About Our Organization

reGathering

reGathering is a locally focused, globally minded non-profit based in Cherry Valley, NY working to develop community through performing arts, nature, and creative process.

Through education, gatherings, art, and performances we aim to foster collaboration, personal growth, resilience, and a strong relationship with nature.

The Telegraph School is a project of reGathering, and is located at 83 Alden St, in Cherry Valley, NY, a historic and lovingly restored building from the 1850s.

The Telegraph School was founded in 2021 to foster creativity, connection, and resilience through the performing and healing arts. Our mission is rooted in the belief that creative expression and community engagement are essential to individual and collective well-being, particularly in rural areas where access to the arts can be limited.

The Telegraph School believes that our diversity is our greatest strength. Through the arts, we provide space for people to explore their identities and their cultural heritage in a supportive creative environment. This creates a vibrant collaborative, encouraging community where sharing and learning are a part of every day. This lifts up the spirits and economy of the region, while also promoting rural culture.

Telegraph School Land Acknowledgement Statement

The land and waters of Cherry Valley were once the hunting grounds and sacred places of the Kanienʼkehá:ka (“Gahnien-geh-haah-gah”, the People of the Land of Flint, the Mohawk Nation).  They cared for the earth beneath our feet and kept the balance of nature intact.

Around 1740, the first Europeans, John Lindesay and his family, attempted to live here. They nearly starved due to the harsh winter but were cared for by the nearby Kanienʼkehá:ka community based in the modern-day town of Mohawk.  

The colonizers and ensuing wars of the 1700s led to a distressing reality for the Kanienʼkehá:ka.  They were eventually forced to leave their homeland and moved to reservations along the border of northern New York State and Canada. The reservations suffered from poverty, the brutality of Indian Schools, and proximity to a PCB superfund site, which resulted in the loss of their culture and health.

For the last 50 years, the Kanienʼkehá:ka have been leaders in the environmental movement, fighting to protect land and water across Canada and the US from mineral extraction, pollution and general destruction.  They were part of Standing Rock and are instrumental in blocking the Constitution Pipeline in our area.  

They are actively reclaiming their culture and language through healing work and public workshops. There are several communities of Kanien’keha:ka in the area. 

The Iroquois Museum in Cobleskill is an organization that teaches about Haudenosaunee history and culture.

Kanienʼkehá:ka culture has much to teach us about listening deeply to the wisdom of the land and their efforts are an inspiration to rediscovering our own roots. 

We at the Telegraph School hope to continue building relationships with the Kanien’keha:ka and work together towards reconciliation of the land, protecting the water, and illuminating the complex history of Cherry Valley. Join us in supporting their return and rematriation by contributing coin and labor whenever possible, and by promoting their events to the larger community.