Monday, August 8, 2011

Nature As Our Muse: Works by Margaret Manring and Diana Whiting
Baltimore Woods

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

Working in the very different media of watercolor and photography, Margaret Manring and Diana Whiting take the viewer into the often fascinating and always compelling natural world. Manring describes the inspiration she derives from nature when approaching her watercolor painting: "I paint what moves me. Mostly I am looking at the way light moves over color and form and the many rhythms in patterns. I like ... trying to paint how the sunlit air smelled, how it cooled and slid down a hill or permeated a field or warmed in a chicken coop. I try to convey how I felt viewing the landscape, the (un)still life ..."

Whiting's passion for photography and for nature go hand in hand. Whiting explains: "Since I love nature, it is a natural fit that I bring (my) love of making photographs to the places that I spend a lot of time. I like looking for simplicity as well as finding a sense of rhythm in many of my photographs. With wildlife, I like to learn about my subjects as much as getting their photographs. My hope is to share my connection to the natural world and encourage conservation."

The work of these two award-winning artists has been exhibited and widely published. Manring's watercolors have been accepted on the national level in shows at Cooperstown, The Schweinfurth, and Old Forge. Whiting's work has been recognized by the National Audubon Society and the National Wildlife Federation.

For more information, visit www.baltimorewoods.org.

Leftovers for Dinner
Point of Contact Gallery

Price: Free
Point of Contact Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

SU sculpture students Becky Reiser and Alexander Svoboda present their collaborative installation.

Through Our Eyes: A Father-Daughter Photography Exhibit
Westcott Community Art Gallery

Price: Free
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

A photographic journey through the travels of father and daughter, Steve and Molly Susman.

Notes of Color
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

The exhibit features paintings by Kathy Schneider and glass jewelry by Heather Hennigen.

Barry Darling Exhibition
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Paintings by Tully artist and educator Barry Darling will be featured throughout the month of August. His recent work involves acrylic color, acrylic medium on canvas and paper, and random use of ink transfers and acrylic pastes.

Darling, who was director of the Department of Art at Henninger High School for almost 30 years, has been an adjunct assistant professor of art at Le Moyne College since 1990.

[hyphen] Americans
Light Work Gallery

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

The exhibition features stunning tintype portraits created by photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. The exhibition title speaks to the multicultural character of American identities (Irish-American, African-American, etc.). Although a person's heritage might be inferred by looking at their features and clothing, viewers of Anderson-Staley's work are encouraged, according to the artist, "to suspend the kind of thinking that would traditionally assist in decoding these images in the context of American identity politics."

Anderson-Staley makes portraits with the 19th-century wet-plate collodion process. She uses wooden view cameras, 19th-century brass lenses and chemicals she hand-mixes according to the traditional formulas. In this series, she focuses on just one plane in the face--usually the eyes. The exposures are long, lasting anywhere from 10-60 seconds, so the images capture a full moment of thought. Because of these characteristics of the process, there is an introspective quality to each portrait, as if each person has been caught looking at himself or herself in a mirror.

The portraits in the exhibition are mostly individuals from the broader Syracuse community photographed during Anderson-Staley's residency in 2010. This collection of tintypes, numbering more than 100, is thus as much a portrait of a diverse community as it is a series of individual portraits.

Read a review!

Layers: Kimonos and Fans
Redhouse

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

Layers: Kimonos and Fans uses multiple, suspended 6x3-foot paper kimonos that are painted and collaged, and incorporate air movement and sound. Christina Laurel, a Syracuse native residing in Rochester, transforms temporary paper shades into larger-than-life metaphorical images, and further transforms some of the accordion-folds into 39x53-inch paper fans framed by yardsticks.

Salsa son Timba
Liverpool is the Place

Price: Free
Johnson Park
Corner of Vine and Oswego Streets, Liverpool

Latin dance music.

Bring lawn chair or blanket for seating.

Annual Summer Concert
Syracuse University Summer Festival Orchestra
James R. Tapia, conductor

Price: Free
Goldstein Auditorium, Schine Student Center
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Rossini William Tell Overture
Tchaikovsky "Waltz" from Eugene Onegin
Elgar Variations for Orchestra, "Enigma"

The Summer Festival Orchestra has a history of success in bringing together a diverse mix of musicians from the community to create a talented, all-volunteer ensemble. The musicians include students from SU and other area schools, as well as members of the former Symphony Syracuse Orchestra.

For more information about the performance, contact James Tapia at 315-443-5892.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Nature As Our Muse: Works by Margaret Manring and Diana Whiting
Baltimore Woods

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

Working in the very different media of watercolor and photography, Margaret Manring and Diana Whiting take the viewer into the often fascinating and always compelling natural world. Manring describes the inspiration she derives from nature when approaching her watercolor painting: "I paint what moves me. Mostly I am looking at the way light moves over color and form and the many rhythms in patterns. I like ... trying to paint how the sunlit air smelled, how it cooled and slid down a hill or permeated a field or warmed in a chicken coop. I try to convey how I felt viewing the landscape, the (un)still life ..."

Whiting's passion for photography and for nature go hand in hand. Whiting explains: "Since I love nature, it is a natural fit that I bring (my) love of making photographs to the places that I spend a lot of time. I like looking for simplicity as well as finding a sense of rhythm in many of my photographs. With wildlife, I like to learn about my subjects as much as getting their photographs. My hope is to share my connection to the natural world and encourage conservation."

The work of these two award-winning artists has been exhibited and widely published. Manring's watercolors have been accepted on the national level in shows at Cooperstown, The Schweinfurth, and Old Forge. Whiting's work has been recognized by the National Audubon Society and the National Wildlife Federation.

For more information, visit www.baltimorewoods.org.

Leftovers for Dinner
Point of Contact Gallery

Price: Free
Point of Contact Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

SU sculpture students Becky Reiser and Alexander Svoboda present their collaborative installation.

Through Our Eyes: A Father-Daughter Photography Exhibit
Westcott Community Art Gallery

Price: Free
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

A photographic journey through the travels of father and daughter, Steve and Molly Susman.

Activated Space
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Jacqueline Adamo: abstract oil paintings on linen and canvas
Miyo Hirano: raku,gas and wood fired ceramics
Melissa Montgomery: concrete sculpture
Bradley Hudson: mixed media on paper and canvas

Notes of Color
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

The exhibit features paintings by Kathy Schneider and glass jewelry by Heather Hennigen.

Barry Darling Exhibition
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Paintings by Tully artist and educator Barry Darling will be featured throughout the month of August. His recent work involves acrylic color, acrylic medium on canvas and paper, and random use of ink transfers and acrylic pastes.

Darling, who was director of the Department of Art at Henninger High School for almost 30 years, has been an adjunct assistant professor of art at Le Moyne College since 1990.

[hyphen] Americans
Light Work Gallery

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

The exhibition features stunning tintype portraits created by photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. The exhibition title speaks to the multicultural character of American identities (Irish-American, African-American, etc.). Although a person's heritage might be inferred by looking at their features and clothing, viewers of Anderson-Staley's work are encouraged, according to the artist, "to suspend the kind of thinking that would traditionally assist in decoding these images in the context of American identity politics."

Anderson-Staley makes portraits with the 19th-century wet-plate collodion process. She uses wooden view cameras, 19th-century brass lenses and chemicals she hand-mixes according to the traditional formulas. In this series, she focuses on just one plane in the face--usually the eyes. The exposures are long, lasting anywhere from 10-60 seconds, so the images capture a full moment of thought. Because of these characteristics of the process, there is an introspective quality to each portrait, as if each person has been caught looking at himself or herself in a mirror.

The portraits in the exhibition are mostly individuals from the broader Syracuse community photographed during Anderson-Staley's residency in 2010. This collection of tintypes, numbering more than 100, is thus as much a portrait of a diverse community as it is a series of individual portraits.

Read a review!

Curiosities Below and Synchronicity: Works by Rachel Harms and Ann Skiöld
Limestone Art and Framing Gallery

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

Rachel Harms' exhibition, "Curiosities Below," features new oil paintings that are influenced through memory and sensory experience of place, color, and light. Many of the shapes and colors in this series have evolved from repetitive pattern in nature, found objects, the pervasiveness of water, things hidden and exposed. The surfaces of her paintings reveal subtle hints of what lies below.

Ann Skiöld's exhibition, "Synchronicity," features her new paintings and collages as "inscapes." The artist describes "inscape" as the result from experiencing many things at the same time. It is through processing these experiences, we are able to interpret them in a very personal way. Skiöld's abstract paintings and collages have a raw, yet lyrical style with a mysterious undertone.

Layers: Kimonos and Fans
Redhouse

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

Layers: Kimonos and Fans uses multiple, suspended 6x3-foot paper kimonos that are painted and collaged, and incorporate air movement and sound. Christina Laurel, a Syracuse native residing in Rochester, transforms temporary paper shades into larger-than-life metaphorical images, and further transforms some of the accordion-folds into 39x53-inch paper fans framed by yardsticks.

Still Life: Revisited
Everson Museum of Art

Price: Suggested donation $5 adults
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

The current exhibition examines the influence of painting on photography within the still life genre. 19th- and 20th-century American paintings from the permanent collection will be on display with the work of contemporary photographers such as Sharon Core, Laura Letinsky, Paulette Tavormina, and D.W. Mellor, and Irving Penn. Daniel K. Tennant, a local still life painter and photographer will also be included.

