The Village of Hastings-on-Hudson owns the studio where Jacques Lipchitz made sculpture for two decades. It accepted the building as a donation in 2020. Six years later the village is formally asking what the studio should be. On Sunday, Oct. 18, residents can go inside the building at 22 Aqueduct Lane before anyone makes a recommendation.
For most of the village, Lipchitz has meant the sculpture outside the library and a name in the Historical Society's list of notable residents. This fall that changes. His studio is now an active question in front of a village committee, with a master plan expected at the end. This open house is the first time the public process puts residents inside the building itself.
What the village has said, in its own words
The Village news flash posted Oct. 9 sets out the purpose plainly:
The Village of Hastings-on-Hudson invites residents to explore the historic Lipchitz Studio before the Building Use Study Committee makes any recommendations about its future.
The logistics are tight. Here's what the village lists:
- When: Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026, 1 to 3 p.m.
- Where: 22 Aqueduct Lane
- Who: Hastings-on-Hudson residents ages 14 and older
- Format: guided tours of 10 minutes each, with no more than five residents per time slot
- Registration: required in advance, through the form linked from the village announcement
- Parking: none on Aqueduct Lane or alongside the studio
- Accessibility: the studio is not fully accessible for mobility accommodations
- Masks: offered and encouraged, because of "possible structural and known environmental issues"
Two hours of 10-minute tours makes 12 slots if they run back to back. With five people per slot, that's at most 60 residents across the whole afternoon. Space is limited, and the village is urging people to register early. Background on the building and the process is at hohny.gov/lipchitz.
The mask advisory is also the most specific public statement so far about the building's condition. The announcement doesn't describe those issues any further.
How a 1952 studio became a 2026 agenda item
The June 2, 2026 Board of Trustees meeting is where the building's story and the village's process meet. The resolution read into the record that night gives the history in a few clauses.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1947 | Sculptor Jacques Lipchitz moves to Hastings-on-Hudson, drawn by its setting and its view of the Hudson River |
| 1952 | Local architect Martin Lowen Fish designs Lipchitz's studio on Aqueduct Lane |
| 1967 | Lipchitz dedicates "Between Heaven and Earth" to the village |
| 2020 | The village accepts the donation of the Aqueduct Lane studio |
| June 2, 2026 | Trustees establish the Lipchitz Studio Building Use Study Committee |
| June 30, 2026 | Applications due for the committee's two public seats |
| Sept. 2026 | The committee holds its organizational meeting |
| Oct. 18, 2026 | Residents' open house at the studio |
According to the resolution, Lipchitz went on to make sculpture in that studio for 20 more years. "Between Heaven and Earth" is one of those works. The Hastings Historical Society notes that the 1967 sculpture was placed in front of the Hastings Public Library, where it still stands. So the village has owned the finished piece for nearly six decades, while the room it came out of has belonged to the public for six years.
Who is deciding, and what they've been asked to weigh
The committee has seven members, and its makeup shows how many parts of village life have a stake in one small building. There is one member each from the Parks and Recreation Commission, the Conservation Commission, the Beautification Commission, the Arts Commission and the Historical Society, plus two members of the general public. A trustee serves as liaison. The Village Manager and the Parks and Recreation Superintendent attend the meetings.
The committee's charge is to recommend to the Board of Trustees the best uses of the studio "as an asset of the Village." In doing so it will consider several things:
- The building's historical and educational value
- Its location
- Its condition
- Its accessibility
- The village needs the building would best serve and complement
That list tracks the open house flyer closely. Location shows up as the no-parking note on Aqueduct Lane. Condition shows up as the mask advisory, and accessibility as the warning about mobility accommodations. In effect, the Oct. 18 tour shows residents the same constraints the committee is weighing.
The resolution also tells the committee to engage residents and trustees through surveys, public forums and presentations, ending in a proposed master plan for the building. The open house is the first piece of that engagement that puts people physically in the room.
The committee's September organizational agenda proposed meeting on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. On that schedule, the October meetings would fall on Oct. 14, four days before the open house, and Oct. 28, ten days after it. Residents can write to the committee through the Lipchitz Studio Building Use Study Committee contact form on the village website.
The studio sits on a short walk of Hastings art history
Lipchitz wasn't the first artist to build a working space here, and his studio isn't the only one residents can visit. The Historical Society's notable residents page traces the line back further. Carl Ludwig Brandt, a portrait and landscape painter, built a Hastings studio in 1862. Hudson River School painter Jasper F. Cropsey worked at his home, Ever Rest, from 1885 to 1900.
Those buildings have taken different paths since. Ever Rest is the closest local example of an artist's home that has a settled public use. The Newington-Cropsey Foundation offers free guided tours by appointment, Monday through Thursday, of Ever Rest at 49 Washington Avenue and of its Gallery of Art at 25 Cropsey Lane. Tours need to be requested at least a week ahead. Someone who tours the Lipchitz Studio on Oct. 18 and requests a Cropsey visit that same week could see both studios before the end of the month.
Before the Lipchitz tour, "Between Heaven and Earth" outside the library is worth a stop. It is the finished work made in the room you're about to see.
The Historical Society's own exhibit, "The Times They Are A-Changin': Hastings in the 1960s," runs through Oct. 15 at Observatory Cottage, 407 Broadway. Regular open hours are Mondays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. That leaves today, Monday, Oct. 12, and Thursday, Oct. 15, as the last two regular sessions. The exhibit covers the same decade in which Lipchitz was working on Aqueduct Lane and dedicated his sculpture to the village.
Three weeks later, the working studios open
The Lipchitz open house looks back at a studio whose working life ended decades ago. The RiverArts Studio Tour on the first weekend of November does the opposite, with artists working today opening their studios to visitors. This year's hours are:
- Saturday, Nov. 7: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Sunday, Nov. 8: noon to 4 p.m.
RiverArts describes the tour as a "veritable treasure hunt" through industrial lofts, home studios, outdoor installations, storefronts and galleries. Participating artists work in Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington, Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow.
As of early October, the RiverArts homepage was still inviting artists to register for this year's tour. Last year, Hastings stops included the James Harmon Community Center at 44 Main Street. That was a 2025 location, and this year's list of participating artists and stops may be different.
Between now and then, the Village calendar lists a Farmers Market on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The next afternoon, the studio on Aqueduct Lane opens for its two-hour window.
The October and November calendar
| Date | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Mon., Oct. 12 and Thu., Oct. 15 | Last regular sessions of the 1960s exhibit, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Observatory Cottage, 407 Broadway |
| Wed., Oct. 14 | Proposed committee meeting date, second Wednesday | Check village agenda |
| Sat., Oct. 17 | Farmers Market, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Per Village calendar |
| Sun., Oct. 18 | Lipchitz Studio open house, 1 to 3 p.m., registration required | 22 Aqueduct Lane |
| Wed., Oct. 28 | Proposed committee meeting date, fourth Wednesday | Check village agenda |
| Mon. to Thu., by appointment | Free Cropsey tours, booked a week ahead | 49 Washington Ave. and 25 Cropsey Lane |
| Sat., Nov. 7 and Sun., Nov. 8 | RiverArts Studio Tour | Studios across six Rivertowns |
The open house at 22 Aqueduct Lane runs for two hours on Oct. 18, with registration required, before the committee makes any recommendation about the building's future.
At Totally Westchester, we follow the village decisions that shape Hastings-on-Hudson, from a studio on Aqueduct Lane to the streets around it. If you're curious about the history of your own house or the block it's on, reach out. We're always glad to talk about the village.