Sunday, September 7, 2008

Ernesto Pujol Exhibition: Walk #1
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

The black-and-white digital images in this exhibition follow a figure clad in a black robe, Pujol himself, walking through a Civil War cemetery in South Carolina. The photographs are arranged in sequential order in the gallery, depicting a dialogue between the figure, nature, and architecture. According to René Paul Barilleaux, "A lush Southern landscape, ornate Victorian cast ironwork, carved marble statuary, and other picturesque elements appear as a counterpoint to the dark, nearly motionless walker."

Pujol conceived this series as a combination between a performance (the walking) and installation. According to Pujol, he had avoided going to the cemetery for some time, but "When I first set foot in that city of the dead, I suddenly realized that it was the familiar environment I had dreamed about for years. I had experienced recurring dreams of marble arches and colonnades surrounded by gated gardens and water." After beginning to photograph the area in a documentary style, he quickly realized that he needed to walk through the space in a performative way, which resulted in the photographs depicted in this exhibition.

In addition to the digital images, this exhibition also features the black robe worn in the photographs, displayed on a mannequin in the center of the gallery, as well as twelve small, framed, hand-blown glass plates hanging on the wall with the images. Each plate has a word painted on it, meant to evoke a personal or emotional response from the viewers in the gallery. Ernesto Pujol

Pujol was born in Cuba and grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He received his BA in humanities and painting from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, and his MFA in interdisciplinary art practice from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been exhibited internationally, and he has received numerous awards and fellowships. In addition, Pujol's work is included in various permanent collections, including at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University; Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; among many others. He participated in Light Work's Artist-in-Residence program in 1999.

Rita Hammond Exhibition: Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

A nationally recognized artist and photographer, Rita Hammond (1924-1999) was a dynamic and greatly admired presence in the Central New York art community. With audacity, intelligence, and humor, Hammond's work reflected on major figures from the history of art and photography. "Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman" offers a body of photographs from Hammond's long-time collaboration with Lynn Moser. The series juxtaposes images of Moser as a young girl in 1967 with images of her as a woman 20 years later, revealing the dramatic and intimate effects of time, reflected in both the subject and the perspective of the photographer.

Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth
Syracuse University Art Museum

Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition explores multiple facets of Michelangelo's life, art and reputation with more than 25 works by the master and artists contemporary to him, including 14 original works by Michelangelo chosen to illustrate the broad range of his interests and creative activities. Figural studies associated with the Sistine Chapel and other paintings appear alongside original architectural plans and sketches of ancient Roman monuments. Printed books complement autograph examples of the artist's poetry. Eight of the Michelangelo works in the exhibition -- five drawings, including "Study for a Gate" and "Christ in Limbo," and three manuscript pages -- have never been seen in this country.

Exploring History With Art: Childhood Through The Years
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The latest exhibit in the Exploring History with Art series features paintings from the permanent collection. 19th-century portraits of children, focusing on children of prominent local families, convey historical circumstances as well as social ideals. 20th-century genre paintings show children in their element: in the bathtub, at recess, and on vacation. The exhibit also features historical objects that enliven the space and impart a sense of the experience of childhood from the cradle to school days and play time. Childhood Through The Years is not only an excellent opportunity to delve into the history of childhood but also the exhibition represents a moment, as fleeting as childhood itself, for parents and children to share their experiences through the interplay of art and history.

Works of Tim Etter, Gretchen Hamlin, and Lisa Noviasky
Skaneateles Artisans

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

New exhibit featuring artists Tim Etter, photography; Gretchen Hamlin, blown glass jewelry; and Lisa Noviasky, oil paintings.

17th Annual Seafood Jazzfest

Price: Free
Sherwood Inn
26 W. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Performers include Joe Whiting and his band, Dave Hanlon's Cookbook, the Skaneateles High School Jazz Band, Loren Barrigar, Brian Murphy, Angelo Candela, and Grupo Pagan.

Bring lawn chairs or blankets for lawn seating. Food will be available to purchase. For more information, phone 315-685-3405.

Ann Barnes, piano and vocals
Fayetteville Free Library

Price: Free
Fayetteville Free Library
300 Orchard St., Fayetteville

Remembering the Heroes: A Musical Tribute to the Victims of 9/11

Price: Free
Andrews Memorial United Methodist Church
106 Church St., North Syracuse

A concert featuring classical and popular selections performed by local professional musicians in memory of those whose lives were lost due to the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

Reflective, introspective and uplifting music for Violin and Piano, Solo Piano and String Quartet by Beethoven, Faure, Brahms, Bach, Ravel and Mozart, along with several popular selections will be performed by Cindy Josbena, Jerry Exline, Darcie Bowden, Allison Brown, Christine Prevost and John Harnois.

Donations will be accepted to assist the Twin Towers Orphan Fund.

Southwest Showcase Sunday: Soul School Sunday
Featuring J Project and Bobby Green & A Cut Above

Price: Free
Spirit of Jubilee Park
161 South Ave., Syracuse

For more information, go to www.showcasesundays.com.

Society Sounds I
Society for New Music
James Tapia, conductor

Price: $15 regular; $12 students/seniors
Setnor Auditorium, Crouse College
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Edward Ruchalski Winter Light, 2008
Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez [and of course Henry the Horse] dances the..., 2007
Dexter Morrill Ten Pieces for piano, 2004
Baljinder Singh Sekhon Pitch Dark Path, 2008
Eleanor Aversa Movement, 2007 for string quartet

Syracuse Wurlitzer
Featuring Byron Jones, theater organ

Price: $15 adults, $2 children
Empire Theater
New York State Fairgrounds, Geddes

Monday, September 8, 2008

Gallery Exhibition: Phillia Yi
Onondaga Community College

Price: Free
Ann Felton Multicultural Center and Gallery
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Phillia Changhi Yi is an artist who uses the environment and nature to form her work. A professor of art at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Yi has developed a unique method for making large color woodblock prints.

Read a review!

Think Tech Art Exhibit
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

Price: Free
Syracuse Technology Garden
235 Harrison St., Syracuse

Art with a "techie" theme by Anna Soltyk, Ben Applebaum, Bob Gates, Derek Chalfant, Elizabeth Chalfant, Elizabeth Groat, Delores Herringshaw, Jennifer Jeffery, Jerry Russell, Maria Aridgides, Saba Khan, Sharon Bottle Souva, Smita Rane; plus posters from the Syracuse Poster Project.

Read a review!

Dawn of a New Age: The Immigrant Contribution to the Arts in America
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

Price: Free
Bird Library, 6th Floor
Syracuse University, Syracuse

"Dawn of a New Age" tells the story of five artists who immigrated to the United States during the first half of the 20th century: Adolph Bolm, a Russian dancer and choreographer who performed with the Mariinsky Ballet and Ballets Russes; William Lescaze, a Swiss architect who was one of the pioneers of modernism; Louis Lozowick, a Russian printmaker known for his Art Deco and Precision lithographs; Miklós Rózsa, a Hungarian composer of more than 100 film scores, including Ben Hur; and John Vassos, a Greek illustrator and industrial designer. The exhibition draws from the rich holdings of SCRC and showcases more than 50 of the artists' personal papers, manuscripts, photos and artifacts.

This exhibit is part of this year's Syracuse Symposium on the theme "Migration."

Rita Hammond Exhibition: Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

A nationally recognized artist and photographer, Rita Hammond (1924-1999) was a dynamic and greatly admired presence in the Central New York art community. With audacity, intelligence, and humor, Hammond's work reflected on major figures from the history of art and photography. "Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman" offers a body of photographs from Hammond's long-time collaboration with Lynn Moser. The series juxtaposes images of Moser as a young girl in 1967 with images of her as a woman 20 years later, revealing the dramatic and intimate effects of time, reflected in both the subject and the perspective of the photographer.

Ernesto Pujol Exhibition: Walk #1
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

The black-and-white digital images in this exhibition follow a figure clad in a black robe, Pujol himself, walking through a Civil War cemetery in South Carolina. The photographs are arranged in sequential order in the gallery, depicting a dialogue between the figure, nature, and architecture. According to René Paul Barilleaux, "A lush Southern landscape, ornate Victorian cast ironwork, carved marble statuary, and other picturesque elements appear as a counterpoint to the dark, nearly motionless walker."

