Kingston Creative

10/30/2025

10/13/2025

New York is in an energy crisis. Despite tens of billions of dollars of investments, electric and heating bills are going higher and higher for families and businesses. Fights over land use, control and different types of energy have no end in sight.

Does the Hudson Valley have the moral fitness to find solutions that are good for our state, country and humanity as a whole? To solve the problem, we first must understand how we got here.

Join us for a screening of Kingston resident Fox Green's latest documentary, Energy/Empire: America's Green Counter-Revolution, which tells a uniquely Hudson Valley story that starts with the American Revolution, detours to the dark founding of the eugenics movement, and recounts the true contours of the lawfare that blocked the Storm King pumped hydro project and helped RFK Jr. shut down the Indian Point nuclear plant.

Afterwards, continue the conversation with a panel discussion and Q&A with:

Fox Green, co-founder of New York Energy Alliance and Kingston Creative
Steve Carroll, President and Business Manager of IBEW Local 320
Jillian Fried of the NO BATTERY PLANT ON HURLEY AVE movement.

Screening: The film will start promptly at 2 PM.
Panel Discussion: The discussion will run from 4 to 4:45 PM.

Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with history, philosophy, organized labor and local leaders in charting our energy future. We look forward to seeing you there!

09/15/2025

Happy Birthday to the Hudson Valley's James Fennimore Cooper, who was born 236 years ago today in 1789.

Cooper rose to national prominence on the success of his 1821 novel The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground.

The book drew on conversations with Cooper’s friend, Founding Father John Jay, about Jay’s experiences running an intelligence network in Westchester County during the Revolutionary War. The story’s protagonist, Harvey Birch, was loosely based on the real-life Westchester peddler Enoch Crosby, who was accused of being a double agent in the course of his intelligence activities in support of the Continental Army and Washington. Cooper turned the shadowy work of patriot spies into a distinctly American form of heroism, an ideal that blended courage, secrecy, and service to the republic.

He was also the founder of the legendary, Bread and Cheese Club, a republican group of writers, artists and statesmen, including Bryant, Washington Irving, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, and future New York City mayor and Delaware & Hudson Canal president Philip Hone.

Although Cooper is mostly remembered today for The Last of the Mohicans and the legend of Natty Bumpo, he was a political thinker steeped in Revolutionary intelligence history, and his works represented an American cultural offensive against deeply-entrenched oligarchism in Europe.

In the 1830s, living in Paris and working daily with Poughkeepsie's Samuel F.B. Morse and the Marquis de Lafayette, Cooper developed some of his most important work: a trio of books called The Bravo, The Heidenmauer and The Headsman, which all dealt with complex subjects of political underworlds, counter-revolutions, factional intrigues and European espionage that all worked to undermine the sovereignty of republics. Cooper’s goal was to show his fellow Americans the realities of one so-called republic in Venice, warning them that even republics can fall under oligarchic control, and that their freedoms can be taken away.

Cooper’s work encouraged Americans to “read between the lines” of political theater and see how noble-sounding rhetoric could mask entrenched interests.

09/10/2025

New in our Hudson Valley Geniuses series:

Most people drive past the sign for Locust Grove Estate on Route 9 without a second thought. But behind those trees stands the home of one of the 19th century’s most brilliant and complicated Americans: Samuel F. B. Morse.

Known worldwide as the inventor of the telegraph, Morse was also a painter, a founder of the National Academy of Design, a friend of James Fenimore Cooper and the Marquis de Lafayette, and a figure whose influence stretched from the Louvre in Paris to the battlefields of the Civil War.

Our latest essay, Samuel Morse’s Republic of Art and Telegraphy, traces his journey from ambitious young artist to “Lightning Man,” exploring how his genius helped shape American culture and communication.

Two other people whose life stories intersected with his were Freedom Plains United Presbyterian Church's abolitionist minister H.G. Ludlow, as well as Kingston-born Civil War spymaster George H. Sharpe.

06/12/2025

70 years ago this month, Kingston played a central role in proving that fluoridated water could safely and effectively prevent childhood tooth decay. But today, only 3% of Ulster County drinks fluoridated water, thanks to misinformation, fear, and decades of ideology wrapped in environmental language.

Some say fluoride is a poison. Others claim it’s “mass medication.” But is it time for Kingston to practice what it helped preach in the 1950s?

06/06/2025

Seventy years ago this month, the Hudson Valley cities of Kingston and Newburgh, NY proudly stood at the center of a transformative public health experiment. The Newburgh-Kingston Caries-Flourine Study, conducted between 1945 and 1955, was one the most influential demonstrations in the history of public medicine. It proved, with a very high level of rigor, that children can ingest a safe amount of fluoride added to community water supplies, experience up to 60% fewer cavities than children who drink unfluoridated water.

