Catamount Museum

Little Big Cat set to open October 1st 2011, Bring some Eyeballs!

2011-09-26T15:23:00.000-07:00

Little Big Cat Young Person's Museum in Progess

2011-08-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

New Young Person's Meseum set to Open October 1st
Come out and help thatch this creature!
More details to follow...

2011-06-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

The Little Big Cat:
A Hand-Built Young People’s Museum

www.bobcathouse.blogspot.com

*** Free Summer Art Program ***
Open to All Catskill Area Youth Ages 10-18

What? You know that big cat made out of wood on Bridge St. in Catskill across from the pizza place? That’s the Catamount People’s Museum and this summer there’s going to be an “off-spring” >>>The Little Big Cat Young People’s Museum!<<<

Join local artists Matt Bua and Laura Anderson this summer for a weeklong Building Intensive where we’ll create a smaller cat, next to the big one, made out of things found and discarded. You’ll learn how to use hand-tools, how to select and connect materials and how to design and build a unique sculptural structure.

Once built, The Young People’s Museum will house a collection of materials found and created by young people in the Catskill Area including; drawings, photos, maps, zines, interviews, special objects, sound recordings, etc. Through these displays visitors will get to view the talent and creativity of local youth and get to experience stories of what this area looks like through their eyes. You can start working on your submission to the Museum now or you can come to one of several Create and Collect Events throughout the summer (TBA). You could also work with Matt and Laura to create a collection event of your own.

When?
Orientation
Sunday, July 3rd 5-7pm @ The Catskill Community Center, 344 Main St.

Building Intensive
(lunch and cold drinks provided)
Monday- Saturday, July 11th-16th, 9am-2pm @ 21 W. Bridge St.

Creation and Collection of Display Materials
Throughout the Summer, Dates, Times and Locations TBA

Opening Celebration
September, Date and Time TBA

How to get involved: Contact Laura Anderson (570-560-0463, lalarky@gmail.com) or Matt Bua (917-291-7404, mattbua@gmail.com) to sign up and come to the Orientation on July 3rd.

*This project made possible with public funds from the Decentralization Program of the NY State Council on the Arts, administered through the Community Arts Grants Program by the Greene County Council on the Arts.*

Halloween Party 2010

2010-12-09T19:17:00.000-08:00

Photos by Sam Sebren
clockwise from top left-ish: Dharma and Brian playing some sweet fall songs, Kara's Mom and Dad reading poems, Max and Miles carving it up, (Middle)Daisy boy and Flemming Man, Matt and Stick Sellers, John Peters cranking out skull Masks, Bottom right: Tom Echo Plexing Echo, Matt Face Painting , Laura Face Painting,

Clockwise from the top left: Dharma sketching pumpkin, Laura and Dillon get the rocket stove going, Quinn and her new blue mask, (2) Rob Hervey and his Yidakey, Matt sporting Carrie's "Lamb" Mask. Middle image: Marsden Joy's donated mummy-fied cat, The Face Painted Ones and folks, more good folks bench warming

Saturday October 30th Halloween Party

2010-10-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

What do you like most about Halloween?
Bring It! Tell It ! Show it!

Come out to the Halloween Party at the Catamount People's Museum on Saturday October 30th
from noon till the ghost all wake (around 10)

21 west bridge st
Catskill NY 12141

more details at

www.bobcathouse.blogspot.com

Made possible with a grant from the Harpo Foundation, power from Dimensions North, PA supplied by WGXC Hands on Community Radio
and all the fine Halloween enthusiast's in the area

Cara's Human Sized Rooster Gang
Rob Herbey's Yidaky(or as the westerns call it:didgereeedoooooo)
Carrie Dashow's Scary Dream Notary Booth
john Peter's Krampus Creature
Stick Sellers aka Sam Sebren
Kara Gamblor and her Witchy Mom...5 little pumpkins
an appearance by 31 Down

