Fifty years to the day after sculptor Harvey Fite died within the monumental bluestone artwork he spent much of his life building, Opus 40 will mark the anniversary with a community gathering to celebrate his legacy and preserve memories of the place he left behind.
“Community Day – Celebrating 50 Years of Opus 40” is set for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 9, at Opus 40. The event will include sculpture tours, craft activities, local artisan vendors, and a stone-carving demonstration.
Fite, a Bard College professor born in 1903, died after falling into the quarry from which Opus 40 emerged while riding a power lawnmower.
“Nobody knows precisely what happened,” said Fite’s step-granddaughter India Richards, 51, an Opus 40 board member.
A central part of Saturday’s free event will be the recording of oral histories. Opus 40, a nonprofit organization, is also asking the public to share stories and photographs by emailing oralhistory@opus40.org or mailing them to the site.
The oral history effort is “both institutional and personal,” said Richards, who lives in Manhattan.
“I’d like to know more about a grandfather that I didn’t really know,” she said. “He passed away when I was only two years old. I only know him through oral history, through my family and through family friends. So this is a way to expand that, and for the organization, it’s a way to get to know the man and the place through different eyes.”
Richards said those memories could deepen the public’s understanding of both Fite and Opus 40.
“I want to hear the stories,” she said. “It adds to the fabric of the person and of the place, to know as much as we can about them,” she said.
Opus 40 spans 6.5 acres, rising from an abandoned quarry through terraces, ramps, staircases, pools, and fitted bluestone walls, with Overlook Mountain in the distance.
Fite named the project Opus 40 because he believed it would take 40 years to complete. He began the work in 1939 and the project stopped with his death 37 years later.
A 2006 New York Times article cited Architectural Digest’s 1989 description of Opus 40 as one of “the most beguiling works of art on the entire continent.”
The site has long served as more than a sculpture park. It’s also been a gathering place and music venue, hosting acts including the once-local band Orleans, whose hits include “Dance with Me” and “Still the One,” as well as The Felice Brothers. Acclaimed saxophonist Sonny Rollins, a longtime Woodstock resident, performed there in 1986, and released the show the following year as “Sonny Rollins Plays G-Man.”
The 1986 documentary, “Saxophone Colossus,” featuring the jazz musician’s Opus 40 concert, and a performance in Japan, will be screened at Opus 40 on June 5.
Fiite’s path to sculpture began far from the quarry. In 1926, through the Bishop of Houston, he received a scholarship to attend St. Stephen’s College, the predecessor to Bard College. He studied for the ministry before being drawn to theater and leaving divinity school to pursue acting.
He joined the Maverick Theater at the famed arts colony in Woodstock. In 1931, while waiting for a costume fitting, Fite picked up an empty spool that had been tossed into a wastebasket and began whittling it. The small act helped set him on the path to sculpture.
In 1933, Bard invited Fite back to teach drama and convert the college’s old Orient Hall into a theater. He accepted on the condition that he could also teach sculpture. Five years later, he purchased the property that would become Opus 40 for $376.25, with a $25 down payment.
Fite remained on the Bard faculty for 36 years and founded the college’s art department before retiring in 1969. He also served as vice president of the Woodstock Artists Association and was a member of the Hunter Mountain Ski Patrol.
John Hall, 77, a longtime member of Orleans and a former Woodstock and Saugerties resident, said Opus 40 remains inseparable from the region’s cultural history. Hall, who now lives in Nashville, played many shows there, both with Orleans and the John Hall Band.
“If you care about the history of where you live and the places you love, then it makes sense to care about Opus 40,” he said. “It was a hometown audience, a ton of friends,” he said.
John W. Barry is a reporter for The Overlook. Reach him at john@theoverlooknews.com.