Pujol conceived this series as a combination between a performance (the walking) and installation. According to Pujol, he had avoided going to the cemetery for some time, but "When I first set foot in that city of the dead, I suddenly realized that it was the familiar environment I had dreamed about for years. I had experienced recurring dreams of marble arches and colonnades surrounded by gated gardens and water." After beginning to photograph the area in a documentary style, he quickly realized that he needed to walk through the space in a performative way, which resulted in the photographs depicted in this exhibition.

In addition to the digital images, this exhibition also features the black robe worn in the photographs, displayed on a mannequin in the center of the gallery, as well as twelve small, framed, hand-blown glass plates hanging on the wall with the images. Each plate has a word painted on it, meant to evoke a personal or emotional response from the viewers in the gallery. Ernesto Pujol

Pujol was born in Cuba and grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He received his BA in humanities and painting from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, and his MFA in interdisciplinary art practice from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been exhibited internationally, and he has received numerous awards and fellowships. In addition, Pujol's work is included in various permanent collections, including at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University; Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; among many others. He participated in Light Work's Artist-in-Residence program in 1999.

Works of Tim Etter, Gretchen Hamlin, and Lisa Noviasky
Skaneateles Artisans

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

New exhibit featuring artists Tim Etter, photography; Gretchen Hamlin, blown glass jewelry; and Lisa Noviasky, oil paintings.

Rahim Al-Haj, Iraqi oud master
LeMoyne College

Price: Free
Grewen Auditorium
LeMoyne College, Syracuse

Mr. Al-Haj will give a lecture sponsored by Le Moyne's Peace and Global Studies program. A refugee who was forced to leave Iraq because of his political views, Mr. Al-Haj will speak abut his experience living in Hussein's Iraq as an artist and answer questions from the audience. A Grammy-nominated recording artist, Mr. Al-Haj will also speak about his instrument -- an ancient Arabic lute -- and demonstrate some of the music that he will perform at a concert the following evening.

Pastiche, Performance and Portraiture (and the Imponderable Hazards of Publishing Photographs)
Light Work Gallery
Featuring Gina Murtagh, Kim Waale and Julie Grossman

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

This talk is presented in conjunction with Light Work's exhibitions "Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman" and "A Due Voci," both featuring the work of Rita Hammond. Freelance photographer, curator and arts educator Gina Murtagh has worked with Light Work and Syracuse University Press to publish a book on Hammond's series "Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman." Similarly, in 2003, sculptor and professor of art Kim Waale, along with professor of English Julie Grossman and associate professor of English Ann Ryan, published a book through Syracuse University Press featuring Hammond's work from the "A Due Voci" series. The presenters will discuss Hammond's work and the process of publishing photographs.

A nationally recognized artist and photographer, Hammond (1924-99) was a dynamic and greatly admired presence in the Central New York art community. With audacity, intelligence and humor, Hammond's work reflected on major figures from the history of art and photography. "Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman" offers a body of photographs from Hammond's longtime collaboration with Lynn Moser. The series juxtaposes images of Moser as a young girl in 1967 with images of her as a woman 20 years later, revealing the dramatic and intimate effects of time, reflected in both the subject and the perspective of the photographer.

Paid parking is available in the Marion Lot and the Booth Garage.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Gallery Exhibition: Phillia Yi
Onondaga Community College

Price: Free
Ann Felton Multicultural Center and Gallery
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Phillia Changhi Yi is an artist who uses the environment and nature to form her work. A professor of art at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Yi has developed a unique method for making large color woodblock prints.

Read a review!

Think Tech Art Exhibit
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

Price: Free
Syracuse Technology Garden
235 Harrison St., Syracuse

Art with a "techie" theme by Anna Soltyk, Ben Applebaum, Bob Gates, Derek Chalfant, Elizabeth Chalfant, Elizabeth Groat, Delores Herringshaw, Jennifer Jeffery, Jerry Russell, Maria Aridgides, Saba Khan, Sharon Bottle Souva, Smita Rane; plus posters from the Syracuse Poster Project.

Read a review!

Dawn of a New Age: The Immigrant Contribution to the Arts in America
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

Price: Free
Bird Library, 6th Floor
Syracuse University, Syracuse

"Dawn of a New Age" tells the story of five artists who immigrated to the United States during the first half of the 20th century: Adolph Bolm, a Russian dancer and choreographer who performed with the Mariinsky Ballet and Ballets Russes; William Lescaze, a Swiss architect who was one of the pioneers of modernism; Louis Lozowick, a Russian printmaker known for his Art Deco and Precision lithographs; Miklós Rózsa, a Hungarian composer of more than 100 film scores, including Ben Hur; and John Vassos, a Greek illustrator and industrial designer. The exhibition draws from the rich holdings of SCRC and showcases more than 50 of the artists' personal papers, manuscripts, photos and artifacts.

This exhibit is part of this year's Syracuse Symposium on the theme "Migration."

A Lot on Your Plate
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

An exhibit of ceramic plates designed by 14 area artists.

Ernesto Pujol Exhibition: Walk #1
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

The black-and-white digital images in this exhibition follow a figure clad in a black robe, Pujol himself, walking through a Civil War cemetery in South Carolina. The photographs are arranged in sequential order in the gallery, depicting a dialogue between the figure, nature, and architecture. According to René Paul Barilleaux, "A lush Southern landscape, ornate Victorian cast ironwork, carved marble statuary, and other picturesque elements appear as a counterpoint to the dark, nearly motionless walker."

Pujol conceived this series as a combination between a performance (the walking) and installation. According to Pujol, he had avoided going to the cemetery for some time, but "When I first set foot in that city of the dead, I suddenly realized that it was the familiar environment I had dreamed about for years. I had experienced recurring dreams of marble arches and colonnades surrounded by gated gardens and water." After beginning to photograph the area in a documentary style, he quickly realized that he needed to walk through the space in a performative way, which resulted in the photographs depicted in this exhibition.

In addition to the digital images, this exhibition also features the black robe worn in the photographs, displayed on a mannequin in the center of the gallery, as well as twelve small, framed, hand-blown glass plates hanging on the wall with the images. Each plate has a word painted on it, meant to evoke a personal or emotional response from the viewers in the gallery. Ernesto Pujol

Pujol was born in Cuba and grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He received his BA in humanities and painting from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, and his MFA in interdisciplinary art practice from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been exhibited internationally, and he has received numerous awards and fellowships. In addition, Pujol's work is included in various permanent collections, including at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University; Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; among many others. He participated in Light Work's Artist-in-Residence program in 1999.

Rita Hammond Exhibition: Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

A nationally recognized artist and photographer, Rita Hammond (1924-1999) was a dynamic and greatly admired presence in the Central New York art community. With audacity, intelligence, and humor, Hammond's work reflected on major figures from the history of art and photography. "Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman" offers a body of photographs from Hammond's long-time collaboration with Lynn Moser. The series juxtaposes images of Moser as a young girl in 1967 with images of her as a woman 20 years later, revealing the dramatic and intimate effects of time, reflected in both the subject and the perspective of the photographer.

Works of Tim Etter, Gretchen Hamlin, and Lisa Noviasky
Skaneateles Artisans

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

New exhibit featuring artists Tim Etter, photography; Gretchen Hamlin, blown glass jewelry; and Lisa Noviasky, oil paintings.

Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth
Syracuse University Art Museum

Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition explores multiple facets of Michelangelo's life, art and reputation with more than 25 works by the master and artists contemporary to him, including 14 original works by Michelangelo chosen to illustrate the broad range of his interests and creative activities. Figural studies associated with the Sistine Chapel and other paintings appear alongside original architectural plans and sketches of ancient Roman monuments. Printed books complement autograph examples of the artist's poetry. Eight of the Michelangelo works in the exhibition -- five drawings, including "Study for a Gate" and "Christ in Limbo," and three manuscript pages -- have never been seen in this country.

Dreams of Promise and Peril
The Warehouse Gallery

Price: Free
The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The role that artists play as cultural barometers always seems to be heightened in times of change and uncertainty. Although they employ different approaches, from timely reportage to futuristic illusions, all of the artists in the exhibition explore the terrain where hopes and dreams collide. By making visible the complex emotions we all sometimes experience the artists in this exhibition ask us to deeply consider the promise and peril that exists both in the fantasies we create and the realities we deny.