Read a review!

The Power of Pattern: New Work by David MacDonald
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

David MacDonald's long awaited solo exhibition will open with an innovative body of work. The highlight of the exhibition will be a monumental work commissioned by the Everson in 2008 with funds donated by the Social Arts Club. Also on view will be several new figurative vessels, monumental in scale, and plates from the Divination Series. Recently retired from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts where he taught ceramics for more than 37 years, MacDonald is now able to concentrate on a new body of work.

Early in his career, ceramic artist David MacDonald turned to his African heritage for inspiration in his work. The many examples of surface pattern and decoration found in textiles, utilitarian objects, body ornament and architecture present among the diverse ethnic groups of sub-Sahara Africa continue to inform MacDonald's work on many levels. In his artist's statement, he proclaims "The principle concern of my art is the articulation of the magnificence and nobility of the human spirit; a celebration of my African heritage." For more than three decades, MacDonald has used clay to express these words through a significant body of work focusing on highly decorated utilitarian objects that have come to symbolize tremendous integrity and endurance.

MacDonald is recognized nationally not only for his master craftsmanship in ceramics but for his dedication as a mentor and teacher to a countless number of aspiring artists and students. Locally, he is a founding member of the Community Folk Art Center, an organization affiliated with Syracuse University's Department of African American Studies that aims to provide a space to engage artists from underrrepresented ethnic groups in Central New York. In addition, MacDonald is involved in many community activities including serving on the Everson's Collection Committee.

Celestial Nights: Visions of an Ancient Land
Everson Museum of Art

Price: Suggested donation $5 adults
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

The Everson recently received a gift of 47 black-and-white photographs by Neil Folberg entitled "Celestial Nights: Visions of an Ancient Land." "Celestial Nights" is a stunning portfolio of nocturnal landscapes and star-filled skies set in ancient ruins found in the Middle East. The artist skillfully captures a spectacular world of nocturnal landscapes in Israel and the Sinai where the horizon is not always definitive. The earth and heavens are mingled in this series of arresting images, which to Folberg represents a blurred division between present and eternity, substance and spirit, and knowledge and imagination. Folberg writes, "In landscape I see a revelation of how pure spirituality has descended into physical existence ... These are the scenes, on the human edge of the cosmos, that I am showing in these photographs."

Neil Folberg was born in San Francisco and grew up in the Midwest. He was a student of Ansel Adams in 1967 and enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley the following year. In 1976 He moved to Jerusalem, a place that has become the subject of much of his work. He has exhibited widely and published several photographic books including the internationally acclaimed In A Desert Land (1987), a series of color photographs of Middle Eastern landscapes and architecture. His second book, And I Shall Dwell Among Them (1995) featured synagogue architecture throughout the Jewish Diaspora. Celestial Nights, published in 2001, became a major traveling exhibition organized by Aperture.

Unique 2011
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Unique is an art and literary magazine that shares the artistic visions and voices of individuals with disabilities. Unique represents the power of art to express, educate, and inspire. Art comes in many forms and the creative work published in Unique includes poems, paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, computer-based art, and mixed-media works.

The Billionaires
Town of Clay

Price: Free
Clay Park Central
Wetzel Rd., Liverpool

Bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating. Food available for purchase.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Nature As Our Muse: Works by Margaret Manring and Diana Whiting
Baltimore Woods

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

Working in the very different media of watercolor and photography, Margaret Manring and Diana Whiting take the viewer into the often fascinating and always compelling natural world. Manring describes the inspiration she derives from nature when approaching her watercolor painting: "I paint what moves me. Mostly I am looking at the way light moves over color and form and the many rhythms in patterns. I like ... trying to paint how the sunlit air smelled, how it cooled and slid down a hill or permeated a field or warmed in a chicken coop. I try to convey how I felt viewing the landscape, the (un)still life ..."

Whiting's passion for photography and for nature go hand in hand. Whiting explains: "Since I love nature, it is a natural fit that I bring (my) love of making photographs to the places that I spend a lot of time. I like looking for simplicity as well as finding a sense of rhythm in many of my photographs. With wildlife, I like to learn about my subjects as much as getting their photographs. My hope is to share my connection to the natural world and encourage conservation."

The work of these two award-winning artists has been exhibited and widely published. Manring's watercolors have been accepted on the national level in shows at Cooperstown, The Schweinfurth, and Old Forge. Whiting's work has been recognized by the National Audubon Society and the National Wildlife Federation.

For more information, visit www.baltimorewoods.org.

Leftovers for Dinner
Point of Contact Gallery

Price: Free
Point of Contact Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

SU sculpture students Becky Reiser and Alexander Svoboda present their collaborative installation.

Through Our Eyes: A Father-Daughter Photography Exhibit
Westcott Community Art Gallery

Price: Free
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

A photographic journey through the travels of father and daughter, Steve and Molly Susman.

Activated Space
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Jacqueline Adamo: abstract oil paintings on linen and canvas
Miyo Hirano: raku,gas and wood fired ceramics
Melissa Montgomery: concrete sculpture
Bradley Hudson: mixed media on paper and canvas

Notes of Color
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

The exhibit features paintings by Kathy Schneider and glass jewelry by Heather Hennigen.

Barry Darling Exhibition
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Paintings by Tully artist and educator Barry Darling will be featured throughout the month of August. His recent work involves acrylic color, acrylic medium on canvas and paper, and random use of ink transfers and acrylic pastes.

Darling, who was director of the Department of Art at Henninger High School for almost 30 years, has been an adjunct assistant professor of art at Le Moyne College since 1990.

[hyphen] Americans
Light Work Gallery

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

The exhibition features stunning tintype portraits created by photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. The exhibition title speaks to the multicultural character of American identities (Irish-American, African-American, etc.). Although a person's heritage might be inferred by looking at their features and clothing, viewers of Anderson-Staley's work are encouraged, according to the artist, "to suspend the kind of thinking that would traditionally assist in decoding these images in the context of American identity politics."

Anderson-Staley makes portraits with the 19th-century wet-plate collodion process. She uses wooden view cameras, 19th-century brass lenses and chemicals she hand-mixes according to the traditional formulas. In this series, she focuses on just one plane in the face--usually the eyes. The exposures are long, lasting anywhere from 10-60 seconds, so the images capture a full moment of thought. Because of these characteristics of the process, there is an introspective quality to each portrait, as if each person has been caught looking at himself or herself in a mirror.

The portraits in the exhibition are mostly individuals from the broader Syracuse community photographed during Anderson-Staley's residency in 2010. This collection of tintypes, numbering more than 100, is thus as much a portrait of a diverse community as it is a series of individual portraits.

Read a review!

Curiosities Below and Synchronicity: Works by Rachel Harms and Ann Skiöld
Limestone Art and Framing Gallery

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

Rachel Harms' exhibition, "Curiosities Below," features new oil paintings that are influenced through memory and sensory experience of place, color, and light. Many of the shapes and colors in this series have evolved from repetitive pattern in nature, found objects, the pervasiveness of water, things hidden and exposed. The surfaces of her paintings reveal subtle hints of what lies below.

Ann Skiöld's exhibition, "Synchronicity," features her new paintings and collages as "inscapes." The artist describes "inscape" as the result from experiencing many things at the same time. It is through processing these experiences, we are able to interpret them in a very personal way. Skiöld's abstract paintings and collages have a raw, yet lyrical style with a mysterious undertone.

Layers: Kimonos and Fans
Redhouse

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

Layers: Kimonos and Fans uses multiple, suspended 6x3-foot paper kimonos that are painted and collaged, and incorporate air movement and sound. Christina Laurel, a Syracuse native residing in Rochester, transforms temporary paper shades into larger-than-life metaphorical images, and further transforms some of the accordion-folds into 39x53-inch paper fans framed by yardsticks.

It's Elemental: Works of Laura and Fred Wellner
Szozda Gallery

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

Duo artists and soulmates Laura and Fred Wellner visually express their appreciation of the world's natural environment in a stunning display of their collective works including abstract mixed media and stone sculpture.

Still Life: Revisited
Everson Museum of Art

Price: Suggested donation $5 adults
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

The current exhibition examines the influence of painting on photography within the still life genre. 19th- and 20th-century American paintings from the permanent collection will be on display with the work of contemporary photographers such as Sharon Core, Laura Letinsky, Paulette Tavormina, and D.W. Mellor, and Irving Penn. Daniel K. Tennant, a local still life painter and photographer will also be included.

Read a review!

Celestial Nights: Visions of an Ancient Land
Everson Museum of Art

Price: Suggested donation $5 adults
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

The Everson recently received a gift of 47 black-and-white photographs by Neil Folberg entitled "Celestial Nights: Visions of an Ancient Land." "Celestial Nights" is a stunning portfolio of nocturnal landscapes and star-filled skies set in ancient ruins found in the Middle East. The artist skillfully captures a spectacular world of nocturnal landscapes in Israel and the Sinai where the horizon is not always definitive. The earth and heavens are mingled in this series of arresting images, which to Folberg represents a blurred division between present and eternity, substance and spirit, and knowledge and imagination. Folberg writes, "In landscape I see a revelation of how pure spirituality has descended into physical existence ... These are the scenes, on the human edge of the cosmos, that I am showing in these photographs."

