- Tonight on WPBS Weekly, Inside the Stories empowering young minds to dream big and to build brighter futures while having fun at the same time, it's all happening at the Kingston STEM and Robotics Center and a segment that's literally cutting edge.

We stop by Dan Hartley's workshop to learn more about the art of chainsaw carving, also documenting the historic Erie Canal through photography.

Our multi-part series continues as we celebrate the Canal's 200th anniversary.

Your stories, your region.

Coming up right now on WPBS Weekly, inside the stores, - WPBS Weekly inside the stories is brought to you by - When you're unable to see your primary care provider.

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Today, - Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the statewide Community Regrant program, a REGRANT program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York state legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.

- Good Tuesday evening everyone, and welcome to this edition of WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories.

I'm Michael Riecke.

The stem and Robotics Center at the Boys and Girls Club of Kingston is an innovative space where youth can explore science, technology, engineering, and math through hands-on learning and creative problem solving.

With access to cutting edge robotics technology and expert guidance, participants develop critical thinking, teamwork and technical skills that prepare them for future careers.

In STEM fields.

Producer Gail Paquette has more.

- The Boys and Girls Club of Kingston recently unveiled their impressive new STEM and robotics center in December, 2024 with over half a million dollars worth of cutting edge equipment.

It is a place where young people can explore, create, and develop technical and professional skills that will set them up for success in an ever-changing world.

Whether they're building robots or designing new projects, this center is all about hands-on learning and innovation.

- The Kingston Robotics Lab was started by an entrepreneur within the region Niall O'Driscoll.

He was really passionate about robotics.

He had a daughter who was on a first robotics, a competitive high school team, and so he invested a lot of money in a full size competitive robotics playing field, a machine shop with all the equipment.

So he was only reaching about 20 to 30 kids a year and his daughter was also aging out of high school.

He was looking to retire and so we really saw the opportunity to reach a lot more kids if he donated it to BGC, and also really saw the potential of moving all the equipment in the facility to our main West End community site so that there could be a lot of exposure to the other kids in youth that are in the space so that they could do swimming sports, but also do a lot of the educational programs all in one site.

And so we're really fortunate now to have the space that we call the STEM and Robotics Center.

It's one of the largest youth stem hubs in Canada.

- Robotics is an ideal hands-on application of STEM education, allowing students to actively engage with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics concepts simultaneously.

This fosters innovation while making STEM education more accessible to the Kingston community.

- We have a lot of different programs that we try and offer.

We really just try and listen to the community and what they're looking for.

Right now that seems to be a lot of robotics, so it's a lot of hands-on building, seeing results, seeing things move, seeing things fly pretty fast.

And then we also have science and engineering focused.

So maybe a little bit lateral to the robotics, but that's where we're doing the chemistry and we're doing the physics and we're making direct connections to the Ontario curriculum to try and make sure that we're getting kids ahead of where they currently are and trying to guide them into the future and, and we can predict what they might struggle with and what they might learn so we can try and I guess, speed things up for them and make it more accessible.

So we have, as the staff, as the educators, the engineers, we have an idea of what we might want to bring for that session.

But then it's really about listening to that feedback right away from all the different students, the children, the youth, and saying, what do you want to learn next time?

What is it that you want?

Even in terms of an entire program?

And then we can go and put those things together and make things happen.

- For decades, the Boys and Girls Club of Kingston has been making things happen, ensuring every child has the opportunity to thrive with a strong focus on inclusivity.

They ensure that children and youth from all backgrounds have access to enriching experiences.

- There's so many just like life skills that we think that the program builds.

So you know, they're working on communication, they're working on teamwork, they're working on project management.

And it's really funny because the robotics teams, they, they call themselves like a, they're a sport team really for kids that don't really like sports.

So, you know, it's an opportunity for kids to have friends, have to do things with people in common, maybe if they're not that into physical activity as much.

So it's really cool to gi give kids the opportunity to, you know, in BGC, they have a chance to do whatever they want.

There's a place for everybody here.

- One of the biggest challenges I think we face is, is the, the stigma or the connotations that stem and robotics is, is only a thing that, you know, nerds might, might go to, right?

And that's the word that we're trying to sort of move aside here.

So what we're trying to promote is that yes, it's stem, yes it's robotics, but it's really just an application of any different facet of light.

