Some of the art world’s most renowned venues and events take place in what seemed unlikely contemporary art hubs at their inception. Just think of Dia Beacon, Prospect New Orleans, SITE Santa Fe, and Mass MOCA.
Now, a contemporary art triennial aims to create that same magic in a tiny village in Western New York State, an hour’s drive from Rochester to the east and Buffalo to the west. Launching in 2026, the Medina Triennial will invite artists to create some 50 site-responsive works at a dozen or so indoor and outdoor locations in a village on the Erie Canal, a few miles south of Lake Ontario, that is home to about 6,000. The sites include former industrial buildings, public spaces, and significant spots along the canal, with the central site being a sandstone former hotel.
You may never have heard of Medina, but those in the region have. It has had no fewer than five local landmarks designated on the National Register of Historic Places, including its downtown, and it was noted by the Buffalo News in 2020 for “a bubbling multifaceted culinary and cultural renaissance.”
Downtown Medina. Photo: Hakan Topal. Courtesy Medina Triennial.
Heading up the show are co-artistic directors Kari Conte and Karin Laansoo, with Buffalo-based Ekrem Serdar as associate curator. Conte, an independent curator and writer based in New York and Turkey, currently holds curatorial roles at New York’s City as Living Laboratory and Kai Art Center in Tallinn, Estonia. Laansoo lives in Rochester and Tallinn, and is founding director of the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center and artistic director of Tallinn’s Kai Art Center. Serdar is curator at the Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center.
“The Medina Triennial will converge transformative artistic positions within a village marked by history and possibility,” said Conte in press materials. “It will offer an inclusive space where global perspectives and local sensibilities meet, with numerous works that are grounded in Medina with far-reaching perspectives.”
Added Laansoo: “Western New York is a location of personal significance to me, as it’s a place I’ve called my home for a number of years. Medina is a hidden gem in this region in many ways. A triennial of this scope has never been organized in the U.S. in a community of this size, making this an unprecedented opportunity.”
View of the Canal Port in Medina, New York. Photo: Hakan Topal. Courtesy Medina Triennial.
Invited artists will often work in collaboration with local residents, said the organizers, who aim to draw 50,000 visitors.
The show was conceived by what might seem an unlikely duo of arts impresarios—the New York Power Authority, the nation’s largest state public power organization, and the New York State Canal Corporation, which operates some 524 miles of waterways—in hopes of revitalizing the canal and highlighting its significance. Those authorities recruited the leadership of three Buffalo institutions—the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, the Burchfield Penney Art Center, and the University at Buffalo—along with Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery and the Corning Museum of Glass, to serve on a steering committee.
The inaugural edition will run June 6–September 7, 2026. The artist roster is in formation; the organizers will start to name the participants in the fall. To gin up excitement in the meantime, the Medina Triennial Hub will open in September and will host public programs and events in partnership with Western New York arts venues.
Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com
