Processing Collapse is a socially engaged artist collaborative making public art about the modern forest. We primarily work in partnership with public libraries.
Project Updates
Mapping a Remnant Forest in Woodstock:
On Overlook Mountain, the functionally extinct American chestnut tree thrives in the understory.
Our permanent artwork for the Woodstock Library will mark the locations of chestnut stump sprouts growing along the public trail. We are crafting map pins using salvaged sprout wood; a 7-foot chestnut leaf sculpture is being built from antique chestnut boards.
Artifact of Collapse featured in Catching Fire at Ann St Gallery:
“Catching Fire: resilient alchemies in a burning world brings together nine artists whose work engages fire as a volatile force and regenerative catalyst, bearing witness to the ways heat, pressure, and combustion shape our material and emotional lives.” - Alison McNulty, curator.
Processing Collapse presents at SENYCon 2026
We introduced our project to members of the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council (SENYLRC) on April 10, 2026.
We shared our approach to research, collaboration with libraries, and a few exciting projects that are underway.
Processing Collapse builds ashwood display cabinet for Mountain Athletic Club at the Skene Memorial Library (Fleischmanns, NY).
In collaboration with Collin Miller, M.A.C. vintage baseball captain and NYCDEP Watershed Forester, we constructed a display case using EAB-afflicted ash. The newly unveiled cabinet contains artifacts of Mountain Athletic Club, the historic baseball club of Fleischmanns.
Work-in-Progress: Hand-carved monument to Eastern hemlock for the Mountain Top Library (Tannersville, NY).
We are crafting hyper-magnified hemlock boughs and local history display cases to surround the vestibule of the Mountain Top Library. The wood for this project came from a hemlock that uprooted over the Kaaterskill Rail Trail in Haines Falls on the grounds of Mountain Top Historical Society.
Follow this project and our ongoing research about the historic extraction and modern collapse of a region-defining tree.
Processing Collapse presents Lodged and project fundraiser at Hudson Valley Seed Company
Visit the sculpture at 11 Airport Rd, Accord, NY.
Spoons, pallets, and other handcrafted ashwood sculptural objects for sale in the HVSC store. Proceeds support our projects in public libraries.
