A Legacy of Makers - Peter T.S. Leone and Denise Stillwagon Leone
FEATURED ARTIST SERIES
“I’ve learned humility - projects are about the community and their identification, not mine.”
-Denise Stillwaggon Leone
The 2026 Hamilton Village Art Walk is underway! In June, we welcomed four Hamilton-connected artists into the gallery: Denise Stillwaggon Leone, Peter T.S. Leone, Michele Harvey, and Steven Skollar.
For Denise and Peter, the evening held an added layer of meaning. Mother and son shared the exhibition walls - offering two different artistic practices, but one family story.
For Denise, it was a chance to show work in the community she has called home for decades. For Peter, it was even more personal: a full-circle return to Hamilton, where he grew up and first learned what it meant to be a maker.
Peter T.S. Leone’s story begins in Hamilton. Now based in Brooklyn, he works primarily in cast iron, steel, and mixed media, creating sculpture that feels both gestural and enduring.
“We’re a second-generation family of devotees - art, literature, and music lovers all. The love of art, as they say, is dyed in the wool,” Denise explains. She likes to joke that Peter’s love of metal may be in the family line: his maternal grandfather’s family worked in brass casting, while his paternal grandfather was a welder and master fabricator. Whether inherited or discovered, Peter’s commitment to sculpture runs deep.
For Peter, his mother’s studio was one of his earliest places of wonder. “My mother’s art studio was a constant source of wonderment and inspiration for me,” he writes. “I spent endless hours with her and undoubtedly my work in a large part is an extension of her brilliance and vision.”
His sculptures often begin with spontaneous marks drawn into casting sand, preserving the gesture in a material known for weight and permanence. When talking about her son’s work, Denise sees them almost as dimensional drawings - bold marks translated into metal. Peter studied metal at Alfred University, and his work today carries both a sculptor’s physicality and a drawer’s instinct.
“I work in cast metals because of their permanence,” Peter writes. “They challenge you to make something worth lasting.”
Another important part of Peter’s path was artist Steven Skollar, whose influence goes back to Peter’s childhood in Hamilton. Later, Skollar encouraged him to come to New York City and pursue his work more seriously, offering both support and a pathway into an art world Peter may not have otherwise found so early.
Steve Skollar & Peter Leone hanging a work by Denise Leone
For Peter, bringing his work back to Hamilton this summer was especially meaningful. He drove thousands of pounds of sculpture up from Brooklyn in the June heat, only to have his truck break down along the way. But none of that overshadowed what it meant to finally see the work installed in his hometown.
On opening night Peter stood on a chair and described the Exhibition as cathartic - a chance to bring pieces out of storage, out of digital archives, and into a room filled with people who knew him. After spending countless hours on works, seeing them hang in the Palace beside his mother’s work, was a feeling hard to put into words.
He thanked his parents publicly for the way they fostered his creativity from the beginning, recalling how - after he built a pinhole camera at eight years old - they turned the family bathroom into a darkroom so he could keep experimenting with photography. Looking back on that kind of support, he laughed, “Who does that for their kid?!”
Denise Stillwaggon Leone has spent decades building a life in glass. A contemporary architectural glass artist and educator, she grew up in South Orange, New Jersey, just outside New York City, where early museum classes at the Newark Museum first drew her fully into art. She later studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Tufts, concentrating in drawing, printmaking, and stained glass, before her path carried her through England, New Jersey, Colombia, and Montreal.
It was in Montreal that her studio practice really began to take shape. With the great kindness and support from the owner of Galerie Elena Lee gallery, Denise opened a stained glass studio, began receiving commissions, and built the foundation for what would become Denise Leone Glass Studio, which she founded in 1976. Since then, her architectural art glass has been commissioned for universities, hospitals, libraries, hotels, and places of worship throughout North America and England.
Nature Nurture: Hamilton Central School by Denise Leone
“It’s an honor to have the chance to work with communities and see projects through from inception to installation,” Denise shared. “I’ve learned humility - projects are about the community and their identification, not mine.”
Since moving to Hamilton in 1981, after her husband Matthew accepted a position at Colgate, Denise has continued to build a remarkable body of work while also teaching at the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass, where she has instructed image-making courses for nearly thirty years. "Corning is my second home... it has provided countless opportunities for me to collaborate with international artists teaching at the same time I am, and to create a body of blown glass vessels," shares Denise. Her work can be found in the Museum’s permanent collection.
Their exhibition at Arts at the Palace was a reminder that artistic lives rarely happen in isolation. They are shaped in homes, in studios and in encouragement thats passed down for decades. Denise and Peter’s work may take very different forms, but seeing it side by side made those shared roots visible.
Growing up as a kid in New York City, Steve Skollar’s path to the band came through a different kind of lifelong devotion. An internationally recognized oil painter, his work has been found in esteemed galleries such as Rice Polak Gallery in Provincetown and Acadia Gallery in SOHO. Steve knows the deep solitude and purpose that comes with making art
Long before the band had a name, Steve’s studio-barn, known locally as the “Skollar Holler” (fittingly located next to the actual Poolville, NY Transfer Station), became a place where like minded musicians could meet. Jamie, Leslie, Doug, Steve, and others gathered together in different combinations, sharing stories, singing harmonies, taking solos, and trading songs.
Henry, Arts at the Palace’s Executive Director, has been writing songs for years. From growing up in Colorado, to time spent writing in Nashville, and now here in Hamilton - Henry had a backlog of tunes that were a welcomed fit to the circle. Like the rest of the group, he’s always loved playing and collaborating.
“After finishing a new song, Steve would keep pulling this thread from me saying “Just wait, I think he has a vision”. As an artist and songwriter, I think we’re always hoping our work resonates with someone enough that they keep inviting us to share more.” - Henry Howard
A room full of artists, musicians, and songs aligning at the right time.
Doug Keith
Rounding out the sound is Doug Keith, the second Hamilton Central School graduate in the group. As a Brookfield public school music teacher, he jokes that you may not be seeing his humble marching band in the Fourth of July parade anytime soon! It’s a small dedicated group that is lucky to have Doug as their instructor.
Beyond teaching and performing, Doug now stewards the same Christmas Tree Farm where he was raised, carrying on a generational family business in agriculture. He brings a lifetime of musicianship and perspective that is deeply rooted in Central New York.
For all the members, gathering people for the simple pleasure of playing and sharing music is its own reward.
“Making music is complete joy. Slowly pulling local musicians out of the woods is a joyful task that has no end,” - Steve Skollar
In a community where the arts continue to create timely and meaningful connections, Transfer Station proves that sharing art and music only gets better with time!
