This Month’s Featured Article

Above: Ntangou Badila, Cells horizontal.

When Niva Dorell was approached by the Athens Cultural Center to curate an exhibition around the theme of ‘goddess,’ she was of course intrigued. “There were so many directions it could go,” she says when I catch up with her to talk about the show and her role in it. Her first task, she knew, was to distill her thinking around the theme.

“For me,” Niva explains, “‘goddess’ is a powerful energy; the source of all things: creation, creativity, femme energy. Creation of the world.” Not exactly a narrow focus. How would Niva lasso the many directions possible and curate such an exhibition?

Leave it to Niva

It’s clear why the ACC reached out to Niva to bring the goddess theme to life in its beautiful space on 2nd Street in the heart of Athens, NY. Niva grew up in Philadelphia, earned a BA at Temple University, and headed to Los Angeles, where she earned an MFA at the University of Southern California. Her graduate thesis short film, KINGS, won Showtime’s Black Filmmakers Grant, and her filmmaking and screenwriting career took off.

After decades in Los Angeles, with a successful and established career, Niva was craving something she describes as “essentially opposite.” Her East Coast roots were calling. After a stint at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT, surrounded by “nature and mountains; it was so conducive to writing – and this was in January,” she exclaims – “it was super cold!” – Niva knew she needed a fresh start.

She wanted to be close to New York City but still have a rural experience. She moved to Durham in Greene County in 2014, and in 2016, she went to Catskill. She’s been there ever since.

Taking to the arts scene in Catskill

Niva was the visual arts director at the Greene County Council of the Arts (now CREATE Council on the Arts), where she ran the gallery and produced events that coincided with each exhibition – the biggest being the Patricia Field ArtFashion show (co-produced with Michele Saunders) in 2017. It drew more than 600 people.

“Being the visual arts director at GCCA was a great way to get to know the area through the arts scene,” she says. Though she had never curated before that experience, Niva grew up in the art world. “My mother was a prolific artist,” she shares, “and I learned early that she was not to be disturbed in her studio. My sister is also an artist. Curating,” she says, “is another way of communicating. There are lots of parallels between the visual juxtapositions of a gallery show and film editing. And I love collaborating,” she says with a big smile and enthusiasm. “I bring that collaborative spirit from the film world to the projects I’m doing here.”

Niva researched and refined, reached out and reacted. She explored the theme with fellow creatives in her large circle. She relied on the perspectives of many, and made special reference to the assistance of Portia Munson; Molly Stinchfield; Sara Kay (a “rock star curator,” according to Niva); and, at the ACC, executive director Jacob Miller, president and head of the programming committee Becky Hart, and programming committee member Erin Dziedzic. It takes a vision, and it takes a village. Always.

“The programming committee commissioned the show with Niva because she’s a consummate storyteller,” Becky Hart says. “Throughout the development of the exhibition, her ideas and vision would expand, center on something, and then contract into a more distilled idea.”

Erin Dziedzic echoes that sentiment, and adds, “The thoughtfully selected breadth of work engages with the theme of goddess in its many interpretations.”

The Athens Cultural Center

Staging a show that’s as broad and open for interpretation as this one says something about the gallery, too. The Athens Cultural Center is its own bearer of vision. Founded in 2003, the ACC’s mission is, “to nurture an appreciation of art and culture and uplift creative voices in a welcoming place for all.”

The ACC offers a true wealth of programming for the community. It has classes in not just art, but also music and local lore like honey extraction. There are programs for all ages, including toddlers.

Becky bought her Athens house in 2017. During the pandemic, she left her role as curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Denver Art Museum, moved here to be closer to her family, and was soon drawn to the area’s cultural diversity. As president of the ACC, she is committed to the space serving as a gathering place for local arts and community activities.

Erin was introduced to the ACC by Becky, and says she was “immediately inspired by the dynamic exhibitions she and the organization were presenting.” A recent transplant from Kansas City, MO, where she was director of curatorial affairs at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art for over a decade, Erin loves Athens for its “rich cultural landscape, where one moment you can be admiring the Hudson River and the next, engaged in a thoughtful conversation about art or visiting an artist’s studio.”

