Sep 9, 2025
Attracting Love & Light: Turning a historic church into a tourism driver
2025 NYS Tourism Excellence Awards Honoree: Excellence in Tourism Stewardship: Shaping a Better Future
Join us on Thursday afternoon during the 1:1 sessions in Lake George at the 2025 NYS Tourism Excellence Summit where Susan Wilmink, Board President at The Angel Nyack, will share about their award winning campaign on preserving a historical church in Rockland County. The Angel Nyack is a shining example of how preserving history, fostering the arts, and serving the neediest in our community can also be an engine for tourism and economic growth. As a mixed-use arts and events space, it is expected to attract over 18,000 visitors annually to Nyack’s downtown. This includes 6,000 wedding guests, many of whom will stay overnight and support local businesses. The Angel Nyack has also led an effort to bring together Rockland County’s beautiful venues and vendors to bring more attention to this lovely part of the Hudson Valley.
Why You Should Attend This Session:
- Many communities have beautiful historic church buildings and congregations struggling to keep/manage them. Learn how to build a coalition and partnerships to make the most of these important spaces
- The arts are a key economic engine for tourist destinations. Learn how the arts, weddings and other community programs can share space and co-exist.
- Weddings are a wonderful way to bring in overnight visitors. Learn how to capture the attention of couples with the help of unique venues
Key Takeaways:
- The importance of looking at historic buildings that need love and care as assets
- Partnerships are the key for a multi-purpose space - so that visitors and the community can be served together
- Support the creative forces in your community - it always pays off!
About Susan:
Susan Wilmink is The Angel Nyack's Board President. She is a former magazine publisher and has worked in communications, marketing and fundraising for the last three decades. She led efforts that netted hundreds of thousands of dollars for local organizations, including long-time roles with Keep Rockland Beautiful, the Rockland Parent-Child Center, and The Nyack Center - another mixed-use facility in a former church, which has been providing low-cost before and after-school programs for children for 35 years. She loves Nyack and this special part of the Hudson Valley, where she happily raised two sons with her husband Thomas Schneck.
The Angel Nyack, Inc. was launched in 2022 to transform the former First Reformed Church of Nyack in the heart of Nyack’s charming and walkable commercial district, into a vibrant performing arts and events venue where residents and visitors to New York’s Mid-Hudson region can enjoy the arts, celebrate weddings and other special events. Through creative thinking, historic preservation efforts, and strategic collaborations, The Angel Nyack is poised to become one of the Hudson Valley region’s premiere tourist destinations in the years to come.