A 1920s Poughkeepsie cistern sees new life as art venue

A 1920s underground water cistern in Poughkeepsie could soon become a public performance space, writes Brian K. Mahoney in an article for Chronogram.

The cistern, decommissioned in 2021, is located in the city's College Hill Park, is a short walk away from another piece of repurposed civic infrastructure, the Walkway Over the Hudson, a former railroad bridge turned linear park. For Christopher Kroner of MASS Design Group, the company working on the project, the cistern is "part of the same lineage. Not preservation for its own sake, but transformation—taking something engineered for one purpose and allowing it to serve another."

MASS Design has hosted several "test activations" of performances to understand the space, and will hold the first public event on May 9, when roughly 40 spectators will be allowed in at a time. 

The project is inspired in part by a similar venue in Houston, the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern, which has been a public art and performance space for several years. MASS Design hopes the May 9 event will serve as a recruitment drive for artists and locals who want to help shape programming and advocate for the funding and resources needed to complete the project.