Wallkill Futures is a participatory public art project with and for communities along the 88-mile-long Wallkill River in New York’s Hudson Valley. As climate change sparks investment vehicles that extract value based on future scarcity or availability of water, this project will create a platform for artist experiments in mobilizing social investment in water futures.

The Wallkill River crosses multiple administrative boundaries and geologies to eventually spill into the Hudson River. It runs past towns, suburbs, farms, infrastructures, and undeveloped land. Its water is used for irrigation, recreation, and habitat. This is not the “charismatic megalandscape” of rivers — that honor goes to the nearby Hudson, or the Colorado, or the Mississippi. It’s a workaday river, one like those that exist all over the US — somewhat loved, mostly disregarded, voiceless. But as the warming planet impacts these “ordinary” rivers, their potential role in climate adaptation multiplies and ripples outward, and intervention becomes critical.

Project artists are collaborating with environmental, cultural, and municipal partners in New Paltz, NY and other river communities to create participatory, experiential public artworks about Wallkill River futures. Wallkill River encounters, events, and workshops will happen between May and August, 2026. An exhibition at Unison Arts in New Paltz, NY opens July 17th and runs through August 22. More info about workshops and events here!

Wallkill Futures is initiated and directed by Lize Mogel in collaboration with artists Matthew Friday, Nancy Nowacek, FICTILIS, and sTo Len, with partners Unison Arts, the Hudson River Watershed Alliance, the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance, and others. The project is funded by a 2024 Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Artists:
+Lize Mogel, Project Director
>FICTILIS
>sTo Len
>Nancy Nowacek
>Matthew Friday

Partners:
>Unison Arts
>Wallkill River Watershed Alliance
>Hudson River Watershed Alliance