Neil Folberg was born in San Francisco and grew up in the Midwest. He was a student of Ansel Adams in 1967 and enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley the following year. In 1976 He moved to Jerusalem, a place that has become the subject of much of his work. He has exhibited widely and published several photographic books including the internationally acclaimed In A Desert Land (1987), a series of color photographs of Middle Eastern landscapes and architecture. His second book, And I Shall Dwell Among Them (1995) featured synagogue architecture throughout the Jewish Diaspora. Celestial Nights, published in 2001, became a major traveling exhibition organized by Aperture.

The Power of Pattern: New Work by David MacDonald
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

David MacDonald's long awaited solo exhibition will open with an innovative body of work. The highlight of the exhibition will be a monumental work commissioned by the Everson in 2008 with funds donated by the Social Arts Club. Also on view will be several new figurative vessels, monumental in scale, and plates from the Divination Series. Recently retired from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts where he taught ceramics for more than 37 years, MacDonald is now able to concentrate on a new body of work.

Early in his career, ceramic artist David MacDonald turned to his African heritage for inspiration in his work. The many examples of surface pattern and decoration found in textiles, utilitarian objects, body ornament and architecture present among the diverse ethnic groups of sub-Sahara Africa continue to inform MacDonald's work on many levels. In his artist's statement, he proclaims "The principle concern of my art is the articulation of the magnificence and nobility of the human spirit; a celebration of my African heritage." For more than three decades, MacDonald has used clay to express these words through a significant body of work focusing on highly decorated utilitarian objects that have come to symbolize tremendous integrity and endurance.

MacDonald is recognized nationally not only for his master craftsmanship in ceramics but for his dedication as a mentor and teacher to a countless number of aspiring artists and students. Locally, he is a founding member of the Community Folk Art Center, an organization affiliated with Syracuse University's Department of African American Studies that aims to provide a space to engage artists from underrrepresented ethnic groups in Central New York. In addition, MacDonald is involved in many community activities including serving on the Everson's Collection Committee.

Unique 2011
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Unique is an art and literary magazine that shares the artistic visions and voices of individuals with disabilities. Unique represents the power of art to express, educate, and inspire. Art comes in many forms and the creative work published in Unique includes poems, paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, computer-based art, and mixed-media works.

Flicks on the Crick: Let Me In

Price: Free
Sound Garden parking lot
310 W. Jefferson St., Syracuse

Films will be projected in HD starting at dusk on the side of Sound Garden's building, where patrons can watch in Syracuse's new park along the creekwalk next to the MOST in Armory Square. People are invited to bring lawn chairs and early arrival is recommended.

Shadows of the Storm: The Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War
Onondaga Historical Association

Price: Free
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibition features paintings, prints, photographs and sketches made during the war by an array of individuals. There is an emphasis on images with local connections, either by the artist or photographer being from Central New York or through the subject involving activities of soldiers from this area.

Our Sporting Life: The Heroes, The Highlights, The History
Onondaga Historical Association

Price: Free
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This local sports history exhibit will highlight a variety of sports equipment, photographs, ephemera, and most importantly, the people involved in making sports history come alive. From baseball, to basketball, to football, hockey, bowling, and more, the exhibit will recount the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" for our local sports history makers. Visitors will learn more about Syracuse’s professional basketball team, women athletes, ice boating on Onondaga Lake, past Syracuse hockey teams, as well as African American athletes such as Moses Fleetwood Walker. Guests will also get a chance to see some vintage trophies, uniforms, equipment, and images of our local competitors in action.

Smokin'
North Syracuse Summer Concert Series

Price: Free
Lonergan Park
Route 11, just north of Taft Road, North Syracuse

Bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating. Food available for purchase. For more information, phone 315-458-8050.

Songwriting Circle with Mark Zane and friends
Kellish Hill Farm

Price: Donations accepted
Kellish Hill Farm
3192 Pompey Center Rd., Pompey

Five songwriters featuring Wendy Ramsey, Larry Hoyt, Jacque Kofi, Rory O'Bannion and Mark Zane will be performing in the round and discussing the song writing process. A good night to come out and learn from our gifted musicians in the area. If you've ever thought of song writing, this would be a great night to come out to Kellish Hill Farm. No experience needed, only a willingness to be open to the experience of songwriting. And audience is always welcome to just come and listen.

The Ron Spencer Band
Liverpool is the Place

Price: Free
Johnson Park
Corner of Vine and Oswego Streets, Liverpool

Blues.

Bring lawn chair or blanket for seating.

Special Event: Hyperscore Community Concert
Skaneateles Festival

First Presbyterian Church of Skaneateles
97 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Selections from Mozart String Quartet in G Major, K. 387
Stacy Garrop String Quartet No. 2, "Demons and Angels"
Stacy Garrop "Little Bits" for Violin, Clarinet, Cello and Piano
Brahms String Quartet Op. 51 No. 2 in A minor
Selected Hyperscore compositions for string quartet, written by community composers

Performers include the Chiara Quartet; David Ying, cello; Elinor Freer, piano; Stacy Garrop, composer; Alan Kay, clarinet.

The concert will be preceded at 7:00 with Behind the Scenes: Meet Composer Stacy Garrop.

Zach Deputy, with Jeff Bujak
Westcott Theater

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Nature As Our Muse: Works by Margaret Manring and Diana Whiting
Baltimore Woods

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

Working in the very different media of watercolor and photography, Margaret Manring and Diana Whiting take the viewer into the often fascinating and always compelling natural world. Manring describes the inspiration she derives from nature when approaching her watercolor painting: "I paint what moves me. Mostly I am looking at the way light moves over color and form and the many rhythms in patterns. I like ... trying to paint how the sunlit air smelled, how it cooled and slid down a hill or permeated a field or warmed in a chicken coop. I try to convey how I felt viewing the landscape, the (un)still life ..."

Whiting's passion for photography and for nature go hand in hand. Whiting explains: "Since I love nature, it is a natural fit that I bring (my) love of making photographs to the places that I spend a lot of time. I like looking for simplicity as well as finding a sense of rhythm in many of my photographs. With wildlife, I like to learn about my subjects as much as getting their photographs. My hope is to share my connection to the natural world and encourage conservation."

The work of these two award-winning artists has been exhibited and widely published. Manring's watercolors have been accepted on the national level in shows at Cooperstown, The Schweinfurth, and Old Forge. Whiting's work has been recognized by the National Audubon Society and the National Wildlife Federation.

For more information, visit www.baltimorewoods.org.

Leftovers for Dinner
Point of Contact Gallery

Price: Free
Point of Contact Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

SU sculpture students Becky Reiser and Alexander Svoboda present their collaborative installation.

Through Our Eyes: A Father-Daughter Photography Exhibit
Westcott Community Art Gallery

Price: Free
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

A photographic journey through the travels of father and daughter, Steve and Molly Susman.

Activated Space
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Jacqueline Adamo: abstract oil paintings on linen and canvas
Miyo Hirano: raku,gas and wood fired ceramics
Melissa Montgomery: concrete sculpture
Bradley Hudson: mixed media on paper and canvas

Notes of Color
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

The exhibit features paintings by Kathy Schneider and glass jewelry by Heather Hennigen.

Barry Darling Exhibition
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Paintings by Tully artist and educator Barry Darling will be featured throughout the month of August. His recent work involves acrylic color, acrylic medium on canvas and paper, and random use of ink transfers and acrylic pastes.

Darling, who was director of the Department of Art at Henninger High School for almost 30 years, has been an adjunct assistant professor of art at Le Moyne College since 1990.

[hyphen] Americans
Light Work Gallery

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

The exhibition features stunning tintype portraits created by photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. The exhibition title speaks to the multicultural character of American identities (Irish-American, African-American, etc.). Although a person's heritage might be inferred by looking at their features and clothing, viewers of Anderson-Staley's work are encouraged, according to the artist, "to suspend the kind of thinking that would traditionally assist in decoding these images in the context of American identity politics."

Anderson-Staley makes portraits with the 19th-century wet-plate collodion process. She uses wooden view cameras, 19th-century brass lenses and chemicals she hand-mixes according to the traditional formulas. In this series, she focuses on just one plane in the face--usually the eyes. The exposures are long, lasting anywhere from 10-60 seconds, so the images capture a full moment of thought. Because of these characteristics of the process, there is an introspective quality to each portrait, as if each person has been caught looking at himself or herself in a mirror.

The portraits in the exhibition are mostly individuals from the broader Syracuse community photographed during Anderson-Staley's residency in 2010. This collection of tintypes, numbering more than 100, is thus as much a portrait of a diverse community as it is a series of individual portraits.

Read a review!

Curiosities Below and Synchronicity: Works by Rachel Harms and Ann Skiöld
Limestone Art and Framing Gallery

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

Rachel Harms' exhibition, "Curiosities Below," features new oil paintings that are influenced through memory and sensory experience of place, color, and light. Many of the shapes and colors in this series have evolved from repetitive pattern in nature, found objects, the pervasiveness of water, things hidden and exposed. The surfaces of her paintings reveal subtle hints of what lies below.

