Dear Friends of the HRM,

As the year comes to a close, we at the Hudson River Museum reflect with deep gratitude on all that we’ve achieved together in 2024. Your support and engagement have made it a very special year, and we are so thankful to have you as part of our community.

You showed up! We strive every day to provide an accessible and inclusive space for all our visitors. This year, we opened our doors wide and welcomed visitors from 43 states and 1,046 zip codes to date, from nearby neighborhoods to as far as Alaska and Hawaii—thank you for making the journey! To our future visitors in Oklahoma and West Virginia, what are you waiting for?—it’s lovely here along the Hudson.

We’re especially grateful to our local community—64% of Hudson River Museum visitors hailed from Westchester County and 19% from the New York metropolitan region—who brought friends and family from near and far to be part of the HRM. You’ve helped make our Museum a unique gathering place for art, science, and history lovers from across the nation.

We delivered 1,150 multi-disciplinary programs, organized 20 thought-provoking exhibitions, and engaged 8,100 students from 74 schools through dynamic programs that sparked curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking.

We completed the first year of our Free First Fridays initiative to incredible audience response and success. Here’s my personal tip on a fresh way to begin your year after all the holiday bustle: immerse yourself in a restorative Sound Bath Under the Dome on January 3rd. You deserve it.

We’re garnered awards recognizing the strength of our efforts. Team HRM was proud to accept the Greater Hudson Heritage Network’s Award of Excellence, as well as Best of Westchester Awards, which we have won for the 8th year in a row, for Best Exhibition (South County) for Kengo Kito: Unity on the Hudson and for Best Art Gallery.

We’ve been preparing for global access through our Digitization Project. The HRM is expanding our collection access worldwide with a two-year Institute for Museum and Library Studies (IMLS) national grant to digitize 8,000 images from our collection. This will represent a 4,300% increase in digital access—made available to students, researchers, and the general public free of charge through our website.

We’re keeping the environment and our community front of mind. Climate urgency spares no one but especially impacts closely-knit city communities. Next year, we will actively explore issues and solutions for our local communities, from pollinator pathways on our campus to extreme heat designs for our city’s streets. As we tackle these urgent challenges through partnership, we encourage your input and participation on how best to serve the public and enhance the resilience of our shared environment.

Looking ahead to 2025, we are thrilled to announce the opening of a groundbreaking new exhibition, Smoke in Our Hair: Native Memory and Unsettled Time, debuting on February 14, 2025. This transformative exhibition will explore the interwoven layers of past, present, and future through the lens of Native American, Alaska Native, First Nations, and Métis artists. By delving into memory, intentionality, and materiality, this exhibition promises to bring fresh perspectives to contemporary art and Indigenous storytelling.

Depicted above, Companion Species (Remembering Song) was created by Marie Watt (Seneca and German-Scot) during collaborative sewing circles. Inspired by Marvin Gaye’s 1971 song What’s Going On, the artist expands the song’s themes of unity to explore relationships between humans, animals, and ecosystems. Grounded in the Seneca concept of “companion species,” which emphasizes reciprocal bonds with animals as “first teachers,” the piece reflects Indigenous perspectives on relationality and stewardship. We can’t wait to experience this powerful exhibition and these relationships with you.

At the HRM, your participation matters. Museums help us learn from the past, providing priceless lessons to guide us through the challenges of the present. In a time of increasing polarization, we can be a place of reflection, understanding, and solutions. Let’s work together in the year ahead to find common ground, celebrate our shared humanity, and build a brighter future. Along the way, we guarantee you will find inspiration and joy, and we would be honored if you were inspired to support our work so that it can continue and grow. We look forward to a thought-provoking 2025 together, bringing the best of our country to our county.

Wishing you a joyous New Year filled with inspiration and discovery,

Masha Turchinsky
Director & CEO

Image: Marie Watt (Seneca and German-Scot, b. 1967). Companion Species (Remembering Song), 2021. Reclaimed wool blankets, embroidery floss, thread. Gochman Family Collection. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo: Kevin McConnel.