So for example, people who like working out or like playing basketball, we want them to come in here and let's build a little gadget that can test the curvature of your throw and let's see the velocity of your passes or whatever it is.

And trying to connect that STEM robotics is really just an application of technology as we see it right now, and engineering and entrepreneurship and innovation into all these different elements of, of life.

Whether it is creative creatively or whether it's athletically or whatever.

We want them all to feel like this is a place that you can go to regardless of what your background and passions are.

We think they can blend well with what, what we have here - As technology continues to evolve, programs at the STEM and Robotics Center are ensuring that young people are equipped with the tools and knowledge they need.

These students are not just learning how to build robots, they're building their futures.

- We're trying to really supplement of what the, the, the schools can offer.

Maybe, you know, the kids are homeschooled and it's really hard to have these technologies.

These technologies are expensive.

And so the kids to be able to have the opportunity to come here and use all these different equipments and technologies and facilities, it's really, really interesting.

And you know, there's so many stats out there.

Kids that are exposed to STEM early on really have, they're three times more likely to pursue STEM later on.

So we want to just be able to expose that to them, that it is a possible pathway that they can pursue.

The reason why we really wanted this opportunity was because we see these demands in the community, not only in in Kingston, but in Canada to really, we need to expand literacy and stem.

Our labor market really needs it.

And we wanna equip kids with, you know, skills that they can use for the rest of their lives.

- For WPBS weekly, I'm Gail Paquette.

- When most people pick up a chainsaw, it's to cut down a tree or for some firewood, but in the hands of a certain kind of artist, that same tool can shape works of fine art.

This practice known as chainsaw carving emerged in the 1950s and has grown into a worldwide community of carvers in Northern New York.

Dan Hartley, one of them bringing both skill and style to this cutting edge craft.

Here's producer Luke Smith.

- All right, here we go.

- It's not exactly a paint paintbrush, but in the right hands this chainsaw becomes an artist's primary tool.

This is the work of Carver and Hartley Harwood's owner Dan Hartley, who's been around wood carving since he was young.

- My dad was a cabinet maker, now worked with chainsaws since I was nine years old.

My first form of art was routing name signs for friends and family in our community at the cabinet shop.

I never knew it would lead to this.

- Dan's love for saw carving has taken him around the world, whether taking part in competitions or just connecting with other passionate carvers.

It's what led him to the north country.

- Dan came up a couple years ago and had an opportunity of staying up in this north country area because there's a really good market for the carvings and stuff that he's doing.

That's stuff that he's creating is there's a good market for it.

So he had a chance to stay here and we helped him with some stuff He carved here in our yard until he got a good yard established - And I would come up and carve inventory and orders for him and just hang out with him because he's a great guy.

- With saw in hand, Dan takes to the chopping block, turning what was once an ordinary wooden log into something extraordinary.

- I'm most known for owls.

It's my favorite thing to carve.

I carve a lot of them.

My most popular bears, eagles, cardinals and owls.

So I can get asked to carve raccoons and all kinds of different wildlife squirrels.

I've even carved a few platypus before.

You are taking a block of wood and creating something just like Divinci or Michelangelo did with stone.

If we're using more modern tools, chainsaws make it very much faster.

I use a lot of die grinders and I have different, various different Saber brand bits, eyes and small details.

Oles we use a lot.

And then we also have weed torches that we burn the sculptures with, which is an important part of the process of drying them and finishing them midnight.

I get excited every time I'm meeting new people, learning experience, the competition part of it fuels me.

I grew up in sports and competition has always been big to me.

And actually just seeing my friends win some as well.

- And it's the competitions where carvers like Dan can share their love with the public competitions like the US Open Chainsaw sculpture.

- When we did these big pieces here at the US Open here, we used the theme, it was inner resilience.

So they're, they did a piece that meant inner resilience to them.

There's no wrong answer to any of this, this, this, this form, but these climbers are crying when they're trying to explain this stuff to us.

They're emotional pieces and that's what we're trying to bring out in this.

So like as Dan's doing his stuff, you do your production pieces and production pieces and production 'cause those are the ones that sell bears, eagles and owls.

But when you can do a masterpiece and do that, like it's a very emotional piece.

I'm getting goosebumps thinking of it.

- I was a support car, which I carved pieces for the auction.

I helped the masterpiece carers when they needed help, just watching them work was phenomenal.

And the crowds there were phenomenal.

