Current Exhibit

In the mid-1900s, nearly a million city dwellers headed to the mountains each summer to live, laugh and find love. Trading the city's sweltering concrete for lush scenery, generations of vacationers made the annual pilgrimage north, seeking fresh air, leisure, or a life-changing encounter. From "Flirtation Walks" and legendary singles weekends to free honeymoons and golden anniversary dinners, the Catskills were more than a destination—they were a sprawling playground for the heart.

Catskills Romance: Love and Desire in the Borscht Belt, our new exhibit, opened June 27, 2026 at the Catskills Borscht Belt Museum in Ellenville. The exhibit traces the relationships — both conventional and otherwise — that unfolded across the grand hotels and humble bungalow colonies. It celebrates the resort owners, maitre d’s, social directors (tummlers), dance instructors, and staff who masterminded countless successful matches, and explores the beautiful rituals of courtship that defined Catskills summer. The exhibit highlights the essential spaces, activities, and ingredients that sparked connection:  the poolside scene, the Mambo nights and Champagne Hour competitions, and the world-class entertainment that made the resorts irresistible to singles and couples alike.

Beyond the nostalgia, the exhibition uncovers more complex narratives: tales of hidden desire, lost innocence, and the enduring memories guests carried home long after the season ended. Drawing on rare artifacts, vintage photography, oral histories, and the iconic popular culture the era inspired, Catskills Romance offers an intimate, elegant look at a world where tradition and transgression mingled poolside — and a single dance could change a life forever.

This exhibition contains mature content and is not suitable for all ages. Parental discretion is advised.

The exhibit is curated by Mackensie Griffin and Cristian Petru Panaite. 

The exhibit is made possible thanks to the support of the Naiades Fund, the Chaya Fund, the Victor and Pearl Tumpeer Foundation, Arts Mid-Hudson and Ulster County Tourism. 

Exhibition Team

Mackensie Griffin, Co-Curator

Mackensie has had a hand in all of the Borscht Belt Museum's exhibitions, including Vacationland! Catskills Resort Culture 1900-1980 and And Such Small Portions: Food and Comedy in the Catskills Resort Era. Mackensie has done research for the Barnes Foundation, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, and she has an MA in the history of design and material culture from Bard Graduate Center.

Cristian Petru Panaite, Lead Curator

Cristian is a Romanian-American museum professional based in NYC. He previously served as Curator of Exhibitions at the New York Historical Society, where he curated the acclaimed Tattooed New York, co-curated Mark Twain and the Holy Land, and coordinated blockbuster exhibitions including British Library's Harry Potter: A History of Magic and Skirball Cultural Center's Bill Graham and the Rock & Roll Revolution and  I’ll Have What She’s Having: The Jewish Deli. His work has been covered and reviewed by The Guardian, The New York Times, The New Yorker, VICE, and The Wall Street Journal, among others.

Daniel Fouad, Exhibition Design    

Victoria Messner, Graphic Design

Robin Schwartzman, Installation Artist

Zalla Industries Inc., Fabricator

Rylee Arenson, Mathias Sypher, and Ben Tuber, AV Animations

The Catskills Borscht Belt Museum celebrates the golden age of the Catskills resort era, when millions of urban dwellers sought refuge in the mountains of upstate New York, leaving deep imprints on mainstream American culture, from stand-up comedy and comfort food to mid-century modern design and popular concepts of leisure.

This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants 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 Legislature and administered by Arts Mid-Hudson.