DIA:Beacon

Dia:Beacon — Beacon, NY

I'll say this upfront: I like contemporary art. I’ve been to contemporary art galleries and I read about it on occasion. I generally walk into a gallery expecting to be moved, provoked, or at least intrigued. So, when my husband David and I planned a day trip up the Hudson to Dia:Beacon, I was genuinely excited.

What I found once I got there was contemporary art turned up to a volume I wasn't quite prepared for — piles of glass. Corrugated roofing panels arranged just so. Mounds of rope coiled across the concrete floor. An entire installation built from stored chests and wooden panels, stacked and arranged with what I assume is great conceptual intention. Hardcore contemporary doesn't begin to cover it.

I want to tell you I loved it. I really do. But honestly, I can't say that I did. I appreciated the ambition of it and I respect that this kind of minimalist, industrial-scale installation art has an important place in art history — Dia has been championing it since the 1970s. But standing in front of a spools of rope leaning against a wall—well--I found myself searching for a way in that never quite arrived. David, for his part, did not pretend to enjoy it at all. He was a good sport, but this was not his kind of art and he didn't hide it.

A little history, because it matters here. Dia:Beacon opened in 2003 inside a former Nabisco box-printing factory built in 1929 — a building that had sat vacant since 1991 after the plant closed. Artist Robert Irwin worked with the architecture firm OpenOffice to convert the raw industrial shell into roughly 160,000 square feet of exhibition space, filled with natural light from the original sawtooth skylights. It's one of the largest contemporary art museums in the country and it was genuinely transformative for the town. Before Dia arrived, Beacon was a fairly sleepy former manufacturing town on the Hudson. The museum is credited with helping turn it into the arts destination it is today — drawing around 145,000 visitors a year, creating dozens of jobs and pulling in millions of dollars in economic activity that helped Main Street fill in with the galleries, restaurants and shops you'll find there now. Whatever I think of the rope, I have to give the museum real credit for putting Beacon on the map.

A practical note before you go: parking is very limited. The onsite lot fills quickly, especially on weekends and you may simply be out of luck. We were, and ended up parking at the Beacon Metro-North train station instead and walking over — it's about half a mile, roughly a ten-minute walk, so wear comfortable shoes and budget the extra time.

One genuine bright spot: the on-site café is now run under the guidance of Dave the Butcher, the well-loved specialty market and butcher shop from Main Street in Beacon. It was actually quite lovely — gourmet coffee, simple, well-made food and a nice place to sit and regroup before or after the galleries. If nothing else, go for that. We actually didn’t eat here, but the menu reflects a well-curated and well-rounded array of goodies.

Bottom line: if you're a die-hard contemporary art fan, especially the minimalist, large-scale, industrial end of that spectrum, go. This is a pilgrimage site for that world and it delivers exactly what it promises. If that's not really your thing, consider skipping it — or at least pairing it with a walk-through Riverfront Park along the Hudson instead, which David and I both agreed was the more universally enjoyable way to spend an afternoon in Beacon. You decide.

Silver Classic Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)