Saturday, December 10, 2011

Windows Project: Elisabeth Meyer: Black Night/White Night
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The Window Project features an installation by Elisabeth Meyer consisting of organic forms embroidered onto an organza fabric. The overall patterning evokes an association with ocean waves and a net. The transparent quality of the organza background allows the viewer to see through the piece that is hanging from the ceiling covering the entire window front. The work addresses the issue of displacement through traveling. Meyer, who is based in Ithaca, developed the concept for this exhibition while at a residency in Iceland, traveled to India to oversee the production of the embroidery, and created the work on site in Syracuse.

Learning to Write American: Works by Jennifer Drinkwater
Redhouse

Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

These incredibly innovative pieces directly involve the viewer to create meaning, through imagining the missing term, through opening compartments of the painting to explore what is hidden beneath the surface, or by rearranging magnets to create a composition.

Read a review!

Sculpted Sound: From Art to Wood to Music -- Works of John & Sondra Bromka
LeMoyne College

Price: Free
Wilson Art Gallery, Noreen Reale Falcone Library
LeMoyne College, Syracuse

For more information, phone 315-445-4153.

"Off the Wall" Holiday Art Sale
Associated Artists of Central New York

Manlius Village Library
Manlius Village Center, 1 Arkie Albanese Dr., Manlius

Dies Irae
Echo

745 N. Salina St. (formerly Craft Chemistry)
Syracuse

Dies Irae, a group show with Thomas Ward III, Heidi Josephine, and Nik Moore featuring a mix of collaborative and original paintings.

Untold Stories
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Featuring the diverse works of Alison Fisher: acrylic and mixed media paintings; jewelry made of unique mixed metals and found objects; one-of-a-kind textiles including handbags, scarves, pillows, and throws.

26th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children, members free
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

The museums transforms into a festive 1800s street scene with more than 40 gingerbread creations in storefront windows.

From Here to There: Alec Soth's America
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $10 regular, $8 students/seniors/military, members and children under 5 free
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

"From Here to There: Alec Soth's America" provides a focused look at an extraordinary photographer whose compelling images of the American road and its unexpected turns form powerful narrative vignettes. The exhibition will be the artist's first major survey assembled in the United States, exploring over 15 years of his career, and including an extensive new body of work.

Since his inclusion in the 2004 Whitney and São Paulo biennials, Soth's reputation as one of the most interesting voices in contemporary photography has continued to grow. Though he has followed the itinerant path laid forth by photographers such as Robert Frank, William Eggleston, and Stephen Shore, Soth's is a distinct perspective, one in which the wandering, searching, and the process of telling is as resonant as the record of these remarkable encounters. When considered together, Soth's pictures probe the individualities of people, objects, and places he encounters; offer insight to broader sociologies, and in the process form a collective portrait of an unexpected America.

Featuring approximately 100 photographs made between 1994 and the present, "From Here to There" will include rarely-seen early black-and-white images as well as examples from Soth's best-known series "Sleeping by the Mississippi" and "Niagara." Interspersed throughout the exhibition will be a broad range of portraits made over the past 15 years. The exhibition will also include a new body of work the artist has been developing since 2006, exploring places of escape in America and individuals who seek to flee civilization for a life off the grid. To add insight into Soth's process, the exhibition additionally features a Library space, which includes a reading area for publications, a selection of maquettes for book and 'zine projects, short video works, and ephemera gathered on the road.

Margie Hughto: A Fired Landscape
Everson Museum of Art

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

Internationally renowned ceramic artist Margie Hughto presents her first site-specific museum installation entitled A Fired Landscape, a "clay painting" spanning 50 feet of gallery wall space. Inspired by the artist's spectacular backyard gardens and natural landscape just steps from her studio, The Fired Landscape installation consists of Setting Sun, a brilliantly colored ceramic wall relief displayed continuously on five angled walls. The visitor encounter is reminiscent of what one experiences when surrounded by the natural environment. Overall, Setting Sun is a ceramic abstraction, but Hughto establishes a connection to the landscape that inspired it by adding impressions of natural objects such as native ferns, marine life and fossils, into the wet clay and then coating the surfaces with brilliant color. The rich palette of burnt oranges and fiery reds evoke the sun’s glowing light and radiating warmth. Tiny pieces of glass embedded in the clay prior to firing add sparkle to the glossy green and blue glazes used to suggest the artist's lily pond.

Festival of Trees: Inspiration
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $8 online presale, $10 at the door
Shoppingtown Mall
Dewitt

Entrance next to Library/Theater mall entrance.

The Everson Museum of Art Members' Council presents this 10-day festival featuring over 100 decorated trees, wreathes and special displays. Each item is generously donated by local businesses, community groups, and individuals, and all items are sold to benefit the Everson Museum of Art. Visitors take in the beautiful sights, purchase decorative items, and pick up tips for their own creations. Special events and live entertainment make the Festival truly special. All proceeds directly benefit the Everson Museum of Art.

Expressions of Joy: Annual Holiday Show
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Fine art and fine craft created by local artists.

Gifts for the Home
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Looking for that perfect, one-of-a-kind piece of home décor? Then check out this exhibition featuring original watercolors, wooden clocks and spoons, ceramic mugs, blown glass vases, and other handcrafted gifts at a variety of price points.

Artists represented include:
Lucie Wellner, of Pompey, watercolor paintings
Dennis MacDonald, of Fabius, brooms
Emily Reason, of Marshall, N.C., porcelain pottery
Rick Barrick, of Lancaster, Pa., candles
Jonathan Simons, of Kempton, Pa., wooden spoons
Schlabaugh & Sons, of Kalona, Iowa, clocks

From the Earth Arts & Crafts Festival

Onondaga Nation School
Route 11A, Onondaga Nation

Haudenosaunee Singers and Dancers will perform midday. Also more music, friends, art of all kinds: beadwork, stone jewelry, silver jewelry, pottery, lacrosse sticks, wood utensils, bone work, soap stone sculptures, paintings and more. All are welcome. Extra parking at the Onondaga Nation Health Clinic.

The Art of Gift Giving
Szozda Gallery

Szozda Gallery
Delavan Center, 501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

This group show of new works by favorite artists includes an eclectic mix of photography, paintings, drawings and mixed media, with as varied a host of subject matter as the techniques used to create them. Featured artists includ Rob Glisson, Harry-Freeman Jones, Kwangpyo (Steve) Koh, Emily Elizabeth, Ray Trudell, Phil Parsons, Barbara Conte-Gaugel, R.L. Mercer, C. J. Hodge, Roscha Folger, Diana Godfrey, Dona Flaherty and Linda Esterley. These are artists who have successfully shown before and now, in the spirit of giving, have produced new art especially for this show as a way of thanking the many audiences who continue to enjoy and appreciate their particular creations.

African Diasporan Treasures: 40 Years of Community Folk Art Center
Community Folk Art Center

Price: Free
Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

The exhibition will showcase pieces from CFAC's permanent collection. Featuring over 30 works by artists including Joel Gaines, Ellen Oppler, Jack White, Denise Cole and Kamiiron Pritchard, "African Diasporan Treasures" provides a rare opportunity for visitors to experience the rich artistic history of CFAC. In many cases, the pieces have not been displayed for decades. The show will also feature African art that was once part of the Smithsonian Museum's collection.

Child of the Universe: Works by George Kilpatrick
Community Folk Art Center

Price: Free
Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Local media figure George Kilpatrick is featured in his exhibition Child of the Universe, a tribute to the life and work of his late father George Kilpatrick Sr. The exhibition features a variety of paintings and sculptures that evoke Kilpatrick's philosophical views on humanity and its place in the universe.

Holiday Show 2011
Gandee Gallery

Gandee Gallery
7846 Main St., Fabius

The Holiday Show features jewelry, ceramics, photography, painting, and fiber art created by regionally and nationally recognized artists. Participating artists include Dana Stenson (Syracuse), Jen Gandee (Fabius), Jeanann Wieners (Syracuse), Elisabeth Groat (Syracuse), Sarah Saulson (Syracuse), Lucie Wellner (Pompey), and Errol Willett (Fabius).

The Holiday Group Show emphasizes the important role that handmade objects and fine art plays in domestic life, enriching living spaces and adorning the body.

57th Annual Art Mart
Syracuse Allied Arts, Inc.

City Hall Commons Atrium
201 East Washington St., Syracuse

Our gift shop of fine art and crafts handmade by local guild and independent artists is Syracuse's one-stop shopping haven during the holiday season. Find unique pottery, stained glass, paintings, jewelry, hand-crafted soaps and candles, and much more.

