The Art Effect’s COVID-19 Safety Plan

(last updated 3/1/2022)

To ensure safety for all of our students and their families, The Art Effect has worked hard to create programming environments which are safe, sanitary, and responsive to the shifting needs of these uncertain times. Beginning Wednesday March 2, in accordance with the CDC stating Dutchess/Ulster County as an area of low transmission and the NYS Governor’s office lifting the mask mandate, wearing masks will be optional for all staff, and students will no longer be required to wear masks inside each of our buildings. (except in special cases, please contact us 845.471.7477).

In addition to securing the safety of our employees in accordance with directives issued by the NYS Governor’s Office, The Art Effect is providing the safest in-person programming experiences possible for the students and families we serve with the plan laid out below.

As new requirements and policies are put in place we will update our safety plan accordingly and provide notice to families enrolled in our programming.

For the health and safety of our staff and students, our COVID protocols will continue to include the following:

  • Everyone sanitizes or washes hands before and after each class/activity.
  • If your child feels sick, please keep them home. Students who report feeling sick during the day will be asked to call a caregiver to pick them up. 
  • We will work to maintain a safe social distance when necessary to continue to help stop the spread of germs.
  • Where possible, individually packaged supplies will be used. All tools, supplies, surfaces, and seating gets sanitized at the end of the day.
  • If a student or students’ immediate family member (with whom they have daily contact) tests positive for COVID-19, we ask that the student stay home. Should a teacher (or student) test positive for COVID-19 while in contact with students, we will notify families immediately.

Sign Up for Junior Art Institute

Junior Art Institute
For ages 11-14

Learn new skills in drawing, painting, digital art, mixed media and more to turn your ideas into impressive finished work. Supportive instructors guide you on advancing your studio practices and developing a strong art making process to pursue your artistic goals. You will learn the basics of composition, color schemes, proportions, perspective, depth, and more through a combination of observational & conceptual art making.

Students can choose between two majors:

  1. Fine Arts majors focus on introducing studio practices and developing techniques using various paints, pastels, charcoal, ink, and more during most of their day. Fine Arts majors will minor in Digital Art 
  2. Digital Arts Majors learn the foundations of photo manipulation, photography, animation, and digital illustration & painting while exploring different forms of technology and proper equipment usage. Digital Art majors will minor in Fine Art

DAC Red Hook is Back!

Dutchess Arts Camp in Red Hook
For ages 5-10
Dutchess Arts Camp – Red Hook is back for 2022! Creativity thrives as campers explore their artistic abilities, games and play. Enjoy both individual and collaborative art making based on an engaging weekly camp theme. Experienced and friendly staff support hands-on art experimentation with a wide variety of artistic mediums including painting, sculpture, collage, animation, performance, and more. The pieces created at camp will portray original narratives connecting to each campers’ interests and lives.

2022 Summer Art Institute Sign Up

The Summer Art Institute is designed to help develop students’ ideas and build skills in the visual and digital arts. These intensive multi-week sessions allow young artists ages 11-19 to develop their portfolios. Students can select a major of study to focus on.

For ages 14-19

Teen artists will develop skills that prepare them for advanced artistic study. Students can major in Drawing & Painting, Advanced Drawing & Painting, or Digital Art & Illustration.

Excel your artistic knowledge, techniques, and studio practices by learning from a supportive and knowledgeable team of Teaching Artists. Share this experience with other like minded individuals who have their sights set on pursuing a career in the arts. Emerge with an impressive portfolio including both digital and fine art that highlight a strengthened understanding of color theory, composition, narrative, creative intention, and more. Create a balance between an observational and conceptual style with a strong focus on how to design pieces to include your personal voice. Develop an advanced artistic vocabulary and receive constructive critique on your work from peers and teaching artists. You will have a hand in curating, hanging, and presenting your sessions’ artwork for the Final Showcase art exhibition where your family and friends are invited to celebrate your work. One of your pieces may be chosen for The Art Effect’s Teen Visions exhibition in September!

Students can choose between three majors:

  1. Drawing & Painting – Intermediate artists ready to begin their journey in portfolio development will receive guidance in what colleges look for in a strong portfolio and how to begin to develop pieces with foundational techniques using various paints, inks, charcoals, pastels, and more. 
  2.  Digital Art & Illustration – Intermediate and advanced digital artists will focus on broadening your knowledge about digital tools, resources, and programs to take your work to the next level. Utilize these skills to create stunning original digital illustrations, paintings, animations, and photo manipulations. 
  3. Advanced Drawing & Painting – Advanced level, dedicated students ready to strengthen their artistic knowledge will dive deeper into advanced artistic techniques, practices, and principals. Expand your skills and portray how you see the world using various paints, ink, charcoals, pastels, and more. Advanced Drawing and Painting students will receive a portfolio review from esteemed colleges and learn about the programs they offer. 