WGXC Hands on Community Radio, will be present for the earlier part of the day

Daytime
-Costume Making
-Pumpkin Carving (Pumpkins courtesy of Story Farms Nursery)
-A Cauldron of fine Stone Soup
Costume Critiques and Dialogues

Evening
Bones-A-Drone- Come drone with us...
Scary Story Galore
Halloween Jams
Smoke N Mirrors

Hollow's Eve Inside the Belly of the Wild Cat

2010-10-07T17:50:00.000-07:00

Saturday October 30th Hollow's Eve Party
noon till the Ghost all wake
Details and Participants to Follow

THE RECORD-A-STORY CATAMOUNT HOTLINE

2010-09-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

Toll Free( Call from any Pay Phone that you find , that works)

1 877 679 4283

Press # 1 to leave a story about the past
Press #2 to talk about the Future

System set up by 31 Down Radio Theater

Opening Day Shots

2010-09-15T15:29:00.000-07:00

The last visitors emerge from the belly of the Kitty.
OM-i-Nissss It WASSSSSSSSSSSS

Charles B. Swain (Greene County Minority Historian) makes a visit and talks "Mountain Lions" amongst other things

Rob and pooch at kiosk-bench #2

Rob typing furiously(maybe a near death story) but the typee couldn't keep up

Kara listening to Carmen Borgia

Alex and the Visionary Drawing Building Book

Pat and the music, inside the cat

Bradford, The Pencillina, and Harry performing the "Almost Rain Song"

echo and milo demonstrate the stick chair is great for 2

Heini Aho and Sebastian Ziegler's "Cat face" in the bush...just add water and watch it grow

Charles Rogers tells us about the hunting skill of the Cat and the Egg Building at the Empire Plaza

Kara Gamblor's Opening Day thoughts

2010-08-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

I once looked up the word museum. I remember it as being defined as a place for musing. I was amused by the obvious I had overlooked in the word morphology. Matt Bua's Catamount Museum also made me reexamine things I had never overlooked, but a new lens/perspective gave fresh vigor to the simple beauties of different types of wood that grows naturally in the area of Catskill, N.Y.

Sitting in a chair made of sumac and ash trees, with a bit of maple thrown in here and there, I was surprisingly comfortable...a chair which is also sort of a cat foot...sort of...rising over my head is a roof made of handmade shingles..the ceiling rises above in a rounded peak, where the bobcat's head is on the outside. A work area and study is nestled deepest in the structure, bookshelves with books on the history and lore of the Catskills. An old typewriter sits there, and I watched a 7 year old in wonder trying it out..so weird for me. I typed up a story of the one time I saw a bobcat, right near the town of Catskill. Other people told other cat tales. One I read was about a cat which was adopted by a local business and became "cat A". They already had a "cat B", so I guess the cat was replacing a former cat....

On a table was raw sweet corn (YUM!!)(courtesy Story Farms), peanuts in the shell, some bakery(river street bakery of Catskill), and water. A catch as catch can spread that was quite sustaining....;)

If you get up to the Catskill area, or Hudson...it is a very nice place to see and hang out in, and let your freak flag fly next to the red white and blue..it is a free country, right? Freedom is free in the Catamount Museum. No admission charge:)

Weeds lay underfoot and I thrilled to see a barefoot child with mud smeared over his foot running around, taking the risks in stride. The children were mesmerized into silence as Bradford Reed began his performance. Accompanying him with throat singing a guy in whose back yard Bradford built his first pencilina. It was amazing, with huge paisley clouds rolling across the sky as Brad played..calling the rain, unfortunately. Two songs. Short and swweeeet.

As I drove home through sunshowers, I came upon a lovely rainbow.

Wish you were there!