For more information, phone 315-243-6359 or 315-637-6562.

Landmarks of New York
Onondaga Historical Association

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

Landmarks of New York is a traveling exhibit of 90 stunning black and white photographs of New York City buildings that have been accorded landmark status by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The exhibit is curated by Dr. Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, New York City's first director of cultural affairs and acclaimed author of the book that serves as the basis for the exhibit, The Landmarks of New York: An Illustrated Record of the City's Historic Building. In conjunction with the show, Dennis Connors, OHA's Curator of History, selected over 20 contemporary and historic photographs to highlight Onondaga County's own architectural inheritance.

Sources & Structures: The Art of Robert Stackhouse
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

This 25-year retrospective, organized by the SUArt Galleries, surveys the development of Robert Stackhouse as an artist. In addition to investigating the roots of his best-known imagery -- Viking ships, whales, snakes, and wood A-frame constructs -- this exhibition examines how he conceives of these designs through his drawings, watercolors, and prints. "Sources and Structures" considers how Stackhouse has made a personal examination of these natural and man-made forms and developed a body of work that explores affinities between architecture and biological anatomy.

Engineered Perspectives: Railroad Culture in the Modern World
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

"Engineered Perspectives: Railroad Culture in the Modern World" examines how depictions of the railroad transformed our perception of the railroad industry. Whether the purpose of an artistic work was to entertain the viewer, to provide cultural commentary, or to call attention to the railroad's impact on the economic climate, each one inevitably had an effect on the way the audience viewed and understood the railroad in modern society.

In partnership with the Syracuse University Art Galleries and the Special Collections Research Center, the students enrolled in the Advanced Curatorship course in the Graduate Program in Museum Studies have worked together to thematically demonstrate visual testimonies to the railroad's reign over the industrialized world.

Emilio Sanchez: No Way Home--Images of the Caribbean and New York City
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

"No Way Home" features a selection of 24 paintings, watercolors, drawings and prints drawn from the recently acquired collection of work by Cuban-American artist Emilio Sanchez (1921-1999). Best known for his brightly colored, strongly shadowed images of Caribbean and New York City architecture, this exhibition reveals the artist's ongoing interest in repetitive patterns. The show highlights a recent gift to the University Art Collection from the Emilio Sanchez Foundation of over 250 paintings, drawings and prints.

Daughters of Ixchel: The Photography of Mary Lawyer O'Connor
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

"Daughters of Ixchel" is a collection of images of Maya women and their hand-woven textiles that brings awareness and understanding of vibrant Maya cultures and the challenges they face. The exhibit will be a look into the lives of women weavers from Guatemala and Southern Mexico. Portrait and documentary photography along with text will tell their stories and will include original textiles. We will highlight fair-trade, worker-owned cooperatives and the political history of Guatemala where, despite persecution and genocide, Maya weavers maintain traditional methods, patterns, colors and styles that flourish and evolve.

Mary Lawyer O'Connor lives in Pompey and is a founder and current head of the Montessori School of Syracuse.

Deng Guo Yuan
The Warehouse Gallery

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

This exhibit will highlight ink brush paintings by Tianjin-based Chinese artist Deng Guo Yuan. His work reveals the tradition of Chinese landscape painting and a profound knowledge of modern and international contemporary aesthetics. The film "Deng Guo Yuan" (2010) by French filmmaker Pierre Creton, presented in the Gallery's vault, meticulously documents the creation of one of Deng Guo Yuan's ink paintings in his Tianjin studio. Widely exhibited in China and Europe, this will be the artist's first solo museum exhibition in the United States. The show originated at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum (Tianjin, China), and then traveled in modified form to the Samek Art Gallery at Bucknell University (Lewisburg, PA), to the Provenance Center (New London, CT), and to its last venue, the Warehouse Gallery, for which Deng Guo Yuan will create additional site-specific works.

Sculpture Club Exhibition
XL Projects

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

A collaborative group show displaying a wide variety of work done by the undergraduate members of SU's Sculpture Club. With more than 20 artists being shown, the exhibition provides an excellent opportunity to see the vast array of artwork students have been creating in the sculptural field. The show is curated by Alex Svoboda and Sarah Whitehouse.

Always After (the Glass House)
Urban Video Project

Price: Free
Everson Museum of Art Plaza
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Urban Video Project is pleased to present Always After (the Glass House), 2006, by internationally recognized multimedia artist, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle.

Employing footage shot on a high-speed film camera, Always After focuses on the broken glass accumulated after the windows of the Mies-designed Illinois Institute of Technology's Crown Hall were smashed by the architect's own grandson as part of a ceremony in advance of the building's renovation. Manglano-Ovalle scrupulously edits out all clear reference to this odd 'kill your fathers' ritual, leaving the viewer with a dream-like sequence in which well-shod anonymous masses eternally exit and equally anonymous custodians endlessly move in to sweep up the crystalline debris of modernism. The precise nature of the event--whether it is a natural disaster, a terrorist attack, or just routine construction--never becomes clear. Instead, the narrative unfolds like a Jacob's ladder: never reaching the end, passing again and again through the point where modernist progress and crisis become indistinguishable--a point that is always already "after."

Nathaniel Sullivan: On the Way to the Theatre, We Egged a Trans-am
Urban Video Project

Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

In this 1 minute-23 second video, Sullivan depicts the pressures brought to bear in teenage boys--most of which are pressures to be pleased, injunctions to enjoy. While at first glance this looks like an easy row to hoe, the work makes it clear that in fact there are consequences to taking one's pleasures liberally, without reserve. As Plato said, pleasure deranges as efficiently as pain.

Nathaniel Sullivan is an artist and writer. He received his MFA degree from the Transmedia Department at Syracuse University in Spring 2011. His practice is a balance of artwork, critical writing, and curating. His work has been shown in exhibitions and screenings in Syracuse, New York City, and widely across Canada. In 2006, he was awarded a Special Mention from the prestigious Montreal Film Festival.

Dasher & Dancer's Disco: Festival of Trees: Inspiration
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $8 online presale, $10 at the door
Shoppingtown Mall
Dewitt

This evening from 9:00 pm - midnight, dance the night away as the Festival of Trees transforms into a night time hot spot, complete with DJ and cash bar. Free with Festival admission.

Entrance next to Library/Theater mall entrance.

The Everson Museum of Art Members' Council presents this 10-day festival featuring over 100 decorated trees, wreathes and special displays. Each item is generously donated by local businesses, community groups, and individuals, and all items are sold to benefit the Everson Museum of Art. Visitors take in the beautiful sights, purchase decorative items, and pick up tips for their own creations. Special events and live entertainment make the Festival truly special. All proceeds directly benefit the Everson Museum of Art.

The Adventures of Rudolph
CNY Arts
Featuring Center of Ballet and Dance Arts

Price: $10-$19
Crouse Hinds Concert Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

It's a week before Christmas and Santa's elves are busy making presents. The evil Witch Winter Grey kidnaps the elves so that they might make presents just for her. Only Santa's reindeer Rudolph can penetrate the gloom around the witch's castle with his bright nose. When he arrives at the castle, he and the elves make a plan to escape from the witch.

Holiday Inn

Price: Free
Curtin Auditorium, Onondaga County Public Library
The Galleries of Syracuse, 447 S. Salina St., Syracuse

Join us for this 1942 musical holiday classic starring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby (rated G).

John Cadley and Cathy Wenthen
Westcott Community Center

Price: $12 regular, $10 WCC members
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

John Cadley and Cathy Wenthen have each been playing music in the Syracuse area for many years, and have recently combined their talents into a "new acoustic" duo featuring smooth duet harmonies supported by guitars, mandolin, and banjo. Their music includes a heavy dose of Cadley originals well-known on the local bluegrass and country-folk scene, supplemented by a tasty selection of country, folk, and pop cover tunes. Included in the latter category is everything from classic folk songs like "The Water Is Wide," to the new acoustic sounds of Alison Krauss, Nancy Griffith, Leonard Cohen, Emmylou Harris. Thrown in for good measure are fresh, original versions of Beatles tunes like "Yesterday" and "I Will," along wide an ethereal version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" that everyone should hear at least once.

Cadley is also the leader of John Cadley and the Lost Boys, voted Best Bluegrass Group of 2009 by the Syracuse New Times Readers' Poll, with two SAMMY-winning CDs of Cadley's original material. He is also the writer of "Time," a #1 hit on the national bluegrass charts as recorded by Lou Reid and Carolina. Wenthen was a music director at the Immaculate Conception Church in Fayetteville, with many years of experience of playing, singing, arranging, and conducting. Under her leadership, the IC Folk Group has a reputation as one of the finest in the area. Together since 2009, Cadley and Wenthen are a classic case of a sum greater than its parts.