Double Take Exhibition

Youth Curated with Guest Juror: Rachel Seligman Head curator of The Tang teaching museum 

January 21-February 24, 2022

Gallery Hours
Wed-Fri 2-5 PM • Sat 12–4 PM
(during exhibitions only)

Double Take, this exhibition’s title and theme, is both enduringly engaging, and particularly timely, with its suggestion of second chances, opportunities to see anew, and encouragement to review that which we have passed over or passed by the first time around. Our world has changed dramatically in the last few years, and we are all being required to reconsider and reflect, in effect, to see with new eyes and question our assumptions.


Being a part of the youth curatorial team changed my relationship with the show, in the fact that I have a better appreciation for artworks than before working with The Art Effect as a juror. — Olivia Barker-Duncan 

The team has given me constant perceptions of art that explores and offers a diverse experience while keeping the art and artist identities intimate. — Karla Zarate 

Embracing compromise when making decisions as a team, creates an unbiased understanding for me as both an artist and juror. — Harrison Brison-McKinnon 

Click here to learn more about current and upcoming exhibitions!

Reel Exposure Film and Photo Festival

We are still looking for imaginative and original short films and photos made by young people around the world to be screened at the 2022 Reel Exposure Festival in Poughkeepsie, NY! Submit to Reel Exposure International Teen Film and Photo Festival before February 6.

Learn more about the festival and register here.

About Reel Exposure

Reel Exposure Film & Photo Festival features photography and youth-produced short films – animations, documentaries, dramas, horror, and comedies – created by talented young artists from across the world.

Reel Exposure encompasses all of The Art Effect’s goals: to encourage youth creativity, to invigorate our local community through the arts, and to showcase the incredible work done by this next generation of media-makers.

The Art Effect’s annual event encourages youth creativity, invigorates the local community through the arts, and showcases the incredible work done by the next generation of artists from around the globe and right here in Poughkeepsie!

Prizes include up to $500 in cash! 

– Films must be under 10 minutes in length 
– 3-5 photos may be submitted per category 
– The showcase will be held on May 6, 2022

Liberty Media Lab

February 8 – March 31
Tues and Thurs, 2:45 – 4:45*

At the Media Lab — Poughkeepsie High School 

The Liberty Media Lab is the newest program offering from The Art Effect’s longstanding relationship with Marist Liberty Partnership Program (MLPP). Liberty Media Lab takes place in The Art Effect’s new media lab space at Poughkeepsie High School, and offers students enrolled in MLPP a chance to creatively express themselves and discover their artistic voices while learning valuable and transferable media production skills. Through hands-on workshops in photography, filmmaking, and digital animation, MLPP students will experiment with technology and create their own original works across multiple media formats.

Open to LPP students only*

Fall Kill Pollution PSA Videos

The Creativity & Connection at the Fall Kill Creek project engaged Poughkeepsie youth and community residents of the Northside Poughkeepsie neighborhood at the 80 Pershing avenue site along the Fall Kill creek. Through this project, local youth involved in the Media, Arts and Design Lab (MADLab) program developed public service campaigns and public art installations to serve as catalysts for pollution prevention, environmental stewardship, and urban renewal.

Participants increased their own knowledge about environmental harms to the Fall Kill Creek, promoted pollution prevention, and raised awareness through the youth produced public service announcements and environmental awareness campaigns comprised of video PSAs, radio PSAs, and infographics that were distributed to children, teens, and adults throughout the City, creating multigenerational ambassadors for the environment. 

Pivoting to Virtual Radio Shows and Podcasts

Recording Radio Uprising over Zoom

Since the COVID pandemic began in March, The Art Effect has pivoted our normal service models to include more virtual options, adjust program schedules, and serve more people  through an incredible amount of hard work, talent, time, and creative thinking. During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Art Effect was one of the only agencies in Poughkeepsie providing services to youth through remote media and visual arts workshops, online courses, virtual events and remote studio recordings for Radio Uprising!

Students who used to go to WVKR studio at Vassar College transitioned to remote recordings pre-produced before our Thursday broadcast time in April 2020. Instead of recording shows in person, students interacted over Zoom and edited the audio from the Zoom recorded discussions that were sent to the studio for airing. As much as the youth have missed being together in the studio, the new virtual program model allowed for different generations of students and youth from across the county to come together for a discussion each week.

Tune in to 91.3fm on Thursdays from 4-5pm EST or visit the live stream on www.wvkr.org