There was so many people interested in watching and doing and owing over these carvers and carvings and rightfully so.

They are some of the best in the world.

I'm truly blessed to be part of this chainsaw carbon community.

And with lifelong friends that I've made, everyone is willing to share their thoughts and ideas and techniques and help each other grow.

And that's a great part of the community and that's one of the reasons I love it so much.

- In Dan's time as a carver, he's never stopped admiring the art form and learning from others.

But to get started, he recommends carvers, trust their gut, - Be safe, chainsaw pants I wear here, protection, all that.

That's very important in this.

They're very dangerous tools.

Try it yourself.

See what you're capable of, see if you have a passion for it before you go into it and start spending a whole lot of money on new saws.

Instructions such as that.

- What I admire most about Dan Hartley and the art that he's doing is this freedom of expression he expresses in his work and his stuff that he's doing, what's on his mind and what he's thinking.

And it's, it's an artistry deal he makes.

Some of these pieces are, it's so fun to see, do different pieces.

He made this big bear bar one time, it had a bear on one end and a bar top on it, and it's, it's an expression of the stuff that he enjoys.

- It's loud, it's dirty and dusty and, but it's a lot of fun.

So have fun with it and just see what you can do, see if you're gonna like it, you know, and then go from there.

And then the sky's the limit after that.

- In Watertown for WPBS Weekly, I'm Luke Smith.

- You can see more of Dan's work at Hartley Hartwoods on Facebook.

The Erie Canals Artist in Residence Program is a partnership between New York Canal Corporation and the Erie Canal Museum.

The program invites artists to explore the past, present, and future of this iconic waterway through their unique artistic lenses.

Throughout the year, artists and residents offer public events and present a final exhibition of their work.

This year, as part of the Canal's 200th anniversary, three artists spent a year photographing the Erie Canal.

Their work is a celebration of creativity, history, and stewardship.

Take a look.

- The fact that this is the bicentennial really underscores to me just this sense of time and place and the interconnectedness of us living on the canal with the people that built it 200 years ago.

It really puts us on the continuum of canal communities.

- The Yuri Canal Artist in Residence program is a collaboration between the Erie Canal Museum and the New York State Canal Corporation.

The Erie Canal Museum and the Canal Corporation have been in an active partnership really since 2021, with the express purpose of looking for new ways to tell and talk about the Erie Canal.

The first year of the program had just one artist, and then the second year we chose to broaden it to have three artists.

So we have Clara Reidlinger, Olan Koppel, and Judit German-Heins.

- I grew up here in Rochester and my family are from the Finger Lakes region and have lived here for a really long time, so I've always felt pretty attached to this landscape.

When I was in college, I took a class on landscape cinematography, and it got me really interested in how narratives are expressed through landscape.

I just started thinking that there was this real strangeness to the simultaneous artificiality of the canal and the natural environment sort of folding in on one another.

It just seemed like that was the key to this history, the, particularly the, the religious and spiritual and political history of Western New York.

I am hoping that people look at my images and can get a sense of that transcendence, especially the process of going out and photographing these spaces where major spiritual events occurred.

I really want to put myself in the mindset of somebody who might have experienced that kind of spiritual ecstasy.

- So the tin type, the process is basically I'm creating my own film.

This was discovered in the 1850s.

So, so with that it carries kind of a historical look with, with this black and white process.

And, and I, I was, I was captivated from day one, so I wanted to learn it.

Since then, I'm using the process to compare current social and political issues with, with history.

I was fortunate enough to work with the, with the Canal Corporation.

So I had a list of, of women who were working for the canals and also women who didn't work directly with the canal, but they were associated with their work.

Women were very excited men, many women members saying that, you know, it's, it's really cool because we have 50 men in the office and there's four of us are women.

So they, they kind of thought that this, this, this, this project was, was very important for them.

The main point that I would like people to, to think about one day looking at my images is, is the road that we traveled from the Women's rights Movement.

When you look at the, those portraits and, and, and the women who are, who are failing jobs that, that in the, in the 19th century were, were not heard of or not, couldn't even think about filling with the woman.

Now we are here and we traveled a long ways from, from the women rights movements, but we are still have a long, long road in front of us to, to for, to gender equality.

- For me, photography is about slowing down and also showing people a slightly different angle of things and having them think about a little bit more.

What do we lose when we took those canals out and how can we not lose that again in other projects, I like to show how things change.