Hendricks Chapel Handbell Ringers
Petit Branch Library

Price: Free
Petit Branch Library
105 Victoria Pl., Syracuse

The Birthday of a King
Community Folk Art Center
Joan Hillsman's Music Network

Price: $10 regular, $7 children under 12
Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Holiday event featuring gospel, singing, drama, poetry and dance.

Holiday Concert
Featuring Dan Duggan and Peggy Lynn

Robinson Memorial Church
126 Terry Rd. (corner of Granger), Syracuse

Caroling in the Woods
Baltimore Woods Nature Center

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

A Cappella Noel-a

Price: Cash donation or donation of a new toy or non-perishable food items
First Presbyterian Church of Baldwinsville
64 Oswego St., Baldwinsville

Enjoy an evening of pop, folk, rock, blues and doo-wop performed by two area a cappella groups, noXcuse and Quintessence, to benefit the Christmas Bureau.

Le Moyne College Jazzuits and Singers
LeMoyne College

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

An evening of Broadway classics and the music of George Gershwin. These two vocal ensembles will present standards including I've Never Been in Love Before and Someone to Watch Over Me alongside selections from contemporary Broadway musicals, including Spring Awakening and Hairspray.

For tickets or more information, phone 315-445-4523.

Winter Solstice Concert
Syracuse Community Choir
Karen Mihalyi, conductor
Featuring Charlie King

Price: $12-$25 sliding scale
St. Paul's Syracuse
220 E. Fayette St., Syracuse

The concert will honor the Syracuse Peace Council's 75th Anniversary and special guest artist Charlie King will premiere a song, Keep the Faith, composed especially for the occasion. The evening will also include a presentation of the 2011 People's Peace Award to the Syracuse Peace Council.

Charlie King is a musical storyteller and political satirist, singing passionately about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. King has sung in support of numerous groups working for peace, human rights, environmental protection and alternatives to violence. In 1977 Charlie King and fellow musician and activist Pete Seeger founded The People's Music Network for Songs of Freedom and Struggle, Inc. PMN is a nonprofit organization that serves as a network for musicians, activists, songwriters, concert producers, sound engineers, and others, who use music and culture to promote progressive ideas and values.

Charlie King's songs have been recorded and sung by performers such as Pete Seeger, Holly Near, Ronnie Gilbert, John McCutcheon, Arlo Guthrie, Peggy Seeger, Chad Mitchell and Judy Small. Honors include an Indie award for one of the top three American folk recordings of 1984. In 1998 King was the recipient of the War Resisters League's Peacemaker Award. Pete Seeger nominated King for the Sacco-Vanzetti Social Justice Award, which he received in November 1999. Charlie has released a dozen solo albums since 1976. He has also released three albums with the touring ensemble Bright Morning Star, and numerous compilation albums with other artists.

Tickets can be purchased at the door or online via Paypal at syracusecommunitychoir.org. Please direct all ticket and concert inquiries to SCC at 315-428-8151 or via email at syracusecommunitychoir@gmail.com.

A Christmas Pie: Nowell, Sing We
Syracuse Vocal Ensemble
Robert Cowles, conductor

Price: $20 regular, $17 seniors, $5 students
United Church of Fayetteville
310 E. Genesee St., Fayetteville

Syracuse Vocal Ensemble is proud to present this year's edition of their holiday classic, A Christmas Pie: Nowell Sing We. Once again, audiences will be treated to magnificent seasonal music, a selection of sing-along carols, and our delightful pie reception after the show.

With deep medieval roots in dance and processionals, English carols became a favored vehicle for the intricate and beautiful polyphony that flowered in the 15th and 16th centuries. The concert will feature music from past and present that draws on the Renaissance English carol for its inspiration.

An Evening with Branford Marsalis
Onondaga Community College

SRC Arena and Events Center
Onondaga Community College campus, Syracuse

A grand opening concert for the new SRC Arena and Events Center located on the campus of OCC. NEA Jazz Master, renowned Grammy Award-winning saxophonist and Tony Award nominee Branford Marsalis is one of the most revered instrumentalists of his time, also known for his appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno as the Musical Director.

Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings
Westcott Theater

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

Grandfather Frost's Stories of Russia
Open Hand Theater

Price: $8 adults, $6 children
International Mask and Puppet Museum
518 Prospect Ave., Syracuse

Grandfather Frost, a most mischievous cat, and a lost girl are the background for this wonderful winter adventure into the world of Russian folk tales. The performance features Open Hand Theater's international artist in residence, Vladimir Vasyagin, with musician Leslie Archer. This duet of music and puppetry brings to life a whole storybook of characters, adventures and culture.

New Kid
Syracuse University Drama Department

Price: $5
Storch Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

New Kid promotes tolerance and compassion, and addresses racism, prejudice, peer pressure and conflict resolution from the perspective of Nick, who recently immigrated to America from a country called Homeland and is struggling with a new language and a new way of life. The kids at his new school make fun of him because of his customs and strange language. The twist is that the Americans speak a kind of gibberish which neither Nick nor the audience understand.

Performed in striking visual terms, New Kid offers an extraordinary opportunity for families to share a rich theatrical experience. The director, designers, performers, and production crew are students and professionals from Syracuse University's Department of Drama and Syracuse Stage.

Tickets can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 315-443-3275. 45 minutes in length, New Kid is recommended for all ages.

Little Red Riding Hood
Magic Circle Children's Theatre

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

In this interactive version, the children in the audience are invited to come dressed up as fairytale characters, and become the witnesses, jury, and judge at the wolf's trial (for trying to trick Little Red and her Grandmother).

For reservations, phone 315-449-3823.

The Black Book
Black Box Players
Phil Blechman, director

Price: Free
Loft Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

The Black Book is a suspense thriller that is, at its heart, a story about love and reason. Propelling audiences from the real world into the mind of the characters wherein we are forced to continuously question who is who and what is true. Black Box Players is very excited to produce this brand new original play, written and directed by a Syracuse student.

Read a review!

A Chorus Line

Price: $10 regular, $5 children 12 and under
Manlius Pebble Hill School
5300 Jamesville Rd., Dewitt

The Wiz
Redhouse

Price: $15 regular, $10 members
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

The award-winning musical based on the classic The Wizard of Oz, join Dorothy as she ventures from her home in Harlem to the funky, urban world of Oz. Presented in partnership with Hillside Family of Agencies.

Part of Redhouse's new "Theatre Experience" Program, this production of The Wiz is designed to provide experiential learning for students through production opportunities. Students participate in master classes and workshops taught by college professors and theater professionals which culminate in a professional production in which the students participate.

The Redhouse cast of The Wiz includes four professional actors from New York City in the lead roles: Joan Armstrong, Jasmine Torres, Evan Michael Smith, and Temar Underwood.

Local actors include Stephfond Brunson, Lonnie Lemar Johnson, H. Kevin Mobley, Jessica Skipper, Blondean Young, Brandon Martin and Lucy Di Genova.

The cast also includes young actors from the Hillside Agency. Hillside is an after school program for at-risk youth in need of support and guidance during the middle and high school years. Through a partnership with this organization, Redhouse now conducts an entire Arts Education curriculum for the Hillside facility and offers internship and performance opportunities for their kids.

Read a Review!

The Rockin' Tale of Snow White
Syracuse Children's Theatre

Carrier Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Syracuse Stage
Syracuse University Drama Department
Linda Hartzell, director

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

Narnia comes to life in a mystical adventure, dramatized by Adrian Mitchell, with music composed by Shaun Davey.

London. The war is on and the bombs are falling. Four children -- Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy -- flee the perils of the Blitz to the safety of the countryside. In an old wardrobe they discover a portal to the land of Narnia, where a fearsome White Witch holds the inhabitants spellbound in a winter lasting 100 years. There the children enter a deadly struggle, joining with the great lion, Aslan, to battle the White Witch and her army. Commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and rarely produced stateside, this thrilling musical adaptation of C.S. Lewis' inspiring tale delivers excitement for the whole family. Musical direction by Dianne Adams McDowell.

Read a Review!

