Four opening exhibitions
January 18–May 4, 2025
CPW, the renowned photography non-profit, will celebrate the grand opening of its newly renovated headquarters in Kingston, New York, on January 18, 2025. Housed in a 40,000-square-foot former cigar factory in the city’s midtown arts district 90 miles north of New York City, the new space includes 6,000 square feet of gallery space, an expanded digital media lab, workshop and lecture spaces, a visitors’ lounge, and a library.
Brian Wallis, Executive Director of CPW, said, “This is a thrilling step, transforming CPW from a one-room gallery in Woodstock nearly 50 years ago to a cultural anchor for midtown Kingston and the Hudson Valley region. Now, we can better serve our audiences, presenting exciting programs that are both community-focused and globally relevant.”
Originally founded in 1977 as the Center for Photography at Woodstock, CPW has been evolving since relocating to Kingston in 2022. The renovation, led by Lopergolo + Bartling Architects, marks the first phase of a larger transformation. The final phase is set to open in 2027, CPW’s 50th anniversary, and will include additional exhibition and community spaces, storage for the CPW collection, a bookstore, a darkroom, café, and a comprehensive building upgrade to meet sustainability goals.
The opening exhibitions, on view through May 4, reflect CPW’s origins, each offering unique and powerful perspectives in contemporary photography, explore important cultural and social issues, and highlight creativity within the Kingston community and region:
Mary Ellen Mark: Ward 81. This iconic 1976 series captures the lives of women in a locked psychiatric ward, demonstrating Mark’s empathetic and unflinching approach to complex subjects. Curated by Gaëlle Morel and Kaitlin Booher and accompanied by the book Ward 81: Voices, by Mary Ellen Mark and Karen Folger Jacobs, edited by Martin Bell, Julia Bezgin, and Meredith Lue (Steidl, 2023).
My Sister, My Self: Photographs by Colleen Kenyon and Kathleen Kenyon. A celebration of the photography and art of the Kenyon sisters, who co-directed CPW for nearly twenty-five years. Their work, shaped by their shared identity as twins, spans hand-colored photographs, collages, and collaborative projects. Curated by Tom Wolf and Laurie Dahlberg, and accompanied by a catalog of the same title, published by CPW. Organized by CPW, this retrospective features the Kenyons’ most iconic works, and is presented at CPW in Kingston, NY, and at the Kleinert/James Center in Woodstock, NY.
Keisha Scarville: Recess. The inaugural Saltzman Prize winner’s exhibition explores diaspora, loss, and the unfixing of identity and body through striking images and textiles. Curated by Marina Chao and accompanied by a limited run artist book produced by 1080PRESS in Kingston, NY.
Free, For All: Featuring works submitted through an open call during the first two weeks of January 2025, this exhibition will be on view in CPW’s new Community Gallery.
About CPW
Founded in 1977 as the Center for Photography at Woodstock, CPW is a not-for-profit arts organization with a dual mission: to support artists working in photography and related media, and to engage audiences through creation, discovery, and learning. At the heart of CPW’s mission is programming that is community-based, artist-centered, and collaborative. To foster public conversation around critical issues in photography, CPW offers exhibitions, workshops, artists’ talks, and access to its Digital Media Lab.
In addition to its public programs, CPW supports artists through its long-running Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program, established in 1999 to foster critical dialogue on diversity, race, and identity in the context of social justice, which has supported over 150 artists, including LaToya Ruby Frazier, Deana Lawson, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya. The current application period is open until January 31, 2025.
CPW is also an education space: its program Sanctuary City, Stories of Immigration and Community, led by Wendy Ewald, empowers immigrant students at Kingston High School to tell the histories of their native countries and adopted home through photography.
