POUGHKEEPSIE, NY.- Poughkeepsie, New York has a very special bridge, the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge completed in 1888, spans the Hudson River at Highland and Poughkeepsie, half way between New York City and Albany, NY. At that time, for a period of one year, it was the longest bridge in the world measuring 6,767 feet long and 212 feet above the water surface. It was conceived by then Mayor Harvey Eastman and was built to carry heavy cargo of lumber, grain, coal and other goods from the farm and steel belts of the Midwest to industrial New England. After 1888, cargo trains didn’t have to go down to New York City and then up to New England, the bridge shortened travel time by many hours and helped speed the American industrial and agricultural revolutions.

Bridges and the Span of Time celebrates the P.H. Railroad Bridge, all 17 Hudson Valley bridges and the 2009 opening of the Walkway Over the Hudson, the world’s longest and highest pedestrian bridge. This exhibit is also part of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial, 1609- 2009. The group exhibition to be presented at G.A.S. Visual Art & Performance Space and at the Salvation Art Gallery at 214 Main St. (seven doors east of G.A.S.) will consist of approximately 150 works which includes paintings, large scale panoramic photographs, sculpture, photo-light boxes, drawings, prints, archival photos, lenticular and stereoscopic photos and mixed media works on the theme of bridges. Video and archival film footage will also be presented.

Artists: Spencer Ainsley, Michael Asbill, Michael Bader, Thomas Weeks Barrett, N.Y. State Bridge Authority, Darryl Bautista, Bruce Berger, Michael Bowman, Richard Collins, Dick Crenson, Margaret Crenson, Shawn Dell Joyce, Jerome Deyo, Nancy Donskoj, Ed Fausty, Jeanne Fleming, Cliff Foley, Tarryl Gabel, Michael Gallo Farrel, Ralph Gabriner, Claudia Gorman, John Gould, Eunice Hatfield-Smith, Linda T.Hubbard, Ted Kawalerski, Kay Kenny, Joanne Klein, Robert Lipgar, Mark MacKinnon, Greg Martin, Mike McNamara, Greg Miller, Theodore Miller, Doug Nobiletti, Franc Palaia, Ron Plimley, Greg Raciti, David Rocco, Dan Rowland, Bill Rybak, Fred Schaeffer, Ted Spiegel, Benjamin Swett, Michael Sibilia, Matthew Slaats, Laura Gail Tyler, Harry Wilks, Patrick Wing and Ian Wickstead.

Franc Palaia is a curator and exhibiting artist working in several media and they include painting, photography, sculpture, murals, artists books and is a gallerist and Television producer and host.

Palaia has curated over 22 exhibitions in New York, New Jersey, Torino and Rome since 1982. Several of his curated exhibitions have been reviewed in the New York Times, Village Voice, Tema Celeste and on WNET New Jersey Nightly News. His series of seven Luminous Image exhibitions, have broken new ground with their CD and DVD catalogs since the first one appearing at New York’s Alternative Museum in 1996. He is the recipient of over 20 grants including the Rome Prize, L. Comfort Tiffany grant and a Polaroid Sponsorship. He has exhibited in over 300 group shows and over 35 solo shows that include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Museum, Newark and Montclair Museums, PS 1, Artists Space and the Museum of Neon Art in L.A. to name a few. His works are in numerous private and public collections.