Nuncrackers
Encore Presentations

Price: $37.25 dinner and show, $20 show only
Glen Loch Restaurant
4626 North St., Jamesville

Nuncrackers: The Nunsense Christmas Musical is the first "TV Special" taped by the sisters in their convent basement studio for Cable Access. It stars the nuns you love plus Father Virgil and some of Mt. Saint Helen's most talented students. It features all new songs including: Twelve Days Prior to Christmas, Santa Ain't Comin' To Our House, We Three Kings of Orient Are Us, and It's Better to Give Than To Receive. This show is filled with "Nunsense" humor, some of your favorite carols, a "Secret Santa," and an uproarious take on Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Ballet. Nuncrackers will make you laugh and maybe tug at your heartstrings. It's the perfect way to insure your holiday season is merry and bright.

Dinner begins at 6:30 pm; show at 8:00 pm.

Read a Review!

The Wiz
Redhouse

Price: $15 regular, $10 members
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

The award-winning musical based on the classic The Wizard of Oz, join Dorothy as she ventures from her home in Harlem to the funky, urban world of Oz. Presented in partnership with Hillside Family of Agencies.

Part of Redhouse's new "Theatre Experience" Program, this production of The Wiz is designed to provide experiential learning for students through production opportunities. Students participate in master classes and workshops taught by college professors and theater professionals which culminate in a professional production in which the students participate.

The Redhouse cast of The Wiz includes four professional actors from New York City in the lead roles: Joan Armstrong, Jasmine Torres, Evan Michael Smith, and Temar Underwood.

Local actors include Stephfond Brunson, Lonnie Lemar Johnson, H. Kevin Mobley, Jessica Skipper, Blondean Young, Brandon Martin and Lucy Di Genova.

The cast also includes young actors from the Hillside Agency. Hillside is an after school program for at-risk youth in need of support and guidance during the middle and high school years. Through a partnership with this organization, Redhouse now conducts an entire Arts Education curriculum for the Hillside facility and offers internship and performance opportunities for their kids.

Read a Review!

The Rockin' Tale of Snow White
Syracuse Children's Theatre

Carrier Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

A Chorus Line

Price: $10
Manlius Pebble Hill School
5300 Jamesville Rd., Dewitt

The Old Time Christmas Radio Hour
Appleseed Productions
Lois Haas, director

Price: $10
Atonement Lutheran Church
116 W. Glen Ave., Syracuse

Set in the fictional town of Redwing, NY, the original production centers on a small town radio station, "WHRT," as it attempts a live, holiday-themed variety hour.

Local actor Edward Mastin reprises his role of emcee "Mr. Ed in the Morning," and is joined by Tom Minion, Tracy Martin, Bernard Kaplan and Lois Haas. The cast is completed by a number of additional performers, soloists and special guests.

The Old Time Christmas Radio Hour will feature a warm mix of seasonal music, variety acts, sketch comedy ... along with all the trimmings of a "live broadcast” as can only be produced by our friends in "Redwing."

Read a Review!

The Black Book
Black Box Players
Phil Blechman, director

Price: Free
Loft Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

The Black Book is a suspense thriller that is, at its heart, a story about love and reason. Propelling audiences from the real world into the mind of the characters wherein we are forced to continuously question who is who and what is true. Black Box Players is very excited to produce this brand new original play, written and directed by a Syracuse student.

Read a review!

*SOLD OUT* Judy's Scary Little Christmas
Rarely Done Productions
Dan Tursi, director

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

Judy Garland is primed for her biggest comeback ever -- the dazzling star of her own TV special, broadcast live on Christmas Eve, 1959. Judy's guests include Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman, and Liberace. However, mysterious snafus behind the scenes and cameo appearances by Vice President Richard Nixon and blacklisted writer, Lillian Hellman throw Judy's program off course.

The surprises climax when the arrival of Joan Crawford is interrupted by the spectral figure of...Death. The evening takes a detour into the twilight zone as the celebrities are forced to confront the lies behind their legends. Devastated and alone, Judy meets a special fan who ultimately proves that, despite her flaws, her shining legacy still endures. This show is intended for mature audiences only.

Written by James Webber and David Church, music and lyrics by Joe Patrick Ward, musical director Josh Smith

Read a Review!

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Syracuse Stage
Syracuse University Drama Department
Linda Hartzell, director

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

Narnia comes to life in a mystical adventure, dramatized by Adrian Mitchell, with music composed by Shaun Davey.

London. The war is on and the bombs are falling. Four children -- Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy -- flee the perils of the Blitz to the safety of the countryside. In an old wardrobe they discover a portal to the land of Narnia, where a fearsome White Witch holds the inhabitants spellbound in a winter lasting 100 years. There the children enter a deadly struggle, joining with the great lion, Aslan, to battle the White Witch and her army. Commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and rarely produced stateside, this thrilling musical adaptation of C.S. Lewis' inspiring tale delivers excitement for the whole family. Musical direction by Dianne Adams McDowell.

Read a Review!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Windows Project: Elisabeth Meyer: Black Night/White Night
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The Window Project features an installation by Elisabeth Meyer consisting of organic forms embroidered onto an organza fabric. The overall patterning evokes an association with ocean waves and a net. The transparent quality of the organza background allows the viewer to see through the piece that is hanging from the ceiling covering the entire window front. The work addresses the issue of displacement through traveling. Meyer, who is based in Ithaca, developed the concept for this exhibition while at a residency in Iceland, traveled to India to oversee the production of the embroidery, and created the work on site in Syracuse.

26th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children, members free
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

The museums transforms into a festive 1800s street scene with more than 40 gingerbread creations in storefront windows.

Festival of Trees: Inspiration
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $8 online presale, $10 at the door
Shoppingtown Mall
Dewitt

Entrance next to Library/Theater mall entrance.

The Everson Museum of Art Members' Council presents this 10-day festival featuring over 100 decorated trees, wreathes and special displays. Each item is generously donated by local businesses, community groups, and individuals, and all items are sold to benefit the Everson Museum of Art. Visitors take in the beautiful sights, purchase decorative items, and pick up tips for their own creations. Special events and live entertainment make the Festival truly special. All proceeds directly benefit the Everson Museum of Art.

VisualBooks: Works by Scott McCarney
Light Work Gallery

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

This unique and beautiful exhibition explores the book as a sculptural object that employs a variety of image-making processes. McCarney's carefully hand-bound editions and found-altered books incorporate photographic imagery and utilize the space of the gallery to explore reading as display (on pedestals and shelves, hanging from the ceiling, mounted on the wall).

McCarney creates his sculptural objects and photo-based editions as one-of-a-kind, hand-made pieces as well as small runs of print-on-demand books. According to Hannah Frieser, director of Light Work, "Scott McCarney rethinks the book form, considering books as a starting point rather than a mere vehicle for information and images."

Read a review!

The Art of Gift Giving
Szozda Gallery

Szozda Gallery
Delavan Center, 501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

This group show of new works by favorite artists includes an eclectic mix of photography, paintings, drawings and mixed media, with as varied a host of subject matter as the techniques used to create them. Featured artists includ Rob Glisson, Harry-Freeman Jones, Kwangpyo (Steve) Koh, Emily Elizabeth, Ray Trudell, Phil Parsons, Barbara Conte-Gaugel, R.L. Mercer, C. J. Hodge, Roscha Folger, Diana Godfrey, Dona Flaherty and Linda Esterley. These are artists who have successfully shown before and now, in the spirit of giving, have produced new art especially for this show as a way of thanking the many audiences who continue to enjoy and appreciate their particular creations.

Expressions of Joy: Annual Holiday Show
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Fine art and fine craft created by local artists.

Holiday Show 2011
Gandee Gallery

Gandee Gallery
7846 Main St., Fabius

The Holiday Show features jewelry, ceramics, photography, painting, and fiber art created by regionally and nationally recognized artists. Participating artists include Dana Stenson (Syracuse), Jen Gandee (Fabius), Jeanann Wieners (Syracuse), Elisabeth Groat (Syracuse), Sarah Saulson (Syracuse), Lucie Wellner (Pompey), and Errol Willett (Fabius).

The Holiday Group Show emphasizes the important role that handmade objects and fine art plays in domestic life, enriching living spaces and adorning the body.

Gifts for the Home
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Looking for that perfect, one-of-a-kind piece of home décor? Then check out this exhibition featuring original watercolors, wooden clocks and spoons, ceramic mugs, blown glass vases, and other handcrafted gifts at a variety of price points.

