Arts Potluck Provides a Canvas for Community

ANDES — The Roost was a rockin’ last Tuesday night in The Andes Hotel courtyard for the fourth monthly DelCo Arts Potluck gathering established by The Mountain Eagle’s very own Arts & Culture reporter, Rob Brune. This month’s event was extra special as Brune invited some of The Catskills’ premiere musicians to be a part of the night and perform for the crowd. 

After a career as an investigative journalist in the DC area covering politics and crime beats, Rob Brune brought his talents to upstate New York and has been covering Arts and Culture events in the tri-county area for The Mountain Eagle since 2022. He has become a mainstay at upstate art openings, immersing himself in the creative scene and never looking back. After getting to know the arts community over the last few years, he noticed a need and explained the inspiration for starting the artist potluck events. 

In February of this year, artist Jenny Neal put together an exhibition of work from the weekly figure drawing classes held at ArtUp in Margaretville in the winter months (hosted by Gary Mayer) and at The Andes Academy of Art in the summer (hosted by Bill Duke). While covering that opening for the paper, Brune discovered that despite drawing together week after week, some for years, many of the artists didn’t really know each other well and some didn’t even know each other’s names. “I just thought that was crazy!”, says Brune. “I reflected back on when I was living in Maryland and attended a potluck about 15 years ago. Potlucks were a big thing in the Unitarian Church.” Brune said there were about twenty people in attendance, most of whom he knew their names, but as the night went on and people were deep into conversations, it was revealed that there was not one, but three retired female rocket scientists in the group. Not only did Brune not know about their careers, but the three of them didn’t know about each other’s. Brune had a similar feeling at the art opening and thought there was an opportunity here to bring artists together to break bread, get to know one another better and deepen the sense of community that is already here. 

With that in mind, Brune started the DelCo Arts Potluck, meeting on the first Tuesday of every month. Bill Duke generously provided his home for the first three events and he, along with Brune and artist Peter Mayer put out the call to artists and creatives alike. Attendance grew each month and Brune was thrilled when Andes Hotel owner Derek Curl graciously offered the hotel courtyard for the August event and decided to do something a little different this time and invite some seasoned upstate musicians to jam. The round robin of performers included Joe Damone (percussion), Michael Suchorsky (percussion), Walter Dominicis (guitar), Chris Stearns (trumpet), with solo performances by True, and Grammy-nominated songwriter Terry Radigan, who closed the show with her incredible song “Brooklyn”, an homage to her hometown.

Although it is a traditional potluck with guests bringing everything from fresh picked blueberries to macaroni salad, this month’s spread was taken to another level by Armando Cuatianquiz and his crew. There was a constant line of people throughout the evening filling their plates with Cuatianquiz’s delicious taco spread that included fresh meats flown up from Mexican farms, homemade organic salsas and fresh guacamole. Cuatianquiz owns the magical shop Sacred Soil in Margaretville and has plans to open a restaurant in Andes in the coming months. 

These get-togethers have already inspired others to expand the circle, including Jayne Parker of Hawk + Hive Gallery in Andes who has hosted two potluck brunches this summer. Brune thinks it’s great that more of this is happening and hopes it continues.

He has been most pleasantly surprised by artists who resisted his invitation at first, telling him, “Thanks, but I don’t normally go to things like this,” only to see them returning month after month and having the best time. There was one such artist there on Tuesday, she even arrived early. Artist Peter Mayer says these events give artists who are usually very solitary when they work a reason to get out, to step away from the studio for a little while.

So many of the artists and musicians in this circle have been covered by Brune for the paper and he feels so honored to now call them friends. “I’m trying to bring those friendships together and new friendships are made outside of me, which is really why I do this.” Brune understands the importance of community to quality of life and sees his role as helping facilitate those meaningful connections. “We open up the opportunity for people to get to know each other on a deeper level...It’s like what we do at the Mountain Eagle newspaper, helping people tell their stories. This is just an extension of that work.”

Follow Chief Arts and Culture reporter Rob Brune’s insightful and extensive coverage of area happenings right here in The Mountain Eagle and on Instagram @rob.brune.