How did the Goddess exhibition come to be?

For Becky, it harkens back to a drawing by Beatrice Wood from the 1920s that she and her friends found to be goddess-like. “The next moment,” she says, “we were talking about who and what the 21st-century goddess was, and the show concept was born.”

For Erin, she was immediately intrigued by the possibilities. “‘Goddess’ can refer to mythological figures like Athena or Isis. It can also be archetypal – a symbolic embodiment of feminine energy or an ideal or personal expression of empowerment,” she explains. In this show, she shares, “We sought to honor both its shared traditions and deeply individual interpretations.”

Goddess and the ACC

Goddess: Origins of Wonder will feature over 30 works by over a dozen artists in a range of mediums – paintings, sculpture, prints, installations, and videos. It’s described on the ACC website as a show that “explores creation in its most sacred form – the act of bringing something new into existence, whether it be life, art, or transformation. In this exhibition, the word ‘goddess’ means not a mythical figure but a living presence – a maker of worlds, a bearer of vision, a powerful deity guardian that shapes, dreams, and manifests. … Collectively, it aims to be a tribute to the origins of all things: the wonder born from the divine femme that resides in all of us, an energy to be honored, revered, and treated with ultimate respect.”

If you’ve never been, the Cultural Center is housed in a former storefront built in the 1870s, just steps away from the Hudson River. In addition to the collection of free and paid classes, events, exhibitions, and performances, the ACC hosts an annual Victorian stroll in Athens that the whole town participates in.

There is also a summer music series that supports local and regional musicians from the greater Hudson Valley. All the concerts are free. The remaining concerts for this summer are on August 16 (featuring The Goddess Party), and September 20 (featuring The Big Takeover). They are scheduled to take place at the beautiful Athens Riverfront Park.

Another popular event is the annual members’ exhibition, “One Foot Square.” It’s a show of small works at affordable prices, offering visitors the opportunity to purchase art for their own collections or to give as gifts. (Learn more at athensculturalcenter.org.)

The opening of the Goddess exhibition will reflect the ACC’s and Niva’s senses of joy and inclusion. Keeping with Niva’s propensity for creating events around her exhibitions, she invited The Goddess Party – an all-female musical group led by Shana Falana – to perform at the opening of the Goddess show on August 1. The Goddess Party will perform outside the gallery, and the date happens to be “First Friday” in Athens, so the street will be closed for pedestrians, and the town’s other businesses will be open late. It’ll be a party in Athens.

And for those who don’t know, there’s a ferry that takes people back and forth across the Hudson River from Hudson to Athens, passing the famous Hudson-Athens Lighthouse on the way. The ferry ride itself is magical on a summer night and costs just $5 each way! (Learn more at hudsonferry.co.)

It comes back to creation

When I ask Niva if her idea of ‘goddess’ changed through organizing the exhibition, she says “Yes!” without hesitation: “It’s been influenced by the artists and the conversations. My vision of the show and theme have expanded,” she explains, noting, “the collection of artists and art in the show is really exciting. It comes back to creation: of the world, nature, people, ideas – creativity itself – a surging energy that’s powerful and positive and should be respected and revered, and that is in everyone.”

And for the audience? “My hope is that after seeing the show people will think about what ‘goddess’ means to them,” she says, “and what and who the goddesses are in their own lives. I hope they will look at nature reverentially and feel moved and inspired.”

Be there

Erin sums it up well: “Artists respond to the world around them – and right now, we need some goddess energy.”

I know I am eager to experience Niva’s vision come to life in Goddess: Origins of Wonder. I’ll see you at the Athens Cultural Center on August 1. If you learn about this after the opening, the show will be up for six weeks. When you’ve seen it, your comments will be most welcome.

Where will Niva be once the show has opened? “On vacation!” she exclaims, though of course that’s never all there is. “I’m currently fundraising for a short film that I’m producing and directing,” she says, “as well as developing a television show and rewriting a screenplay.” •

Explore what “goddess” says to (and about) you through the works on display at the Athens Cultural Center, 24 Second Street, Athens, NY. August 1 – September 14, 2025. athensculturalcenter.org.