All of the work in this exhibition was borrowed from the JGS, Inc. collection, a non-profit photography organization based in New York City. JGS and Syracuse University have entered into an agreement to collaborate on traveling exhibitions, research, publications, and other projects utilizing work from the JGS collection that includes over 8,000 photographs spanning the history of the medium. This exhibition is an example of that collaboration and at the conclusion of the exhibition SUArt Galleries will create traveling solo exhibitions by each of the four artists.

Leonardo da Vinci: Artist and Engineer
Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences
Featuring Samuel Clemence and Gary Radke

Shemin Auditorium, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Samuel Clemence, civil engineer and author, and Gary Radke, Medieval and Renaissance scholar, will give a talk in conjunction with Syracuse Symposium 2008, "Migration."

Faculty Organ Recital
Syracuse University Setnor School of Music
Featuring Kola Owolabi, organ

Price: Free
Setnor Auditorium, Crouse College
Syracuse University, Syracuse

University Organist Kola Owolabi will perform on Setnor's historic 1950 Holtkamp organ. The program will include music by Joseph Rheinberger, Johann Sebastian Bach and Olivier Messiaen.

A native of Toronto, Owolabi has held positions as assistant organist at St. Michael's Cathedral in Toronto and at the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul in Montreal. He is a published composer and has received commissions from the Royal Canadian College of Organists and the Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto. In 2002, he was awarded second prize and audience prize at the American Guild of Organists National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance. As a recitalist, he has performed across Canada and the United States, appearing most recently at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City, Methuen Memorial Music Hall in Massachusetts and Spelman College in Atlanta.

Parking is available in Irving Garage. For more information, phone 315-443-5043.

Rahim Al-Haj, Iraqi oud master
LeMoyne College

Price: $15 regular, $10 seniors; students free
Coyne Center for the Performing Arts
LeMoyne College, Syracuse

Al-Haj will perform Classical Iraqi music with percussionist Rob Bridge.

Preview: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

A young horn player with a pocket full of songs and a head full of dreams longs to place his name among the giants of the blues, legends of the likes of Ma Rainey, for whom he is a session sideman. Ma has pushed the boundaries, struggling with shady producers and battling prejudice to become a successful recording artist and the Mother of the Blues. Now, in a single day of making music, making jokes and making deals, the young horn player succumbs to the harsh realities of unjustly thwarted aspirations and the self-destructive consequences of misdirected anger and violence. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is the landmark, contemporary classic that marked August Wilson's entry into his monumental ten-play chronicle of African-American life in the 20th century.

Read a Review!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Gallery Exhibition: Phillia Yi
Onondaga Community College

Price: Free
Ann Felton Multicultural Center and Gallery
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Phillia Changhi Yi is an artist who uses the environment and nature to form her work. A professor of art at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Yi has developed a unique method for making large color woodblock prints.

Read a review!

Think Tech Art Exhibit
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

Price: Free
Syracuse Technology Garden
235 Harrison St., Syracuse

Art with a "techie" theme by Anna Soltyk, Ben Applebaum, Bob Gates, Derek Chalfant, Elizabeth Chalfant, Elizabeth Groat, Delores Herringshaw, Jennifer Jeffery, Jerry Russell, Maria Aridgides, Saba Khan, Sharon Bottle Souva, Smita Rane; plus posters from the Syracuse Poster Project.

Read a review!

Dawn of a New Age: The Immigrant Contribution to the Arts in America
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

Price: Free
Bird Library, 6th Floor
Syracuse University, Syracuse

"Dawn of a New Age" tells the story of five artists who immigrated to the United States during the first half of the 20th century: Adolph Bolm, a Russian dancer and choreographer who performed with the Mariinsky Ballet and Ballets Russes; William Lescaze, a Swiss architect who was one of the pioneers of modernism; Louis Lozowick, a Russian printmaker known for his Art Deco and Precision lithographs; Miklós Rózsa, a Hungarian composer of more than 100 film scores, including Ben Hur; and John Vassos, a Greek illustrator and industrial designer. The exhibition draws from the rich holdings of SCRC and showcases more than 50 of the artists' personal papers, manuscripts, photos and artifacts.

This exhibit is part of this year's Syracuse Symposium on the theme "Migration."

A Lot on Your Plate
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

An exhibit of ceramic plates designed by 14 area artists.

Rita Hammond Exhibition: Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

A nationally recognized artist and photographer, Rita Hammond (1924-1999) was a dynamic and greatly admired presence in the Central New York art community. With audacity, intelligence, and humor, Hammond's work reflected on major figures from the history of art and photography. "Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman" offers a body of photographs from Hammond's long-time collaboration with Lynn Moser. The series juxtaposes images of Moser as a young girl in 1967 with images of her as a woman 20 years later, revealing the dramatic and intimate effects of time, reflected in both the subject and the perspective of the photographer.

Ernesto Pujol Exhibition: Walk #1
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

The black-and-white digital images in this exhibition follow a figure clad in a black robe, Pujol himself, walking through a Civil War cemetery in South Carolina. The photographs are arranged in sequential order in the gallery, depicting a dialogue between the figure, nature, and architecture. According to René Paul Barilleaux, "A lush Southern landscape, ornate Victorian cast ironwork, carved marble statuary, and other picturesque elements appear as a counterpoint to the dark, nearly motionless walker."

Pujol conceived this series as a combination between a performance (the walking) and installation. According to Pujol, he had avoided going to the cemetery for some time, but "When I first set foot in that city of the dead, I suddenly realized that it was the familiar environment I had dreamed about for years. I had experienced recurring dreams of marble arches and colonnades surrounded by gated gardens and water." After beginning to photograph the area in a documentary style, he quickly realized that he needed to walk through the space in a performative way, which resulted in the photographs depicted in this exhibition.

In addition to the digital images, this exhibition also features the black robe worn in the photographs, displayed on a mannequin in the center of the gallery, as well as twelve small, framed, hand-blown glass plates hanging on the wall with the images. Each plate has a word painted on it, meant to evoke a personal or emotional response from the viewers in the gallery. Ernesto Pujol

Pujol was born in Cuba and grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He received his BA in humanities and painting from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, and his MFA in interdisciplinary art practice from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been exhibited internationally, and he has received numerous awards and fellowships. In addition, Pujol's work is included in various permanent collections, including at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University; Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; among many others. He participated in Light Work's Artist-in-Residence program in 1999.

Exploring History With Art: Childhood Through The Years
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The latest exhibit in the Exploring History with Art series features paintings from the permanent collection. 19th-century portraits of children, focusing on children of prominent local families, convey historical circumstances as well as social ideals. 20th-century genre paintings show children in their element: in the bathtub, at recess, and on vacation. The exhibit also features historical objects that enliven the space and impart a sense of the experience of childhood from the cradle to school days and play time. Childhood Through The Years is not only an excellent opportunity to delve into the history of childhood but also the exhibition represents a moment, as fleeting as childhood itself, for parents and children to share their experiences through the interplay of art and history.

Works of Tim Etter, Gretchen Hamlin, and Lisa Noviasky
Skaneateles Artisans

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

New exhibit featuring artists Tim Etter, photography; Gretchen Hamlin, blown glass jewelry; and Lisa Noviasky, oil paintings.

Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth
Syracuse University Art Museum

Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition explores multiple facets of Michelangelo's life, art and reputation with more than 25 works by the master and artists contemporary to him, including 14 original works by Michelangelo chosen to illustrate the broad range of his interests and creative activities. Figural studies associated with the Sistine Chapel and other paintings appear alongside original architectural plans and sketches of ancient Roman monuments. Printed books complement autograph examples of the artist's poetry. Eight of the Michelangelo works in the exhibition -- five drawings, including "Study for a Gate" and "Christ in Limbo," and three manuscript pages -- have never been seen in this country.

Street Dreams
Redhouse

Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

Street Dreams explores the cultural dialogue of the urban aesthetic, which stems from a mixture of graffiti and fine art. The artists examined in the show use video, installation, sculpture and painting in their own visual language.

Dreams of Promise and Peril
The Warehouse Gallery

Price: Free
The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The role that artists play as cultural barometers always seems to be heightened in times of change and uncertainty. Although they employ different approaches, from timely reportage to futuristic illusions, all of the artists in the exhibition explore the terrain where hopes and dreams collide. By making visible the complex emotions we all sometimes experience the artists in this exhibition ask us to deeply consider the promise and peril that exists both in the fantasies we create and the realities we deny.

