The Catskill Mountains once served as a vibrant getaway for middle-class Jewish families seeking respite from the hustle and bustle of New York City. From the 1920s to the 1960s, these families flocked to the woody resorts and bungalows, where dads grilled, mothers lounged by the pool, and dinners were filled with sour cream and offal. This era, dubbed the “Borscht Belt,” saw a peak in Jewish vacationers enjoying a taste of leisure and relaxation in the mountains.
However, by the 1970s, the Borscht Belt’s glory days had waned. With greater social acceptance post-World War II, Jewish families began to explore other vacation destinations via air travel, leaving behind the nostalgic memories of the Catskills. Artist Marisa J. Futernick revisits this bygone era in her solo exhibition, “Away in the Catskills: Summers, Sour Cream, and Dirty Dancing,” at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
Futernick’s exhibition reconstructs her grandmother’s Catskills vacations through a combination of family photographs, a video essay, and an installation. Drawing inspiration from these mementos, she weaves fictional dialogues that playfully depict Jewish-American leisure activities. By employing the technique of “critical fabulation,” Futernick aims to reclaim the narrative of her family’s vacation experiences from colonial voices that often mischaracterized or overlooked marginalized communities.
The heart of the exhibition lies in Futernick’s photo series, “Dirty Dancing” (2017), which magnifies old family photos to offer a glimpse into the past. Through these enlarged images, she captures moments like her teenage uncles posing on a diving board and her grandmother engrossed in a game of Mah Jongg. The accompanying dialogue adds depth to the scenes, shedding light on the highs and lows of budget-conscious travel and the assimilated Jewish experience.
In the video essay, “I Never Learned to Play Mah Jongg” (2025), Futernick juxtaposes archival footage with present-day images of the Catskills, highlighting the changes in the landscape and demographics. The installation, “Bam, Crack, Rock, Pop” (2025), features a curated display of keepsakes that evoke a sense of nostalgia and cultural identity.
“Away in the Catskills” offers a highly personal yet universal exploration of Jewish-American leisure culture. As younger generations of Jewish people embrace more secular lifestyles, enclaves like the Catskills fade into memory. Futernick’s exhibition serves as a poignant reminder of a fading culture and a testament to the importance of preserving these memories for future generations.
The exhibition will be on display at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles until August 31. Curated by Cate Thurston, “Away in the Catskills: Summers, Sour Cream, and Dirty Dancing” invites visitors to step back in time and experience the magic of the Catskills through the eyes of one artist’s family history.
