The High Lands Current
KuBe Gets New Director
By Marc Ferris
Donna Mikkelsen is the new director of the KuBe Arts Center in Beacon.
Mikkelsen, who grew up in Brooklyn and graduated from the progressive John Dewey High School, ran an arts school in Westchester County on a barter system. When that folded, she moved north because of the arts scene here.
Since then, she has jumped into participatory projects such as coordinating a bicycle menorah event at the Beacon Hebrew Alliance, serving on the board of BeaconArts and working with Beacon Bonfire.
Two years ago, Mikkelsen took a deep dive into local history and volunteered to help celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Howland Public Library by working on exhibits and developing programs.
Mikkelsen also teaches at the Manitou School in Philipstown, creating tools for students to draw with both hands simultaneously to create spontaneous, near-symmetrical images. She calls it “ambi arts,” for ambidextrous, and even designed a logo.
Her involvement with the 120,000-square-foot KuBe dates to August 2023, when she helped organize Back to School, an exhibit from September through June that leaned into the surroundings. It culminated with a mock prom in the dimly lit, retro gym.
“This place matches my vision,” Mikkelsen says about the old-school labyrinth, which opened in 1915 and closed in 2002. “People from all over always say, ‘It’s just like my school.’ There’s a lot of nostalgia vibes.”
Around 60 artists, writers and musicians rent studios in the former classrooms. In addition to three recording studios, there’s a barbershop (A Lucky Cut), a pottery center (Silica Studio 845) and a furniture and cabinetry woodworker (Rexhill Studios).
The KuBe Arts Center (Photo provided)
In 2011, Ethan Cohen, a gallery owner who specializes in African and Chinese art, opened KuBe, a contraction of Kunsthalle Beacon (a German word for art shed, or a shell filled with art).
Based in Manhattan, Cohen uses the Beacon site as a satellite, operating a gallery named after his parents in the former library and showing works in a warren of rooms in the one-time science wing.
Mikkelsen is slowly transforming one of Cohen’s airy corners into a retail spot and whimsical exhibit space. A greenhouse on the terrace outside the store offers intriguing possibilities.
Sculptures dot the grounds, and a back-to-school bus designed by Ron English stands in the north parking lot. A paper sign taped to a wall outside a bathroom reads: “Please do not pour your paint or paint thinners down the drain. Thank you.”
The brick building lacks air conditioning and has experienced minimal upkeep over the years. Despite its dark hallways, many studios take advantage of the large windows that overlook the residential neighborhood.
A library and archive include books, diaries, photographs and tens of thousands of slides that document and preserve Cohen’s — and his mother’s — life work.
Born in 1932, Joan Lebold Cohen traveled extensively throughout China, meeting with artists and filmmakers beginning in the 1960s and becoming an expert in Chinese and Asian art.
It’s so easy to get lost in the KuBe maze that Mikkelsen plans to introduce directional signs. Another goal is a sound system in the auditorium.
“I’m a self-proclaimed historian and think about what’s going to happen in 50 or 100 years,” she says. “Will the building be standing? Will it be an art center?”
In addition to instituting a series of lectures, workshops, performances and exhibitions, Mikkelsen would like KuBe to become a nonprofit so it can apply for grants, offer artist residencies and raise money to maintain the building. She plans to institute a membership program similar to Dia Beacon and other nonprofits.
“I have many plans in my head, like building a website,” says Mikkelsen. “But we have to raise some money first.”
The KuBe Arts Center, at 211 Fishkill Ave., is open to the public on Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m., with a tour at 2 p.m. Enter the blue door in the north parking lot.
Artist has grand plans for former Beacon High School
If there’s an artistic happening in Beacon, chances are that Donna Mikkelsen is making the scene.
A local fixture since 2011, she’s the newly installed director of KuBe Arts Center, located at the former Beacon High School on Fishkill Avenue.
“I’m slowing down with the social appearances to focus on making this place more official,” Mikkelsen says. “But I’ll always be busy teaching, creating and building community.”