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 will collaborate with environmental, cultural, and municipal partners in New Paltz, NY and other river communities to create participatory, experiential public artworks about Wallkill River futures. We are currently developing these during a year of intensive co-research and collaboration with partners and stakeholders. In Summer 2026, well produce free public events and encounters in New Paltz and other locations at public access points along the Wallkill River. Unison Arts will host a related exhibition.

Wallkill Futures is initiated and directed by Lize Mogel in collaboration with artists Nancy Nowacek, FICTILIS, and sTo Len, with partners Unison Arts, artist Matthew Friday, the Hudson River Watershed Alliance, the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance, and the Town of New Paltz. 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

Partners:
>Unison Arts
>Matthew Friday
>Wallkill River Watershed Alliance
>Hudson River Watershed Alliance
+Town of New Paltz, NY