‘Heavy’ Arts & Music Event at St. Joseph’s in Albany

Heavy. The title of the 4 day multicultural arts and music event held at Albany’s St. Joseph’s Church definitely lived up to its name.  Orchestrated by Sampson Contompasis of the Marketplace Gallery in Albany and friends, the event features local and out-of-state artists featuring their work, along with performances by other local musical acts. The event benefit raises funds for the restoration of St. Joseph’s Church in downtown Albany’s Ten Broeck Historic District. The church, which no longer provides spiritual worship to Albany’s citizens, was becoming deteriorated after it changed hands several times and faced being demolished. Finally, the Historic Albany Foundation aquired the property and began spearheading fundraisers to keep this beautiful piece of Albany architecture from being destroyed.

We went to the opening Friday, July 23 and it was nothing short of spectacular. We attended last year’s event at St. Joseph’s (Flux), and was blown away by the grandiose scale of that exhibition. This was no different. It seemed every inch of the property had been taken over by one artist or more. The shear scale of the church made for a night of wondering throughout all the art and the building a memorable one. We were happy at Freshrr to go out and support such great artists, great musicians and a fabulous cause. We encourage you to go check out Heavy, it is still going on through July 25. Their website has more information here. We also encourage you to check out our Flickr page to see some our photos from the evening.