All of the work in this exhibition was borrowed from the JGS, Inc. collection, a non-profit photography organization based in New York City. JGS and Syracuse University have entered into an agreement to collaborate on traveling exhibitions, research, publications, and other projects utilizing work from the JGS collection that includes over 8,000 photographs spanning the history of the medium. This exhibition is an example of that collaboration and at the conclusion of the exhibition SUArt Galleries will create traveling solo exhibitions by each of the four artists.

Author Lynne Tillman
Raymond Carver Reading Series

Price: Free
Gifford Auditorium, Huntington Beard Crouse Hall
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Preview: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

A young horn player with a pocket full of songs and a head full of dreams longs to place his name among the giants of the blues, legends of the likes of Ma Rainey, for whom he is a session sideman. Ma has pushed the boundaries, struggling with shady producers and battling prejudice to become a successful recording artist and the Mother of the Blues. Now, in a single day of making music, making jokes and making deals, the young horn player succumbs to the harsh realities of unjustly thwarted aspirations and the self-destructive consequences of misdirected anger and violence. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is the landmark, contemporary classic that marked August Wilson's entry into his monumental ten-play chronicle of African-American life in the 20th century.

Read a Review!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Gallery Exhibition: Phillia Yi
Onondaga Community College

Price: Free
Ann Felton Multicultural Center and Gallery
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Phillia Changhi Yi is an artist who uses the environment and nature to form her work. A professor of art at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Yi has developed a unique method for making large color woodblock prints.

Read a review!

Think Tech Art Exhibit
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

Price: Free
Syracuse Technology Garden
235 Harrison St., Syracuse

Art with a "techie" theme by Anna Soltyk, Ben Applebaum, Bob Gates, Derek Chalfant, Elizabeth Chalfant, Elizabeth Groat, Delores Herringshaw, Jennifer Jeffery, Jerry Russell, Maria Aridgides, Saba Khan, Sharon Bottle Souva, Smita Rane; plus posters from the Syracuse Poster Project.

Read a review!

Dawn of a New Age: The Immigrant Contribution to the Arts in America
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

Price: Free
Bird Library, 6th Floor
Syracuse University, Syracuse

"Dawn of a New Age" tells the story of five artists who immigrated to the United States during the first half of the 20th century: Adolph Bolm, a Russian dancer and choreographer who performed with the Mariinsky Ballet and Ballets Russes; William Lescaze, a Swiss architect who was one of the pioneers of modernism; Louis Lozowick, a Russian printmaker known for his Art Deco and Precision lithographs; Miklós Rózsa, a Hungarian composer of more than 100 film scores, including Ben Hur; and John Vassos, a Greek illustrator and industrial designer. The exhibition draws from the rich holdings of SCRC and showcases more than 50 of the artists' personal papers, manuscripts, photos and artifacts.

This exhibit is part of this year's Syracuse Symposium on the theme "Migration."

A Lot on Your Plate
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

An exhibit of ceramic plates designed by 14 area artists.

Ernesto Pujol Exhibition: Walk #1
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

The black-and-white digital images in this exhibition follow a figure clad in a black robe, Pujol himself, walking through a Civil War cemetery in South Carolina. The photographs are arranged in sequential order in the gallery, depicting a dialogue between the figure, nature, and architecture. According to René Paul Barilleaux, "A lush Southern landscape, ornate Victorian cast ironwork, carved marble statuary, and other picturesque elements appear as a counterpoint to the dark, nearly motionless walker."

Pujol conceived this series as a combination between a performance (the walking) and installation. According to Pujol, he had avoided going to the cemetery for some time, but "When I first set foot in that city of the dead, I suddenly realized that it was the familiar environment I had dreamed about for years. I had experienced recurring dreams of marble arches and colonnades surrounded by gated gardens and water." After beginning to photograph the area in a documentary style, he quickly realized that he needed to walk through the space in a performative way, which resulted in the photographs depicted in this exhibition.

In addition to the digital images, this exhibition also features the black robe worn in the photographs, displayed on a mannequin in the center of the gallery, as well as twelve small, framed, hand-blown glass plates hanging on the wall with the images. Each plate has a word painted on it, meant to evoke a personal or emotional response from the viewers in the gallery. Ernesto Pujol

Pujol was born in Cuba and grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He received his BA in humanities and painting from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, and his MFA in interdisciplinary art practice from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been exhibited internationally, and he has received numerous awards and fellowships. In addition, Pujol's work is included in various permanent collections, including at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University; Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; among many others. He participated in Light Work's Artist-in-Residence program in 1999.

Rita Hammond Exhibition: Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

A nationally recognized artist and photographer, Rita Hammond (1924-1999) was a dynamic and greatly admired presence in the Central New York art community. With audacity, intelligence, and humor, Hammond's work reflected on major figures from the history of art and photography. "Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman" offers a body of photographs from Hammond's long-time collaboration with Lynn Moser. The series juxtaposes images of Moser as a young girl in 1967 with images of her as a woman 20 years later, revealing the dramatic and intimate effects of time, reflected in both the subject and the perspective of the photographer.

Exploring History With Art: Childhood Through The Years
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The latest exhibit in the Exploring History with Art series features paintings from the permanent collection. 19th-century portraits of children, focusing on children of prominent local families, convey historical circumstances as well as social ideals. 20th-century genre paintings show children in their element: in the bathtub, at recess, and on vacation. The exhibit also features historical objects that enliven the space and impart a sense of the experience of childhood from the cradle to school days and play time. Childhood Through The Years is not only an excellent opportunity to delve into the history of childhood but also the exhibition represents a moment, as fleeting as childhood itself, for parents and children to share their experiences through the interplay of art and history.

Works of Tim Etter, Gretchen Hamlin, and Lisa Noviasky
Skaneateles Artisans

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

New exhibit featuring artists Tim Etter, photography; Gretchen Hamlin, blown glass jewelry; and Lisa Noviasky, oil paintings.

Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth
Syracuse University Art Museum

Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition explores multiple facets of Michelangelo's life, art and reputation with more than 25 works by the master and artists contemporary to him, including 14 original works by Michelangelo chosen to illustrate the broad range of his interests and creative activities. Figural studies associated with the Sistine Chapel and other paintings appear alongside original architectural plans and sketches of ancient Roman monuments. Printed books complement autograph examples of the artist's poetry. Eight of the Michelangelo works in the exhibition -- five drawings, including "Study for a Gate" and "Christ in Limbo," and three manuscript pages -- have never been seen in this country.

Street Dreams
Redhouse

Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

Street Dreams explores the cultural dialogue of the urban aesthetic, which stems from a mixture of graffiti and fine art. The artists examined in the show use video, installation, sculpture and painting in their own visual language.

Dreams of Promise and Peril
The Warehouse Gallery

Price: Free
The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The role that artists play as cultural barometers always seems to be heightened in times of change and uncertainty. Although they employ different approaches, from timely reportage to futuristic illusions, all of the artists in the exhibition explore the terrain where hopes and dreams collide. By making visible the complex emotions we all sometimes experience the artists in this exhibition ask us to deeply consider the promise and peril that exists both in the fantasies we create and the realities we deny.

All of the work in this exhibition was borrowed from the JGS, Inc. collection, a non-profit photography organization based in New York City. JGS and Syracuse University have entered into an agreement to collaborate on traveling exhibitions, research, publications, and other projects utilizing work from the JGS collection that includes over 8,000 photographs spanning the history of the medium. This exhibition is an example of that collaboration and at the conclusion of the exhibition SUArt Galleries will create traveling solo exhibitions by each of the four artists.

Five Years at Delavan
Delavan Art Gallery

Price: Free
Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The exhibit features prints by the Atelier Four (Amy Georgia Buchholz, Bruce Muirhead, Jake Muirhead and Bill Salzillo) as well as sculptures by Dexter Benedict and Donald S. Sottile.

The Atelier Four is a group of artists associated with Hamilton College working together in the collaborative workshop spirit often found among printmakers. Linked philosophically to the Arts and Crafts Movement that has deep roots in Upstate New York, this group is committed to keeping the tradition of studio printmaking alive while promoting its contemporary relevance. The selection of intaglio prints exhibited here compares and contrasts the working methods of the four whose teacher/student relationships developed into life-long friendships that have shaped their art and careers. From a historical perspective the selection also references the important influences of the upstate New York printmaking laboratories centered around Robert Marx at Syracuse University and Harvey Breverman at The University of Buffalo.

