bill batson
Bill Batson is a writer, artist and civic leader.
Bill is a Hudson Valley-based creative and communications consultant. In 2025, Bill was named the Executive Director of the Nyack Chamber of Commerce.
Batson has worked for non-profits, labor unions and elected officials.
Bill serves as a Trustee of Oak Hill Cemetery, President of the Mount Moor Cemetery Association and a lifetime member of the Historical Society of the Nyacks.
In June 2021, Bill was inducted into the Rockland County Hall Civil Rights Hall of Fame.
Four Decades of Merging Civics & Culture
Racial Histories of Brooklyn, (1986)
Bill prepared six New York City High School students to conduct tours of their neighborhoods for their peers, research their local history and present a "visual term paper" on the walls of an art gallery. City As School Brooklyn was the project's sponsor
New York City Housing Authority Art Coordinator (1988)
In 1988, as the Art Coordinator for the New York City Housing Authority, he founded the Harborview Arts Center, a fully equipped visual media training center that provides art programming to support community and senior centers staff across the five boroughs. The year round arts program conducts staff development workshops, distributes art supplies to community centers, and organizes a Summer Art Camp with museum tours.
Project Hip Hop (1990)
Using the acronym of Highways into the Past, History Organizing and Power, Bill led a group of 12 students an an education tour of the American South to visit sites of the South Civil Rights movement including the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. The Massachusetts Civil Liberty Union was a project partner
Nyack Sketch Log (2011)
The author and Illustrator of the Nyack Sketch Log on nyacknewsandviews.com has published over 300 columns since 2011. Two collections of Batson’s essays have been published Nyack Sketch Log Volume I (2014) and Nyack Sketch Log Volume II (2019)
Flash Sketch Mob (2012)
On June 16, 2012, Batson produced the world’s first “Flash Sketch Mob” in Nyack inviting a group of 100 intergenerational residents of the Village of Nyack, NY were invited to take positions 12 paces apart along a half-mile stretch of a street. They used their personal, varied art supplies to make a record of their community. The result can be collaged accordion-style into a panoramic
Artists of all ages and skill levels, including three generations of several families, 'oohed and ahhed' as the collective illustrations of a whole community emerged. You can view a slideshow of their work here.
Since then, our SketchMobs have captured most of Nyack’s Main Street, our farmers market, a summer camp, and an elementary school. One was even held via Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Toni Morrison Bench by the Road (2015)
Bill chaired Nyack Commemoration Committee, an effort that successfully established a Toni Morrison Society “Bench by the Road” monument in memorial park. Nyack’s bench was erected to honor entrepreneur and abolitionist, Cynthia Hesdra.
Nyack Record Shop Project (2018)
In 2018, Bill created the Nyack Record Shop Project, a community component of the Carrie Mae Weems exhibit at the Edward Hopper House that collected three dozen oral histories of the local African American community.
Nyack Mask Makers (2020)
In 2020, Bill co-founded Nyack Mask Makers, a crowd-sourced effort that recruited 600 volunteers and donors to make and distribute over 15,000 free reusable cloth masks to over 50 public and private civic institutions during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rockland County As A Civics Classroom (2024)
In 2024, Bill received a grant from the Rockland Community Foundation for create a experiential culture and civics course at Ramapo High School.
In 2026, Bill brought the Civic Survey to Nyack where he has become a visiting artist/local history lecturer for the AP African American Studies class at Nyack High School.
Selected bibliography
Bill’s writing has appeared in Essence Magazine, New York’s Amsterdam News, and The Argus in Cape Town, South Africa. While in South Africa, Bill received the Bertram’s Young Writer Award and won first place in the Sidelines Journal Student Essay competition. One of his essays, “In Africa Men Hold Hands” is included in a college text book written by Susan Ankara and published in 2003 by Bedford St. Martin’s.
Selected Press
Bill’s work as an artist has been profiled in New York Newsday (6/27/99), Daily Heights (6/16/05), Brooklyn Rail,(12/04/06), NyackNewsandViews (1/4/18). LoHud covered Bill’s election as Friends of Mount Moor Cemetery (8/14/24)
Awards
Nyack Center Legacy Gala Honoree, 2025
Spring Valley NAACP Virginia Atkins Beasly Lifetime Achievement Award,2025
Martin Luther King, Jr Service Award, St. Charles A.M.E Zion Church, 2022
Grand Marshall, Nyack’s African American Day Parade, 2022
Rockland County Civil Rights Hall of Fame 2021
New York State Senate Commendation Award 2021
Rockland County Legislature Honor for Contributions to African American History in the county, 2020
Arts Council of Rockland Literary Artist Award 2020
Rockland County Executive Arts Award September 2013
Certificate of Recognition, The Town of Orangetown, February 2013
Founder’s Day Lecturer, Nyack, New York: 2005
Betram’s Young Writer Award – Student Life Magazine (South Africa): 1995
Sidelines Journal Student Essay Competition – First Place – 1995
New Youth Leaders – Boston Globe: 1993
Publications
NyackNews&Views, Executive Director
Rivertown Magazine, contributor
Nyack Sketch Log Volumes 1 & 2
Greenline: Greenpoint & North Brooklyn Community News, Contributor
Amsterdam News, contributor
Essence Magazine, contributor
Real Essays, college textbook written by Susan Anker and published in 2003 by Bedford St. Martin’s, contributed “In Africa, Men Hold Hands.
Exhibitions One Person Shows
January 2026, Lagstein Gallery,
January 2020, Orangeburg Library
November, 2018, Rockland County Courthouse
February, 2018, Edward Hopper House
September, 2018, Rockland Arts Center
July, 2017, Helen Hayes Hospital
November, 2015, Valley Cottage Library
December 2014, Nyack Library
February 2014, Hopper Country, Edward Hopper House Arts Center (Hopper House)
December 2013 Gray Areas, Artist of the Month, The Corner Frame Shop
September 2013 The Best of Nyack Sketch Log, Nyack Village Hall
June 2013 Nyack Library, Farmers’ Market Artist in Residence Drawings
October 2012 Nyack Historical Society, Nyack: One Sketch at a Time
June 2012 Vincent’s Ear
May 2012 Art Café
February 2005, Founder’s Day Exhibition the Batsons of Nyack, Nyack Village Hall
Exhibitions Group
March 2026, Hopper’s Sketch Mob
October 2019, Uprising Volition Gallery
October 2018, Partners in Life Volition Gallery