Ann Skiöld's exhibition, "Synchronicity," features her new paintings and collages as "inscapes." The artist describes "inscape" as the result from experiencing many things at the same time. It is through processing these experiences, we are able to interpret them in a very personal way. Skiöld's abstract paintings and collages have a raw, yet lyrical style with a mysterious undertone.

Layers: Kimonos and Fans
Redhouse

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

Layers: Kimonos and Fans uses multiple, suspended 6x3-foot paper kimonos that are painted and collaged, and incorporate air movement and sound. Christina Laurel, a Syracuse native residing in Rochester, transforms temporary paper shades into larger-than-life metaphorical images, and further transforms some of the accordion-folds into 39x53-inch paper fans framed by yardsticks.

It's Elemental: Works of Laura and Fred Wellner
Szozda Gallery

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

Duo artists and soulmates Laura and Fred Wellner visually express their appreciation of the world's natural environment in a stunning display of their collective works including abstract mixed media and stone sculpture.

Still Life: Revisited
Everson Museum of Art

Price: Suggested donation $5 adults
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

The current exhibition examines the influence of painting on photography within the still life genre. 19th- and 20th-century American paintings from the permanent collection will be on display with the work of contemporary photographers such as Sharon Core, Laura Letinsky, Paulette Tavormina, and D.W. Mellor, and Irving Penn. Daniel K. Tennant, a local still life painter and photographer will also be included.

Read a review!

The Power of Pattern: New Work by David MacDonald
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

David MacDonald's long awaited solo exhibition will open with an innovative body of work. The highlight of the exhibition will be a monumental work commissioned by the Everson in 2008 with funds donated by the Social Arts Club. Also on view will be several new figurative vessels, monumental in scale, and plates from the Divination Series. Recently retired from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts where he taught ceramics for more than 37 years, MacDonald is now able to concentrate on a new body of work.

Early in his career, ceramic artist David MacDonald turned to his African heritage for inspiration in his work. The many examples of surface pattern and decoration found in textiles, utilitarian objects, body ornament and architecture present among the diverse ethnic groups of sub-Sahara Africa continue to inform MacDonald's work on many levels. In his artist's statement, he proclaims "The principle concern of my art is the articulation of the magnificence and nobility of the human spirit; a celebration of my African heritage." For more than three decades, MacDonald has used clay to express these words through a significant body of work focusing on highly decorated utilitarian objects that have come to symbolize tremendous integrity and endurance.

MacDonald is recognized nationally not only for his master craftsmanship in ceramics but for his dedication as a mentor and teacher to a countless number of aspiring artists and students. Locally, he is a founding member of the Community Folk Art Center, an organization affiliated with Syracuse University's Department of African American Studies that aims to provide a space to engage artists from underrrepresented ethnic groups in Central New York. In addition, MacDonald is involved in many community activities including serving on the Everson's Collection Committee.

Celestial Nights: Visions of an Ancient Land
Everson Museum of Art

Price: Suggested donation $5 adults
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

The Everson recently received a gift of 47 black-and-white photographs by Neil Folberg entitled "Celestial Nights: Visions of an Ancient Land." "Celestial Nights" is a stunning portfolio of nocturnal landscapes and star-filled skies set in ancient ruins found in the Middle East. The artist skillfully captures a spectacular world of nocturnal landscapes in Israel and the Sinai where the horizon is not always definitive. The earth and heavens are mingled in this series of arresting images, which to Folberg represents a blurred division between present and eternity, substance and spirit, and knowledge and imagination. Folberg writes, "In landscape I see a revelation of how pure spirituality has descended into physical existence ... These are the scenes, on the human edge of the cosmos, that I am showing in these photographs."

Neil Folberg was born in San Francisco and grew up in the Midwest. He was a student of Ansel Adams in 1967 and enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley the following year. In 1976 He moved to Jerusalem, a place that has become the subject of much of his work. He has exhibited widely and published several photographic books including the internationally acclaimed In A Desert Land (1987), a series of color photographs of Middle Eastern landscapes and architecture. His second book, And I Shall Dwell Among Them (1995) featured synagogue architecture throughout the Jewish Diaspora. Celestial Nights, published in 2001, became a major traveling exhibition organized by Aperture.

Unique 2011
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Unique is an art and literary magazine that shares the artistic visions and voices of individuals with disabilities. Unique represents the power of art to express, educate, and inspire. Art comes in many forms and the creative work published in Unique includes poems, paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, computer-based art, and mixed-media works.

My Recovery Story
XL Projects

Price: Free
XL Projects
307-313 S. Clinton St., Syracuse

Take these cameras. Tell your story.

That is what clients involved in Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare's (SBH) photo program were asked to do this past winter. Clients could take cameras wherever they wanted and take photos of whatever they wished, as long as the photos told a piece of their recovery story. The result is an enterprising, honest examination of the recovery process, showcased by people in recovery.

To encourage community dialogue and expression about the recovery process, attendees are encouraged to write comments about the photos and the recovery process directly on the mattes scattered around the space.

"My Recovery Story" is an opportunity for participants to celebrate the beginning of a new life with family, friends and the community. Students in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications collaborated with SBH on producing promotional materials, as well as creating videos of the client artists in this interactive exhibition.

Our Sporting Life: The Heroes, The Highlights, The History
Onondaga Historical Association

Price: Free
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This local sports history exhibit will highlight a variety of sports equipment, photographs, ephemera, and most importantly, the people involved in making sports history come alive. From baseball, to basketball, to football, hockey, bowling, and more, the exhibit will recount the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" for our local sports history makers. Visitors will learn more about Syracuse’s professional basketball team, women athletes, ice boating on Onondaga Lake, past Syracuse hockey teams, as well as African American athletes such as Moses Fleetwood Walker. Guests will also get a chance to see some vintage trophies, uniforms, equipment, and images of our local competitors in action.

Shadows of the Storm: The Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War
Onondaga Historical Association

Price: Free
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibition features paintings, prints, photographs and sketches made during the war by an array of individuals. There is an emphasis on images with local connections, either by the artist or photographer being from Central New York or through the subject involving activities of soldiers from this area.

Flyin' Column
Town of Geddes Summer Concert Series

Price: Free
St. Charles of Borromeo Church/School parking lot
417 S. Orchard Rd., Syracuse

Bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating.

Jazz in the City: Marion Meadows, jazz saxophone
CNY Jazz Arts Foundation

Price: Free
POMCO lot
(across from Cummings Field in Eastwood), Syracuse

The concert will feature the return of contemporary jazz saxophonist Marion Meadows, two-time headliner of Jazz in the Square and the Northeast Jazz & Wine Festival. Most recently, Marion has been touring with "Gentlemen of the Night" with Warren Hill and Paul Taylor, and has just returned from an extended tour in Ghana.

Ernie Evans and the Florida State Bluegrass Band
Kellish Hill Farm

Price: $10
Kellish Hill Farm
3192 Pompey Center Rd., Pompey

It is a pleasure to have Ernie Evans grace Kellish Hill Music Barn's stage again this year. Ernie's music abilities are far reaching and his new band is a very powerful Bluegrass act. Ernie's lengthy resume has had him recently being a member of the Grammy nominated Bluegrass Band Valerie Smith and Liberty Pike. So come and hear Ernie and his band. Opening act for Ernie this night will be Rebecca Colleen and the Chore Lads.

Chamber Music Concert
Skaneateles Festival

First Presbyterian Church of Skaneateles
97 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Poulenc Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
Haydn String Quartet in G Major, Op. 54, No. 2
Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time

Performers include the Chiara Quartet; David Ying, cello; Elinor Freer, piano; Alan Kay, clarinet

The concert will be preceded at 7:00 with Behind the Scenes: Meet & Hear the 2011 Robinson Award Winner. Concert will feature student flutist Katherine Zhang performing:
Henri Dutilleux Sonatine for flute and piano
Paganini Caprice No. 24
Weber Trio in G mionor for Flute, Cello, and Piano Op. 63 (Finale: Allegro)

Virtual Boy, with DJ Cutman, Pax Effex
Westcott Theater

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Syracuse Shakespeare-in-the-Park

Price: Free
Thornden Park Amphitheater
Ostrom Ave., Syracuse

Shakespeare with an 1870s American West twist.

Read a review!

Deadline: Kent Clark, Mild-mannered Reporter
Acme Mystery Company

Price: $32.50 (includes meal, show, tax and gratuities)
Spaghetti Warehouse
689 N. Clinton St., Syracuse

Kent Clark has discovered that, though it isn't what it used to be, the print media is still worth fighting for. His newspaper, The Daily Planetoid, is involved in a power struggle as its owner, the notorious cheapskate Perrier "Tighty" White, is looking to cash out. Unscrupulous investors are lining up faster than a speeding bullet to seize control leading Kent to ask the question: Is the paper also worth dying for? Looks like some nasty stuff is about to happen but who will save the day? Jimmy? Lois? You? Or maybe "You Know Who?"