Artists represented include:
Lucie Wellner, of Pompey, watercolor paintings
Dennis MacDonald, of Fabius, brooms
Emily Reason, of Marshall, N.C., porcelain pottery
Rick Barrick, of Lancaster, Pa., candles
Jonathan Simons, of Kempton, Pa., wooden spoons
Schlabaugh & Sons, of Kalona, Iowa, clocks

Landmarks of New York
Onondaga Historical Association

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

Landmarks of New York is a traveling exhibit of 90 stunning black and white photographs of New York City buildings that have been accorded landmark status by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The exhibit is curated by Dr. Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, New York City's first director of cultural affairs and acclaimed author of the book that serves as the basis for the exhibit, The Landmarks of New York: An Illustrated Record of the City's Historic Building. In conjunction with the show, Dennis Connors, OHA's Curator of History, selected over 20 contemporary and historic photographs to highlight Onondaga County's own architectural inheritance.

Sources & Structures: The Art of Robert Stackhouse
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

This 25-year retrospective, organized by the SUArt Galleries, surveys the development of Robert Stackhouse as an artist. In addition to investigating the roots of his best-known imagery -- Viking ships, whales, snakes, and wood A-frame constructs -- this exhibition examines how he conceives of these designs through his drawings, watercolors, and prints. "Sources and Structures" considers how Stackhouse has made a personal examination of these natural and man-made forms and developed a body of work that explores affinities between architecture and biological anatomy.

Engineered Perspectives: Railroad Culture in the Modern World
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

"Engineered Perspectives: Railroad Culture in the Modern World" examines how depictions of the railroad transformed our perception of the railroad industry. Whether the purpose of an artistic work was to entertain the viewer, to provide cultural commentary, or to call attention to the railroad's impact on the economic climate, each one inevitably had an effect on the way the audience viewed and understood the railroad in modern society.

In partnership with the Syracuse University Art Galleries and the Special Collections Research Center, the students enrolled in the Advanced Curatorship course in the Graduate Program in Museum Studies have worked together to thematically demonstrate visual testimonies to the railroad's reign over the industrialized world.

Emilio Sanchez: No Way Home--Images of the Caribbean and New York City
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

"No Way Home" features a selection of 24 paintings, watercolors, drawings and prints drawn from the recently acquired collection of work by Cuban-American artist Emilio Sanchez (1921-1999). Best known for his brightly colored, strongly shadowed images of Caribbean and New York City architecture, this exhibition reveals the artist's ongoing interest in repetitive patterns. The show highlights a recent gift to the University Art Collection from the Emilio Sanchez Foundation of over 250 paintings, drawings and prints.

From Here to There: Alec Soth's America
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $10 regular, $8 students/seniors/military, members and children under 5 free
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

"From Here to There: Alec Soth's America" provides a focused look at an extraordinary photographer whose compelling images of the American road and its unexpected turns form powerful narrative vignettes. The exhibition will be the artist's first major survey assembled in the United States, exploring over 15 years of his career, and including an extensive new body of work.

Since his inclusion in the 2004 Whitney and São Paulo biennials, Soth's reputation as one of the most interesting voices in contemporary photography has continued to grow. Though he has followed the itinerant path laid forth by photographers such as Robert Frank, William Eggleston, and Stephen Shore, Soth's is a distinct perspective, one in which the wandering, searching, and the process of telling is as resonant as the record of these remarkable encounters. When considered together, Soth's pictures probe the individualities of people, objects, and places he encounters; offer insight to broader sociologies, and in the process form a collective portrait of an unexpected America.

Featuring approximately 100 photographs made between 1994 and the present, "From Here to There" will include rarely-seen early black-and-white images as well as examples from Soth's best-known series "Sleeping by the Mississippi" and "Niagara." Interspersed throughout the exhibition will be a broad range of portraits made over the past 15 years. The exhibition will also include a new body of work the artist has been developing since 2006, exploring places of escape in America and individuals who seek to flee civilization for a life off the grid. To add insight into Soth's process, the exhibition additionally features a Library space, which includes a reading area for publications, a selection of maquettes for book and 'zine projects, short video works, and ephemera gathered on the road.

Margie Hughto: A Fired Landscape
Everson Museum of Art

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

Internationally renowned ceramic artist Margie Hughto presents her first site-specific museum installation entitled A Fired Landscape, a "clay painting" spanning 50 feet of gallery wall space. Inspired by the artist's spectacular backyard gardens and natural landscape just steps from her studio, The Fired Landscape installation consists of Setting Sun, a brilliantly colored ceramic wall relief displayed continuously on five angled walls. The visitor encounter is reminiscent of what one experiences when surrounded by the natural environment. Overall, Setting Sun is a ceramic abstraction, but Hughto establishes a connection to the landscape that inspired it by adding impressions of natural objects such as native ferns, marine life and fossils, into the wet clay and then coating the surfaces with brilliant color. The rich palette of burnt oranges and fiery reds evoke the sun’s glowing light and radiating warmth. Tiny pieces of glass embedded in the clay prior to firing add sparkle to the glossy green and blue glazes used to suggest the artist's lily pond.

Sculpted Sound: From Art to Wood to Music -- Works of John & Sondra Bromka
LeMoyne College

Price: Free
Wilson Art Gallery, Noreen Reale Falcone Library
LeMoyne College, Syracuse

For more information, phone 315-445-4153.

Sculpture Club Exhibition
XL Projects

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

A collaborative group show displaying a wide variety of work done by the undergraduate members of SU's Sculpture Club. With more than 20 artists being shown, the exhibition provides an excellent opportunity to see the vast array of artwork students have been creating in the sculptural field. The show is curated by Alex Svoboda and Sarah Whitehouse.

"Off the Wall" Holiday Art Sale
Associated Artists of Central New York

Manlius Village Library
Manlius Village Center, 1 Arkie Albanese Dr., Manlius

Learning to Write American: Works by Jennifer Drinkwater
Redhouse

Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

These incredibly innovative pieces directly involve the viewer to create meaning, through imagining the missing term, through opening compartments of the painting to explore what is hidden beneath the surface, or by rearranging magnets to create a composition.

Read a review!

Always After (the Glass House)
Urban Video Project

Price: Free
Everson Museum of Art Plaza
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Urban Video Project is pleased to present Always After (the Glass House), 2006, by internationally recognized multimedia artist, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle.

Employing footage shot on a high-speed film camera, Always After focuses on the broken glass accumulated after the windows of the Mies-designed Illinois Institute of Technology's Crown Hall were smashed by the architect's own grandson as part of a ceremony in advance of the building's renovation. Manglano-Ovalle scrupulously edits out all clear reference to this odd 'kill your fathers' ritual, leaving the viewer with a dream-like sequence in which well-shod anonymous masses eternally exit and equally anonymous custodians endlessly move in to sweep up the crystalline debris of modernism. The precise nature of the event--whether it is a natural disaster, a terrorist attack, or just routine construction--never becomes clear. Instead, the narrative unfolds like a Jacob's ladder: never reaching the end, passing again and again through the point where modernist progress and crisis become indistinguishable--a point that is always already "after."

Nathaniel Sullivan: On the Way to the Theatre, We Egged a Trans-am
Urban Video Project

Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

In this 1 minute-23 second video, Sullivan depicts the pressures brought to bear in teenage boys--most of which are pressures to be pleased, injunctions to enjoy. While at first glance this looks like an easy row to hoe, the work makes it clear that in fact there are consequences to taking one's pleasures liberally, without reserve. As Plato said, pleasure deranges as efficiently as pain.

Nathaniel Sullivan is an artist and writer. He received his MFA degree from the Transmedia Department at Syracuse University in Spring 2011. His practice is a balance of artwork, critical writing, and curating. His work has been shown in exhibitions and screenings in Syracuse, New York City, and widely across Canada. In 2006, he was awarded a Special Mention from the prestigious Montreal Film Festival.

Holiday Movies at the Landmark, with Holiday Sweater Christmas Party

Price: $5 regular, children 12 and under free
Landmark Theatre
362 S. Salina St., Syracuse

1:00-3:00 pm: Elf starring Will Ferrell

3:00-5:00 pm: Holiday Sweater Xmas Party featuring live music by Jason and Peg from The Re-Issues, bake sale, Lowes Build to Grow Kids workshop (while supplies last), prizes for the best holiday sweaters and many more surprises!

5:00-7:00 pm: A Christmas Story starring Peter Billingsly

Gail Lyons' Harp Ensemble
Arts at Assisi

Price: Free (donations accepted)
Assumption Church
812 N. Salina St., Syracuse

Holiday program featuring 17 harps, organ and voices.

