Hudson Hall is a multi-arts community center and performing arts venue in the City of Hudson. A civic and economic anchor in downtown Hudson, it offers a year-round schedule of cultural and educational programs in its historic building, which houses New York State’s oldest surviving theater. The vibrant site of wide-ranging activities from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s, it fell dormant for decades but returned to community use in 1998. In 2017, Hudson Hall completed a $9.5 million full restoration of its second-floor performance hall, making the building ADA accessible and putting the venue back into use with increased performances, scale of productions, audience capacity, as well as a flexible space for events and rentals.
Approximately 70% of Hudson Hall’s programs are offered free of charge or greatly subsidized through its Community Arts Program. Many of these activities have a focus on children and youth and are offered in the after-school hours. Current offerings include multi-session workshops in theater, music, dance, crafts, visual arts, and public exhibitions with local school districts. Hudson Hall coordinates teaching artists to work with students in-school and after-school, schedules the start dates of its offerings with the school district to facilitate participation, and offers summer activities. For older youth, Hudson Hall offers workforce development opportunities, including a Live Arts & Media Workforce Development Program for about 10 students in which teens and young adults are paid to receive five full days of training in general workforce readiness in live arts and media career skills.
Activities for all ages include a new community choir, dance and drum workshops, free exhibitions, lectures, film screenings, book events, and free and low-cost facility usage for community groups. In addition, Hudson Hall coordinates three sizeable events. The first is a Kwanzaa celebration offered in partnership with Operation Unite with over 250 participants. The second, the Hudson Jazz Festival, which Hudson Hall started in 2018 to bring tourism dollars to the city during the slow winter months, attracts 2,000 attendees, a third of whom are from out of town. The Hudson Jazz Festival includes workshops for local teens with world-class artists and pay-what-you-wish and free tickets distributed through community ambassadors and other organizations. And its long-standing and largest community event is the city-wide Winter Walk, which is attended annually by about 10,000 people.
In 2023, Hudson Hall received a renewed multi-year designated support grant from the Dyson Foundation to support its Community Arts Program.