Dutchess County Executive's Arts Awards 2022

The Hudson Valley Performing Arts Laboratory offers opportunities to experiment with the performing arts through educational and community-centered programming.

The Poughkeepsie-based organization fosters collaboration and learning by providing a home base for performing artists of all levels to create and learn together. From engaging with different techniques and performing shows to developing new work, the Lab is committed to making space for local artists to excel and thrive.

And the Hudson Valley Performing Arts Laboratory is the recipient of the 2022 Dutchess County Executive’s Arts Award for Arts in Education.

The Lab’s goal is to cultivate a thriving, diverse, and self-sustaining artists’ community by providing in-person and virtual spaces for creativity, including acting and playwriting.

The Lab team believes that making art is intrinsic and no one should feel excluded from expressing themselves creatively or engaging with like-minded artists. The foundation of the Lab revolves around breaking down exclusion; challenging traditional expectations of what theater is and can be; and establishing a democratic model of artistic expression. The Lab team also believes that art-making encourages empathy, creativity and play, which are all essential building blocks for engaged and thriving communities. 

The Hudson Valley Performing Arts Laboratory has hosted hundreds of free events and workshops, and dozens of low-cost classes for professional development; produced nine devised shows in five years; and facilitated the development of new work by local playwrights and composers through readings and rehearsal workshops. The passion and hard work of the Lab team has brought together people of all different experience levels and pushed the boundaries of what traditional theater can be.