For such a small country, Holland - in all its guises and forms over the years - has cast a long shadow in the visual arts, from the Golden Age of Rembrandt, Hals and Vermeer through Van Gogh's Expressionism and Mondrian's stark non-representational oeuvre to more recent forays in contemporary forums yet to reach our shores. Given the nature of the Hudson Quadricentennial, the Dutch are similarly having a huge impact this year, with more than a dozen artists having visited, here now or coming soon as artists-in-residence paid for via a host of different collaborative efforts between local and overseas cultural institutions. There are many local artists with Dutch roots as well, including a distant relative of Mr. Van Rijn himself, finding the limelight for their longer-evolving contributions among us all.

With the biggest Quad bashes on the immediate horizon, things have started to froth, visually, via a series of events and shows opening over the coming weeks. There's the commissioned "Inscription" exhibition of new collaborative works by photographers Philippine Hoegen and Carolien Stikker opening at SUNY-New Paltz's Dorsky Museum; but also a grand new exhibition at SUNY-Ulster, where the community college's Muroff Kotler Visual Arts Gallery is opening its "Verbindingen (Connections)" exhibit with Hoegen, Stikker and other Dutch artists who have been working in the county this year this Friday, September 11. There's also a show by Rembrandt's relative Eva Van Rijn, alongside members' interpretations of sites that Hudson may have visited 400 years ago, up since last weekend at the Arts Society of Kingston; "Double Dutch: An Afternoon with Helma and Greta," featuring two visiting artists, at the Woodstock School of Art next Saturday, September 19; "Weespiegeling: Reflections from a Dutch Artist" at Pritzker Gallery in Highland; and "Double Dutch: Exploring the Soul of Dutch Art through the Works of Seven Installation Artists," opening Saturday and Sunday, September 12 and 13 at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill. New York City hosts a key show that not only marks one of a host of local artist forays into the Chelsea season openers over the coming weeks, but also brings together a number of classic Hudson River School painters and locally based contemporary photographers for "Seeing the Hudson," at Alan Klotz Gallery on West 25th Street.

The Muroff Kotler show, curated by UCCC gallery coordinator Suzy Jeffers, brings together representative and newly commissioned works by Willem Burgent, Greta Cune, Marit Dik, Janus Eijinden, Philippine Hoegen, Helma Kuijper, Pe Okx, Carolien Stikker and Marja Vleugel, working in a variety of media and interpreting their experiences of our region via a multitude of perspectives and viewpoints. "They have incorporated elements of the environment, culture and history of their temporary adopted home into their work," Jeffers said of the resulting show, which complements other exhibits around the region that have been ongoing since last spring. "At the same time, they have contributed a European perspective to the regional art scene."

Burgent, who showed at Donskoj Gallery in the Rondout section of Kingston last spring, is a painter and illustrator; and Eijinden's new show of documentary portraits exploring Native American roots in the area, also showing at Donskoj, was previewed last week. Vleugel, a printmaker, is currently at Women's Studio Workshop in Rosendale, while painter Dik has been working in Phoenicia, where she will be putting together a solo show of new works for that community's rambling collective gallery, the Art Upstairs, starting next weekend. Cune and Kuijper are at the Woodstock School of Art through the month, where the former is doing multi-media impressions of the area and the latter is creating bluestone sculptures in the woods behind the WPA-built school. Cune is also the focus of the Pritzker exhibition, where she is showing some gorgeous new prints alongside local artists Michael Asbill and Joanne Klein. Hoegen and Stikken were in residency at the Dorsky last spring, returning this week for their opening there, while installation artist Okx has been working with barges, large sheets of ice and video projections along the Kingston waterfront.

Van Rijn's paintings of Western scenes, shown previously in several local shows with her painting friends, Katherine McKenna and Judy Abbott, will be up at the ASK Gallery at 97 Broadway in Kingston through September 26, when another Dutch native from the Woodstock area, Manette Van Hamel, will have a one-day showing of her "sculptured-to-wear" jewelry from 2 to 5 p.m.

For more on the Klotz Show, opening the evening of Thursday, September 17 at 511 West 25th Street and including works by Susan Wides, William Clift, Len Jenshel and Plattekill-based Harry Wilks, as well as some lesser-known but stupendous later Hudson River School painters, call (212) 741-4764 or visit www.klotzgallery.com. For more on the WSA event involving Helma and Greta, from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, September 19, call (845) 679-2388 or visit www.woodstockschoolofart.org. For more on the Arts Upstairs opening taking place that same Saturday evening, September 19, from 6 p.m. on, call (845) 688-2142 or visit www.theartsupstairs.com. For the Pritzker Gallery, located at 257 South Riverside Road off Route 299 in Highland, call 691-5506 or visit http://pritzkergallery.blogspot.com.

The UCCC Verbindingen (Connections) exhibit, pulling it all together - at least for now - opens with an artists' reception from 6 to 8 p.m. the evening of Friday, September 11 at the gallery in the Vanderlyn Building on the Stone Ridge campus. Call (845) 687-5113 or visit www.sunyulster.edu for further information. For more about all the exchange ideas and artists and the Quad in general, try www.hudsonriver400.org/dutch-artists/. Talk about traveling far without leaving home!