Welcome

The CATWALK Institute is a private operating foundation that manages the activities of  the CATWALK Art Residency and recently acquired CATSLAIR for longer term residencies focused on aspects of landscape.  Both Catwalk and Catslair are invitation only artist residency programs initially established in 2004 by James and Purcell Palmer at the Palmer’s residence known as Catwalk in Catskill, New York.  The mission of the CATWALK Institute is to establish Catwalk as a special retreat for art making, collaborative projects and scholarly discourse in a visually stimulating part of the country that has historically provided and continues to provide significant inspiration to artists, cultural historians, writers and scholars.  The Palmers envision this as a developing concept and intend for institutions involved through the residency programs to have wide latitude in developing the artist colony in a manner that is meaningful for the participants and enhances the recognition of the excellence of the participating institutions.

Recent Testimonial from 2012 season:
“In general, my days at CATWALK followed this routine: first, coffee and writing in the tower, a jog over the Rip Van Winkle, a walk through the woods to the river, then lunch; afternoons of revisions, editing, sound-projects involving fluorescent lights and a reed organ in the carriage house, walks into town, and long reads in an Adirondack chair by the pond; lastly, unpredictable nights— whiskey, conversations with the Palmers, new work, strange dreams. All this is to say that the CATWALK residency gave me the seclusion, space and time to follow and explore ideas. The landscape remembered my childhood with country sounds: catbirds, trains, midday bees, frogs at dusk. CATWALK was thunderstorms, secret places and other surprises, like the shock of how quickly phlox and the rhododendron fade.”
-Robert Ostrom, Columbia University

Find more on the Testimonials Page

photo courtesy of Jeffery Weaver

“See the sun all gold and red
Leaves the blue and open sky
Sinking to his glorious bed
Far beyond the mountains high”

–Thomas Cole
“Evening”