Curtains! The Musical Comedy Whodunit
The Talent Company

Empire Theater
New York State Fairgrounds, Geddes

Packed full of show-stopping numbers and one of the funniest whodunnits ever, Curtains! is a delightful return to old-fashioned musical comedy. A new hilarious musical from the creators of Chicago and Cabaret, Curtains! unfolds backstage at Boston's Colonial Theatre in 1959 at a pre-Broadway tryout of a new musical. When the talent-free leading lady is murdered on opening night, Lieutenant Frank Cioffi arrives on the scene to conduct an investigation. But the lure of the theatre proves irresistible, and after an unexpected romance blooms for the stage-struck detective, he finds himself just as drawn toward making the show a hit as he is in solving the murder. As the bodies pile up, everyone is a suspect. Can Cioffi solve the murders and save the show so it can reach Broadway? Complete with a knock-out talented cast, drop-dead gorgeous costumes, and killer choreography, Curtains! is the "don't miss" musical comedy of the summer!

Read a review!

Friday, August 12, 2011

Nature As Our Muse: Works by Margaret Manring and Diana Whiting
Baltimore Woods

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

Working in the very different media of watercolor and photography, Margaret Manring and Diana Whiting take the viewer into the often fascinating and always compelling natural world. Manring describes the inspiration she derives from nature when approaching her watercolor painting: "I paint what moves me. Mostly I am looking at the way light moves over color and form and the many rhythms in patterns. I like ... trying to paint how the sunlit air smelled, how it cooled and slid down a hill or permeated a field or warmed in a chicken coop. I try to convey how I felt viewing the landscape, the (un)still life ..."

Whiting's passion for photography and for nature go hand in hand. Whiting explains: "Since I love nature, it is a natural fit that I bring (my) love of making photographs to the places that I spend a lot of time. I like looking for simplicity as well as finding a sense of rhythm in many of my photographs. With wildlife, I like to learn about my subjects as much as getting their photographs. My hope is to share my connection to the natural world and encourage conservation."

The work of these two award-winning artists has been exhibited and widely published. Manring's watercolors have been accepted on the national level in shows at Cooperstown, The Schweinfurth, and Old Forge. Whiting's work has been recognized by the National Audubon Society and the National Wildlife Federation.

For more information, visit www.baltimorewoods.org.

Leftovers for Dinner
Point of Contact Gallery

Price: Free
Point of Contact Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

SU sculpture students Becky Reiser and Alexander Svoboda present their collaborative installation.

Through Our Eyes: A Father-Daughter Photography Exhibit
Westcott Community Art Gallery

Price: Free
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

A photographic journey through the travels of father and daughter, Steve and Molly Susman.

Activated Space
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Jacqueline Adamo: abstract oil paintings on linen and canvas
Miyo Hirano: raku,gas and wood fired ceramics
Melissa Montgomery: concrete sculpture
Bradley Hudson: mixed media on paper and canvas

Notes of Color
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

The exhibit features paintings by Kathy Schneider and glass jewelry by Heather Hennigen.

Barry Darling Exhibition
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Paintings by Tully artist and educator Barry Darling will be featured throughout the month of August. His recent work involves acrylic color, acrylic medium on canvas and paper, and random use of ink transfers and acrylic pastes.

Darling, who was director of the Department of Art at Henninger High School for almost 30 years, has been an adjunct assistant professor of art at Le Moyne College since 1990.

[hyphen] Americans
Light Work Gallery

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

The exhibition features stunning tintype portraits created by photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. The exhibition title speaks to the multicultural character of American identities (Irish-American, African-American, etc.). Although a person's heritage might be inferred by looking at their features and clothing, viewers of Anderson-Staley's work are encouraged, according to the artist, "to suspend the kind of thinking that would traditionally assist in decoding these images in the context of American identity politics."

Anderson-Staley makes portraits with the 19th-century wet-plate collodion process. She uses wooden view cameras, 19th-century brass lenses and chemicals she hand-mixes according to the traditional formulas. In this series, she focuses on just one plane in the face--usually the eyes. The exposures are long, lasting anywhere from 10-60 seconds, so the images capture a full moment of thought. Because of these characteristics of the process, there is an introspective quality to each portrait, as if each person has been caught looking at himself or herself in a mirror.

The portraits in the exhibition are mostly individuals from the broader Syracuse community photographed during Anderson-Staley's residency in 2010. This collection of tintypes, numbering more than 100, is thus as much a portrait of a diverse community as it is a series of individual portraits.

Read a review!

Curiosities Below and Synchronicity: Works by Rachel Harms and Ann Skiöld
Limestone Art and Framing Gallery

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

Rachel Harms' exhibition, "Curiosities Below," features new oil paintings that are influenced through memory and sensory experience of place, color, and light. Many of the shapes and colors in this series have evolved from repetitive pattern in nature, found objects, the pervasiveness of water, things hidden and exposed. The surfaces of her paintings reveal subtle hints of what lies below.

Ann Skiöld's exhibition, "Synchronicity," features her new paintings and collages as "inscapes." The artist describes "inscape" as the result from experiencing many things at the same time. It is through processing these experiences, we are able to interpret them in a very personal way. Skiöld's abstract paintings and collages have a raw, yet lyrical style with a mysterious undertone.

Layers: Kimonos and Fans
Redhouse

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

Layers: Kimonos and Fans uses multiple, suspended 6x3-foot paper kimonos that are painted and collaged, and incorporate air movement and sound. Christina Laurel, a Syracuse native residing in Rochester, transforms temporary paper shades into larger-than-life metaphorical images, and further transforms some of the accordion-folds into 39x53-inch paper fans framed by yardsticks.

It's Elemental: Works of Laura and Fred Wellner
Szozda Gallery

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

Duo artists and soulmates Laura and Fred Wellner visually express their appreciation of the world's natural environment in a stunning display of their collective works including abstract mixed media and stone sculpture.

Still Life: Revisited
Everson Museum of Art

Price: Suggested donation $5 adults
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

The current exhibition examines the influence of painting on photography within the still life genre. 19th- and 20th-century American paintings from the permanent collection will be on display with the work of contemporary photographers such as Sharon Core, Laura Letinsky, Paulette Tavormina, and D.W. Mellor, and Irving Penn. Daniel K. Tennant, a local still life painter and photographer will also be included.

Read a review!

Celestial Nights: Visions of an Ancient Land
Everson Museum of Art

Price: Suggested donation $5 adults
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

The Everson recently received a gift of 47 black-and-white photographs by Neil Folberg entitled "Celestial Nights: Visions of an Ancient Land." "Celestial Nights" is a stunning portfolio of nocturnal landscapes and star-filled skies set in ancient ruins found in the Middle East. The artist skillfully captures a spectacular world of nocturnal landscapes in Israel and the Sinai where the horizon is not always definitive. The earth and heavens are mingled in this series of arresting images, which to Folberg represents a blurred division between present and eternity, substance and spirit, and knowledge and imagination. Folberg writes, "In landscape I see a revelation of how pure spirituality has descended into physical existence ... These are the scenes, on the human edge of the cosmos, that I am showing in these photographs."

Neil Folberg was born in San Francisco and grew up in the Midwest. He was a student of Ansel Adams in 1967 and enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley the following year. In 1976 He moved to Jerusalem, a place that has become the subject of much of his work. He has exhibited widely and published several photographic books including the internationally acclaimed In A Desert Land (1987), a series of color photographs of Middle Eastern landscapes and architecture. His second book, And I Shall Dwell Among Them (1995) featured synagogue architecture throughout the Jewish Diaspora. Celestial Nights, published in 2001, became a major traveling exhibition organized by Aperture.

The Power of Pattern: New Work by David MacDonald
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

David MacDonald's long awaited solo exhibition will open with an innovative body of work. The highlight of the exhibition will be a monumental work commissioned by the Everson in 2008 with funds donated by the Social Arts Club. Also on view will be several new figurative vessels, monumental in scale, and plates from the Divination Series. Recently retired from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts where he taught ceramics for more than 37 years, MacDonald is now able to concentrate on a new body of work.

Early in his career, ceramic artist David MacDonald turned to his African heritage for inspiration in his work. The many examples of surface pattern and decoration found in textiles, utilitarian objects, body ornament and architecture present among the diverse ethnic groups of sub-Sahara Africa continue to inform MacDonald's work on many levels. In his artist's statement, he proclaims "The principle concern of my art is the articulation of the magnificence and nobility of the human spirit; a celebration of my African heritage." For more than three decades, MacDonald has used clay to express these words through a significant body of work focusing on highly decorated utilitarian objects that have come to symbolize tremendous integrity and endurance.

MacDonald is recognized nationally not only for his master craftsmanship in ceramics but for his dedication as a mentor and teacher to a countless number of aspiring artists and students. Locally, he is a founding member of the Community Folk Art Center, an organization affiliated with Syracuse University's Department of African American Studies that aims to provide a space to engage artists from underrrepresented ethnic groups in Central New York. In addition, MacDonald is involved in many community activities including serving on the Everson's Collection Committee.

Unique 2011
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Unique is an art and literary magazine that shares the artistic visions and voices of individuals with disabilities. Unique represents the power of art to express, educate, and inspire. Art comes in many forms and the creative work published in Unique includes poems, paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, computer-based art, and mixed-media works.

My Recovery Story
XL Projects

Price: Free
XL Projects
307-313 S. Clinton St., Syracuse

Take these cameras. Tell your story.

