WOODSTOCK, N.Y.-- A historic arts colony here that has been home to some of the most celebrated American artists will get a helping hand from Cornell University preservation students, scholars and practitioners this Thursday through Sunday, April 3-6.

In celebration of the centennial anniversary of the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony in Woodstock, N.Y., the Cornell group, helped by Woodstock community members, will participate in a weekend of stabilizing deteriorating structures at the site, which is on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places.

In recent years, faced with mounting budget cuts to arts organizations, the colony has not been able to maintain its historic property as comprehensively as it would have liked. Now coming to its rescue are a group of volunteers led by students in Cornell's program in historic preservation planning. The group also includes Cornell faculty who are preservation experts, alumni who are professional historic preservation planners and members of the Woodstock Guild, the organization responsible for the stewardship of the arts colony. While stabilization can be costly, the group is offering its services and expertise for free. In undertaking such a project, they hope to attract attention and support for the continued rehabilitation of this important historic site.

Byrdcliffe was one of the earliest arts colonies in the United States and helped found and define a heritage in rural upstate New York of experimental art production and communal living. The utopian craftsman community was constructed in 1902-1903 just west of Woodstock. Dancer Isadora Duncan, writer Wallace Stevens, painters Milton and Sally Avery and educator-philosopher John Dewey were among its most famous past residents. The colony also housed a collection of furniture prized by museums and collectors for their design, workmanship and rarity. Some pieces are now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while others remain at Byrdcliffe.

Byrdcliffe is still in operation today as a residence for visiting visual and performing artists, writers and poets. Thirty buildings on 300 forested acres comprise the arts colony. Most of the buildings resemble low, rambling Swiss chalets with dark-stained indigenous pine siding, gently sloping roofs with wide overhangs, and ribbons of windows painted "Byrdcliffe" blue.

The project will include a variety of cosmetic projects on the cottages and community buildings: Repairing porches and rails; removing overgrown vegetation and digging swales, or drainage ditches, adjacent to buildings; replacing leaking and failing roofs; restacking local quarry slate walls; and completing historic structure and landscape documentation – an important, and often costly, step in the formulation of a long-term preservation plan. Materials and equipment are provided by the Woodstock Guild.

Organized by Cornell preservation students Erin Coryell and Sara Shreve, the volunteers – 40 students, 20 alumni, plus faculty and members of the community – will work under the direction of site coordinator Michael Tomlan, the director of Cornell's Historic Preservation Planning program. Tomlan has extensive experience in building stabilization. In the past, Cornell historic preservation students and alumni have stabilized buildings at such heritage sites as Fort Totten Battery in Queens, N.Y., and Ellis Island. The annual "work weekend" is a way for the volunteers to engage in a hands-on preservation project as well as give back to the community.

The project will begin at the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony on Thursday, April 3, at 1 p.m., with a site tour and work orientation. On Friday at noon, Carla Smith, the executive officer of the Woodstock Guild, will present an overview of the colony, followed by an informational conference. The project will conclude with a VIP inspection of the site on Sunday, April 6 at 1 p.m.