Annual Appeal

Friends of Hallockville,

It has been an active year at Hallockville, and we thought you might like to hear about a few highlights.

Our biggest news of the year was receiving a $500,000 grant from New York State Council on the Arts, which will be used to kickstart the funding for adaptive use renovation of the Naugles Barn. Next year, we will apply for matching funds and hopefully, begin renovations in the fall of 2024.

Hallockville’s special events and workshops continued to attract visitors from near and far. We hosted a lively Fleece & Fiber Festival, a sold-out Barn Dance that had families kicking up their heels past sunset, the return of our free outdoor concerts, and of course, the Country Fair which included new attractions offered by neighbor, the Long Island Antique Power Association.

We curated a fall exhibit about local agricultural innovators, the Talmage Family, whose credits include pioneering overhead irrigation and bulk harvesting of potatoes, founding the Suffolk County Farm Bureau and bringing the Cornell Horticultural Research Center to Long Island. This exhibit truly delivered on our mission to “take Long Island back to its family farming roots and explore their relevance today.”

We owe big thanks to the Tuesday Crew, whose dedicated volunteers built a new fence for the Heritage Vegetable Garden, expanded outdoor space for our pigs, and put a new roof on the shoemaker’s shed.

This was a year of transitions at Hallockville, as Herb Strobel, our former executive director and camp/program director of 13 years, moved on. Museum associate Emma Montross found a new opportunity upstate, closer to her roots, and we thanked Roberta Shoten for three years of leadership as executive director.  We also welcomed new staff member Matt Boyle as our buildings and grounds manager, and Connie Klos as assistant director. We also thank Connie for her prior years of service on the Hallockville board.

Your support of Hallockville is vital to enabling us to continue preserving, sharing and celebrating Long Island’s family farm heritage and folk arts traditions. We remain very grateful for your past generosity and look forward to your continued support.

Wishing you very happy holidays and a healthy and prosperous New Year,

Christine Killorin

Interim Executive Director