Local Luminaries George and Nancy Donskoj

Leading Lights of the Community

by Brian K. Mahoney and photographs by Nestor Madalengoitia, July 28, 2008

The recurring joke of the Artists’ Soapbox Derby, held every year on the slope of lower Broadway in the Rondout section of Kingston: “It’s all downhill from here.” Started in 1995, the derby featured eight soapbox racers and attracted 300 people. This year’s kinetic sculpture “race,” the 14th annual organized by founders George and Nancy Donskoj, is expected to attract 7,000 people, and will showcase over 40 entrants in three divisions: adult, youth, and family.

The derby is a singular event: part artists’ fantasia, part adolescent mechanics run wild (all entries are vetted from an engineering perspective), and part family-friendly community spectacle, it knits together the diverse demographic elements of the region for an afternoon of the most moving kind of public art. I spoke to Nancy and George in late July in the upstairs of their gallery, Donskoj & Company, which faces the race’s starting line on lower Broadway. The Artists’ Soapbox Derby will be held on Sunday, August 17, at 1pm. www.artistsoapboxderby.com.

What was the first year like?

Nancy: Well, we didn’t know what we were getting into. I remember being very worried that people would go too fast. We had eight entries and about 300 spectators and it went very well. We got a big front-page picture in the Times Herald Record and it looked like a lot of people because they used a big telephoto lens and it went really well, so we said, “Okay, we’ll do it again.”

What motivates you to organize the derby after 14 years?

Nancy: I think, after every event, you look at the crowd and everyone has a smile on their face. How could you end this? So we do it again, and after every year, and we’ve had such successful derbies where everything ran so smoothly the past couple of years. It just feels like we’re on a roll. It just keeps on going. It’s taken on a life of its own.

George: Well, there’s a lot of work to it, but the fun is still there and the kids love it and the people clamor for it, and it’s a really nice family thing. I don’t think there are too many of those. Most of the people in this help you clean up, too. And we’re here for the arts community. And we do it for us; it still represents us and our gallery too.