Project: Music Box Outpost

Location: Prattsville Art Center, Prattsville NY

Date: July 2021

ARTISTS: Delaney Martin Taylor Shepherd Ranjit Bhatnagar Terry Dame Nick Yulman

Taylor Shepherd and Delaney Martin led their first Music Box Outpost that saw musical architecture built into a real house. The Prattsville Art Center and Residency is a vital hub in a small Catskills, NY working class village. With regular art shows, visiting musicians, a coffee shop and a community library the center is a creative outlet for locals and visitors of all ages. Musical architecture is now dispersed throughout this well used and funky former hardware shop dating from the 1800’s. A door bell by Martin and Shepherd functions as a call and response to the local fire departments sirens that run tests at noon daily. Open the door to the sound of Terry Dame’s tinkling keys instrument triggered by the door. In the library Nic Yulman has installed a shelf of playable books. In the performance room Martin and Shepherd have customized a staircase to have a chime balustrade and steps that trigger beats. Dame and Yulman have instruments to be played on the walls and the ceiling while Ranjit Bhatnagar built an accordion into the wall. Bhatnagar also provided the center with his very popular musical brooms! The group of artists unveiled the permanent installation with a performance and it continues to be used by visiting musicians who incorporate elements of the work into their sets. Airlift has encouraged the center to commission more experiments to grow its musical architecture over time. As always it was a joy to be in community with the folks we met in Prattsville.