Writing About Art: A Walking Workshop
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Join WNY-based writer Erin Dorney for a walking workshop where participants respond in writing to four works of art at the Medina Triennial. Everyone’s view is unique, and this workshop is a chance to slow down and notice what stands out to you. We’ll meet at The Hub for a short introduction, walk together and take notes at each artwork, then return to The Hub for optional sharing in a welcoming, low-pressure setting. You don’t have to be “a writer” to participate – anyone interested in engaging more deeply with art is welcome.
Participation is free but sign-up is required. Please bring your favorite notebook and pen. We’ll provide clipboards and extra paper when needed.
Erin Dorney (b. 1984, Rochester, NY) grew up in Kendall, just 24 miles from Medina. Her writing draws on found text and repurposed language to explore what we notice and uncover in the world around us. She has led workshops at Fleisher Art Memorial, Yale University, and the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, and her work has been exhibited at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and the Susquehanna Art Museum. She is the author of two poetry collections and numerous zines.
The Medina Triennial is a site-responsive contemporary art exhibition that activates the landscapes and histories of Medina and Western New York. Every three years, it brings together artists from around the globe to create new work that fosters critical dialogue and public engagement.
The inaugural 2026 edition, titled All That Sustains Us, features more than 100 artworks across 10 sites and is curated by Kari Conte and Karin Laansoo. The curatorial framework of the Triennial sits at the intersection of art, ecology, architecture, and rural contexts and considers maintenance not only as a physical act of upkeep, but also as a social, political, and environmental process shaped by fragility and resilience. The Triennial brings together artistic practices that examine how civic and ecological systems are structured by labor, regulation, extraction, and repair. At its core, the Triennial asks: What essential efforts and commitments are required to sustain life in our fractured world?
Located in Medina, along the historic Erie Canal in Western New York, the Triennial draws on the town’s layered histories. With a population of 6,000, Medina embodies the convergence of industry, agriculture, immigration, and civic life, reflected in its preserved 19th-century architecture and engaged community. Though modest in scale, the town is rich in cultural and ecological significance, situated between Buffalo and Rochester, and surrounded by farmland, wetlands, and canal infrastructure.
The Medina Triennial Fieldwork Residency provides artists with living and working space in Medina, along with support to develop new commissions and public programs for the Triennial. Through connections with scientists, architects, farmers, and small business owners from across Western New York, the residency fosters research and dialogue. 2025–26 residents include Mary Mattingly, who developed Floating Garden (2026), a barge-based living artwork on the Erie Canal; James Beckett, who worked on the “digital quarrying” of Medina sandstone; Selva Aparicio, whose residency is in collaboration with the Medina Railroad Museum; Michael Wang, who researched maple sap production in the region; and Scott Hocking who spent months in Medina building a site-specific installation.
The Medina Triennial Hub launched in Fall 2025 as a space for collaboration and community engagement leading up to the 2026 Triennial. Its storefront serves as both a public programming site and the home of the Triennial’s residency program, and combines workspace, program areas, a free art library, and adaptable gathering spaces.
The Triennial was initiated with major support provided by the New York Power Authority and the New York State Canal Corporation. It builds on alliances with art institutions and universities in Western New York and beyond. These partnerships will shape the inaugural Triennial and will continue into the second edition in 2029.
The Triennial takes place in Orleans County, New York, on the ancestral homelands of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, including the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora Nations; and acknowledges their enduring sovereignty, presence, and relationship to this land and its waters.
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