Hope Von Stengel was busy when I stopped by the Community Arts Network of Oneonta — known as CANO — to visit. Members were delivering their artwork for the annual Membership Show while volunteers were actively working to hang and display their work. In total, 62 works of art, having been created by 30 of the CANO’s nearly 100 current members, were to be displayed.
Von Stengel, having come to the City of the Hills when her husband was hired as a professor of art at Hartwick College, has now been CANO’s executive director for more than four years. She studied creative writing at the University of Oregon, and has always been a lover of art, she said. Serving, previously on the CANO board, she was aware that in order to thrive the organization would require more than a volunteer board. She offered to serve as a volunteer executive director for three months as an experiment. Seeing the difference she made, the board offered her the position. Since that time, CANO has grown to the point where it has been able to add a development director, this year, with the recent hire of Jenny Rosenzweig, who had previous experience with both the Roxbury Arts Group and the West Kortright Center.
Clearly passionate about CANO’s work, Von Stengel discussed her belief that, “Art is what brings a community together. It is what makes a place vibrant and attractive. It supports a community economically because it brings people in and helps to make them stay.” She lit up when telling me, “Young artists are staying in this area more than when I first moved here (17 years ago).” What factors does she see that may be contributing to that? “It may be that this is a more affordable place to live,” she replied, and that the community is taking steps to make them feel welcome. She asked if I had ever attended one of the Nighttime Alley Markets. Showing my age, I had to say, “no” and admit that I was not even aware of them. “It is a great place for many young emerging vendors to go and we try to host events that are more welcoming to young people.”
Von Stengel discussed how, in recent years, CANO has worked to transition to a multi-arts organization. In addition to what she described as traditional visible art, it now offers workshops, events and shows in writing, drama and music. What seems to excite her most, however, are the art classes for kids. “We now have 10 weeks of Monday through Friday — 25 hours/week — kids’ workshops. … Since the pandemic, the summer art program has almost tripled our offerings.” Programming is offered for ages 6 to 17 — 18 if still enrolled in public school. Von Stengel described CANO’s art education classes as providing the “one time kids can just focus for hours on creating without television or cell phones — and no bell to change classes. It is free time to open your brain to other people and just collaborate. In this day and age, how magical is that?”
CANO, in addition, has become well-known for the annual City of the Hills Festival of the Arts, at which all of Oneonta’s Main Street is filled with performances, workshops, street art and art activities. While the event has grown under Von Stengel’s leadership, she pointed out that it actually began in 1971 under the organization’s previous name of Upper Catskill Community Center for the Arts. The rebranding to CANO in 2012 appeared to provide the organization with a much-needed boost. Von Stengel describes the festival as an opportunity to “experience other people’s creative abilities, their talents and their self-expression.” She said, “Art at the local level is really pure. It is artists creating to create — an escape from economics”.
As to the future, Von Stengel said she is focused on becoming more inclusive and broadening CANO’s offerings. “We want to continue growing and expanding. This will be the first year that we offer drama,” she said. “Another goal is to offer informal events at which artists of all types can meet each other. Our key to successful growth will be slow and steady — which is always good — improving and adding.”