Year Three
Haunted Tour:
The Mansion Historical District
Discover Albany storyteller and former Mansion Neighborhood resident, Maeve McEneny Johnson, guides a one-hour haunting walk through the Mansion Neighborhood, including a visit to Radix Ecological Center’s Haunted Farm, and ending with a Halloween reception at Kiddie Pool / The 518 Newsletter’s 1874 Italianate home. Reception includes a candlelit parlor, bourbon tasting, light bites, a garden fire, and an outdoor screening of “The Exorcist”. Meet at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception at Eagle and Madison, and reserve early, since we expect a sellout.
Saturday
10/24/26
The Big Group Show
Americana/ble:
Join us for Americana/ble, Kiddie Pool’s first big group show. This grand old house is opening its doors again for a lively pop-up salon featuring artwork and performances from 20+ artists, musicians, and community organizers with strong ties to the Capital Region. Think of it as a melting pot of contemporary art & thought, right here in our corner of Upstate New York. We’ll be open for May Day event, additional programming, and open hours that continue throughout the month of May.
May 1—31
2026
We’re melting for our first BIG GROUP SHOW!
Julia Alsarraf · Fern Apfel · Owen Barensfield · Alexis Bhagat · Judith Braun · Katie Chin · Tesora Garcia · Alex Gingrow · Danny Goodwin · Robby Herbst · Tara Holmes · Francine Hunter McGivern · Nina Isabel · Dani Klebes · Adrian Lee · Dustin Loveland · Jillian McDonald · Catherine McTague · Lillan Mulero · Ossie Jon-Nwakalo · Michael Oatman · Andrew Pellettieri · Daniel Rothbart · Douglas Rothschild · Michael Scoggins · Jillian Sweeney · Karley Sullivan · The 518 Newsletter · We Are Revolutionary · Christian Wechgelaer · Rachel Whitney ·
Artist Panel
Americana/ble:
The Big Group Show
Tune in for a lunchtime chat about the value of artistic labor in times of trouble and what it means to be an American now.
Moderated by Karley Sullivan with Judith Braun · Tesora Garcia · Alex Gingrow · Danny Goodwin · Katie Chin · Jillian McDonald · Michael Scoggins · Couragee Stone
on zoom @ noon
May 21
Belonging to
the Air
Avery Irons:
Join us as writer Avery Irons returns to Kiddie Pool to share her debut novel, Belonging to the Air, just released this year. Open your heart with the story of honest "Bird" Bennett, a young, Black girl with a hunger to learn what lies beyond the walls she shares with her family in an Illinois freedman's town. As Bird comes of age, she reckons with domestic turbulence and what it means to fall in love. Rejecting a life of self-denial, she grows into herself in Harlem, before being called home again.
Sunday
May 17
Monuments
Walking tour
w/ Alexis Bhagat
Together we will walk and think about monuments; why we make them, and what we make them about. As the capital city of New York, Albany contains a concentration of memorials, mostly to wars and conquest. These war names, and names of the fallen, are recorded on the plaques and granite bases of monuments in and around the Empire State Plaza complex.
We will ask, what monuments are here, and what is missing?
Meet at Kiddie Pool, 128 Grand St. in Albany
Ending at West Capitol Park, 7:30 or 8pm
Thursday
May 7, 6pm
IMG: Kara Walker, Fons americanus (Tate Museum 2020)