Despite similar goals, each of the four artists represents a different approach to intaglio printmaking. Bruce Muirhead is a self-defined painter/print-maker in the romantic mold. William Salzillo's new prints reference historical styles. Amy Georgia Buchholz's recent dry points, based on nature subjects, reference the aesthetic philosophy of the Etching Revival. And Jake Muirhead has participated in numerous national and international print competitions. He is currently Associate in Charge of Etching at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Maryland in addition to teaching drawing at Montgomery College and printmaking at the Washington Waldorf School.

Dexter Benedict is a sculptor and the owner/operator of the Fire Works Foundry and sculpture studio in Yates County, New York. He is known for a number of commissions ranging from small commemorative awards to monumental bronze portrait figures.

Donald S. Sottile of Penn Yan, NY, is an accomplished sculptor working in both bronze and wood.

Wild Card Exhibit: Paintings by C. J. Hodge
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

C.J. Hodge is a painter and photographer living in Jamesville and teaching art at Cortland Junior Senior High School. In "The Tile Series," Hodge works with digital images of people that he has captured and manipulated using image editing software. Using these images as reference, he then sketches the images with pencil, adds an acrylic under-painting and then a grid, eventually treating each square as an individual piece of art and completing them with oil pastel and pencil drawings.

Preview: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

A young horn player with a pocket full of songs and a head full of dreams longs to place his name among the giants of the blues, legends of the likes of Ma Rainey, for whom he is a session sideman. Ma has pushed the boundaries, struggling with shady producers and battling prejudice to become a successful recording artist and the Mother of the Blues. Now, in a single day of making music, making jokes and making deals, the young horn player succumbs to the harsh realities of unjustly thwarted aspirations and the self-destructive consequences of misdirected anger and violence. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is the landmark, contemporary classic that marked August Wilson's entry into his monumental ten-play chronicle of African-American life in the 20th century.

Read a Review!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Gallery Exhibition: Phillia Yi
Onondaga Community College

Price: Free
Ann Felton Multicultural Center and Gallery
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Phillia Changhi Yi is an artist who uses the environment and nature to form her work. A professor of art at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Yi has developed a unique method for making large color woodblock prints.

Read a review!

Think Tech Art Exhibit
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

Price: Free
Syracuse Technology Garden
235 Harrison St., Syracuse

Art with a "techie" theme by Anna Soltyk, Ben Applebaum, Bob Gates, Derek Chalfant, Elizabeth Chalfant, Elizabeth Groat, Delores Herringshaw, Jennifer Jeffery, Jerry Russell, Maria Aridgides, Saba Khan, Sharon Bottle Souva, Smita Rane; plus posters from the Syracuse Poster Project.

Read a review!

Dawn of a New Age: The Immigrant Contribution to the Arts in America
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

Price: Free
Bird Library, 6th Floor
Syracuse University, Syracuse

"Dawn of a New Age" tells the story of five artists who immigrated to the United States during the first half of the 20th century: Adolph Bolm, a Russian dancer and choreographer who performed with the Mariinsky Ballet and Ballets Russes; William Lescaze, a Swiss architect who was one of the pioneers of modernism; Louis Lozowick, a Russian printmaker known for his Art Deco and Precision lithographs; Miklós Rózsa, a Hungarian composer of more than 100 film scores, including Ben Hur; and John Vassos, a Greek illustrator and industrial designer. The exhibition draws from the rich holdings of SCRC and showcases more than 50 of the artists' personal papers, manuscripts, photos and artifacts.

This exhibit is part of this year's Syracuse Symposium on the theme "Migration."

A Lot on Your Plate
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

An exhibit of ceramic plates designed by 14 area artists.

Rita Hammond Exhibition: Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

A nationally recognized artist and photographer, Rita Hammond (1924-1999) was a dynamic and greatly admired presence in the Central New York art community. With audacity, intelligence, and humor, Hammond's work reflected on major figures from the history of art and photography. "Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman" offers a body of photographs from Hammond's long-time collaboration with Lynn Moser. The series juxtaposes images of Moser as a young girl in 1967 with images of her as a woman 20 years later, revealing the dramatic and intimate effects of time, reflected in both the subject and the perspective of the photographer.

Ernesto Pujol Exhibition: Walk #1
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

The black-and-white digital images in this exhibition follow a figure clad in a black robe, Pujol himself, walking through a Civil War cemetery in South Carolina. The photographs are arranged in sequential order in the gallery, depicting a dialogue between the figure, nature, and architecture. According to René Paul Barilleaux, "A lush Southern landscape, ornate Victorian cast ironwork, carved marble statuary, and other picturesque elements appear as a counterpoint to the dark, nearly motionless walker."

Pujol conceived this series as a combination between a performance (the walking) and installation. According to Pujol, he had avoided going to the cemetery for some time, but "When I first set foot in that city of the dead, I suddenly realized that it was the familiar environment I had dreamed about for years. I had experienced recurring dreams of marble arches and colonnades surrounded by gated gardens and water." After beginning to photograph the area in a documentary style, he quickly realized that he needed to walk through the space in a performative way, which resulted in the photographs depicted in this exhibition.

In addition to the digital images, this exhibition also features the black robe worn in the photographs, displayed on a mannequin in the center of the gallery, as well as twelve small, framed, hand-blown glass plates hanging on the wall with the images. Each plate has a word painted on it, meant to evoke a personal or emotional response from the viewers in the gallery. Ernesto Pujol

Pujol was born in Cuba and grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He received his BA in humanities and painting from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, and his MFA in interdisciplinary art practice from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been exhibited internationally, and he has received numerous awards and fellowships. In addition, Pujol's work is included in various permanent collections, including at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University; Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; among many others. He participated in Light Work's Artist-in-Residence program in 1999.

Exploring History With Art: Childhood Through The Years
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The latest exhibit in the Exploring History with Art series features paintings from the permanent collection. 19th-century portraits of children, focusing on children of prominent local families, convey historical circumstances as well as social ideals. 20th-century genre paintings show children in their element: in the bathtub, at recess, and on vacation. The exhibit also features historical objects that enliven the space and impart a sense of the experience of childhood from the cradle to school days and play time. Childhood Through The Years is not only an excellent opportunity to delve into the history of childhood but also the exhibition represents a moment, as fleeting as childhood itself, for parents and children to share their experiences through the interplay of art and history.

Works of Tim Etter, Gretchen Hamlin, and Lisa Noviasky
Skaneateles Artisans

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

New exhibit featuring artists Tim Etter, photography; Gretchen Hamlin, blown glass jewelry; and Lisa Noviasky, oil paintings.

Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth
Syracuse University Art Museum

Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition explores multiple facets of Michelangelo's life, art and reputation with more than 25 works by the master and artists contemporary to him, including 14 original works by Michelangelo chosen to illustrate the broad range of his interests and creative activities. Figural studies associated with the Sistine Chapel and other paintings appear alongside original architectural plans and sketches of ancient Roman monuments. Printed books complement autograph examples of the artist's poetry. Eight of the Michelangelo works in the exhibition -- five drawings, including "Study for a Gate" and "Christ in Limbo," and three manuscript pages -- have never been seen in this country.

Five Years at Delavan
Delavan Art Gallery

Price: Free
Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The exhibit features prints by the Atelier Four (Amy Georgia Buchholz, Bruce Muirhead, Jake Muirhead and Bill Salzillo) as well as sculptures by Dexter Benedict and Donald S. Sottile.

The Atelier Four is a group of artists associated with Hamilton College working together in the collaborative workshop spirit often found among printmakers. Linked philosophically to the Arts and Crafts Movement that has deep roots in Upstate New York, this group is committed to keeping the tradition of studio printmaking alive while promoting its contemporary relevance. The selection of intaglio prints exhibited here compares and contrasts the working methods of the four whose teacher/student relationships developed into life-long friendships that have shaped their art and careers. From a historical perspective the selection also references the important influences of the upstate New York printmaking laboratories centered around Robert Marx at Syracuse University and Harvey Breverman at The University of Buffalo.

Despite similar goals, each of the four artists represents a different approach to intaglio printmaking. Bruce Muirhead is a self-defined painter/print-maker in the romantic mold. William Salzillo's new prints reference historical styles. Amy Georgia Buchholz's recent dry points, based on nature subjects, reference the aesthetic philosophy of the Etching Revival. And Jake Muirhead has participated in numerous national and international print competitions. He is currently Associate in Charge of Etching at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Maryland in addition to teaching drawing at Montgomery College and printmaking at the Washington Waldorf School.

