For a weekend of peace and love, art and music (is this beginning to sound familiar?) grab your camping gear and hop the Metro North Harlem line and get off at the last stop. In just two hours, you’ll emerge in the hamlet of Wassaic, New York (pop. 1,200), just about as far from the urban jungle as you can imagine.

The three-day Wassaic Summer Festival — a free, multidisciplinary celebration of art, music and the community — will feature more than 100 artists, 20 filmmakers, 23 bands, 6 dance companies, along with poetry readings and a concert to benefit the local fire company. The third annual event is hosted by the Wassaic Project, "an artist-run sustainable, multidisciplinary arts organization that focuses on community engagement and facilitates artists and participants to exhibit, discuss and connect with art," according to its website.

Housed in a grain elevator, with additional space for artist residency studios in a 19^th-century livestock auction barn, the Wassaic Project came about after an architect and developer, Tony Zinneo and his partner, Robert Berry, purchased the crumbling structure, which was in danger of falling onto the Metro North rail tracks, in 2008.

Left: Luther Barn, the former livestock auction house. Right: The Maxton Mills grain elevator.

When the buildings were nearly restored, using old photographs as a guide, the question of what to do with them became something of a family issue. Bowie Zinneo, Tony and Sally Zinneo’s daughter, got together with two of her artist friends from the East Village, Eve Biddle and Elan Bogarin, to create a place to make and exhibit art. Mr. Zinneo and Mr. Barry had envisioned opening a tavern or restaurant, but decided that an arts center would be a good use of the property even on a temporary basis.

Three years later, the Wassaic Project is going strong, now offering year-round residencies and bringing guest artists and critics from New York City to mentor the residents, who are mostly emerging artists not long out of school.

One of the jurors for the 2011 Artis Residency program is Walker Waugh, Associate Director of Yancey Richardson Gallery. I emailed to ask him about the Wassaic Project, and just received this from his iPhone, from the South of France:

The Wassaic Project is an amazing operation and the founders are seriously ambitious artists, activists and curators (and also very good friends). In the past we've collaborated on events when I ran WORK Gallery in Brooklyn, and I've taken several artists to show at the Summer Festival.

This year I was asked to be a juror for selection of the residency program. I found the applicant pool to be an extraordinarily diverse group of artists from all over the world, working in every art-making capacity imaginable. And the level of sophistication and innovation of the work rivaled that of any New York gallery roster.

It's a real testament to the vision of the founders that in only four years they have developed a venue for serious discourse and action, that doesn't take itself too seriously, yet genuinely reflects a potent desire among our generation of artists to feel free to engage outside the sometimes restrictive confines of the art world industry.

The idyllic country campus of the Wassaic Project is itself a work of art, and uniquely beautiful, but what's really important is that the concept of reinvestment in forgotten places can and should be a model for other like-minded communities of activist artists throughout this country. This is a necessary evolution for the sustainability and relevance of creative discourse in a world that is becoming increasingly hostile to the non-commercial value of art.

If you go to the Summer Festival, you can camp out in a grassy field for $40 per night (register in advance on website to be sure there is space available). No camping equipment will be provided at the site, but tents, stoves, and sleeping bags can be rented at tenttrails.com (located in Manhattan) or thunderbirdtepee.com (located in Brooklyn).Performances are free, but visitors are encouraged to make donations to support the non-profit organization, which is currently waiting approval of its 501(c) 3 application. Information and directions.

If you are interested in the Artist Residency program at the Wassaic Project, please visit the website.

The Wassaic Project, The Maxon Mills, 37 Furnace Bank Road, Wassaic, NY.

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