CLAVERACK — Jeffrey Gibson, a Choctaw/Cherokee Native American artist from Mississippi, and his partner, Norwegian artist Rune Olsen, plan to buy the former Claverack School from the Hudson City School District and convert it into studio space.
The $380,000 sale was overwhelmingly approved by district voters Tuesday.
The gymnasium at the rear of the building will become Gibson's studio, and four or five classrooms will probably be rented as studio space. Each of the classrooms is 850 square feet, which Gibson called "a great size for an artist."
Currently, Gibson's studio is located at 726 Union St. in Hudson.
"When we moved here, this building was the only building that had available studio space in Hudson," he said. "I have seven people who work here — they are all young artists. There's a need for studio space in Hudson."
The Claverack School building consists of the original school building in front, with a more recent, long, narrow extension in the back, where the classrooms are located. Gibson said he and Olsen have not decided on how they will use the original building.
"Our priority is to get the brickwork taken care of," Gibson said. But the building is in "surprisingly good shape," he said. The water drains to the Claverack Creek on the other side of Route 23, so "the cellar of the original school is in great shape," he said. "It was built well."
The building has doors large enough to take objects in and out, Gibson said, and there is ample parking, a major problem on Union Street.
Gibson and Olsen first became acquainted with this area when they were residents at Art Omi in 2006 and 2007, respectively.
"That was the first time I came to Hudson," Gibson said. "I'd go and have coffee at Rev. I thought Hudson was cool then."
They had been living in New York City since 1999, but had wearied of it and were looking for other possibilities in San Francisco and France. Living in the French countryside opened up rural possibilities, and in 2012 they landed back in Columbia County, buying a home in Germantown.
Gibson teaches art at Bard College; Olsen recently retired as chairman of sculpture at Boston University.
"I've been fortunate to be very busy as an artist," he said. "I'm trying to continue to develop new work. It takes a long time to put together a solo exhibition."
Gibson, 43, said he needs to employ seven people because most of his pieces involve so much hard work. For example, beadwork: "For one piece," he said, "it's taken three or four people six to seven weeks. This would take me a year by myself." The piece is bound for an art fair in Brussels.
Gibson's motifs typically center on Native American iconography.
"Most of my materials come from Native American vendors from the west," he said. Currently, he's working on a figurative sculpture tentatively called "What do you want? Why do you want it?"
The legs are made from sections of teepee poles; the main body is a large driftwood log from the Hudson River. The figure is wearing a cloak.
"I've worked in North American collectibles," he said. "I'm interested in rugs, chiefs' blankets ... what I love is when you put on a robe or a garment, you become someone else when you wear it."
He said he started looking at petroglyphs, figures of animals on pots and robes.
"There are a lot of symbols that we don't know what they symbolize," he said. "Something about that I felt inspired me to create my own. This is a culture, we don't know who these characters are. I'm just creating my own characters."
On the cloak is one of Gibson's paintings from more than a dozen years ago.
On the outside of the cloak and up to the neck are many little metallic cylinders, like little horns. Gibson said they're based on "jingles," which were originally lids from snuff or tobacco cans rolled up and worn by women who dance "jingle dances."
"Jingles are traditionally seen as feminine," he said. "I enjoy taking them out of context and using them.
Also part of the sculpture are rows of nylon fringe, which were important in the fancy shawl dance. And on a trip to Mexico last weekend, he went to an archaeological museum and saw a number of ceramic pieces that showed people sticking their tongues out. So the ceramic head of Gibson's figure is sticking its tongue out, "like a rebellious teenager," he said.
Although he's working in a contemporary art milieu, both of Gibson's grandmothers were quilters, and one was in elder in her community. He grew up surrounded by baskets.
He said when he meets traditional craftspersons, those are often the people who appreciate his work the most. "There's like a camaraderie between people making things," he said. "'How does that come together?'"
But he has never claimed to be a traditional person, he said, and doesn't claim the "spiritual," "sacred" or "ceremonial" for his own work.
"Contemporary art allows me to think about materials, but it's decontextualized from the traditional," he said.
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