MILLICENT YOUNG: HOLDING LIGHT SUTRA

SAFE HARBORS’ RITZ THEATER STAGEHOUSE
100 ANN STREET, NEWBURGH NY 12550
SATURDAY, MAY 9 – SUNDAY, JULY 12, 2026

OPENING RECEPTION AND ARTIST DISCUSSION
SATURDAY, MAY 9, 4:00–7:00PM

OPEN WEEKENDS, SATURDAY, MAY 9–SUNDAY, JULY 12, 12:00–5:00PM
AND UPSTATE ART WEEKEND
THURSDAY, JUNE 25–MONDAY, JUNE 29, 12:00-5:00PM

PERFORMANCE EVENT FEATURING TIMOTHY HILL AND JENI ASCOSI
SUNDAY, MAY 31, 4:00–7:00PM

CLOSING RECEPTION AND PROJECT DOCUMENTARY SCREENING
SUNDAY, JULY 12, 4:00–7:00PM

STRONGROOM is proud to present, in collaboration with Safe Harbors of the Hudson’s Ann Street Gallery, HOLDING LIGHT SUTRA, a multimedia installation by Millicent Young. Taking place in the historic Safe Harbors' Ritz Theater Stagehouse in Newburgh, NY, the installation incorporates sculpture, sound, and video projection, and will open on Saturday May 9th with a reception and artist discussion from 4-7pm. It will remain open on weekends from 12- 5pm through July 12th, including a performance event on May 31st, and documentary screening and closing reception on July 12th.

Set in the Ritz Theater Stagehouse, which Safe Harbors only recently reopened to the public after being inaccessible since the 1970s, HOLDING LIGHT SUTRA will transform the soaring raw space into an immersive installation and meditation on displacement, fragmentation, and transformation. Through this work Young will focus on “intimacy and a belonging arrived at after brokenness;” in a site of decay and revitalization.

Constructed of white horse hair, a suspended cubic form floats in the center of the space, simultaneously absorbing and fragmenting two video projections, exuding a sense of both permeability and impenetrability. The work makes formal and metaphorical use of two aspects inherent to the material hair – that it stirs like breath with air movement, and that it gathers light and becomes a luminous presence.

Projected through the hair will be images of nature and structural ruins, accompanied by audio field recordings made in Ulster County, where the artist is based, and along the Atlantic coast, as well as her own voice. The recordings are journalistic and create an intimacy in the work alongside universal themes. The artist said, “With the disappearance of habitat - by human encroachment, rising seas, genocide, and ecocide - comes the loss of memory, language, and sense of belonging: the tethers that bind us against fragmentation.” This fragmentation is further emphasized through the use of the handmade sculptural form, paired with the fleeting materials of sound and projection, and the site itself. In this way, the artist integrates concept, material, and metaphor.

“While my current work responds to specific events of breakdown: the collapsing biosphere, war, and the loss of language, place, and relationship, my artwork meets these events as matters of the soul - where collective history and personal story merge, and where contemplative stillness and agency meet.” - Millicent Young

Millicent Young is a studio artist focusing on installations that integrate handmade sculpture, projection, verse, and sound. Young (b.1958, NYC) attended the Dalton School on scholarship (1962-1976) where her study of visual art, craft, music, and poetry were foundational. Cross cultural childhood experiences, the diversity of her family background, and her immersion in rural lifeways were formative influences on Young's social ecological citizenship. Young went on to study at Wesleyan University, University of Virginia (BA 1984), University of Denver, and James Madison University (MFA 1997). Young has received multiple grants from New York State Council on the Arts, Arts Mid Hudson, Foundation for Contemporary Art, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Since 1995, her work has received awards from curators affiliated with the Smithsonian, Hirshhorn, Dia, New, Guggenheim, and Whitney Museums in juried exhibitions. It received a top award at the Biennale of Contemporary Art in Florence Italy (2005). Her work is included in the National Museum of Women in the Arts collection and was featured on the cover of Sculpture Magazine (March/April 2020). She received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the School of Art, Design, and Art History at James Madison University.