Christmas Pops
Onondaga Civic Symphony Orchestra
Erik Kibelsbeck, conductor
Featuring Master's Touch Chorale

Drivers Village (formerly Penn Can Mall)
5885 E. Circle Dr., Cicero

Winter Concert II
Onondaga Community College

Price: Free
Storer Auditorium
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Jazz ensemble, OCC Singers, Latin ensemble

Messiah
Syracuse Orchestra (formerly Symphoria)
Daniel Hege, conductor
Featuring Janet Brown, Carolyn Weber, Robert Allen, David Neal

Price: $20 regular, $18 seniors, $10 students
Hendricks Chapel
Syracuse University, Syracuse

A Christmas Pie: Nowell, Sing We
Syracuse Vocal Ensemble
Robert Cowles, conductor

Price: $20 regular, $17 seniors, $5 students
Liverpool First United Methodist Church
604 Oswego St., Liverpool

Syracuse Vocal Ensemble is proud to present this year's edition of their holiday classic, A Christmas Pie: Nowell Sing We. Once again, audiences will be treated to magnificent seasonal music, a selection of sing-along carols, and our delightful pie reception after the show.

With deep medieval roots in dance and processionals, English carols became a favored vehicle for the intricate and beautiful polyphony that flowered in the 15th and 16th centuries. The concert will feature music from past and present that draws on the Renaissance English carol for its inspiration.

Community Christmas Concert

Price: Free (donations for food pantry accepted)
Marcellus Presbyterian Church
Corner of Main and North Streets, Marcellus

For more information, phone 315-673-2201.

Holiday Concert

Price: $10 adults, $5 students, free to all servicemembers
West Genesee High School
5201 W. Genesee St., Syracuse

3rd Annual Holiday Themed Short Plays Program
Armory Square Playwrights

Price: Donation to Friends of Dorothy
Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

This fundraiser for Friends of Dorothy is a holiday stocking full of treats! Preshow holiday music provided by Goettel Roed. Come early to enjoy the band plus holiday cookies and cider.

THE PLAYS and PLAYWRIGHTS:
The Episcopal Ladies Guild Christmas Play by Richard Harris
Past Perfect by Peter Moller
The Breathing Tree by Kathy Kramer
Christmas En Familia by Amy Doherty
A Night Before Christmas by Joel Potash
Lost Child on a Winter Afternoon by Donna Stuccio

The Old Time Christmas Radio Hour
Appleseed Productions
Lois Haas, director

Price: $10
Atonement Lutheran Church
116 W. Glen Ave., Syracuse

Set in the fictional town of Redwing, NY, the original production centers on a small town radio station, "WHRT," as it attempts a live, holiday-themed variety hour.

Local actor Edward Mastin reprises his role of emcee "Mr. Ed in the Morning," and is joined by Tom Minion, Tracy Martin, Bernard Kaplan and Lois Haas. The cast is completed by a number of additional performers, soloists and special guests.

The Old Time Christmas Radio Hour will feature a warm mix of seasonal music, variety acts, sketch comedy ... along with all the trimmings of a "live broadcast” as can only be produced by our friends in "Redwing."

Read a Review!

A Chorus Line

Price: $10
Manlius Pebble Hill School
5300 Jamesville Rd., Dewitt

The Rockin' Tale of Snow White
Syracuse Children's Theatre

Carrier Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Syracuse Stage
Syracuse University Drama Department
Linda Hartzell, director

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

Narnia comes to life in a mystical adventure, dramatized by Adrian Mitchell, with music composed by Shaun Davey.

London. The war is on and the bombs are falling. Four children -- Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy -- flee the perils of the Blitz to the safety of the countryside. In an old wardrobe they discover a portal to the land of Narnia, where a fearsome White Witch holds the inhabitants spellbound in a winter lasting 100 years. There the children enter a deadly struggle, joining with the great lion, Aslan, to battle the White Witch and her army. Commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and rarely produced stateside, this thrilling musical adaptation of C.S. Lewis' inspiring tale delivers excitement for the whole family. Musical direction by Dianne Adams McDowell.

Read a Review!

Amahl and the Night Visitors

Price: Free, donations accepted
St. Joseph the Worker Church
1001 Tulip St., Liverpool

The classic holiday one-act opera by Gian Carlo Menotti is presented by St. Joseph the Worker Church and Liverpool First United Methodist Church as an Advent gift to the community. The production includes members from both churches as well as Northminster Presbyterian Church in North Syracuse and Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Liverpool, along with community members.

Donations will be given to St. Joseph's food pantry and the Syracuse Westside Urban Mission at Brown Memorial United Methodist Church.

For more information, phone 315-457-5180.

The Black Book
Black Box Players
Phil Blechman, director

Price: Free
Loft Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

The Black Book is a suspense thriller that is, at its heart, a story about love and reason. Propelling audiences from the real world into the mind of the characters wherein we are forced to continuously question who is who and what is true. Black Box Players is very excited to produce this brand new original play, written and directed by a Syracuse student.

Read a review!

Amahl and the Night Visitors

Price: Free, donations accepted
St. Joseph the Worker Church
1001 Tulip St., Liverpool

The classic holiday one-act opera by Gian Carlo Menotti is presented by St. Joseph the Worker Church and Liverpool First United Methodist Church as an Advent gift to the community. The production includes members from both churches as well as Northminster Presbyterian Church in North Syracuse and Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Liverpool, along with community members.

Donations will be given to St. Joseph's food pantry and the Syracuse Westside Urban Mission at Brown Memorial United Methodist Church.

For more information, phone 315-457-5180.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Windows Project: Elisabeth Meyer: Black Night/White Night
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The Window Project features an installation by Elisabeth Meyer consisting of organic forms embroidered onto an organza fabric. The overall patterning evokes an association with ocean waves and a net. The transparent quality of the organza background allows the viewer to see through the piece that is hanging from the ceiling covering the entire window front. The work addresses the issue of displacement through traveling. Meyer, who is based in Ithaca, developed the concept for this exhibition while at a residency in Iceland, traveled to India to oversee the production of the embroidery, and created the work on site in Syracuse.

Sculpted Sound: From Art to Wood to Music -- Works of John & Sondra Bromka
LeMoyne College

Price: Free
Wilson Art Gallery, Noreen Reale Falcone Library
LeMoyne College, Syracuse

For more information, phone 315-445-4153.

Pile-Stratra: Work s of Mikyung Kim
Onondaga Community College

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

Mikyung Kim's conceptual "Pile-Stratra" exhibit is an intrinsic exploration of the relationship between game and rite. Kim's work is deeply rooted in Eastern Ceremony, especially ancestor worship by creating the tableau as an altar setting. Each work is a product of random and composed elements, producing a form of controlled spontaneity that mirrors the interplay between the fleeting mind and metamorphic nature.

The most convenient lots for the Gallery and Storer Auditorium is Lots 2 directly behind Ferrante Hall.

Spanglish: Drawing, Collage, Photography and Video
Point of Contact Gallery

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

Spanglish is a project made specifically for the Point of Contact Gallery by New York City artist Celeste Fichter, based on Point of Contact's work in the verbal and the visual arts, and its ties to the Latin American literary and visual arts. Comprised of drawing, collage, photography and video, Spanglish is based solely on the artist's understanding and misunderstanding of the Spanish language.

For several months Fichter studied the Spanish/English dictionary page by page, definition by definition in alphabetical order, pronouncing each word aloud in search of words that sound like other words (in either English or Spanish), and looking for definitions that have intriguing double meanings or spellings that can be manipulated. As a non-Spanish speaker, the attempt to learn a new language through a list of definitions presented many limitations; however it is within the narrow confines of these limitations, and maybe because of them, that new understanding is created.

Fichter is interested in the fluidity of language in general as a tool of expression and visual language specifically. Spanglish is beyond a spoken language, beyond a hybrid of the English and Spanish languages — a visual language made up of words, images, signs and symbols.

Open Apple Steve. Memoriam: an aesthetic homage to Steve Jobs
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

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

Exhibit features works by local artists Vicki Harris, Matthew Keeney, Ellen Leahy, Paul Melnikow, and Kathryn Petrillo, plus works from artists in California, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Utah, Washington DC, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Philippines, and Portugal

Read a review!

Just One Word: Plastics
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

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

For more than a century, plastics have transformed our lives -- from bathroom to battlefield; from supermarket to spacecraft. Begun as a 19th-century replacement material for billiard balls and piano keys, plastics spurred 20th century developments in industry, transportation, medicine, entertainment, and other aspects of contemporary life. The original objects of "Just One Word: Plastics" represent a material history of the modern world.

