You might think that a region with no cities, few people and a tendency towards peace and quiet could never support live music. You might think that a place where a night at the movies often requires an hour drive would boast pitifully few theater and performance venues. You might figure that art and craft produced in a hard scrabble place like the Catskills would be, well, a little rough around the edges.

You might think so. But you’d be wrong. 

Music?  Fiddlers abound in this corner of the Appalachians of course. But classical pianists, folk-rock bands, jazz musicians and chamber music groups perform here year-round. African drumming, Celtic music, hip hop, Italian opera and Country-western favorites can be heard at summer music festivals and community halls throughout the region.

Local and professional troupes perform Shakespeare, classic plays and new work in Victorian playhouses, former churches,

and on outdoor stages.

Thriving, too, are the fine arts in this region where the Hudson River School was born, and where noted art colonies cultivated the talents of countless men and women. Galleries large and small, on busy Main Streets, and in tiny crossroad hamlets, showcase watercolors and abstracts, sculpture and oil paintings. 

More and more, the Catskills has become noted for exquisitely crafted furnishings, jewelry, clothing, decorative items and cabinetry. Created in home workshops and studios, often by artisans with a foot in each world, these pieces blend the realism of life in a Catskill hollow with a certain urban sophistication. 

Culture in the Catskills? There’s a surprise around every corner.