That is what clients involved in Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare's (SBH) photo program were asked to do this past winter. Clients could take cameras wherever they wanted and take photos of whatever they wished, as long as the photos told a piece of their recovery story. The result is an enterprising, honest examination of the recovery process, showcased by people in recovery.

To encourage community dialogue and expression about the recovery process, attendees are encouraged to write comments about the photos and the recovery process directly on the mattes scattered around the space.

"My Recovery Story" is an opportunity for participants to celebrate the beginning of a new life with family, friends and the community. Students in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications collaborated with SBH on producing promotional materials, as well as creating videos of the client artists in this interactive exhibition.

Shadows of the Storm: The Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War
Onondaga Historical Association

Price: Free
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibition features paintings, prints, photographs and sketches made during the war by an array of individuals. There is an emphasis on images with local connections, either by the artist or photographer being from Central New York or through the subject involving activities of soldiers from this area.

Our Sporting Life: The Heroes, The Highlights, The History
Onondaga Historical Association

Price: Free
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This local sports history exhibit will highlight a variety of sports equipment, photographs, ephemera, and most importantly, the people involved in making sports history come alive. From baseball, to basketball, to football, hockey, bowling, and more, the exhibit will recount the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" for our local sports history makers. Visitors will learn more about Syracuse’s professional basketball team, women athletes, ice boating on Onondaga Lake, past Syracuse hockey teams, as well as African American athletes such as Moses Fleetwood Walker. Guests will also get a chance to see some vintage trophies, uniforms, equipment, and images of our local competitors in action.

Skaneateles Community Band Concert

Price: Free
Clift Park
Genesee St., Skaneateles

Bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating.

Chamber Music Concert: From Piano to Politics
Skaneateles Festival

First Presbyterian Church of Skaneateles
97 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Gottschalk L'Union
Andriessen Worker's Union
Paderewski Nocturne in B-flat
Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue in D minor
Dvorak Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 87

Gregory Beaver, cello; Julie Hye Yung Yoon, violin; Alan Kay, clarinet; Andrew Russo, piano; Jonah Sirota, viola; David Ying, cello

The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Syracuse Shakespeare-in-the-Park

Price: Free
Thornden Park Amphitheater
Ostrom Ave., Syracuse

Shakespeare with an 1870s American West twist.

Read a review!

Savage Torpor
Standard Candle Co

Price: $5
Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

Standard Candle Co's eldritch Savage Torpor is a dramatic experience inspired by Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer (and others). Give yourself over to Dr. Sugar, a young psychiatrist, as he deciphers the blurred line between truth and fiction, madness and sanity. In this innovative production, Standard Candle Co works to not only provide a thoughtful performance but also a bisection of the creative process.

Our cast and crew includes Katie Yates, Mo Seraji, Roxanne Broda-Blake, Liam Fitzpatrick, Allison DeVoe, and Allegra Waterman-Snow.

All proceeds to charity.

To order, call 315-246-1987 or visit standardcandleco.tumblr.com.

Curtains! The Musical Comedy Whodunit
The Talent Company

Empire Theater
New York State Fairgrounds, Geddes

Packed full of show-stopping numbers and one of the funniest whodunnits ever, Curtains! is a delightful return to old-fashioned musical comedy. A new hilarious musical from the creators of Chicago and Cabaret, Curtains! unfolds backstage at Boston's Colonial Theatre in 1959 at a pre-Broadway tryout of a new musical. When the talent-free leading lady is murdered on opening night, Lieutenant Frank Cioffi arrives on the scene to conduct an investigation. But the lure of the theatre proves irresistible, and after an unexpected romance blooms for the stage-struck detective, he finds himself just as drawn toward making the show a hit as he is in solving the murder. As the bodies pile up, everyone is a suspect. Can Cioffi solve the murders and save the show so it can reach Broadway? Complete with a knock-out talented cast, drop-dead gorgeous costumes, and killer choreography, Curtains! is the "don't miss" musical comedy of the summer!

Read a review!

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Activated Space
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Jacqueline Adamo: abstract oil paintings on linen and canvas
Miyo Hirano: raku,gas and wood fired ceramics
Melissa Montgomery: concrete sculpture
Bradley Hudson: mixed media on paper and canvas

The Power of Pattern: New Work by David MacDonald
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

David MacDonald's long awaited solo exhibition will open with an innovative body of work. The highlight of the exhibition will be a monumental work commissioned by the Everson in 2008 with funds donated by the Social Arts Club. Also on view will be several new figurative vessels, monumental in scale, and plates from the Divination Series. Recently retired from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts where he taught ceramics for more than 37 years, MacDonald is now able to concentrate on a new body of work.

Early in his career, ceramic artist David MacDonald turned to his African heritage for inspiration in his work. The many examples of surface pattern and decoration found in textiles, utilitarian objects, body ornament and architecture present among the diverse ethnic groups of sub-Sahara Africa continue to inform MacDonald's work on many levels. In his artist's statement, he proclaims "The principle concern of my art is the articulation of the magnificence and nobility of the human spirit; a celebration of my African heritage." For more than three decades, MacDonald has used clay to express these words through a significant body of work focusing on highly decorated utilitarian objects that have come to symbolize tremendous integrity and endurance.

MacDonald is recognized nationally not only for his master craftsmanship in ceramics but for his dedication as a mentor and teacher to a countless number of aspiring artists and students. Locally, he is a founding member of the Community Folk Art Center, an organization affiliated with Syracuse University's Department of African American Studies that aims to provide a space to engage artists from underrrepresented ethnic groups in Central New York. In addition, MacDonald is involved in many community activities including serving on the Everson's Collection Committee.

Celestial Nights: Visions of an Ancient Land
Everson Museum of Art

Price: Suggested donation $5 adults
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

The Everson recently received a gift of 47 black-and-white photographs by Neil Folberg entitled "Celestial Nights: Visions of an Ancient Land." "Celestial Nights" is a stunning portfolio of nocturnal landscapes and star-filled skies set in ancient ruins found in the Middle East. The artist skillfully captures a spectacular world of nocturnal landscapes in Israel and the Sinai where the horizon is not always definitive. The earth and heavens are mingled in this series of arresting images, which to Folberg represents a blurred division between present and eternity, substance and spirit, and knowledge and imagination. Folberg writes, "In landscape I see a revelation of how pure spirituality has descended into physical existence ... These are the scenes, on the human edge of the cosmos, that I am showing in these photographs."

Neil Folberg was born in San Francisco and grew up in the Midwest. He was a student of Ansel Adams in 1967 and enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley the following year. In 1976 He moved to Jerusalem, a place that has become the subject of much of his work. He has exhibited widely and published several photographic books including the internationally acclaimed In A Desert Land (1987), a series of color photographs of Middle Eastern landscapes and architecture. His second book, And I Shall Dwell Among Them (1995) featured synagogue architecture throughout the Jewish Diaspora. Celestial Nights, published in 2001, became a major traveling exhibition organized by Aperture.

Still Life: Revisited
Everson Museum of Art

Price: Suggested donation $5 adults
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

The current exhibition examines the influence of painting on photography within the still life genre. 19th- and 20th-century American paintings from the permanent collection will be on display with the work of contemporary photographers such as Sharon Core, Laura Letinsky, Paulette Tavormina, and D.W. Mellor, and Irving Penn. Daniel K. Tennant, a local still life painter and photographer will also be included.

Read a review!

Unique 2011
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Unique is an art and literary magazine that shares the artistic visions and voices of individuals with disabilities. Unique represents the power of art to express, educate, and inspire. Art comes in many forms and the creative work published in Unique includes poems, paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, computer-based art, and mixed-media works.

Notes of Color
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

The exhibit features paintings by Kathy Schneider and glass jewelry by Heather Hennigen.

Barry Darling Exhibition
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Paintings by Tully artist and educator Barry Darling will be featured throughout the month of August. His recent work involves acrylic color, acrylic medium on canvas and paper, and random use of ink transfers and acrylic pastes.

Darling, who was director of the Department of Art at Henninger High School for almost 30 years, has been an adjunct assistant professor of art at Le Moyne College since 1990.

Curiosities Below and Synchronicity: Works by Rachel Harms and Ann Skiöld
Limestone Art and Framing Gallery

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

Rachel Harms' exhibition, "Curiosities Below," features new oil paintings that are influenced through memory and sensory experience of place, color, and light. Many of the shapes and colors in this series have evolved from repetitive pattern in nature, found objects, the pervasiveness of water, things hidden and exposed. The surfaces of her paintings reveal subtle hints of what lies below.

Ann Skiöld's exhibition, "Synchronicity," features her new paintings and collages as "inscapes." The artist describes "inscape" as the result from experiencing many things at the same time. It is through processing these experiences, we are able to interpret them in a very personal way. Skiöld's abstract paintings and collages have a raw, yet lyrical style with a mysterious undertone.

Nature As Our Muse: Works by Margaret Manring and Diana Whiting
Baltimore Woods

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

Working in the very different media of watercolor and photography, Margaret Manring and Diana Whiting take the viewer into the often fascinating and always compelling natural world. Manring describes the inspiration she derives from nature when approaching her watercolor painting: "I paint what moves me. Mostly I am looking at the way light moves over color and form and the many rhythms in patterns. I like ... trying to paint how the sunlit air smelled, how it cooled and slid down a hill or permeated a field or warmed in a chicken coop. I try to convey how I felt viewing the landscape, the (un)still life ..."