This exhibition features a representative sample of the Plastics Collection at the Syracuse University Library and presents an overview of major trends in the development of plastics in everyday life. The exhibit focuses on personal and household objects rather than the use of plastics in industry where they are also widely used. Approximately 250 objects divided into 12 categories will be on view. In addition, a small selection of manuscripts and printed materials will be included.

Specific objects to be featured in the exhibition are:
* ornate celluloid combs and a wide variety of plastic toiletries
* phenolic (Bakelite) objects from the 1920s and 30s including jewelry, radios, and other appliances and games
* musical instruments
* post-war toys, dishes, and household items
* original patent books of John Wesley Hyatt, inventor of Celluloid
* product catalogues from the 1930s and 1950s for popular items such as DuPont French Ivory dresser sets, Boltaware molded "stoneware" dishes, and Tupperware, and
* the Pleur-evac, a revolutionary plastic medical device for draining fluid and maintaining pressure in the lungs that helped save the life of President Ronald Reagan.

The Plastics Collection was begun in 2007 as a joint project of the Syracuse University Library and the Plastics History & Artifacts Committee of the Plastics Pioneers Association. The Collection expanded dramatically when the National Plastics Center and Museum in Leominster, MA, closed and transferred its artifacts, books, and manuscripts to Syracuse University's care in 2008.

Westcott Holiday Group Show
Westcott Community Art Gallery

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

Photos, paintings and prints by Steve Susman, Molly Susman, Jessica Breedlove and Kristina Starowitz.

Whereas I Took the Butterfly: Works by Deloss McGraw
YMCA Arts Branch GallerY

Price: Free
YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit of literary "poster paintings" features Deloss McGraw's reflections/interpretations of such writers as Dickinson, Hemingway, Snodgrass and others, often using photographs of the authors, book covers, or other borrowed images.

"Off the Wall" Holiday Art Sale
Associated Artists of Central New York

Manlius Village Library
Manlius Village Center, 1 Arkie Albanese Dr., Manlius

26th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children, members free
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

The museums transforms into a festive 1800s street scene with more than 40 gingerbread creations in storefront windows.

Gifts for the Home
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Looking for that perfect, one-of-a-kind piece of home décor? Then check out this exhibition featuring original watercolors, wooden clocks and spoons, ceramic mugs, blown glass vases, and other handcrafted gifts at a variety of price points.

Artists represented include:
Lucie Wellner, of Pompey, watercolor paintings
Dennis MacDonald, of Fabius, brooms
Emily Reason, of Marshall, N.C., porcelain pottery
Rick Barrick, of Lancaster, Pa., candles
Jonathan Simons, of Kempton, Pa., wooden spoons
Schlabaugh & Sons, of Kalona, Iowa, clocks

VisualBooks: Works by Scott McCarney
Light Work Gallery

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

This unique and beautiful exhibition explores the book as a sculptural object that employs a variety of image-making processes. McCarney's carefully hand-bound editions and found-altered books incorporate photographic imagery and utilize the space of the gallery to explore reading as display (on pedestals and shelves, hanging from the ceiling, mounted on the wall).

McCarney creates his sculptural objects and photo-based editions as one-of-a-kind, hand-made pieces as well as small runs of print-on-demand books. According to Hannah Frieser, director of Light Work, "Scott McCarney rethinks the book form, considering books as a starting point rather than a mere vehicle for information and images."

Read a review!

Six Sides of Japanese Package Design
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

The exhibition focuses on the way the design of the package relates to Japanese culture and consumerism.

Based on a collection of different Japanese products, "Six Sides of Japanese Package Design" is the result of a collaboration between undergraduate communications design students in the class Problem-Solving Strategies, taught by Roderick Martinez, and graduate museum studies students in the class Museum Studies Practicum, taught by Bradley Hudson. Divided into six groups, the students selected themes that each highlight a different dimension of package design in Japan. Each section of the gallery is a realization of the groups' respective themes in the form of a museum exhibition.

The Design Gallery is located on the first floor of The Warehouse. Patrons should enter The Warehouse via the ground-floor door, adjacent to the café on West Fayette Street or the first-floor door on West Washington Street.

Expressions of Joy: Annual Holiday Show
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Fine art and fine craft created by local artists.

57th Annual Art Mart
Syracuse Allied Arts, Inc.

City Hall Commons Atrium
201 East Washington St., Syracuse

Our gift shop of fine art and crafts handmade by local guild and independent artists is Syracuse's one-stop shopping haven during the holiday season. Find unique pottery, stained glass, paintings, jewelry, hand-crafted soaps and candles, and much more.

For more information, phone 315-243-6359 or 315-637-6562.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Windows Project: Elisabeth Meyer: Black Night/White Night
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The Window Project features an installation by Elisabeth Meyer consisting of organic forms embroidered onto an organza fabric. The overall patterning evokes an association with ocean waves and a net. The transparent quality of the organza background allows the viewer to see through the piece that is hanging from the ceiling covering the entire window front. The work addresses the issue of displacement through traveling. Meyer, who is based in Ithaca, developed the concept for this exhibition while at a residency in Iceland, traveled to India to oversee the production of the embroidery, and created the work on site in Syracuse.

Sculpted Sound: From Art to Wood to Music -- Works of John & Sondra Bromka
LeMoyne College

Price: Free
Wilson Art Gallery, Noreen Reale Falcone Library
LeMoyne College, Syracuse

For more information, phone 315-445-4153.

Pile-Stratra: Work s of Mikyung Kim
Onondaga Community College

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

Mikyung Kim's conceptual "Pile-Stratra" exhibit is an intrinsic exploration of the relationship between game and rite. Kim's work is deeply rooted in Eastern Ceremony, especially ancestor worship by creating the tableau as an altar setting. Each work is a product of random and composed elements, producing a form of controlled spontaneity that mirrors the interplay between the fleeting mind and metamorphic nature.

The most convenient lots for the Gallery and Storer Auditorium is Lots 2 directly behind Ferrante Hall.

Spanglish: Drawing, Collage, Photography and Video
Point of Contact Gallery

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

Spanglish is a project made specifically for the Point of Contact Gallery by New York City artist Celeste Fichter, based on Point of Contact's work in the verbal and the visual arts, and its ties to the Latin American literary and visual arts. Comprised of drawing, collage, photography and video, Spanglish is based solely on the artist's understanding and misunderstanding of the Spanish language.

For several months Fichter studied the Spanish/English dictionary page by page, definition by definition in alphabetical order, pronouncing each word aloud in search of words that sound like other words (in either English or Spanish), and looking for definitions that have intriguing double meanings or spellings that can be manipulated. As a non-Spanish speaker, the attempt to learn a new language through a list of definitions presented many limitations; however it is within the narrow confines of these limitations, and maybe because of them, that new understanding is created.

Fichter is interested in the fluidity of language in general as a tool of expression and visual language specifically. Spanglish is beyond a spoken language, beyond a hybrid of the English and Spanish languages — a visual language made up of words, images, signs and symbols.

Open Apple Steve. Memoriam: an aesthetic homage to Steve Jobs
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

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

Exhibit features works by local artists Vicki Harris, Matthew Keeney, Ellen Leahy, Paul Melnikow, and Kathryn Petrillo, plus works from artists in California, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Utah, Washington DC, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Philippines, and Portugal

Read a review!

Just One Word: Plastics
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

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

For more than a century, plastics have transformed our lives -- from bathroom to battlefield; from supermarket to spacecraft. Begun as a 19th-century replacement material for billiard balls and piano keys, plastics spurred 20th century developments in industry, transportation, medicine, entertainment, and other aspects of contemporary life. The original objects of "Just One Word: Plastics" represent a material history of the modern world.

This exhibition features a representative sample of the Plastics Collection at the Syracuse University Library and presents an overview of major trends in the development of plastics in everyday life. The exhibit focuses on personal and household objects rather than the use of plastics in industry where they are also widely used. Approximately 250 objects divided into 12 categories will be on view. In addition, a small selection of manuscripts and printed materials will be included.

Specific objects to be featured in the exhibition are:
* ornate celluloid combs and a wide variety of plastic toiletries
* phenolic (Bakelite) objects from the 1920s and 30s including jewelry, radios, and other appliances and games
* musical instruments
* post-war toys, dishes, and household items
* original patent books of John Wesley Hyatt, inventor of Celluloid
* product catalogues from the 1930s and 1950s for popular items such as DuPont French Ivory dresser sets, Boltaware molded "stoneware" dishes, and Tupperware, and
* the Pleur-evac, a revolutionary plastic medical device for draining fluid and maintaining pressure in the lungs that helped save the life of President Ronald Reagan.

