There’s an art to sharing art with others, and Craig Petreikis ’89 is practicing it with flying colors.
This engineer-artist-entrepreneur is leading several ambitious initiatives to help cultivate a vibrant arts community in Schenectady.
“I want everybody to know that no matter what you’re doing, there’s somebody that wants to see it,” he said.
Craig Petreikis '89 at Armory Studios NY (Photo by Richard Lovrich)
Petreikis, who has worked for decades in the environmental services industry, is also a self-taught painter and sculptor. He has spent the last several years introducing new art events – and bringing back an old one.
This fall, he restarted the defunct Art Night Schenectady, a once-thriving project that ended a decade ago.
Held on the third Friday of every month, the event features painting, sculpture, drawing, fiber art, printmaking, mixed media and other work by local artists. Last month, it spread across 13 venues, including C.R.E.A.T.E. Studios, Mohawk Valley Art Shoppe, Bird and Bear Gallery, Brouwer House and Armory Studios NY, which serves as event headquarters. To date, more than 100 artists have participated.
The next Art Nights are set for Nov. 15 and Dec. 20, 5-8:30 p.m.
“I’m so happy to be reviving this,” Petreikis said. “It’s a fantastic opportunity to see art downtown and introduce more people to local businesses.”
Last year, Petreikis was one of the organizers of Gallery 5 Schenectady, currently operating as a pop-up gallery in industrial spaces around town. Hundreds of artworks have been shown in three successful shows. The eventual goal, he said, is to establish a permanent gallery downtown.
Petreikis grew up in Schenectady and Scotia. At Union, he benefited from the Higher Education Opportunity Program, pursuing electrical engineering after taking summer courses taught by the dean of engineering, Edward Craig ’45.
“Union was great for me. I had a first-rate education from professors who cared about me and my success,” he said.
Junior year, Petreikis ventured from the engineering labs to the art studios, where he took his first sculpture class, opening up his creative world.
“We were assigned an independent project of making a sphere out of cardboard, which really made me think outside of what I thought was achievable,” he said.
After concentrating on his environmental career and raising a family, Petreikis moved to Schenectady’s Stockade neighborhood in 2019. When COVID hit a year later and he was working from home, he took up art, which he’d dabbled in previously.
Before long, he began experimenting with making colorful outsized plywood sculptures and curved canvases. These playful configurations, a signature of his artmaking, attract attention wherever they’re exhibited.
In 2020, Petreikis also founded the Electric City Arts Contest, an annual online art contest for visual, performing and literary arts, “to give more people a chance to partake in our art community and showcase their work.” It continues to draw participants of all ages and backgrounds.
“My goal with all of these endeavors is to create an art-centered community – decorated, beautiful, full of inspiration and opportunities for creatives,” he said. “I want to see art on every street, bringing people together who would not normally be together and providing another way to flourish and connect.”