Whiting's passion for photography and for nature go hand in hand. Whiting explains: "Since I love nature, it is a natural fit that I bring (my) love of making photographs to the places that I spend a lot of time. I like looking for simplicity as well as finding a sense of rhythm in many of my photographs. With wildlife, I like to learn about my subjects as much as getting their photographs. My hope is to share my connection to the natural world and encourage conservation."

The work of these two award-winning artists has been exhibited and widely published. Manring's watercolors have been accepted on the national level in shows at Cooperstown, The Schweinfurth, and Old Forge. Whiting's work has been recognized by the National Audubon Society and the National Wildlife Federation.

For more information, visit www.baltimorewoods.org.

It's Elemental: Works of Laura and Fred Wellner
Szozda Gallery

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

Duo artists and soulmates Laura and Fred Wellner visually express their appreciation of the world's natural environment in a stunning display of their collective works including abstract mixed media and stone sculpture.

My Recovery Story
XL Projects

Price: Free
XL Projects
307-313 S. Clinton St., Syracuse

Take these cameras. Tell your story.

That is what clients involved in Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare's (SBH) photo program were asked to do this past winter. Clients could take cameras wherever they wanted and take photos of whatever they wished, as long as the photos told a piece of their recovery story. The result is an enterprising, honest examination of the recovery process, showcased by people in recovery.

To encourage community dialogue and expression about the recovery process, attendees are encouraged to write comments about the photos and the recovery process directly on the mattes scattered around the space.

"My Recovery Story" is an opportunity for participants to celebrate the beginning of a new life with family, friends and the community. Students in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications collaborated with SBH on producing promotional materials, as well as creating videos of the client artists in this interactive exhibition.

Our Sporting Life: The Heroes, The Highlights, The History
Onondaga Historical Association

Price: Free
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This local sports history exhibit will highlight a variety of sports equipment, photographs, ephemera, and most importantly, the people involved in making sports history come alive. From baseball, to basketball, to football, hockey, bowling, and more, the exhibit will recount the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" for our local sports history makers. Visitors will learn more about Syracuse’s professional basketball team, women athletes, ice boating on Onondaga Lake, past Syracuse hockey teams, as well as African American athletes such as Moses Fleetwood Walker. Guests will also get a chance to see some vintage trophies, uniforms, equipment, and images of our local competitors in action.

Shadows of the Storm: The Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War
Onondaga Historical Association

Price: Free
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibition features paintings, prints, photographs and sketches made during the war by an array of individuals. There is an emphasis on images with local connections, either by the artist or photographer being from Central New York or through the subject involving activities of soldiers from this area.

A Community Extravaganza
Skaneateles Festival
Syracuse Vocal Ensemble
Robert Moody, conductor
Featuring Andrew Russo, piano

Brook Farm
2.5 miles south of the village on Route 41A, Skaneateles

There will be a Brass Quintet Prelude Concert at 6:30 pm.

Lee Actor Divertimento for Chamber Orchestra (world premiere)
Beethoven Fantasy in C minor for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra
Mendelssohn Verleih' uns Frieden (Grant us thy peace)
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4 in A Major, "Italian"

Flashlights and blankets or lawn chairs recommended for Brook Farm concerts.

Rain location: Skaneateles High School, 49 E. Elizabeth St., Skaneateles

Candlelight Series
Mario DeSantis Orchestra

Price: Free
Armory Square
Clinton and Jefferson St., Syracuse

Opening acts will precede the main attractions beginning at 7:00 pm. Bring blankets or lawn chairs for seating.

All streets in Armory Square will be closed to vehicle traffic 5:00-10:00 pm for reasons of safety, audience lawn chair seating, table set-ups by Armory Square restaurants (serving fine outdoor candlelight dining) and stage strike. (Other than restaurant fare offered, people may opt to picnic.)

Rain Location: Benjamin's on Franklin, 314 S. Franklin St.

Dar Williams
Redhouse
Kellish Hill Farm

Price: $30 regular, $20 Redhouse members
Kellish Hill Farm
3192 Pompey Center Rd., Pompey

A favorite among the adult-alternative set, Dar Williams has a unique voice that can dance from lyrical and ethereal to playful and gritty. Her lyrics are funny, sharp, lively and fresh, yet they include thoughtful insight into life, the environment, gender and other complex issues. Williams is a literate singer-songwriter with a genuine gift as a storyteller. She weaves word-poems with a catchy beat and a catchy tune. She has been described as a synthesis of the Indigo Girls, Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez.

The Princess and the Pea
Magic Circle Children's Theatre

Price: $5
Spaghetti Warehouse
689 N. Clinton St., Syracuse

Interactive retelling of the children's classic story.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Syracuse Shakespeare-in-the-Park

Price: Free
Thornden Park Amphitheater
Ostrom Ave., Syracuse

Shakespeare with an 1870s American West twist.

Read a review!

Savage Torpor
Standard Candle Co

Price: $5
Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

Standard Candle Co's eldritch Savage Torpor is a dramatic experience inspired by Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer (and others). Give yourself over to Dr. Sugar, a young psychiatrist, as he deciphers the blurred line between truth and fiction, madness and sanity. In this innovative production, Standard Candle Co works to not only provide a thoughtful performance but also a bisection of the creative process.

Our cast and crew includes Katie Yates, Mo Seraji, Roxanne Broda-Blake, Liam Fitzpatrick, Allison DeVoe, and Allegra Waterman-Snow.

All proceeds to charity.

To order, call 315-246-1987 or visit standardcandleco.tumblr.com.

Curtains! The Musical Comedy Whodunit
The Talent Company

Empire Theater
New York State Fairgrounds, Geddes

Packed full of show-stopping numbers and one of the funniest whodunnits ever, Curtains! is a delightful return to old-fashioned musical comedy. A new hilarious musical from the creators of Chicago and Cabaret, Curtains! unfolds backstage at Boston's Colonial Theatre in 1959 at a pre-Broadway tryout of a new musical. When the talent-free leading lady is murdered on opening night, Lieutenant Frank Cioffi arrives on the scene to conduct an investigation. But the lure of the theatre proves irresistible, and after an unexpected romance blooms for the stage-struck detective, he finds himself just as drawn toward making the show a hit as he is in solving the murder. As the bodies pile up, everyone is a suspect. Can Cioffi solve the murders and save the show so it can reach Broadway? Complete with a knock-out talented cast, drop-dead gorgeous costumes, and killer choreography, Curtains! is the "don't miss" musical comedy of the summer!

Read a review!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

[hyphen] Americans
Light Work Gallery

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

The exhibition features stunning tintype portraits created by photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. The exhibition title speaks to the multicultural character of American identities (Irish-American, African-American, etc.). Although a person's heritage might be inferred by looking at their features and clothing, viewers of Anderson-Staley's work are encouraged, according to the artist, "to suspend the kind of thinking that would traditionally assist in decoding these images in the context of American identity politics."

Anderson-Staley makes portraits with the 19th-century wet-plate collodion process. She uses wooden view cameras, 19th-century brass lenses and chemicals she hand-mixes according to the traditional formulas. In this series, she focuses on just one plane in the face--usually the eyes. The exposures are long, lasting anywhere from 10-60 seconds, so the images capture a full moment of thought. Because of these characteristics of the process, there is an introspective quality to each portrait, as if each person has been caught looking at himself or herself in a mirror.

The portraits in the exhibition are mostly individuals from the broader Syracuse community photographed during Anderson-Staley's residency in 2010. This collection of tintypes, numbering more than 100, is thus as much a portrait of a diverse community as it is a series of individual portraits.

Read a review!

It's Elemental: Works of Laura and Fred Wellner
Szozda Gallery

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

Duo artists and soulmates Laura and Fred Wellner visually express their appreciation of the world's natural environment in a stunning display of their collective works including abstract mixed media and stone sculpture.

Notes of Color
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

The exhibit features paintings by Kathy Schneider and glass jewelry by Heather Hennigen.

Barry Darling Exhibition
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Paintings by Tully artist and educator Barry Darling will be featured throughout the month of August. His recent work involves acrylic color, acrylic medium on canvas and paper, and random use of ink transfers and acrylic pastes.

Darling, who was director of the Department of Art at Henninger High School for almost 30 years, has been an adjunct assistant professor of art at Le Moyne College since 1990.

Still Life: Revisited
Everson Museum of Art

Price: Suggested donation $5 adults
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

The current exhibition examines the influence of painting on photography within the still life genre. 19th- and 20th-century American paintings from the permanent collection will be on display with the work of contemporary photographers such as Sharon Core, Laura Letinsky, Paulette Tavormina, and D.W. Mellor, and Irving Penn. Daniel K. Tennant, a local still life painter and photographer will also be included.

Read a review!

Celestial Nights: Visions of an Ancient Land
Everson Museum of Art

Price: Suggested donation $5 adults
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

The Everson recently received a gift of 47 black-and-white photographs by Neil Folberg entitled "Celestial Nights: Visions of an Ancient Land." "Celestial Nights" is a stunning portfolio of nocturnal landscapes and star-filled skies set in ancient ruins found in the Middle East. The artist skillfully captures a spectacular world of nocturnal landscapes in Israel and the Sinai where the horizon is not always definitive. The earth and heavens are mingled in this series of arresting images, which to Folberg represents a blurred division between present and eternity, substance and spirit, and knowledge and imagination. Folberg writes, "In landscape I see a revelation of how pure spirituality has descended into physical existence ... These are the scenes, on the human edge of the cosmos, that I am showing in these photographs."