Dexter Benedict is a sculptor and the owner/operator of the Fire Works Foundry and sculpture studio in Yates County, New York. He is known for a number of commissions ranging from small commemorative awards to monumental bronze portrait figures.

Donald S. Sottile of Penn Yan, NY, is an accomplished sculptor working in both bronze and wood.

Wild Card Exhibit: Paintings by C. J. Hodge
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

C.J. Hodge is a painter and photographer living in Jamesville and teaching art at Cortland Junior Senior High School. In "The Tile Series," Hodge works with digital images of people that he has captured and manipulated using image editing software. Using these images as reference, he then sketches the images with pencil, adds an acrylic under-painting and then a grid, eventually treating each square as an individual piece of art and completing them with oil pastel and pencil drawings.

Street Dreams
Redhouse

Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

Street Dreams explores the cultural dialogue of the urban aesthetic, which stems from a mixture of graffiti and fine art. The artists examined in the show use video, installation, sculpture and painting in their own visual language.

Dreams of Promise and Peril
The Warehouse Gallery

Price: Free
The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The role that artists play as cultural barometers always seems to be heightened in times of change and uncertainty. Although they employ different approaches, from timely reportage to futuristic illusions, all of the artists in the exhibition explore the terrain where hopes and dreams collide. By making visible the complex emotions we all sometimes experience the artists in this exhibition ask us to deeply consider the promise and peril that exists both in the fantasies we create and the realities we deny.

All of the work in this exhibition was borrowed from the JGS, Inc. collection, a non-profit photography organization based in New York City. JGS and Syracuse University have entered into an agreement to collaborate on traveling exhibitions, research, publications, and other projects utilizing work from the JGS collection that includes over 8,000 photographs spanning the history of the medium. This exhibition is an example of that collaboration and at the conclusion of the exhibition SUArt Galleries will create traveling solo exhibitions by each of the four artists.

The Good Luck Party: Paintings and Sculptures by Adam Francey
Limestone Art and Framing Gallery

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

Festa Italiana

Price: Free
Washington St. (in front of City Hall)
Syracuse

4:004:45 PM: Paolo & Rocco
5:00-6:00 PM: Dominick Mantuano, tenor
6:30-7:45 PM: Jimmy Cavallo
8:009:00 PM: Allegro (Alicia Alexander, Thomas Stallone, Rinaldo Toglia)
9:3011:00 PM: Atlas

Everything's Coming My Way: The Life and Music of Gordon Thomas
Redhouse

Price: $25
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

The film Everything's Coming My Way explores not only the events of Gordon Thomas's life, but the personal and financial sacrifices that allowed him to follow his dream; his determination to keep making music in the face of almost total obscurity; his mystical theories on luck, love and the soul; the spiritual source of his strength and inspiration, and the fundamental issues of the creative process itself that his life and work imply.

The film also follows Gordon as he sees his dreams realized: performing his music live for the first time ever, and discovering the audience that he never knew he had.

This in-depth character study tells Gordon's life story and reveals the spiritual philosophies that have kept him going. The film also examines the appeal of Gordon's strange and wonderful music, including the testimonials of fans such as Canadian musicians Gonzales, Mocky, and Taylor Savvy and pop musicologists Irwin Chusid and Citizen Kafka.

Gordon is a former big-band trombonist, a born storyteller, and an artisan who makes all his own clothes with a needle and thread. His songs -- catchy and simple, peculiar and personal -- are a kind of musical folk art.

Gordon has had a fascinating life -- from immigrating to New York from Bermuda in 1919 at the age of three, to watching the rise, fall and rebirth of Harlem; from playing in Dizzy Gillespie's big band in the 1940s, to recording in the heart of the New York music scene of the 60s, and on to today.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A and performance with Thomas.

Central New York Young Artists In Recital
Civic Morning Musicals

Price: $15; students free
Hosmer Auditorium, Everson Museum
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Solos, duets and trios by Beethoven, Bizet, Brahms, Caldara, Duparc, Kreisler, Liszt, Mozart, Prokofiev, and Stamitz performed by Robert Araujo, piano; Emily Ball, flute; Dan Brown, viola; Emily Dobmeier, clarinet; Geoffrey Groman, clarinet; Nicholas Hrynyk, piano; Andrew King, baritone; Maryna Mazhukhova, piano; Emerson Millar, violin; Mark Sieling, piano; John Spradling, piano; Ida Trebicka, piano; and Katherine Weber, mezzo-soprano.

Children's Letters to God
Rarely Done Productions

Price: $20
Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

The musical follows the lives of five young friends as they voice beliefs, desires, question, and doubts common to all people but most disarmingly expressed by children. Sixteen tuneful songs and assorted scenes explore timeless issues such as sibling rivalry, divorce, holidays, loss of a beloved pet, the trials of being unathletic, and first love.

Read a Review!

Goodbye Charlie
Appleseed Productions
William Edward White, director

Price: $15 regular; $12 students/seniors
Atonement Lutheran Church
116 W. Glen Ave., Syracuse

Charlie was a demon lover, a connoisseur of wines, and the possessor of a fine backhand. He met his end trying to escape through a porthole on a cuckold's yacht. Now Charlie has returned as a woman, and his big problem is changing his personality from male to female. The transformation of attitudes, gestures, and expressions is hilarious. Posing as Charlie's wife, his female reincarnation meets several of his mistresses and begins a collection for a memorial to Charlie, at $5000 apiece. Meanwhile Charlie's friend has begun to feel a different kind of affection for the new Charlie. Written by George Axelrod.

Read a Review!

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

A young horn player with a pocket full of songs and a head full of dreams longs to place his name among the giants of the blues, legends of the likes of Ma Rainey, for whom he is a session sideman. Ma has pushed the boundaries, struggling with shady producers and battling prejudice to become a successful recording artist and the Mother of the Blues. Now, in a single day of making music, making jokes and making deals, the young horn player succumbs to the harsh realities of unjustly thwarted aspirations and the self-destructive consequences of misdirected anger and violence. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is the landmark, contemporary classic that marked August Wilson's entry into his monumental ten-play chronicle of African-American life in the 20th century.

Read a Review!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Wild Card Exhibit: Paintings by C. J. Hodge
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

C.J. Hodge is a painter and photographer living in Jamesville and teaching art at Cortland Junior Senior High School. In "The Tile Series," Hodge works with digital images of people that he has captured and manipulated using image editing software. Using these images as reference, he then sketches the images with pencil, adds an acrylic under-painting and then a grid, eventually treating each square as an individual piece of art and completing them with oil pastel and pencil drawings.

Five Years at Delavan
Delavan Art Gallery

Price: Free
Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The exhibit features prints by the Atelier Four (Amy Georgia Buchholz, Bruce Muirhead, Jake Muirhead and Bill Salzillo) as well as sculptures by Dexter Benedict and Donald S. Sottile.

The Atelier Four is a group of artists associated with Hamilton College working together in the collaborative workshop spirit often found among printmakers. Linked philosophically to the Arts and Crafts Movement that has deep roots in Upstate New York, this group is committed to keeping the tradition of studio printmaking alive while promoting its contemporary relevance. The selection of intaglio prints exhibited here compares and contrasts the working methods of the four whose teacher/student relationships developed into life-long friendships that have shaped their art and careers. From a historical perspective the selection also references the important influences of the upstate New York printmaking laboratories centered around Robert Marx at Syracuse University and Harvey Breverman at The University of Buffalo.

Despite similar goals, each of the four artists represents a different approach to intaglio printmaking. Bruce Muirhead is a self-defined painter/print-maker in the romantic mold. William Salzillo's new prints reference historical styles. Amy Georgia Buchholz's recent dry points, based on nature subjects, reference the aesthetic philosophy of the Etching Revival. And Jake Muirhead has participated in numerous national and international print competitions. He is currently Associate in Charge of Etching at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Maryland in addition to teaching drawing at Montgomery College and printmaking at the Washington Waldorf School.

Dexter Benedict is a sculptor and the owner/operator of the Fire Works Foundry and sculpture studio in Yates County, New York. He is known for a number of commissions ranging from small commemorative awards to monumental bronze portrait figures.

Donald S. Sottile of Penn Yan, NY, is an accomplished sculptor working in both bronze and wood.

