This Month’s Featured Article

Remember when a playground was nothing but a world of fun ways to be? When you didn’t overthink what you wanted to do first or how well it would go, you just started doing it? Swinging, climbing, digging in the sand, going up and down the sliding board? Letting the experience take you wherever you wanted to go next?

That’s what Super-Stories is like.

You enter the space at 2 Chatham Street in Kinderhook for a Makers Space session and see rows of tables and chairs loaded up with paint sticks, glue, containers of scrap paper, and small buckets of brushes. Along the walls are more bins and boxes brimming with materials for artistic inspiration. 

You’re given a choice of black or white paper to start, and you can do with it whatever you like. Draw on it. Paint on it. Stick things to it. Write on it. Rip it. Use things that are on the table, or explore bins around the room. 

It’s a playground for artists.

With lots of examples of peoples’ creations on the walls and on every exposed surface, the room says, “Have fun. See what happens. Safe space. Be prepared for joy.”

Thank you, Grace & Ramiro

What makes Super Stories this kind of place? The artists who created it: Grace Lang and Ramiro Davaro-Comas. 

Grace grew up in Bedford Hills, NY, the youngest of four children in a household where, she says, “there was always an appreciation for art.” She went to Parsons School of Design in New York and made New York her home for many years, eventually working at a gallery in Brooklyn, while also working as a freelance artist and muralist. 

Ramiro was born in Argentina and traveled back and forth from there to the US as he was growing up. He studied business at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and moved to New York in 2013. An avid skateboarder who also loved making art, he used his business skills to build an art career, gravitating toward creating art in public spaces for and by the public – murals. He founded Dripped on the Road, the first traveling muralist residency program in the US.

Grace and Ramiro met in New York through their mutual interest in art but really got to know each other when Grace joined Ramiro in some mural projects. “Before creating murals with kids, we both worked as muralists on our own, all over,” Grace says. “Painting murals is a way to feel like part of a community as an artist. But when we did our first mural with kids in the Bronx,” she continues, “that really inspired us to change the way we thought about making art.”

From the Big City to the open country

Grace’s parents moved to Kinderhook in 2009, so Grace got to know the area through frequent visits. When the opportunity to buy a house came up for Grace and Ramiro in 2017, they took it. They were weekenders until 2020, when, like many others, COVID moved them to Kinderhook full-time. 

“I realized that artists end up in this area because it offers space,” Grace says. “Space to breathe, space to create big if you want to.” 

Grace took an online masters program in educational psychology at St. Rose in Albany, further solidifying her interest in art education for children. She spent a lot of time getting creative with her young niece and nephew during COVID. She worked in the education department at Art Omi in Ghent, and she and Ramiro continued to create murals. 

As the work with murals continued, they realized that they didn’t want to just put their own ideas up on walls. “Creating a mural is a way for everyone from a particular community to be involved,” Grace says. “At a school, for example, it means asking the students what they want to have represented, designing the mural together, and then creating it. It’s quite the collaborative process.”

Creating with and for kids

Through their projects, they realized the area was hungry for programming for kids. In 2022, they launched Super-Stories. In 2023, they bought the building at 2 Chatham Street in Kinderhook that was the former Rock Shop. It is now the arts education space.

“We named the business out of our ideas to do collaborative projects, not necessarily art-based but intended to help people tell their stories,” Grace says. Here’s their vision statement: “Super-Stories is committed to providing both free and paid art-making opportunities in our Makers Space and through off-site programming. We trust the power of public art to communicate with broad audiences and feel these large-scale artworks are most compelling when they center the voices of students. Our mural collaborations and other hands-on art workshops offer young people the chance to build confidence, focus, and critical thinking skills. The spaces in which we teach will always be safe, accepting, and socially inclusive. We believe in the ripple effect of sharing knowledge: If you know something, teach it!”

I visited the Makers Space on a summer Saturday. Summer maker hours go from 10am to noon. The space was full soon after the doors opened. Many of the visitors were repeat attendees – adults and their kids, ranging in age from toddlers to teens. It was clear this was something they looked forward to, with kids getting into seats and getting started right away, a parent or two along with them. Grace was up front to welcome them and get them started. Ramiro arrived later with their son, Otis, who is three. 

“Our goal,” Ramiro says, “is to make sure art is accessible to anyone of any skill. People can come in here and do their thing,” he continues. Beyond the creative time in the space, Super-Stories is making waves in the community. They partner with local schools so that students can get community service credit for hours volunteering at the space. Ramiro continues to make murals; he’s booked into July of 2027! 

Super busy

Super-Stories promotes their fun, creative programs for the fall through their website calendar and monthly newsletter. They offer an Adult Art Club on one Thursday night a month, from 6 to 8pm. There’s a monthly Fiber Arts Meet-Up called the OK Knitters. There are one-off creative gatherings, such as Painted Stains, a “clothing-transformation workshop” held on a Sunday afternoon in September, or the Metal in Motion workshop with local artist Amelia Toelke, where attendees will be able to get creative with all kinds of wire and other pieces of metal. They typically offer two free weekend workshops each month!

Super-Stories is launching an After School Art Club on Wednesdays starting in early October for children age six and older. A seven-week-long class called Mixed Media Makers will be held on Thursdays from 3:30-5pm. 

When I asked Grace about their plans for Super-Stories, she said, “We’re not looking for a bigger space, but we’d like to increase the programming, especially for after school and school breaks.” She adds, “We know adults are energized in this space, too, so we want to offer something for them. And we like it when local teaching artists lead workshops here.”

Ramiro calculates he has collaborated with about 10,000 kids with the mural projects to date – and he’s still going strong. Grace is curating the increased programming at the space. Both of them are practicing artists themselves, as well as raising a son and expecting another child. They’re busy applying for grants to keep their non-profit going (they accept donations!). How do they manage?

Their enthusiasm and energy are testaments to the infectious joy that comes from being creative, especially in community. “It’s a special thing,” Ramiro says, “for kids to be allowed to play and experiment with no expectations, where they’re not interacting with a digital device.” Grace adds, “We love getting to know people here through making art alongside them, and then seeing them out in our community.” They also love Columbia County. “Art Omi through the seasons,” Grace says, “and taking walks at Ooms.” They appreciate the strong arts scene here, and that if they need “a big dose of art,” they can easily get into New York City.

Super talented

Theirs is a super story, and if you are looking to let your creative side stretch and play, join them. Their website is full of information, including lots of photos of the murals they’ve collaborated on, what kids have created in the Makers Space, other projects they’ve been involved in, and of course, a monthly calendar of programming. It’s super-stories.org. You can – and should – also follow them on Instagram, @_superstories_, where you’ll also find links to their individual IG pages. There’s also a wonderful YouTube video interview with them done for the PBS series “A House of Arts.” Find it at youtube.com/watch?v=AALtKvIPE0w. •