Fabulous weekend coming up in the Catskills and surrounding area: the Woodstock Writers Festival is celebrating its sixth anniversary, Corning Glass Museum is opening a new wing, the National Museum of Dance is hosting an evening of tango demonstrations, the Arts Upstairs gallery is having an art opening reception, and Spillian is hosting a radio panel. Plenty to choose from!

Woodstock Writers Festival

The Woodstock Writers Festival kicks off tonight, March 19, with a traditional Story Slam event. Tomorrow several concurrent workshops will be offered from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.: fiction, memoir, social media, and publishing are among offerings this year. Also Friday at 6 p.m. there will be a cocktail party at Commune Saloon in Bearsville, followed at 8 p.m. by a conversation with Chris Stein and Will Hermes. Saturday is the panels’ day: spirituality, publishing, journalism and fiction are scheduled throughout the day at the Kleinert / James Center for the Arts on Tinker Street. A cocktail party begins at 6 p.m. at Joshua Café, followed at 8 p.m. by an exchange between Joe Donahue from WAMC and novelist Abigail Thomas, an event held at the Kleinert / James Center for the Arts. Sunday morning there will be a literary breakfast at Joshua Café with guest speaker James Howard Kunstler from NPR. The festival will conclude Sunday afternoon with two panels: one on biography, and the other one on memoir. Memoir A Go-Go panel will be moderated by author Martha Frankel, the executive director of the festival. For more information, visit http://www.woodstockwriters.com/.

Corning Museum of Glass

Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, Steuben County, is inaugurating a new wing this weekend – a 100,000 square foot Contemporary Art + Design space designed by architect Thomas Phifer. The New York Times wrote about it here. The new wing, which includes a large contemporary glass art gallery, and a renovated historic glass factory ventilator building, will open to the public this Friday, March 20 at 9 a.m. There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. Also, hot glass demonstrations will be offered throughout the weekend. For more information, visit http://www.cmog.org/event/grand-opening-weekend-events.

National Museum of Dance

National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs is hosting 125 Years of Tango – A Walk through the History of the Dance, this Saturday, March 21 at 7 p.m. The evening will feature music, dance, and demonstrations. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be served. For more information, visit http://www.dancemuseum.org/.

Arts Upstairs

Arts Upstairs gallery in Phoenicia, Ulster County is hosting an opening reception this Saturday, March 21 at 6 p.m. featuring a group show titled Spring on My Mind, and also a solo exhibit featuring artist Astrid Nordness. Nordness paints and works in clay. She incorporates various elements of nature in her work, and uses a wide color palette. For more information, visit http://www.artsupstairs.com/.

Spillian

Spillian mansion in Fleischmanns, Ulster County is hosting Stealing All Transmissions, an event co-produced in partnership with WIOX Radio Station in Roxbury, Saturday, March 21 at 6 p.m. The event includes a book launch – Stealing All Transmissions: A Secret History of the Clash by Randal Doane, Assistant Dean of Studies at Oberlin College; Doane will be delivering the keynote address. Also, a radio panel will tackle the role of radio in the digital age. Panelists include Meg Griffin from SiriusXM, Ida Hakkila from WDST Woodstock, Sonny Rock from WRIP Windham, Jezz Harkin from WIOX, and Brian Sickora, CEO of WSKG Media, among others. Joe Piasek, executive producer at WIOX, will be moderating. For more information, visit http://wioxradio.org/.

Have a fabulous weekend!