Chautauqua Institution today announced the upcoming unveiling of an augmented reality art installation to coincide with its inaugural CHQ Mud Day Saturday, October 7. The installation, created by artists Leslie Calimeri and John Stow, follows a previous interactive installment at the CHQ Trail focused on play and exploration in 2022. Members of the media are invited to attend the public unveiling at 9:45 a.m. on October 7 at the CHQ Trailhead located behind the Chautauqua Golf Club Learning Center, 4731 West Lake Road, Chautauqua, NY.

The current phase of Calimeri and Stow’s collaboration builds on their previous work and adds a new layer of interactivity. Stow has created two new sculptures, a doe and her fawn, and Calimeri has digitized her artwork and brought it into an augmented reality space, allowing her sculptures to become animated and virtually interact with Stow’s sculptures.

Stow is a sculptor and blacksmith who resides and works in Stow, NY. His forged and carved sculptures are both beautiful and functional, allowing viewers to directly interact and engage with his pieces. His wooden animal sculptures have an animated and playful aesthetic that engages and delights viewers of all ages. The sculptures subtly compel viewers, and especially children, to create a narrative around his work, giving individuals a personal and ever-expanding connection to his pieces.

Calimeri has been a commercial and fine artist for nearly twenty years. Her goal as a fine artist has been to elevate the scenes of our everyday lives. Her work highlights a variety of landscapes and natural objects in Chautauqua County, calling out the colors, shapes, and spaces that inform the common environment we share. Her work asks viewers to rediscover our environment and objects worthy of attention. Calimeri resides in Jamestown, NY, where she owns Chautauqua Art Gallery.

The inaugural CHQ Mud Day promises an unforgettable experience as a non-traditional 5k run over a course filled with hand-crafted obstacles. Attendees can expect to run, walk, crawl, slip and slide as they navigate the course. Additional information and pre-registration for CHQ Mud Day is available at runsignup.com/Race/NY/Chautauqua/CHQMudDay5K. Registration costs $60 and proceeds from the event will be used for ongoing maintenance and enhancement of the CHQ Trail, a free community resource to the residents and visitors of the greater Chautauqua County area. Onsite registration will be available from 9-10 a.m.

Calimeri and Stow’s collaboration is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by Arts Services Inc.

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About Chautauqua Institution
Chautauqua Institution is a not-for-profit, 750-acre community on Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State, where approximately 7,500 persons are in residence on any day during a nine-week season, and a total of more than 100,000 attend scheduled public events and even more engage online via the streaming channel CHQ Assembly. Chautauqua is dedicated to the exploration of the best in human values and the enrichment of life through a program that explores the important religious, social and political issues of our times; stimulates provocative, thoughtful involvement of individuals and families in creative response to such issues; and promotes excellence and creativity in the appreciation, performance and teaching of the arts. The Institution will celebrate its Sesquicentennial in 2024.