The Good Luck Party: Paintings and Sculptures by Adam Francey
Limestone Art and Framing Gallery

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

Works of Tim Etter, Gretchen Hamlin, and Lisa Noviasky
Skaneateles Artisans

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

New exhibit featuring artists Tim Etter, photography; Gretchen Hamlin, blown glass jewelry; and Lisa Noviasky, oil paintings.

Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth
Syracuse University Art Museum

Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition explores multiple facets of Michelangelo's life, art and reputation with more than 25 works by the master and artists contemporary to him, including 14 original works by Michelangelo chosen to illustrate the broad range of his interests and creative activities. Figural studies associated with the Sistine Chapel and other paintings appear alongside original architectural plans and sketches of ancient Roman monuments. Printed books complement autograph examples of the artist's poetry. Eight of the Michelangelo works in the exhibition -- five drawings, including "Study for a Gate" and "Christ in Limbo," and three manuscript pages -- have never been seen in this country.

Founding Visionaries: Herb Williams and Jack White
Community Folk Art Center

Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

The Community Folk Art Center is proud to exhibit this unique collection of sculptures, drawings and prints by two CFAC founders, Herb Williams and Jack White.

Celebrating Herb Williams: His Life, His Work, and His Art: As CFAC founding director, Herb Williams (1938-1999) devoted his life to promoting the work of diverse artists and ensuring that a large audience could experience their work. His dedication to the collective vision of the founding members kept Williams busy and while he avidly supported and promoted other artist he rarely took time exhibit his own work. This will be the first large-scale exhibition of Williams work in Upstate New York. Though he identified himself primarily as a sculptor, Williams worked across various artistic mediums; manipulating wood, plaster and bronze into figurative and abstract forms. His lithographs and etchings not only indicate the measure of his artistic skill and creativity but also serve as a chronicle of his literal, figurative journey as an artist.

Jack White: An Ancestral Image is a collection of the works by CFAC co-founder and artist Jack White. Since the late 1960s, Jack White's mixed media abstract work, defined as "abstract impressionism," has been inspired by African art forms and symbolism. The works included in the Ancestral Image exhibition are outside the boundaries of traditional painting or sculpture. They contain elements of the spiritual, the artistic, and the utilitarian that define African art.

March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed the World
Community Folk Art Center

Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Original illustrated works by London Ladd

Exploring History With Art: Childhood Through The Years
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The latest exhibit in the Exploring History with Art series features paintings from the permanent collection. 19th-century portraits of children, focusing on children of prominent local families, convey historical circumstances as well as social ideals. 20th-century genre paintings show children in their element: in the bathtub, at recess, and on vacation. The exhibit also features historical objects that enliven the space and impart a sense of the experience of childhood from the cradle to school days and play time. Childhood Through The Years is not only an excellent opportunity to delve into the history of childhood but also the exhibition represents a moment, as fleeting as childhood itself, for parents and children to share their experiences through the interplay of art and history.

Dreams of Promise and Peril
The Warehouse Gallery

Price: Free
The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The role that artists play as cultural barometers always seems to be heightened in times of change and uncertainty. Although they employ different approaches, from timely reportage to futuristic illusions, all of the artists in the exhibition explore the terrain where hopes and dreams collide. By making visible the complex emotions we all sometimes experience the artists in this exhibition ask us to deeply consider the promise and peril that exists both in the fantasies we create and the realities we deny.

All of the work in this exhibition was borrowed from the JGS, Inc. collection, a non-profit photography organization based in New York City. JGS and Syracuse University have entered into an agreement to collaborate on traveling exhibitions, research, publications, and other projects utilizing work from the JGS collection that includes over 8,000 photographs spanning the history of the medium. This exhibition is an example of that collaboration and at the conclusion of the exhibition SUArt Galleries will create traveling solo exhibitions by each of the four artists.

Festa Italiana

Price: Free
Washington St. (in front of City Hall)
Syracuse

1:302:30 PM: Student Showcase
2:453:45 PM: IACC Folkloristic Group (Rochester, NY)
4:004:45 PM: Dance Centre North (Cathy Mucci)
5:006:00 PM: Danielle & Mood Swing
6:157:15 PM: Allegro
7:308:30 PM: Dominick Mantuano, tenor
9:0011:00 PM: Jimmy Cavallo

Au pres de vous: 16th century French Chansons
Mignarda Lutesong Duo

Price: $12 regular, $10 students/seniors; children under 12 free
Pebble Hill Presbyterian Church
5299 Jamesville Rd., Dewitt

Ithaca-area Mignarda Lutesong Duo, Ron Andrico and Donna Stewart, presents an evening of 16th-century French chansons. The duo is joined for this performance by five Ithaca-area singers, who will add texture and variety to this unusual program, which will feature several chansons that have not been performed for nearly 500 years.

Celebrating 25
Gregory Sheppard, bass
David Ross, conductor
Featuring Syracuse Symhony Orchestra

Price: $50
Setnor Auditorium, Crouse College
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Gregory Sheppard has appeared in leading roles with Syracuse Opera, San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Northeast, Buffalo Opera, MET Opera Education, Philadelphia Opera, Pennsylvania Opera Theater, Orlando Opera and others. He has performed with many orchestra, including the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Denver Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Sioux City Symphony, Queens Symphony, Western New York Chamber Orchestra, Syracuse Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra.

Mr. Sheppard has appeared as soloist with conductors Andre Previn, Paul Nadler, Everett Lee, Christopher Keene, Willie Waters, Brian Salesky, and James Conlon. Mr. Sheppard's innovative collaborations with artists on the cutting edge in their fields including Tania Leon, Tan Dunn, Wayne Sanders, Bruce Adolph, and Mark Lamos serve to add new dimensions and exciting new challenges to his work. He is the winner of a Metropolitan Opera National Council Award and Study Grant, Friday Music Clubs Young Artist Award, New York University Jan Peerce Scholarship, Syracuse Opera Artist Award, Queens Opera Award, and numerous others.

Mr. Sheppard holds a Bachelors Degree in Voice Performance from Syracuse University and a Master of Arts Degree in Voice and Opera Studies from New York University. He has been a member of the voice faculty at NYU since 2000.

Children's Letters to God
Rarely Done Productions

Price: $20
Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

The musical follows the lives of five young friends as they voice beliefs, desires, question, and doubts common to all people but most disarmingly expressed by children. Sixteen tuneful songs and assorted scenes explore timeless issues such as sibling rivalry, divorce, holidays, loss of a beloved pet, the trials of being unathletic, and first love.

Read a Review!

Goodbye Charlie
Appleseed Productions
William Edward White, director

Price: $15 regular; $12 students/seniors
Atonement Lutheran Church
116 W. Glen Ave., Syracuse

Charlie was a demon lover, a connoisseur of wines, and the possessor of a fine backhand. He met his end trying to escape through a porthole on a cuckold's yacht. Now Charlie has returned as a woman, and his big problem is changing his personality from male to female. The transformation of attitudes, gestures, and expressions is hilarious. Posing as Charlie's wife, his female reincarnation meets several of his mistresses and begins a collection for a memorial to Charlie, at $5000 apiece. Meanwhile Charlie's friend has begun to feel a different kind of affection for the new Charlie. Written by George Axelrod.

Read a Review!

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

A young horn player with a pocket full of songs and a head full of dreams longs to place his name among the giants of the blues, legends of the likes of Ma Rainey, for whom he is a session sideman. Ma has pushed the boundaries, struggling with shady producers and battling prejudice to become a successful recording artist and the Mother of the Blues. Now, in a single day of making music, making jokes and making deals, the young horn player succumbs to the harsh realities of unjustly thwarted aspirations and the self-destructive consequences of misdirected anger and violence. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is the landmark, contemporary classic that marked August Wilson's entry into his monumental ten-play chronicle of African-American life in the 20th century.

Read a Review!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Ernesto Pujol Exhibition: Walk #1
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

The black-and-white digital images in this exhibition follow a figure clad in a black robe, Pujol himself, walking through a Civil War cemetery in South Carolina. The photographs are arranged in sequential order in the gallery, depicting a dialogue between the figure, nature, and architecture. According to René Paul Barilleaux, "A lush Southern landscape, ornate Victorian cast ironwork, carved marble statuary, and other picturesque elements appear as a counterpoint to the dark, nearly motionless walker."

