This past weekend the Rockland Historical Society held its 50th annual St. Nicholas Day celebration, and in conjunction with that, opened its doors to its current exhibit for free on Saturday.
The is currently running its 36th annual Miniature Dollhouse exhibit. Anyone who bought a ticket to the St. Nicholas Day celebration got to walk around the exhibit either while waiting for the show to start or after it ended. On Saturday, the society stayed open past 4 p.m., when the exhibit normally closes, and allowed people in for free.
Exhibit curator Joanne Potanovic of the Historical Society said she kept the exhibit open because it was across the street from the Street School Community Center where Clarkstown was hosting its 16th annual Holiday Festival. Potanovic said it gave people something to do before the festival, and she stayed open during and a little after the festival as well.
The exhibit is full of dollhouses made from a variety of materials in different styles, and many by local artists. The exhibit also contains some art as well.
“We wanted to make a connection to the dollhouses and show that the dollhouses are art too,” Potanovic said.
Janet Davies of Davies Farm was there with some family members on Sunday, and said it’s a yearly tradition for the family to go see the dollhouse exhibit and the St. Nicholas Day show. Her daughter, Chris Nevin, said they’ve been coming to see the dollhouse exhibit for about seven years.
“It’s amazing to see how everyone makes the dollhouses out of different things,” said Casey Davies.
The group said they liked some of the spookier dollhouses.
William Male, three, of West Nyack, also liked the scary dollhouses, in addition to one boxed dollhouse with four sides where each side depicted one of the seasons.
Potanovic said a lot of the dollhouses are made from found objects, and the theme of the exhibit is creativity. Instead of people coming to the exhibit and wanting to take home one of the dollhouses, she wants people to see the dollhouses and go make their own.
A section of the exhibit is dedicated to dollhouses made from found objects by students ages seven to 11 attending the Rockland Center for the Arts in West Nyack. The students in Daly Flanagan’s class used wood, plastic and found objects to build their two-room dream dollhouses.
The exhibit is normally open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. thorugh February 26, 2012.
