Standing at the future permanent home of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF) in Garrison, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer today revealed he has just secured a $1.5 million boost in federal funding in pending legislation to complete the expansion of the long sought new open-air Shakespeare style amphitheater overlooking the Hudson River. Schumer said this is one of the final pieces of the puzzle needed to complete this project to create a permanent home for the HVSF that brings tens of thousands of visitors every year, is one of the area’s largest employers, provides educational programing to students, and spurs millions for businesses along our Main Streets and in the Putnam County and Hudson Valley economy.
“For too long this long-desired project to create a permanent home for the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival and beautiful new theater overlooking the scenic Hudson River faced a question: ‘To be or not to be?’ Well I am here today to announce that I have just secured funding to say it is to be! The $1.5 million I just secured in the Senate appropriations bill is how we can ensure this project quickly moves forward and breaks ground so that the show can go on for this beloved Putnam County tradition bigger and better than ever before,” said Senator Schumer. “Tens of thousands of theater lovers every year come to the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, pumping millions into our shops, restaurants and the Hudson Valley economy. I helped save the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival during the pandemic with my Save Our Stages Act because I know how important the arts and live theater are to this community, and I won’t stop fighting to deliver this $1.5 million in the final FY 2025 Ag-FDA appropriations bill. Today, we take a major step forward to turning this ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ into a reality for the Hudson Valley.”
Founded in 1987, Schumer explained that the HVSF, a designated nonprofit, has presented repertory theatre under its iconic open-air Theater Tent each summer for over 30,000 audience members, while also reaching over 30,000 students, families, and educators in schools and communities throughout the Hudson Valley. The critically-acclaimed theater has been highlighted for its productions by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the New Yorker. On top of the annual HVSF audience of over 30,000 supporting local small businesses as they go out to dinner and shop along Main Street, the HVSF is one of the largest employers in western Putnam County. The HVSF’s 100-person seasonal staff of directors, designers, actors, technicians, ushers, concessionaires, and more, consists of local and national union talent. These staff members live, work, and play in the community during the summer season leaving a significant impact on local small businesses. The expansion is expected to create dozens of new good-paying construction and permanent production jobs.
For years, the HVSF has hosted at the iconic open-air Theater Tent and was gifted a 98-acre property, formerly a golf course, in Philipstown to build a permanent home in 2019. The organization has been working nonstop to raise funds for the construction of an open-air Shakespeare style amphitheater. Once completed, the new facility will be fully open to the public, offering more than 98 acres of ecologically restored native greenspace for recreation and additional spaces for local use such as blood drives, community meetings, and farmers markets. In addition, the new project will enable the HVSF to expand its programming and offerings for new productions that were inhibited by the limitations of the existing space. The avant-garde theater will be the first purpose-built LEED Platinum certified theater in the country and was developed for the Hudson Valley by the architectural firm Studio Gang, who has designed worldwide renowned projects such as the Richard Gilder Center at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, the Tour Montparnasse in Paris, France, and the new O’Hare Airport Global Terminal in Chicago, Illinois.
Schumer explained that the funding was included as a congressionally directed spending request submitted by the senator through the Rural Development, Community Facilities program in the FY 2025 Senate Agriculture-FDA appropriations bill that was recently approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. Schumer is now fighting to deliver this funding in a final, full-year FY25 appropriations bill that Congress must pass later this year. Schumer’s push for $1.5 million would ensure that the organization has what it needs to get shovels in the ground.
“Thanks to support from Majority Leader Schumer, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival will soon break ground on our first ever permanent home in our 37-year history,” said HVSF Managing Director Kendra Ekelund. “This project would not be possible without Senator Schumer’s enduring leadership and support for the arts and culture sector, including the Save Our Stages Act, which helped arts organizations like ours weather the pandemic and emerge to better serve our audiences and communities. Support from the Senator through Community Project Funding affirms our ability to build not just a theater, but to design a campus that responsibly and sustainably engages with both the land and the community. This project will serve as a model of how arts and the public good can exist not just side-by-side, but in a mutually supportive relationship to one another.”
“Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival is a vital cultural institution in my district. I am grateful to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for providing these critical funds to help establish a beautiful, permanent home for the festival. For my part, I will continue to advocate for state assistance to ensure the success of this project. It will be such a boon for locals and visitors alike to be able to enjoy theater against the backdrop of such spectacular views,” said New York State Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg.
“For decades, the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has been at the beating heart of Putnam County’s cultural and economic success. Thanks to community input, the work of the Philipstown Planning Board and Senator Schumer, we can now ensure that a vibrant HVSF continues to support our region through outstanding live performances, engaging education programs, and accessible community initiatives,” said Putnam County Legislator Nancy Montgomery.
Schumer has been a longtime supporter of the arts and specifically the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. In May, Schumer announced that he helped secure a $10,000 federal grant for the HVSF to support the Tent Pole Commission, a new play development program that helps artists create new work. Schumer also helped author and was a lead champion of the Save Our Stages Act, which he not only led the fight to authorize but also to fund, including adding more assistance for the program in the American Rescue Plan that he passed into law as majority leader. The Save Our Stages Act, which created the Small Business Administration’s Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, provided critical relief for independent live venue operators, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions like the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival that were significantly impacted by the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The HVSF was awarded $1.1 million through the Save Our Stages Act’s Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, which provided the organization with critical relief that helped them retain staff and survive the pandemic, which otherwise likely could have resulted in their closure, making their expansion today not possible.
