people in my community and contribute to the future of the area so that I could feel a sense of purpose, belonging, and pride in where I live.”

In 2010, Rachelle became a Partner at the Brunswick Group and began searching for a home upstate. Finding Ayumi Horie’s renovated schoolhouse and church for sale in the hamlet of Cottekill, she elected to relocate to Rosendale. Her new property allowed her to investigate how she would frame her mission to integrate herself into the local culture.

Pat Oleszko is one of four WSW residents to work in the church.

Rachelle formed a collaboration with Michael Asbill, the former Art Director for the Hudson Valley Seed Library and a partner at KMOCA. As there had been studios, exhibitions, and art sales in the church before it was sold, it was agreed the space would stay a sanctuary dedicated to art.

They refined the idea into a residency program that would compel artists to consider the local audience, agriculture, and businesses. Both practically and conceptually the church would provide a bridge through which local residents could experience and influence the issues selected, examined, and presented to the public. Envisioning a conversation between the artists and the community to produce accessible, contemporary installations, Rachelle and Michael formulated the foundation of the C H R C H Project Space.

In researching artist residency models, Rachelle and Michael spoke with WSW co-founders Ann Kalmbach and Tana Kellner. “We had a ‘meeting of the minds’ with a number of artists, business people and community organizers to discuss the mission, vision and format of the residencies,” Rachelle explains. “Ann and Tana were gracious enough to participate in that meeting and share their significant experience and insights from running a successful non-profit artist residency for over 40 years.”

At that time, WSW had forfeited some studio space to construction on the expansion project and the church was awaiting its first undertaking.Their discussions transformed into a partnership.

In 2013, Brazilian artist Alice Miceli was the first WSW resident to exhibit in the church, filling the empty space with a film featuring the faces of Cambodian genocide victims. Months later, Sonja Hinrichsen laid out handmade ceramic flatware and a meal of locally foraged wild plants. The next year saw Kate Hamilton’s immersive installation of haunting, colossal garments fashioned from sailcloth, and Pat Oleszko’s paper and found object sculptures of a fantastic, handmade world.

Since its inception, C H R C H has become a laboratory for socially-conscious and participatory work by opening up dialogues and expanding connections. It serves as the studio, stage, and gathering space for cross disciplinary experimentation—incorporating digital media, installation, textiles, and performance works—that materializes from the creative minds of each year’s residents, who have four to six weeks to plan and craft a community-centered project.

As creative director and curator, Michael invites artists whose proposals support their call for social practice. Recent artist-in-residence Linda Weintraub, mindful of humanity’s tenuous role in preserving the earth, built a monument of forest findings and invited participants to add pinecones, acorns, or other woodland offerings to the piece, encouraging the installation to grow and celebrating the wealth of local flora.

Through the growing program, Rachelle has connected to her new home on a substantial scale, bringing in anyone from the students of Rondout Valley Schools and SUNY Ulster Arts to farmers to local artists. The C H R C H Project Space’s model brings together this diverse web of relationships to fulfil a simple philosophy. “I believe every resident should invest either time, money or resources in their community,” Rachelle says.

Purchasing the church and moving did not mean retirement for Rachelle, who continues her career as an Independent Business Consultant and currently assists the Rondout Valley Growers with their communications strategy and planning. She is also a member of the Rondout Valley Business Association, is a Champion Member of Business Alliance For Local Living Economies, and sits on the board of the Hudson Valley Seed Library. While her vision is not exclusive to supporting the arts, she is acutely aware of the role art plays in directing attention to economic concerns, such as sustainable agriculture and local business.

“I believe art helps us to communicate what matters,” she says. “Where our food comes from matters. Who we do business with matters. Our community matters because community is everybody’s business.”