Soundbites: Venue Spotlight on the Mill in Westport, N.Y.

Taylor Haskins and Ben Monder Credit: Courtesy of Ben Stechschulte

Over the years, Taylor and Catherine Ross Haskins have gotten used to hopping on the ferry in Essex, N.Y., and heading to Vermont to hear music or see visual art. The couple’s adopted upstate New York home of Westport has a population of roughly 800 people, so the chances of catching a good show there have been slim to none.

What if they changed that? At first, it was just a wild idea. But Taylor, a Grammy Award-winning trumpet player who has recorded with Dave Holland and Wilco‘s Nels Cline; and Catherine, an artist who has presented her work at MoMA PS1 and the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, soon found a way to bring the arts to Westport.

“There were so many empty buildings in this town before COVID,” Taylor said. “I saw this place for sale, and, you know, it was basically a skeleton, but you could tell how strong the bones were. It was robust, and I knew it could handle whatever we wanted to do with it. And that’s when our ideas started to flow.”

The place they took a chance on is an 11,000-square-foot former grain mill, built in 1952 as the Champlain Valley Seed Cooperative. It had long sat derelict, a blown-out husk, when the Haskinses purchased it in 2021, much to the bemusement of the locals.

Undeterred, the couple spent three years rebuilding the old grain mill with local contractors. They transformed the historic building into a modern arts hub called the Mill, complete with three art galleries, a speakeasy called the Knock, several apartments for visiting artists and musicians, and the crown jewel: a cathedral-like performance space with 23-foot ceilings. Named the Listening Gallery, it is expansive and intimate at once, with luscious acoustics.

Fortunately, the Haskinses also spent several years building up an in-town audience before launching the Mill. From 2014 to 2017, the couple booked Westport’s Ballard Park Summer Concert Series, then called Soundwaves, bringing in touring acts such as Julian Lage, Anaïs Mitchell and Charlie Hunter. Those shows routinely drew up to 600 people, almost doubling the town’s population.

“We needed to know people would come if we built something — it was a sort of proof of concept,” Catherine said. “And it taught us how to book a show!”

They learned well, based on the lineups the Mill has hosted since opening its doors this summer. From Canadian composer and Arcade Fire violinist Sarah Neufeld to Chilean jazz guitarist Camila Meza to Argentinean pianist Guillermo Klein, a diverse and talented array of musicians has passed through. The venue is, as Taylor described it, without genre.

Taylor programs all the music at the Mill, drawing on his long musical career and experience hosting the North Country Public Radio show “The Thread.” He’s also the Knock’s head chef and created its menu. Meanwhile, Catherine curates and commissions all the art for the venue and its galleries.

The result is an immersive experience, from the moment one walks through the doors into galleries filled with paintings, sculpture and installations.

“The Mill is an embodiment of who we are as individuals,” Catherine said. She seemed amused when asked if she and Taylor entertained future plans for the space.

“Our business managers don’t necessarily love this, but the whole thing is a creative project for us,” she said. “If Taylor and I knew how it was going to end, we’d probably both be done. It’s only fun if you don’t know what’s next.”

Taylor agreed. “This isn’t an attempt to create a kind of club-style venue,” he said. “When I look back at some of the incredible places I’ve been lucky enough to perform at, from a renovated mosque in Tunisia to house shows in Tokyo and Mumbai, the common denominator is that the shows were put on by people that just really, really wanted them to happen. And that’s us.

“The space itself is the art,” he continued. “We’re actually enjoying not knowing what will come [next].”

In the short term, they’ll handle the delivery and installation of an 8-by-8-foot stained-glass window in the Listening Gallery. This Friday, October 25, the couple will turn the space into a movie theater, screening Beetlejuice in anticipation of Halloween. Then it’s back to being a venue on Saturday, October 26, for a performance by jazz drummer and composer John Hollenbeck‘s new band, GEORGE.

“We did this to help revitalize the town,” Catherine said. “We spent the last 14 years making trips all over the area to see art or hear great music. Now we’re inviting everyone to come visit us and visit our town. And we want to make that trip as memorable as possible.”