September 4th Opening Day 12-6 pm

2010-08-21T08:26:00.000-07:00

The Catamount People's Museum
21 West Bridge st
Catskill NY 12414
http://www.bobcathouse.blogspot.com

Opening Celebration: Saturday, September 4th 2010, noon to 6 pm

Performances by Bradford Reed and his Amazing Pencilina
and Carmen Borgia

Live broadcast from 2-6 pm by the WGCX radio crew

A handmade People's Museum has been constructed in Catskill, NY in the form of a lounging bobcat. The museum is built using discarded tree branches and cut offs from local mills. The interior houses a collection of materials and displays celebrating the people, stories and history of the Catskill Mountains. Content for displays are collected from both historical organizations and the surrounding community. The museum has a unique focus of seamlessly blending the stories, visions and personal collections of residents with the voices of historians. The folk legends, urban myths and favorite, almost forgotten tide bits on display make this new public space a place to soak in what this area is really all about.

Do you have a favorite story your grandfather told you? An old photo of the area that you really like? A memory of a building that once stood? A little known gem from the present people should know about?Seen a bobcat lately? A reason this area is special to you? A vision for the future? Bring It! Tell It!

Sponsors and Support: The project is sponsored by New York Foundation for the Arts(NYFA) and made possible with a grant from the Harpo Foundation. Special Thanks to the Village of Catskill, Catskill Valley Pools, Dimensions North LTD, Tony Fallon's Hardware Store (Cairo) Skip Kelly's Lumber(Cairo), West Side Villa Pizzeria, WGXC Community Radio, Joan Mitchell Foundation, Purple Mountain Press, Hope Farm Press, Black Dome Press, NY-NJ Trail Conference,Story Farms and River Street Bakers.

for mail in Submissions please send to :

Catamount People's Museum
po box 581
catskill ny 12414

Mid July- Catamount Peoples Museum gets a face

2010-07-28T14:49:00.000-07:00

As seen from behind

2009-12-06T13:11:00.000-08:00

Open air view from behind

sketch with post and beam structural detail

2009-11-27T11:45:00.001-08:00

side view sketch

2009-06-19T10:54:00.000-07:00

Illustration of the open quality of the back side of the structure

interior dwellings

2008-04-29T13:30:00.000-07:00

cat in park

2008-04-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

Catamount Museum Sketch 2

2008-04-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

another sketch

2008-04-05T12:58:00.000-07:00

first sketch

2008-04-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia:

While the meaning of the name ("cat creek" in Dutch) and the namer (early Dutch explorers) are settled matters, exactly how and why the area is named is a mystery. Mountain Lions or "Catamounts" were known to have been in the area when the Dutch arrived in the 1600s[2].

The most common, and easiest, is that bobcats were seen near Catskill creek and the present-day village of Catskill, and the name followed from there. However there is no record of bobcats ever having been seen in significant numbers on the banks of the Hudson, and the name Catskill does not appear on paper until 1655, more than four decades later.

Other theories include:

* A corruption of kasteel, the Dutch sailors' term for the Indian stockades they saw on the riverbank. According to one Belgian authority, kat occurs in many place names throughout Flanders and has nothing to do with cats and everything to do with fortifications.[citation needed]

* It was to honor Dutch poet Jacob Cats, who was also known for his real estate prowess, profiting from speculation in lands reclaimed from the sea.

* A ship named The Cat had gone up the Hudson shortly before the name was first used. In nautical slang of the era, cat could also mean a piece of equipment, or a particular type of small vessel.

* It has also been suggested that it refers to lacrosse, which Dutch visitors had seen the Iroquois natives play. Kat can also refer to a tennis racket, which a lacrosse stick resembles, and the first place the Dutch saw this, further down the river in the present-day Town of Saugerties, they gave the name Kaatsbaan, for "tennis court," which is still on maps today.

The confusion over the exact origins of the name led over the years to variant spellings such as Kaatskill and Kaaterskill, both of which are also still used, the former in the regional magazine Kaatskill Life, the latter as the name of a town, creek, clove, mountain and waterfall.