Medina Triennial opens headquarters this weekend for major art initiative

50 artists to be featured at a dozen locations next year in Medina

Photo by Dawson Andrews for Medina Triennial – The former NAPA building at 345 North Main St. will serve as the headquarters for the Medina Triennial.

Press Release, Medina Triennial

MEDINA – The Medina Triennial, a new, site-responsive contemporary art triennial taking place in Medina from June 6 to September 7, 2026, announces the opening of the Medina Triennial Hub on Sept. 13–14, alongside the launch of Floating Garden, its first commission from ecological art pioneer Mary Mattingly.

The event marks the start of the Triennial’s community engagement leading up to its inaugural edition in 2026, which will feature over 50 artworks at approximately 12 indoor and outdoor locations in Medina, located on the historic Erie Canal waterfront in Western New York.

Located in a former sandstone hotel building at the heart of the village, the Hub will serve as the home of the Medina Triennial’s residency program and its education and welcome center.

From September 2025 until the Triennial’s closing in September 2026, the Hub will host public programs and events around themes of community, ecology, and place, in collaboration with art institutions across Western New York, and act as a platform for visitors to engage directly with the Triennial’s conceptual framework.

The Hub’s pre-Triennial programming includes 15 weekends of artist talks, workshops, screenings and panels, continuing the Triennial’s mission of fostering and promoting education in the arts, culture, regional history and ecology. The Fall program is available on the Triennial’s website.

“The Hub will be just the beginning of the astounding series of art installations, educational programs and cultural discussions that the Triennial will bring to Medina” says Mayor Marguerite Sherman. “We hope that these programs and this Triennial will strengthen the love and appreciation we have for this beautiful village, and unite Western New York over our shared passion of arts and culture.”

The design for the building’s furniture and renovated interiors was developed by the multidisciplinary design practice Serweta Peck, in collaboration with students, faculty, and staff from the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning.

Supported by the Sydney Gross Fund, this project titled Objects of Affection reflects a commitment to sustainability, site specificity, and resilience through the recovery and reuse of materials, including reclaimed wood from the New York State Canal system. Over the course of the spring and summer of 2025, the team developed, tested, and fabricated each piece as an original design object. Serweta Peck reflects: “We hope this work invites and encourages all of us to take material steps to take care of the spaces and objects that we visit, share and love.”

Mary Mattingly (b. 1978 Rockville, Connecticut) is an artist known for exploring urban ecology and interdependence through sculptural installations and participatory public artwork that address issues around water, food systems and climate adaptation.

Floating Garden is Mattingly’s most ambitious project to date. Continuing her research into food supply chains from celebrated past projects such as Swale (2016–ongoing), Mattingly’s new commission for the Medina Triennial will repurpose an industrial barge docked on the Erie Canal in Medina, where she will collaborate with local groups to build a mobile sanctuary featuring medicinal gardens, fruit orchards, and biochar-based water filtration systems intended to improve access to fresh food and local waterways.

Entering production in September 2025 and unveiled in its entirety on June 6, 2026, this project is deeply rooted in the natural landscape of Western New York and the rhythms of civic life, creating a functional artwork designed to enrich the surrounding community while reimagining the Erie Canal’s history as a vital foodway.

Beginning in September 2025, Floating Garden will serve as a living public artwork and educational resource, offering hands-on educational programs around soil health, food production, ecology and climate adaptation. This Fall’s programming will include a workshop on collecting and utilizing rainwater, a guided foraging walk, and a roundtable discussion with the curatorial team. The project’s programming is developed in partnership with Creative Time and Toronto Biennial of Art.

“I’m thrilled to begin building ‘Floating Garden’ with people in Medina, a place deeply connected to the waterways and foodways that have inspired this project,” said Mary Mattingly. “Building the piece here allows for important collaboration with the region’s ecologies and communities. It’s a chance to imagine, together, how floating infrastructure can support forms of public care and resilience, and how it can be a form of shared abundance and sanctuary within the climate crisis.”

Mattingly’s project is one of five Triennial commissions produced under the Medina Triennial Fieldwork Residency, a new initiative that allows artists to work directly on-site in Medina ahead of the Triennial’s opening. Artist James Beckett will join Mattingly as a resident this Fall. Beckett’s practice engages questions around the built environment, particularly how systems of production and distribution shape cultural identities.

Residents will be given time, space and resources within Medina, including a dedicated group of local experts—scientists, architects, artists, biologists, farmers, and small business owners from across Western New York—to support research, foster collaboration, and deepen community connections.

The model is designed to further tailor the Triennial’s commissions to the area through total immersion within the village and its environs. Additional residents will be announced later in 2025.