Focusing on an eight-mile-long riparian corridor of the Sawkill Creek, Mapping the Sawkill Watershed Project is a diverse ecological exploration and celebration of the land. Led by artist Jennifer Zackin, this yearlong community initiative, focused on relationship-building, encompasses a series of participatory sensory workshops, walking tours, a Stream Stewards program, community mapping sessions, and an art exhibition, all taking place in 2026. All events are free and open to the public.

The Fontyne Kill will provide a sound bath, wisdom, clay pigment, and its waters to use for a creative, calming & connective somatic experience. The class will be facilitated in a guided meditation and painting techniques by local art therapist & educator, Coryn Nadeau. We’ll also discuss and facilitate the ethical disposal of water used in art-practice.

Ages 5 + welcome.

Spend a day in the field with local ecologist Frank Beres for an afternoon of photographing and documenting insect biodiversity at Zena Cornfield. Discover and learn about the life cycles of semi-adult aquatic insects such as dragonflies, mayflies, and stoneflies that will be in flight after years of living in nearby water bodies as larvae. Additionally, we will explore the importance of bioindicator documentation and how aquatic insects and other species, such as butterflies, bumble bees, and other important pollinators, can inform us about habitat and environmental quality. Any camera, from a phone to a telephoto lens, is encouraged to hone your skills in photographing and identifying insects.

Join us for a celebration of our beloved Zena Highwoods through an evening of immersive sounds and sights from our local forest.  Featuring the premiere of interdisciplinary sound artist Zaneta Sykes’ Invitations from the Land: the Zena Highwoods, an eco-ritual of reciprocity based on the artist’s Filipinx traditions of singing to land in offering. Community members will be immersed in a year of forest soundscapes recorded on the solstices and equinoxes in the Zena Highwoods, interwoven with projections of wildlife illustrations by Zoe Keller, documented during the same time period in the very same forest. Soundscapes and sightings will blend into the autumnal night chorus, as the community gathers under the full moon to sing back to the land in a full circle exchange of listening and sound between human and more-than-human kin.

Enoki Catskills will be offering cozy fare, inspired by Filipinx cuisine and locally foraged.

This workshop traces the evolving relationship between people and the Sawkill Creek from Lenape fishing practices and floodplain agriculture, to European colonists harnessing its waters for the tanning industry, to its role in 20th-century municipal infrastructure. Participants will explore how these shifting uses reflect changing values, including the rise of tourism and its influence on environmental preservation in the region. The program will take place primarily at the Woodstock Historical Society, concluding with a short walk to Tannery Brook to connect these stories to the present-day landscape.

More details coming soon. Save the date!