Wallkill Futures is a participatory public art project with and for communities along the 88-mile-long Wallkill River in New York’s Hudson Valley. The project is initiated and directed by Lize Mogel in collaboration with artists Nancy Nowacek, FICTILIS, and sTo Len as well as artist Matthew Friday, Unison Arts, the Hudson River Watershed Alliance, the Wallkill River Wallkill Alliance, and the Town of New Paltz.

The Wallkill crosses multiple administrative boundaries and geologies to eventually spill into the Hudson River. It runs past towns, suburbs, farms, infrastructures, and undeveloped land. The water is used for irrigation, recreation, and habitat. It’s polluted by agricultural and wastewater runoff— this plus climate change increasingly endangers humans and non-humans with toxic algae blooms and catastrophic flooding.

Project artists will collaborate with environmental, cultural, and municipal partners in New Paltz, NY and other river communities to create participatory, experiential public artworks about the River and climate change. We are currently developing these during a year of intensive co-research and collaboration with partners and stakeholders.

In Summer 2026, we will produce free, participatory public events and encounters in New Paltz and other locations at public access points alongthe Wallkill River. Unison Arts will host an exhibition that documents our research.

Wallkill Futures is funded by a 2024 Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.