The study was a scientific foundation for community water fluoridation across the nation. Today, over 72% of Americans on public water systems primarily drink community fluoridated water. But even though Kingston helped proved that fluoride works, it has refused to use it.

Kingston does not use fluoride, and only 3% of Ulster County’s population has fluoridated water. By comparison, 88% of Westchester County residents drink fluoridated water. Their children have just one-third the cavities of children in Ulster County, despite similar levels of healthcare access and insurance coverage.

Why? How has a city that helped prove the power of fluoridation rejected it for three-quarters of a century? And what has that decision cost generations of families, in dollars, decay, and pain?

The answer is a mix of local politics, cultural upheaval, and Cold War hysteria. It’s a cautionary tale of how public health policy can get hijacked by misinformation, and how paranoia can cut across both the political left and right.

Seventy years ago this month, the Hudson Valley cities of Kingston and Newburgh, NY proudly stood at the center of a transformative public health experiment. The Newburgh-Kingston Caries-Flourine Study, conducted between 1945 and 1955, was one the most influential demonstrations in the history of pu...

02/18/2025

What do Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and Kingston artist John Vanderlyn have to do with the NYC watershed? Find out in our latest article!

02/12/2025

The story of the Ashokan Reservoir isn't just about drowned towns or a pretty landmark; it's possible that Ulster County and the surrounding area have lost over $38B in economic activity as a cost for keeping land undeveloped for New York City.

As a critical deadline approaches in 2027, will our communities maintain the status quo? Is it time to finally challenge the narratives that have governed our land for over a century?

Or is it time to learn what happened in the past, and fight for the future?

READ our deep historical dive on the NYC Water System and the Ashokan Reservoir, created in partnership with New York Energy Alliance:

As a local marketing agency that celebrates the potential of the Hudson Valley and Catskills community, we present this historical, philosophical and political look into the murky depths of the New York City reservoir system. We are proud to co-publish this in partnership with New York Energy Allian...

01/06/2025

We can now see how many geo-tagged photos have been taken in all 62 cities located in New York State since Instagram launched in 2010. After adjusting for population, we came up with this list of the 18 Most-Instagrammed Cities in New York (Per Capita).

It shows the love that people have for not just cities that they're visiting, but the place that they call home. Congratulations to all the cities that made the list!

Visit Hudson NY
Dutchess Tourism, Inc.
Visit Ithaca
Discover Saratoga NY
Niagara Falls USA
Ulster County Tourism, NY
Visit Buffalo Niagara
Visit Rochester
Destination Oneonta
Discover Albany

Since launching in 2010, Instagram has carved out a strong place in the American mind; the average person spends around 30 minutes a day on the app and website. The platform has had a historical emphasis on visually documenting experiences that are tied to people and locations, thanks to its geo-tag...

12/30/2024

We're excited to share that we developed a new website for the Office of the Ulster County Comptroller!

The new site will facilitate better access to critical data about our county's finances and government effectiveness, to help decisionmakers, media and citizens alike.

It also has more capability for leveraging data for storytelling:

https://comptroller.ulstercountyny.gov/the-one-thing-that-2800-ulster-county-households-lack-across-21-municipalities/

10/17/2024

Ulster County's own Expert Tree Service is lending a helping hand to those in need in North Carolina.

If you can, please chip in a few bucks to their GoFundMe linked in the post below.

10/15/2024

We partnered with Hudson Valley-based landscape designer Wanduring Roots to create the one-of-a-kind guide to New York's Most-Instagrammed Botanical Gardens.

The top ten:

1. Brooklyn Botanic Garden - 574,805 Photos
2. New York Botanical Garden - 563,917 Photos
3. Old Westbury Gardens - 72,919 Photos
4. Planting Fields Foundation - 49,335 Photos
5. Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens - 40,555 Photos
6. Highland Park Conservancy - 30,406 Photos
7. Kissena Park - 20,326 Photos
8. Innisfree Garden - 11,645 Photos
9. Cornell Botanic Gardens - 13,394 Photos
10. Boscobel House and Gardens - 12,967 Photos

Local favorites like Locust Grove Estate, Orange County Arboretum, Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site and Mountain Top Arboretum also made the list!

Part of New York State’s special charm is that we are the home to some of the most visionary and important botanical gardens in the world. For homeowners in the Hudson Valley looking to start gardens, these marvels can serve as inspiration for what’s quite attainable on a smaller scale. While th...