Pujol conceived this series as a combination between a performance (the walking) and installation. According to Pujol, he had avoided going to the cemetery for some time, but "When I first set foot in that city of the dead, I suddenly realized that it was the familiar environment I had dreamed about for years. I had experienced recurring dreams of marble arches and colonnades surrounded by gated gardens and water." After beginning to photograph the area in a documentary style, he quickly realized that he needed to walk through the space in a performative way, which resulted in the photographs depicted in this exhibition.

In addition to the digital images, this exhibition also features the black robe worn in the photographs, displayed on a mannequin in the center of the gallery, as well as twelve small, framed, hand-blown glass plates hanging on the wall with the images. Each plate has a word painted on it, meant to evoke a personal or emotional response from the viewers in the gallery. Ernesto Pujol

Pujol was born in Cuba and grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He received his BA in humanities and painting from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, and his MFA in interdisciplinary art practice from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been exhibited internationally, and he has received numerous awards and fellowships. In addition, Pujol's work is included in various permanent collections, including at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University; Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; among many others. He participated in Light Work's Artist-in-Residence program in 1999.

Rita Hammond Exhibition: Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

A nationally recognized artist and photographer, Rita Hammond (1924-1999) was a dynamic and greatly admired presence in the Central New York art community. With audacity, intelligence, and humor, Hammond's work reflected on major figures from the history of art and photography. "Images of a Girl, Images of a Woman" offers a body of photographs from Hammond's long-time collaboration with Lynn Moser. The series juxtaposes images of Moser as a young girl in 1967 with images of her as a woman 20 years later, revealing the dramatic and intimate effects of time, reflected in both the subject and the perspective of the photographer.

Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth
Syracuse University Art Museum

Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition explores multiple facets of Michelangelo's life, art and reputation with more than 25 works by the master and artists contemporary to him, including 14 original works by Michelangelo chosen to illustrate the broad range of his interests and creative activities. Figural studies associated with the Sistine Chapel and other paintings appear alongside original architectural plans and sketches of ancient Roman monuments. Printed books complement autograph examples of the artist's poetry. Eight of the Michelangelo works in the exhibition -- five drawings, including "Study for a Gate" and "Christ in Limbo," and three manuscript pages -- have never been seen in this country.

Exploring History With Art: Childhood Through The Years
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The latest exhibit in the Exploring History with Art series features paintings from the permanent collection. 19th-century portraits of children, focusing on children of prominent local families, convey historical circumstances as well as social ideals. 20th-century genre paintings show children in their element: in the bathtub, at recess, and on vacation. The exhibit also features historical objects that enliven the space and impart a sense of the experience of childhood from the cradle to school days and play time. Childhood Through The Years is not only an excellent opportunity to delve into the history of childhood but also the exhibition represents a moment, as fleeting as childhood itself, for parents and children to share their experiences through the interplay of art and history.

Works of Tim Etter, Gretchen Hamlin, and Lisa Noviasky
Skaneateles Artisans

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

New exhibit featuring artists Tim Etter, photography; Gretchen Hamlin, blown glass jewelry; and Lisa Noviasky, oil paintings.

Festa Italiana

Price: Free
Washington St. (in front of City Hall)
Syracuse

2:003:00 PM: David Baker, Tribute to Frank Sinatra
3:154:15 PM: Lisa Gentile Band
5:006:30 PM: Jimmy Cavallo
6:458:00 PM: Prime Time, Paul Valentino

2nd Annual Percussion Day
Adanfo African Drummers, La Rumba Cubana, Kambuyu Marimba

Price: Free
Thornden Park Amphitheater
Ostrom Ave., Syracuse

Area percussion groups with styles that span the world will play a free concert that can be enjoyed by the whole family. Bring a blanket or lawn chairs and enjoy the music and the lovely ambiance of the Amphitheater, one of Syracuse's hidden gems.

Adanfo African Drummers, under the direction of Etse Nyadedzor, play music from Ghana in West Africa. The members of La Rumba Cubana, as you might guess, hail from Cuba, and play the exciting and complex styles associated with that Afro-Caribbean culture. Kambuyu Marimba use a variety of sizes of marimbas, tuned keyboard percussion instruments, to play the music of Zimbabwe in southern Africa.

Three New Short Plays: The Kiss, You can't Be Switzerland, and Man on Television
Armory Square Playwrights

Price: $7 regular, $5 students/seniors
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

Armory Square Playhouse will present a reading of a staged reading of three new short plays by Kathy Kramer, Amy Doherty, and Craig Thornton.

Amy Doherty's short play, The Kiss, is about connection, or the lack thereof, in a family consisting of two sisters and a daughter, and spans a period of some 30 years.

The short play, You Can't Be Switzerland, written by Kathy Kramer, explores the quirks, the harmless and inconsequential idiosyncrasies, that lie within us all. But when the quirks of Hannah, Richard, and Charlotte collide, deeper problems will emerge. You Can't Be Switzerland is an absurdist look at how we differ -- in our perceptions of humor, our need for control, our fear of conflict. The reading of Ms. Kramer's play represents a collaboration with Ithaca based artists and will be directed by Judith Pratt and features actors Melanie Uhlir, Justin Lantz, Judith Andrew.

Man on Television, a short play by Craig Thorton, is a dark absurdist comedy that finds a middle-aged couple in their bedroom desperately trying to improve their life through the wisdom of television as its presence becomes creepily intrusive when the title character spouts advice and spins fear. The reading of Mr. Thornton's work will also be collaboration involving artists new to Syracuse audiences, featuring actors from the Watertown area.

Amy Doherty holds a BFA from Drake University an MLS from SU and is a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater. Several of her plays have had readings by Armory Square Playhouse. Amy is an enthusiastic member of Gerard Moses' Saturday Workshop and was twice selected to attend the summer playwriting intensive at Sarah Lawrence College.

Kathy Kramer lives near Ithaca, where several of her full-length plays and numerous shorter works have been produced. In 2007, her play Hearts of Clover was a semi-finalist in the Eileen Heckart Drama Competition at Ohio State and a winner in the Appalachian New Play Festival in Athens, OH. Two of her plays were presented in "Asphalt Jungle Shorts," a festival of site-specific works in Ontario, Canada.

Craig Thornton's plays have been produced in New York City, Los Angeles and upstate New York. The Los Angeles production of Happy Birthday, Tina Marie was chosen "pick of the week," hailed as "brilliant and witty" by the LA Times and is permanently housed in the LA Central Library as one of the best plays of the year. He is a former recipient of a MacDowell Colony Grant and his plays have been finalists in four major National Playwriting competitions.

The three plays are presentations of a works in progress and talkback discussions with the playwrights will follow the performances.

Goodbye Charlie
Appleseed Productions
William Edward White, director

Price: $15 regular; $12 students/seniors
Atonement Lutheran Church
116 W. Glen Ave., Syracuse

Charlie was a demon lover, a connoisseur of wines, and the possessor of a fine backhand. He met his end trying to escape through a porthole on a cuckold's yacht. Now Charlie has returned as a woman, and his big problem is changing his personality from male to female. The transformation of attitudes, gestures, and expressions is hilarious. Posing as Charlie's wife, his female reincarnation meets several of his mistresses and begins a collection for a memorial to Charlie, at $5000 apiece. Meanwhile Charlie's friend has begun to feel a different kind of affection for the new Charlie. Written by George Axelrod.

Read a Review!

Children's Letters to God
Rarely Done Productions

Price: $20
Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

The musical follows the lives of five young friends as they voice beliefs, desires, question, and doubts common to all people but most disarmingly expressed by children. Sixteen tuneful songs and assorted scenes explore timeless issues such as sibling rivalry, divorce, holidays, loss of a beloved pet, the trials of being unathletic, and first love.

Read a Review!

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Syracuse Stage
Timothy Bond, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

A young horn player with a pocket full of songs and a head full of dreams longs to place his name among the giants of the blues, legends of the likes of Ma Rainey, for whom he is a session sideman. Ma has pushed the boundaries, struggling with shady producers and battling prejudice to become a successful recording artist and the Mother of the Blues. Now, in a single day of making music, making jokes and making deals, the young horn player succumbs to the harsh realities of unjustly thwarted aspirations and the self-destructive consequences of misdirected anger and violence. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is the landmark, contemporary classic that marked August Wilson's entry into his monumental ten-play chronicle of African-American life in the 20th century.

Read a Review!