Neil Folberg was born in San Francisco and grew up in the Midwest. He was a student of Ansel Adams in 1967 and enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley the following year. In 1976 He moved to Jerusalem, a place that has become the subject of much of his work. He has exhibited widely and published several photographic books including the internationally acclaimed In A Desert Land (1987), a series of color photographs of Middle Eastern landscapes and architecture. His second book, And I Shall Dwell Among Them (1995) featured synagogue architecture throughout the Jewish Diaspora. Celestial Nights, published in 2001, became a major traveling exhibition organized by Aperture.

The Power of Pattern: New Work by David MacDonald
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

David MacDonald's long awaited solo exhibition will open with an innovative body of work. The highlight of the exhibition will be a monumental work commissioned by the Everson in 2008 with funds donated by the Social Arts Club. Also on view will be several new figurative vessels, monumental in scale, and plates from the Divination Series. Recently retired from Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts where he taught ceramics for more than 37 years, MacDonald is now able to concentrate on a new body of work.

Early in his career, ceramic artist David MacDonald turned to his African heritage for inspiration in his work. The many examples of surface pattern and decoration found in textiles, utilitarian objects, body ornament and architecture present among the diverse ethnic groups of sub-Sahara Africa continue to inform MacDonald's work on many levels. In his artist's statement, he proclaims "The principle concern of my art is the articulation of the magnificence and nobility of the human spirit; a celebration of my African heritage." For more than three decades, MacDonald has used clay to express these words through a significant body of work focusing on highly decorated utilitarian objects that have come to symbolize tremendous integrity and endurance.

MacDonald is recognized nationally not only for his master craftsmanship in ceramics but for his dedication as a mentor and teacher to a countless number of aspiring artists and students. Locally, he is a founding member of the Community Folk Art Center, an organization affiliated with Syracuse University's Department of African American Studies that aims to provide a space to engage artists from underrrepresented ethnic groups in Central New York. In addition, MacDonald is involved in many community activities including serving on the Everson's Collection Committee.

Unique 2011
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Unique is an art and literary magazine that shares the artistic visions and voices of individuals with disabilities. Unique represents the power of art to express, educate, and inspire. Art comes in many forms and the creative work published in Unique includes poems, paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, computer-based art, and mixed-media works.

My Recovery Story
XL Projects

Price: Free
XL Projects
307-313 S. Clinton St., Syracuse

Take these cameras. Tell your story.

That is what clients involved in Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare's (SBH) photo program were asked to do this past winter. Clients could take cameras wherever they wanted and take photos of whatever they wished, as long as the photos told a piece of their recovery story. The result is an enterprising, honest examination of the recovery process, showcased by people in recovery.

To encourage community dialogue and expression about the recovery process, attendees are encouraged to write comments about the photos and the recovery process directly on the mattes scattered around the space.

"My Recovery Story" is an opportunity for participants to celebrate the beginning of a new life with family, friends and the community. Students in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications collaborated with SBH on producing promotional materials, as well as creating videos of the client artists in this interactive exhibition.

Shadows of the Storm: The Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War
Onondaga Historical Association

Price: Free
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibition features paintings, prints, photographs and sketches made during the war by an array of individuals. There is an emphasis on images with local connections, either by the artist or photographer being from Central New York or through the subject involving activities of soldiers from this area.

Our Sporting Life: The Heroes, The Highlights, The History
Onondaga Historical Association

Price: Free
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This local sports history exhibit will highlight a variety of sports equipment, photographs, ephemera, and most importantly, the people involved in making sports history come alive. From baseball, to basketball, to football, hockey, bowling, and more, the exhibit will recount the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" for our local sports history makers. Visitors will learn more about Syracuse’s professional basketball team, women athletes, ice boating on Onondaga Lake, past Syracuse hockey teams, as well as African American athletes such as Moses Fleetwood Walker. Guests will also get a chance to see some vintage trophies, uniforms, equipment, and images of our local competitors in action.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Syracuse Shakespeare-in-the-Park

Price: Free
Thornden Park Amphitheater
Ostrom Ave., Syracuse

Shakespeare with an 1870s American West twist.

Read a review!

Curtains! The Musical Comedy Whodunit
The Talent Company

Empire Theater
New York State Fairgrounds, Geddes

Packed full of show-stopping numbers and one of the funniest whodunnits ever, Curtains! is a delightful return to old-fashioned musical comedy. A new hilarious musical from the creators of Chicago and Cabaret, Curtains! unfolds backstage at Boston's Colonial Theatre in 1959 at a pre-Broadway tryout of a new musical. When the talent-free leading lady is murdered on opening night, Lieutenant Frank Cioffi arrives on the scene to conduct an investigation. But the lure of the theatre proves irresistible, and after an unexpected romance blooms for the stage-struck detective, he finds himself just as drawn toward making the show a hit as he is in solving the murder. As the bodies pile up, everyone is a suspect. Can Cioffi solve the murders and save the show so it can reach Broadway? Complete with a knock-out talented cast, drop-dead gorgeous costumes, and killer choreography, Curtains! is the "don't miss" musical comedy of the summer!

Read a review!

Monday, August 15, 2011

Nature As Our Muse: Works by Margaret Manring and Diana Whiting
Baltimore Woods

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

Working in the very different media of watercolor and photography, Margaret Manring and Diana Whiting take the viewer into the often fascinating and always compelling natural world. Manring describes the inspiration she derives from nature when approaching her watercolor painting: "I paint what moves me. Mostly I am looking at the way light moves over color and form and the many rhythms in patterns. I like ... trying to paint how the sunlit air smelled, how it cooled and slid down a hill or permeated a field or warmed in a chicken coop. I try to convey how I felt viewing the landscape, the (un)still life ..."

Whiting's passion for photography and for nature go hand in hand. Whiting explains: "Since I love nature, it is a natural fit that I bring (my) love of making photographs to the places that I spend a lot of time. I like looking for simplicity as well as finding a sense of rhythm in many of my photographs. With wildlife, I like to learn about my subjects as much as getting their photographs. My hope is to share my connection to the natural world and encourage conservation."

The work of these two award-winning artists has been exhibited and widely published. Manring's watercolors have been accepted on the national level in shows at Cooperstown, The Schweinfurth, and Old Forge. Whiting's work has been recognized by the National Audubon Society and the National Wildlife Federation.

For more information, visit www.baltimorewoods.org.

Leftovers for Dinner
Point of Contact Gallery

Price: Free
Point of Contact Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

SU sculpture students Becky Reiser and Alexander Svoboda present their collaborative installation.

Through Our Eyes: A Father-Daughter Photography Exhibit
Westcott Community Art Gallery

Price: Free
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

A photographic journey through the travels of father and daughter, Steve and Molly Susman.

Notes of Color
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

The exhibit features paintings by Kathy Schneider and glass jewelry by Heather Hennigen.

Barry Darling Exhibition
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Paintings by Tully artist and educator Barry Darling will be featured throughout the month of August. His recent work involves acrylic color, acrylic medium on canvas and paper, and random use of ink transfers and acrylic pastes.

Darling, who was director of the Department of Art at Henninger High School for almost 30 years, has been an adjunct assistant professor of art at Le Moyne College since 1990.

[hyphen] Americans
Light Work Gallery

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

The exhibition features stunning tintype portraits created by photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. The exhibition title speaks to the multicultural character of American identities (Irish-American, African-American, etc.). Although a person's heritage might be inferred by looking at their features and clothing, viewers of Anderson-Staley's work are encouraged, according to the artist, "to suspend the kind of thinking that would traditionally assist in decoding these images in the context of American identity politics."

Anderson-Staley makes portraits with the 19th-century wet-plate collodion process. She uses wooden view cameras, 19th-century brass lenses and chemicals she hand-mixes according to the traditional formulas. In this series, she focuses on just one plane in the face--usually the eyes. The exposures are long, lasting anywhere from 10-60 seconds, so the images capture a full moment of thought. Because of these characteristics of the process, there is an introspective quality to each portrait, as if each person has been caught looking at himself or herself in a mirror.

The portraits in the exhibition are mostly individuals from the broader Syracuse community photographed during Anderson-Staley's residency in 2010. This collection of tintypes, numbering more than 100, is thus as much a portrait of a diverse community as it is a series of individual portraits.

Read a review!

Layers: Kimonos and Fans
Redhouse

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

Layers: Kimonos and Fans uses multiple, suspended 6x3-foot paper kimonos that are painted and collaged, and incorporate air movement and sound. Christina Laurel, a Syracuse native residing in Rochester, transforms temporary paper shades into larger-than-life metaphorical images, and further transforms some of the accordion-folds into 39x53-inch paper fans framed by yardsticks.

Custom Taylor Band
Liverpool is the Place

Price: Free
Johnson Park
Corner of Vine and Oswego Streets, Liverpool

Country rock.

Bring lawn chair or blanket for seating.

Sean Mags
Westcott Theater

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse