SARATOGA SPRINGS — The region’s contributions to American history and its role in the birth of the nation will receive a prominent boost in the new year with an appearance on a nationally broadcast popular PBS series. 

Darley Newman - producer and host of the long-running “Travels with Darley,” was in town this week, filming segments for the series that will launch in January. 

“This area is interesting because it’s a big part of the story,” said Newman, taking advantage of some down-time during filming to speak with journalists at the Old Bryan Inn in Saratoga Springs this week. “Saratoga was a turning point and really is significant in the shaping of America. It was a big part of what turned the American Revolution.“

Newman was in town with a film crew for a five-day run, arriving Sunday, Sept. 24 and working through Thursday, Sept. 28. 

Monday’s filming tour took place along the eastern edge of the county and visited Saratoga National Historical Park - home of the battlefield and the infamous Benedict Arnold “Boot” monument. Tuesday explored Hadley’s Revolution Rail and Saratoga Springs, and Wednesday’s focus captured the historic Schuylerville region and adjoining communities, with pre-planned visits to the Schuyler House, the Saratoga Monument, and the sword Surrender Site.   

Saratoga County Historian Lauren Roberts accompanied Newman for much of the visit. Roberts also serves as Chair of the Saratoga County 250th Anniversary Commission. The 250th anniversary celebrating the Turning Point of the American Revolution will reach full fruition in 2027.

“I think it’s great when we can be more educated about culture and history in the world. What people see, how people dress,” Newman said.

“All these things play into knowing more about ourselves because this is all part of our past. I mean, my grandparents came from Sweden and Finland. They were immigrants. So I haven’t been in America that long but I still feel that it’s all part of my history, too,“ she said. 

Newman began showcasing her work on PBS in 2007 with the series “Equitrekking” – “I went horseback riding around the world,” she explained – and her latest long-running series, “Travels with Darley,” has been broadcast on PBS since 2016 and depicts 10 seasons which have included episode visits to everywhere from Istanbul, Turkey to Seoul, South Korea.   

The Revolutionary War Trip segments launch in January 2024. Newman’s visit to Saratoga County follows earlier journeys to South Carolina, Virginia and New Jersey for the series. 

“We’re taking a look back at the history of the American Revolution, but from the perspective of places that you can still visit today,“ Newman said. “We still find there are so many mysteries - things people are thinking about and still trying to solve. You read your normal history that you might learn about school – when I learned about the American Revolution I felt like it might be a little dry, but now when you get to go out and meet people you get new things coming to light.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS —Joan Osborne, Robert Randolph, and the Gibson Brothers will be some among the many performers to stage live events during this year’s Saratoga New Year’s festival. The events take place Dec. 29 to Jan. 1. 

“This is a joint presentation: the city the Chamber, Discover Saratoga, the City Center and myself,” said producer Robert Millis of the 398Group, during this week’s festival announcement. “We put this idea together last year to bring back First Night – and it worked. We met our milestones. It’s all part of a three-year-plan to make this thing get bigger and bigger.”    

This year’s events will feature more than 30 performers on nearly two dozen stages. In addition to live music performances there will be a 5K run, fireworks show, a family-friendly pre-fireworks block party and other events. Standard tickets are $25 in advance, kids under 16 are admitted free of charge, and Shelters of Saratoga will serve as this year’s beneficiary of a portion of the proceeds. 

The musical lineup includes Joan Osborne, Robert Randolph, Gibson Brothers, Dogs In A Pile, DJ Logic, Toubab Krewe, Organ Fairchild, Tracy Bonham, and others. For a full lineup and/or to purchase tickets, go to: facebook.com/saratogafirstnight, or www.saratoga.org/tourism/saratoga-new-years-fest/.    

SARATOGA SPRINGS — August Belmont Jr. died ninety-eight Decembers ago in his midtown Manhattan apartment, but during the past few weeks his surname has been circulating around the local Saratoga community perhaps louder than it ever had before. 

With a massive $455 million renovation project slated to take place at Long Island’s Belmont Park, the New York Racing Association is considering staging the high-profile Belmont Stakes at Saratoga, the company’s president recently told the Daily Racing Form. 

That temporary relocation of the Belmont Stakes – a race which traditionally sites the third and final leg of the Triple Crown - could include the next two runnings of the renowned race, to be held in June 2024 and June 2025, until its normal Long Island home venue would be ready for prime time in 2026.    

“I think this is a huge opportunity – not only for the city of Saratoga Springs, but for the county and the entire region,” said Darryl Leggieri, President at Discover Saratoga - a Saratoga Springs based promotion and marketing organization.  “This will bring huge tourism dollars to our region and have an economic impact for many of the businesses as well. Many people think about lodging with tourists – and they should do well – but people spend money where they stay and that will trickle down to many of the small businesses in the community such as the restaurants and the retailers.” 

The 2024 Belmont Stakes will be staged in its traditional calendar spot in early June, following May’s running of the Kentucky Derby, and the Preakness, the first and second legs of the Triple Crown, respectively. That would presumably place the Belmont at Saratoga on Saturday June 8 - although the number of racing days prior to the stakes race and/or the length of a Belmont Stakes Racing Festival in Saratoga is up for discussion. This year’s festival was a three-day affair on Long Island, according to NYRA’s June 2023 calendar. 

“June is traditionally a busy time for Saratoga Springs but there’s always room for a major historic event of this magnitude,” Leggieri said. “We’re optimistic that this will be boon for our whole area and really put a spotlight on our destination internationally – especially if there’s a Triple Crown (horse) in contention.” 

An early June Belmont date in Saratoga raises a series of potential ramifications for the local community. 

The traditional start of the 40-day Saratoga meet is typically held one month later. And while that meet is anticipated to stay the same, a flurry of activity in early June featuring the last leg of the Triple Crown series would create a special set of scenarios for the local community – from business owners and hoteliers to public safety officials who would be dealing with an accelerated flow of traffic and tourism.    

“We’re going to have to wait and see what the details look like. Maybe it’s for a long weekend – we’re hearing that, maybe it will change into something else, we just don’t know yet, but we’ll be ready,” said Saratoga County Administrator Steve Bulger. 

Economically? “We have to think there would be positive impacts on both – occupancy tax and sales tax that weekend – which the county would welcome,” Bulger said. 

“From a county perspective, law enforcement and the Sheriff’s Office especially would probably be the department most impacted, making sure we have proper coverage across the board, helping the city (of Saratoga Springs) out, like we usually do during Travers Weekend,” Bulger said. “Having Emergency Services ready to go in case anything popped up; maybe the district attorney’s office might have a busier weekend than normal. But using an enlarged Travers Day Weekend as our baseline, we would make sure we’re working with the city and NYRA so that any and all resources the county can provide will be made available.” 

So, who was August Belmont, Jr? A synopsis via the National Museum of Racing & Hall of Fame:  August Belmont II was born in New York City in 1853 and upon his father’s death became heavily involved in racing. Belmont, Jr. took over August Belmont & Co., the New York City bank founded by his father August, Sr. He continued his family’s practice of raising horses and bred 129 stakes winners, Man o’ War, among them. He was also associated with William Collins Whitney in the revitalization of Saratoga in the early 1900s and was among the founding members of The Jockey Club in 1894. In 1905, Belmont opened Belmont Park on Long Island and transferred to the park the Belmont Stakes, inaugurated in 1867 and named in his father’s honor.

The potential temporary relocation of the Belmont Stakes and the renovation at the Long Island racecourse that holds the Belmont name is dependent on various approvals. An official decision is anticipated to be announced sometime this fall. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Ten works line the wall inside Dining Room Gallery of the new Saratoga Senior Center. Gaze upon them intensely, for they seem to trick the eye. Or do they? They boast appearances of multi-dimensional proportion. They look alive.

“Renewal,” says Terri-Lynn Pellegri. “Once-living energy, repurposed.” 

Love Compost Saratoga Collaborative depicts 10 new original works captured by Pellegri’s camera eye. The exhibition, on display at the new Saratoga Senior Center, opens with an artists’ reception on Sunday.   

“Composting is really pretty simple,” Pellegri says. “Nature knows what to do. For me, it’s the breakdown of once-living matter – food waste, vegetables, tea bags, eggshells – and the natural decomposition of that which then aids and nourishes soil.  For me, it’s identifying living/ non-living. Of the earth/ not of the earth. I saw the difference between living and non-living matter.” 

The photographer’s passion for her composted subjects began in earnest on a spring day in 2014 during a seemingly random moment alongside her kitchen sink, where a batch of collected peels and scraps sat in a small compost container.

“I remember the light shining through, and I had this moment. I saw something and it just stopped me. I thought: Oh, there’s something here that looks beautiful,” Pellegri says. “For me, photographing is about seeing, about being absorbed in the moment. I got lost in that moment, looking into my compost, into this food waste. I was stunned. I went and got my camera and started photographing.”

She has learned to look at the by-product of what we consume; We eat the eggs, for example, but dispose of the eggshells, the gnarly ends of broccoli and render the nubby parts of carrots as simple discard. 

“It’s about the light and it’s about allowing yourself to have that moment,” Pellegri says. “To be in the moment without judging it, without analyzing it; Just giving myself that moment To Be. To see.”

“We put in one big bundle anything that is not useful to us anymore. Trash. We don’t want to see it. It all goes in a bag and off to the landfill,” Pellegri says. “I just couldn’t put any more in the landfill, so I started composting. And I really fell in love with it. It’s hard to explain. Just watching these things go back to the earth, where it had come from.”

She began showcasing her composting photography work in 2019, visiting area businesses that were composting - Caffe Lena, Saratoga Tea & Honey, and Four Seasons among them - and creating compositions with the materials presented. 

“It’s allowed me to shift my thinking. It has totally changed my relationship with food, and with waste,” she says. 

This past spring, Saratoga Arts announced Pellegri was awarded a grant as part of a NYSCA regrant program for LOVE COMPOST Saratoga Collaborative, to include 10 new pieces of photographic artwork - Compost COMPOSiTions - featuring five works that honor and celebrate entities and businesses that have a compost program in place, and five works of her own, all with companion narratives.

“Skidmore College has an amazing program, Lily and The Rose, The Mouzon House, Hattie’s and Corina Contemporary Jewelry in Ballston Spa – even though she’s a jewelry shop, she takes food waste from other businesses and composts.  So many things are interwoven and what I really want to share is the feeling of connectedness: what we do, who we are as people, what we do in our community, and how we communicate with one another,” Pellegri says. “The thread of commonality between the businesses, all taking food waste and compostable material and creating something.”

Across the ten works there are unlikely pairings. Tea bags collaborate with pistachio shells, clementine peels become dance partners with dried irises, scraps of carrot, and the paper casing of garlic cloves – all colorfully captured and repurposed even as they fluctuate through the varied points of their own natural decay. 

“My attempt was to bring them together, to life,” Pellegri says, “to celebrate them in this visual expression. 

An Artist’s Reception will take place 2-4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 24 in the Dining Room Gallery of the new Saratoga Senior Center, located at 290 West Ave., adjacent to the Y.