Top: Bobbi Goldman cuts the ribbon at the MURAL Gallery's new Hobart location while Rhonda Harrow, Colin Hart, Joann Stupple, Tracy Jacknow, and Judy Thuss of the Mt. Utsayantha Regional Arts League watch. At right, Linda Stratigos, the executive director of the Western Catskills Community Revitalization Council, which administered some of the grant funding for the building, holds the ribbon. Photos by Julia Reischel.
On Black Friday, the Hobart Book Village unveiled three new storefronts on its Main Street, alongside the six specialty bookshops that give the village its name.
The largest new addition, at 5,000 square feet, is a new outpost of Liberty Rock Books. Owner John Mahoney has spent all year renovating the structure, a former automobile dealership that has sat vacant on Main Street for years. On Friday, November 23, he opened it for the first time to customers, who browsed reverently among the shelves arranged in the bright, open space:
Paper Moon Bookbinding, run by Amy Morris Pickens, is newly open across the street. Pickens's workshop is onsite, so you can watch her create handmade cards and repair books behind the counter as you browse her collection of paper art, cards, jewelry, and letterpress texts from around the Catskills. (Ruffle the fur of her requisite bookshop cat when you stop in.)
Next door to Paper Moon, the MURAL Gallery, run by the Mt. Utsayantha Regional Arts League, celebrated its ribbon-cutting on Friday. The gallery shows and sells work from artists around the region, including pottery, colorful scarves, and handmade jewelry.
Below: Handmade paper at Paper Moon Bookbinding, part of a slideshow of photos from Black Friday in the Hobart Book Village. Click the image to view the slideshow.
