The University at Albany’s Art Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The Museum opened in October 1967 with an exhibition titled Painting and Sculpture from the Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection, which featured over fifty works by some of the most prominent artists of the 20th century: Picasso, Miro, Braque, Klee, de Kooning, and Calder, among others.
In 2015 the Museum hosted a retrospective show titled Bordering Utopia: Sculptures by Brian Tolle, dedicated to alumnus Brian Tolle, an internationally acclaimed sculptor known for The Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park City (2002), and more recently for Miss Brooklyn and Miss Manhattan, two replicas of Daniel Chester French originals that sit on the façade of the Brooklyn Museum – Tolle’s replicas were installed on Flatbush Avenue by the Manhattan Bridge in December last year. He is one of the artists featured in our book How Art Is Made: In the Catskills.
Author Talk with Stephen M. Silverman at the Erpf Center in Arkville. Silverman will be talking about his book “The Catskills: Its History, and How It Changed America;”
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream is performed at the Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany. This year marks the 400th commemoration of Shakespeare’s death;
And, Northern Dutchess Symphony Orchestra performs at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park.
Mother’s Day this Sunday, May 10: it’s going to be gorgeous weather in the Catskills. Our choices for this weekend are: Lady Day’s centennial concert at Fisher Center, a Balkan Dance Party in Staatsburg, and several art opening receptions in Woodstock, Saugerties and Roxbury.
Fisher Center
The Aaron Diehl Trio is paying tribute to Billie Holiday this Friday, May 8 at the Fisher Center in Annandale-on-Hudson, Dutchess County. Cécile McLorin Salvant, a Grammy-nominated vocalist, will be joining the trio in a performance that will honor Holiday’s legacy, and celebrate her centennial. Billie Holiday, also known as Lady Day, was born in Philadelphia in April 1915. The centennial concert, sponsored by the Catskill Jazz Factory, begins at 8 p.m. tonight. For more information, visit http://fishercenter.bard.edu/calendar/event.php?eid=128233.
Wassail Balkan Dance Party
Wassail Balkan Dance Party will celebrate its 19th anniversary this Saturday, May 9 at 2 p.m. at Breezy Hill Orchard in Staatsburg, Dutchess County. A twelve-piece brass band will perform Macedonian and Bulgarian dance music. Steve Kotansky will also lead a Balkan dance workshop. Balkan cuisine, including lamb roast, will be served, as well as a variety of artisanal products from local farms. Balkan music originated in South-Eastern Europe, and it’s known for the complexity of its rhythms. For more information about this event, visit http://www.hudsonvalleyfarmhousecider.com/.
Woodstock Artists Association and Museum (WAAM)
Woodstock Artists Association and Museum (WAAM) is hosting Far and Wide, the seventh annual juried art exhibition this Saturday, May 9 at 4 p.m. featuring the works of over thirty regional artists. The event will take place in the Main Gallery. In the Founders Gallery, there is an exhibit of small works. Also, artist Lynn Herring is featured in the Solo Gallery. For more information about these events, visit http://www.woodstockart.org/.
Cross Contemporary Art
Cross Contemporary Art Gallery in Saugerties, Ulster County, is also hosting an opening reception this Saturday, May 9 at 6 p.m. featuring the works of artist Portia Munson. The show called Little Suns, Hollow Bones, speaks about Munson’s interest in environmental issues, and includes works whose subjects range from floral arrangements and blossoms to bones and animal corpses. Munson is an accomplished visual artist whose work has been reviewed in numerous publications including Art in America, The New Yorker and The New York Times. For more information about this show, visit http://www.crosscontemporaryart.com/portia-munson-little-sunshollow-bones/.
Roxbury Arts Group
Roxbury Arts Group (RAG) in Roxbury, Delaware County, is hosting an artist talk this Saturday at 2 p.m. Artist Lisbeth Firmin, whose show Working the Light is on view in the Walt Meade Gallery at RAG, will be talking about her work as a painter and printmaker. Firmin is a realist painter whose work explores the relationship between humans and space. Street scenes as well as a more abstract interpretation of light and shadow are visible in her works. For more information, visit http://roxburyartsgroup.org/2014/08/26/may-9-lisbeth-firmin-artist-talk/.
Music, books, theater – this weekend is filled with choices for art enthusiasts in the Catskills.
(c) Simona David
Bearsville Theater
Bearsville Theater in Woodstock is hosting a concert this Saturday, April 18 at 9 p.m. featuring singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega, a concert sponsored by Radio Woodstock. From the Bearsville Theater: “Widely regarded as one of the most brilliant songwriters of her generation, Suzanne Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s when, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, she sang what has been labeled contemporary folk or neo-folk songs of her own creation in Greenwich Village clubs. Since the release of her self-titled, critically acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has given sold-out concerts in many of the world’s best-known halls. In performances devoid of outward drama that nevertheless convey deep emotion, Vega sings in a distinctive, clear vibrato-less voice that has been described as “a cool, dry sandpaper- brushed near-whisper” and as “plaintive but disarmingly powerful.” For more information about this concert, visit http://www.bearsvilletheater.com/events-calendar/suzanne-vega.
Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild
The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild is hosting a piano recital this Saturday, April 18 at 8 p.m. featuring Mayumi Tsuchida, a virtuoso pianist born in Japan, and currently residing in the Hudson Valley. From the Byrdcliffe Guild: Tsuchida “began playing piano at the age of 3, gave her first solo concert when she was 7, and has been on an upward trajectory ever since. Her performances have taken her to Asia, South America, and Europe as both a soloist and a chamber musician. Tsuchida made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2008, playing with the Luna Trio on the popular PBS television show From the Top, which showcases America’s most talented young musicians. She has participated in master classes and worked with world-class pianists Richard Goode, Menahem Pressler, Peter Serkin, and Andre Watts.” The concert will take place the Kleinert / James Center for the Arts on Tinker Street. Compositions by Bach, Haydn, Debussy, Bartok and Schumann will be performed.For more information, visit http://www.woodstockguild.org/mayumi.html.
Hudson Valley History Reading Festival
This Saturday April 18 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. the FDR Presidential Library will host the third annual Hudson Valley History Reading Festival. The festival this year features four authors who wrote about the Hudson Valley history: Harvey Flad, Cynthia Owen Philip, Ann DuBois, and Anthony Musso. Ann DuBois, who last weekend participated in the Writers in the Mountains’ second annual Catskills Book Festival, will read from her book The Big Apples of New York: The Story of How New York State Became the Big Apple. For more information, visit http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/publicprograms/calendar.html.
Capital Repertory Theater
Capital Repertory Theater in Albany is hosting a preview of Hamlet this Friday, April 17 at 8 p.m., a production directed by Kevin McGuire. Written in the early 1600s, this Shakespearean masterpiece deals with themes typical of the Renaissance: the scope of human understanding, the beauty of the world, as well as mystery and uncertainty. The play opening night is Tuesday, April 21. In theREP Café there will be an art exhibit featuring paintings by artist Meredith Rosier. Rosier studied at Yale University School of Art, and received numerous awards and recognitions. For more information about this production and art exhibit, visit http://capitalrep.org/theatre/2014-2015/hamlet.
National Museum of Dance
National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs is hosting a book launch this Saturday, April 18 at 2 p.m. Crafterina, a children’s book by author Vanessa Saldago, is the story of a young dancer who uses her crafting skills to create a world of ballet outside of dance class. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit http://www.dancemuseum.org/events/. For more information about Crafterina, visit http://www.crafterina.com/.
