MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.—The Middletown Community Campus held its second Arts and Culture Festival, hosting a multitude of cultural performances, vendors, and an art exhibit.
The festival, held Oct. 1 to 4, featured performances from cultures ranging from Russian to Ecuadoran to Vietnamese.
The aromas of different cultural cuisines filled the vendor lanes from foods including creamed corn, fried chicken, and lamb kebab. Visitors heard the music from the center stage that fell over the whole festival as they ate and walked. The steady sound of drumming from the Spirit Sky Drum tent and humming from food truck generators slipped seamlessly under music and chatter.
The festival took place in the large field beside the Northern Academy and Northern Fei Tian College. Inside the schools, visitors could join workshop classes that were hosted by educators from the area, including a finger knitting class by Milford Yarn, a Taiko Drum workshop by Northern Taiko, and a financial planning class.
Middletown Mayor Joe DeStefano told reporters on Oct. 1 that this year’s festival is a step up from last.
“Last year was along the street here, not such a large event. This year it’s huge, a lot of vendors, a lot of art, a lot of culture. An enjoyable time to bring your family,” DeStefano said.
The goal of the festival is to unite people of all backgrounds through the universal language of art, organizers said.
Alison Chen, who was in charge of arranging the stage performances, told The Epoch Times on Oct. 3: “[The combination of dance and music] is just like a common language that anyone can appreciate and understand. Of course, language, it’s harder for people to understand right away. But when you see the music and dance presented on stage, that can still touch anyone.”
Numerous groups performed during the four days, including a Honduran folkloric ballet, the Troika Russian Dance Ensemble, and the Northern Academy student orchestra.
“Our students themselves—they’re immersed in the arts with specializations in classical ballet, classical Chinese dance, and also Western and Chinese music,” Chen said. “But this time, we really wanted to spread out more and expand more.”
Lifelong Middletown residents and SUNY Orange students Julian Barbosa, 19, and Daisy Finkec, 19, visited the festival together.
“I think it’s pretty cool because I’ve lived in Middletown my whole life, and we usually don’t have a lot of festivals like this in here, so it’s kind of cool to see it actually happening like five minutes from where I live,” Barbosa said.
Finkec said: “I didn’t know what it was all about when we first came, but I think it’s really fun because there’s a lot of food options, and we just had dumplings. They’re really good.”
Barbosa also said he enjoyed the variety of food at the event.
“I like seeing all the options kind of come together because Middletown is really diverse, but [I like] seeing it all together right here,” he said.
Julian Barbosa and Daisy Finkec at the Arts and Culture Festival in Middletown, N.Y., on Oct. 3, 2026. (Oliver Mantyk/The Epoch Times)
“What I’ve seen so far—wonderful, very well organized for sure. I’ve been to a lot of events, and it was never this comprehensively organized. So, if I was to grade it, I’d give it an A,” he said.
After talking with some health and fitness-related vendors, Higgins said he made a small commitment to try stretching more at home.
“Based on what I’ve heard, this could be useful for me as far as the physical body is concerned,” he said.
Originally from Jamaica, Higgins said he has been in the United States for 20 years. He brought his wife and children, who were having fun at the bouncy castle section of the festival.
The event was sponsored by the City of Middletown, Northern Fei Tian College, The Epoch Times, and others.
Donald Higgins at the Arts and Culture Festival in Middletown, N.Y., on Oct. 3, 2026. (Oliver Mantyk/The Epoch Times)Art Exhibition
The art exhibition continued this year, with six big rooms opening up at the nearby 84 Dorothea Dix Drive for the event. Last year, because the exhibition took place in one of the college buildings, it was limited by space.
This year, the first room was dedicated to the transformation of the campus—which was previously the Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital before being abandoned in 2006. It was redeveloped by multiple parties, chiefly Northern Academy and Northern Fei Tian College. Pictures showing the before and after of the brick buildings lined the walls.
The art of Taiwanese artist Lu Hung Gwei-Shu was also displayed. Her paintings appeared to draw inspiration from calligraphy, portraying flowers, birds, and the vitality of life.
The next room held a display of work by local stained glass restorers Ken and Julene Deleeuw. The two have been doing stained glass work for more than 30 years, and some of the restored works on display were more than 100 years old. They displayed several different styles of stained glass work, including some pieces specially made for the exhibit that showed a pagoda and a crane. The copper foil technique used during the process allowed for highly detailed glasswork.
The two operate their glass shop out of their home in Middletown.
“I tried to bring a little bit of everything that we do here from these windows here on the right,” Ken Deleeuw said. They’re over 100 years old when I get them, and I take them, take them apart, try to match the glass as best as possible, and then rebuild them.”
Ken and Julene Deleeuw with their stained glass work at the art exhibit during the Arts and Culture Festival in Middletown, N.Y., on Oct. 3, 2026. (Oliver Mantyk/The Epoch Times)
That area led into the bright, white-painted graphic design room, where the work of Northern Fei Tian graphic design majors was hung.
Senior graphic design major Valentina Musa had several of her projects displayed, including her own rebranding of local businesses. One project was the graphical redesign of local patisserie and coffee shop Mr. Croissant.
For that design project, she needed to focus on not distancing the product from its established brand. Musa told The Epoch Times on Oct. 1, “You don’t want to recreate something so isolated from the actual identity that it already has, because you don’t want to go again to the same place and kind of feel like somewhere else.”
Musa felt that the college gave her the opportunity to not just learn to design, but to learn to work, too. “It’s not only that we do the visual, but also creating the whole aspect of building a company and doing market research and what kind of people you want to work for.”
Valentina Musa with her work at the art exhibit during the Arts and Culture Festival in Middletown, N.Y., on Oct. 3, 2026. (Oliver Mantyk/The Epoch Times)
The last room was the art from Northern Fei Tian College MFA graduates and invited artists. Entries included landscapes, portraits, still life, and original compositions.
Artist Wattana Bo contributed two portraits to the gallery. One originated from when he met a girl at a Falun Dafa Day Parade and asked to take a picture. She happened to be standing against the perfect background.
He told The Epoch Times on Oct. 1: “There was this nice blue brick background. … The color was very similar to the Tang Dynasty blue, the azure blue, and I was like, ‘Okay, yeah, let’s take some shots,’ and it came out nice, and then I was like, ‘Okay, I kind of want to put some effort in doing a painting with her.’”
Bo said he usually just does sketches, not oil paintings.
“When I did those paintings, I was working at the post office, and also doing the paintings on the side,” he said. “So I had to find some time to do the paintings.
“When you’re doing oil paintings, you kind of have to really be into it.”
Bo said he has been going to art workshops at Northern Fei Tian College.
“It’s good to be active with art and not just be stuck, you know, and also to be in an environment with other artists where you can also grow because you kind of got to do [art] daily,” he said.
“If you don’t paint or draw for a long time, it’s like weeds growing in your brain or mind or your hands.”
Bo said he has no formal art background, and believes that being passionate can be the key to success.
“If you’re doing something, just be passionate about it, and then magical things can happen,” he said.
Wattana Bo with his work at the art exhibit during the Arts and Culture Festival in Middletown, N.Y., on Oct. 3, 2026. (Oliver Mantyk/The Epoch Times)