My photography is always time-based, and by that I mean I usually have my camera on a tripod, and by having it on a tripod, I can then control time in a very obvious way that I can do long exposures and I can set up the camera in a way that I can repeat that location again in certain places.

When I applied for the residency, I thought that I'm sure the Rena Museum will have a bunch of all historical photos, content that I can work with.

So that really got me excited about it.

The original photos were made around 18 99, 1900, and I'm rematching that now.

Each photo that I re-shoot now takes about two hours to set up, find the right location, not even including the research that I have to do about that.

So it's a long and involved process and sometime even after a couple hours, I'm, I'm giving up, it's just not matching.

I don't know what they did exactly, but it's not matching.

But when it does match and I'm right there and everything clicks, I'm transported in time to that original photo.

I really felt that sometimes on the, I'm on the banks of the canal, so I'm a little bit transported in time.

I think all the three projects are very different.

The three of us, we now have seen each other's work and process through Zoom.

I would not be able to do what they did and I think vice versa.

Each person has done a very different take on the I Canal and a different location.

It will come together I think in a very interesting way once it's organically all placed together.

- All of our work was around the history.

We're connected in some ways with the history of the air canal - And my, as we reflect back on 200 years, I think it's just natural to think about in 200 years what are people going to be saying about us.

And I'm hopeful that in 200 years when people look back, they'll, they'll look back at 20, 25 as a year where the canal really broadened that story and talked, got started talking about those things that make us very uncomfortable.

And so how do we, how do we have this manmade body of water that has kind of naturalized itself in this, this world that we live in.

How do we heal some of those past wounds while continuing to move forward together?

I'm hoping that collaboration and teamwork will kind of bring us all together in a way that that is positive as we move forward.

- The Ania International pow wow is an annual event packed with energy each year, hundreds gathered to celebrate indigenous culture through vibrant dancers, talented artists, drum groups, vendors, and amazing food.

- We try to make connections with not just natives, but non-natives as well.

That way they have a chance to experience what native culture is like.

And that's what it's all about.

It's everyone being able to grow together, learn together, and understand one another - There's only one road in to Phillips Hot Memorial Road or the arena.

The road is very narrow when the powwow is going on.

We're having traffic congestion from the International Bridge, the international road, and for an ambulance, for a firetruck, for a police officer trying to respond to a call that's beyond the arena road, right?

It's difficult for them to get there.

We as a powwow committee don't want to take that risk and we want everyone to be safe.

I just like to shout out to all our sponsors.

You know, we, we wouldn't be able to put on an event like this without all of our sponsors.

Mohawk Council, the San Ridge Mohawk Tribe, the Community Partnership Fund, OPG, I mean, the list can go on and on and on.

We thank every single one of you guys.

And just to let everybody know, you know, we're not saying the arena on the island is out of the picture, but we are working as a committee to find a way to, to bring it back to the island.

Yes, we'd love to have it to be continued on our territory.

And with that being said, we're thankful for the hospitality of the city of Cornwall for having us, and that we're grateful that we're just able to put on this kind of event.

- This year's Aqua Sony International powwow will be held this Saturday, September 6th at Laal Park in Cornwall, Ontario.

Look for the WPBS booth there.

For more information, just go to akwesasnepowwow.com.

Well, that does it for this Tuesday night.

Join us next time for a fresh look inside the stories.

We are on a mission to get to know our elected officials beyond their politics.

We'll learn about the other side of state Senator Mark Waze, also the Seneca Chief Set Sale, again to retrace the Erie Canal's historic and complicated legacy.

Meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, we'd love to learn more.

All you need to do is drop us an email at wpbs weekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.

That's it for now.

Have a safe night everyone.

We'll see you next time.

Take care, - WPBS weekly.

Inside the stories is brought to you by - When you're unable to see your primary care provider.

The Carthage Walk-in Clinic is here for you, located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and Healing Close to home when you need it most - North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us.

North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- We are the north country where protecting one another like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the north country Strong, at claxtonhepburn.org.

Today, - Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the statewide community Regrant program, a REGRANT program of the New York State Council on the Arts.

With the support of the office of the Governor and the New York state legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council, - Saw in hand Dan takes to the chopping buck, turning what was once an ordinary wooden log into something extraordinary.

- I'm most known for owls.

It's my favorite thing to carve.

I carve a lot of them.

My most popular bears, eagles, cardinals, and owls.