6 Best Performing Arts in Hudson Valley, New York

Make a detour to explore cutting-edge contemporary sculpture at Art Omi, an international center for artists where giant heads spring fully formed from the ground in Fields Sculpture Park; about 80 artworks are scattered around 90 acres of the park. You can bring a picnic and spend a full afternoon roaming the park. The sculpture park is free and open daily from dawn to dusk.

A cultural hub in the area, Bard College hosts several outstanding performing-arts festivals. The mix of events during Bard SummerScape, which runs from mid-July to mid-August, might blend orchestral and choral concerts, operas, dance performances, puppetry and other theater presentations, films, and panel discussions. The annual Bard Music Festival is devoted to a single composer deemed worthy of a new look and is held over two consecutive weekends in August.

Some of the world's finest classical and jazz performers can be heard at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts during its summer concert season, June through August. Music is also offered year-round in the house museum, which contains an extraordinary collection of Renaissance and Asian art. Enjoy afternoon tea from May through October on Thursday and Friday.

A large red barn about 3½ miles east of the village center houses the busy Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck. The ongoing series of Saturday children's shows is popular.

Housed in two Victorian buildings originally commissioned by the Vassar family, the Cunneen–Hackett Cultural Center houses nonprofit organizations, a dance studio, a workshop, an auditorium, and an art gallery.

Residing in a beautifully restored 1927 art-deco movie palace, the Ulster Performing Arts Center is home to the 1,500-seat Broadway Theater and hosts local groups, such as the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, as well as well-known performers like Sheryl Crow, Joan Rivers, Elvis Costello, and Bryan Adams.