The Plastics Collection was begun in 2007 as a joint project of the Syracuse University Library and the Plastics History & Artifacts Committee of the Plastics Pioneers Association. The Collection expanded dramatically when the National Plastics Center and Museum in Leominster, MA, closed and transferred its artifacts, books, and manuscripts to Syracuse University's care in 2008.

Westcott Holiday Group Show
Westcott Community Art Gallery

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

Photos, paintings and prints by Steve Susman, Molly Susman, Jessica Breedlove and Kristina Starowitz.

Whereas I Took the Butterfly: Works by Deloss McGraw
YMCA Arts Branch GallerY

Price: Free
YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit of literary "poster paintings" features Deloss McGraw's reflections/interpretations of such writers as Dickinson, Hemingway, Snodgrass and others, often using photographs of the authors, book covers, or other borrowed images.

Untold Stories
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Featuring the diverse works of Alison Fisher: acrylic and mixed media paintings; jewelry made of unique mixed metals and found objects; one-of-a-kind textiles including handbags, scarves, pillows, and throws.

"Off the Wall" Holiday Art Sale
Associated Artists of Central New York

Manlius Village Library
Manlius Village Center, 1 Arkie Albanese Dr., Manlius

Child of the Universe: Works by George Kilpatrick
Community Folk Art Center

Price: Free
Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Local media figure George Kilpatrick is featured in his exhibition Child of the Universe, a tribute to the life and work of his late father George Kilpatrick Sr. The exhibition features a variety of paintings and sculptures that evoke Kilpatrick's philosophical views on humanity and its place in the universe.

26th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children, members free
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

The museums transforms into a festive 1800s street scene with more than 40 gingerbread creations in storefront windows.

Gifts for the Home
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Looking for that perfect, one-of-a-kind piece of home décor? Then check out this exhibition featuring original watercolors, wooden clocks and spoons, ceramic mugs, blown glass vases, and other handcrafted gifts at a variety of price points.

Artists represented include:
Lucie Wellner, of Pompey, watercolor paintings
Dennis MacDonald, of Fabius, brooms
Emily Reason, of Marshall, N.C., porcelain pottery
Rick Barrick, of Lancaster, Pa., candles
Jonathan Simons, of Kempton, Pa., wooden spoons
Schlabaugh & Sons, of Kalona, Iowa, clocks

VisualBooks: Works by Scott McCarney
Light Work Gallery

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

This unique and beautiful exhibition explores the book as a sculptural object that employs a variety of image-making processes. McCarney's carefully hand-bound editions and found-altered books incorporate photographic imagery and utilize the space of the gallery to explore reading as display (on pedestals and shelves, hanging from the ceiling, mounted on the wall).

McCarney creates his sculptural objects and photo-based editions as one-of-a-kind, hand-made pieces as well as small runs of print-on-demand books. According to Hannah Frieser, director of Light Work, "Scott McCarney rethinks the book form, considering books as a starting point rather than a mere vehicle for information and images."

Read a review!

Six Sides of Japanese Package Design
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

The exhibition focuses on the way the design of the package relates to Japanese culture and consumerism.

Based on a collection of different Japanese products, "Six Sides of Japanese Package Design" is the result of a collaboration between undergraduate communications design students in the class Problem-Solving Strategies, taught by Roderick Martinez, and graduate museum studies students in the class Museum Studies Practicum, taught by Bradley Hudson. Divided into six groups, the students selected themes that each highlight a different dimension of package design in Japan. Each section of the gallery is a realization of the groups' respective themes in the form of a museum exhibition.

The Design Gallery is located on the first floor of The Warehouse. Patrons should enter The Warehouse via the ground-floor door, adjacent to the café on West Fayette Street or the first-floor door on West Washington Street.

Expressions of Joy: Annual Holiday Show
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Fine art and fine craft created by local artists.

57th Annual Art Mart
Syracuse Allied Arts, Inc.

City Hall Commons Atrium
201 East Washington St., Syracuse

Our gift shop of fine art and crafts handmade by local guild and independent artists is Syracuse's one-stop shopping haven during the holiday season. Find unique pottery, stained glass, paintings, jewelry, hand-crafted soaps and candles, and much more.

For more information, phone 315-243-6359 or 315-637-6562.

Emilio Sanchez: No Way Home--Images of the Caribbean and New York City
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

"No Way Home" features a selection of 24 paintings, watercolors, drawings and prints drawn from the recently acquired collection of work by Cuban-American artist Emilio Sanchez (1921-1999). Best known for his brightly colored, strongly shadowed images of Caribbean and New York City architecture, this exhibition reveals the artist's ongoing interest in repetitive patterns. The show highlights a recent gift to the University Art Collection from the Emilio Sanchez Foundation of over 250 paintings, drawings and prints.

Engineered Perspectives: Railroad Culture in the Modern World
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

"Engineered Perspectives: Railroad Culture in the Modern World" examines how depictions of the railroad transformed our perception of the railroad industry. Whether the purpose of an artistic work was to entertain the viewer, to provide cultural commentary, or to call attention to the railroad's impact on the economic climate, each one inevitably had an effect on the way the audience viewed and understood the railroad in modern society.

In partnership with the Syracuse University Art Galleries and the Special Collections Research Center, the students enrolled in the Advanced Curatorship course in the Graduate Program in Museum Studies have worked together to thematically demonstrate visual testimonies to the railroad's reign over the industrialized world.

Sources & Structures: The Art of Robert Stackhouse
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

This 25-year retrospective, organized by the SUArt Galleries, surveys the development of Robert Stackhouse as an artist. In addition to investigating the roots of his best-known imagery -- Viking ships, whales, snakes, and wood A-frame constructs -- this exhibition examines how he conceives of these designs through his drawings, watercolors, and prints. "Sources and Structures" considers how Stackhouse has made a personal examination of these natural and man-made forms and developed a body of work that explores affinities between architecture and biological anatomy.

From Here to There: Alec Soth's America
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $10 regular, $8 students/seniors/military, members and children under 5 free
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

"From Here to There: Alec Soth's America" provides a focused look at an extraordinary photographer whose compelling images of the American road and its unexpected turns form powerful narrative vignettes. The exhibition will be the artist's first major survey assembled in the United States, exploring over 15 years of his career, and including an extensive new body of work.

Since his inclusion in the 2004 Whitney and São Paulo biennials, Soth's reputation as one of the most interesting voices in contemporary photography has continued to grow. Though he has followed the itinerant path laid forth by photographers such as Robert Frank, William Eggleston, and Stephen Shore, Soth's is a distinct perspective, one in which the wandering, searching, and the process of telling is as resonant as the record of these remarkable encounters. When considered together, Soth's pictures probe the individualities of people, objects, and places he encounters; offer insight to broader sociologies, and in the process form a collective portrait of an unexpected America.

Featuring approximately 100 photographs made between 1994 and the present, "From Here to There" will include rarely-seen early black-and-white images as well as examples from Soth's best-known series "Sleeping by the Mississippi" and "Niagara." Interspersed throughout the exhibition will be a broad range of portraits made over the past 15 years. The exhibition will also include a new body of work the artist has been developing since 2006, exploring places of escape in America and individuals who seek to flee civilization for a life off the grid. To add insight into Soth's process, the exhibition additionally features a Library space, which includes a reading area for publications, a selection of maquettes for book and 'zine projects, short video works, and ephemera gathered on the road.

Margie Hughto: A Fired Landscape
Everson Museum of Art

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

Internationally renowned ceramic artist Margie Hughto presents her first site-specific museum installation entitled A Fired Landscape, a "clay painting" spanning 50 feet of gallery wall space. Inspired by the artist's spectacular backyard gardens and natural landscape just steps from her studio, The Fired Landscape installation consists of Setting Sun, a brilliantly colored ceramic wall relief displayed continuously on five angled walls. The visitor encounter is reminiscent of what one experiences when surrounded by the natural environment. Overall, Setting Sun is a ceramic abstraction, but Hughto establishes a connection to the landscape that inspired it by adding impressions of natural objects such as native ferns, marine life and fossils, into the wet clay and then coating the surfaces with brilliant color. The rich palette of burnt oranges and fiery reds evoke the sun’s glowing light and radiating warmth. Tiny pieces of glass embedded in the clay prior to firing add sparkle to the glossy green and blue glazes used to suggest the artist's lily pond.

Deng Guo Yuan
The Warehouse Gallery

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

This exhibit will highlight ink brush paintings by Tianjin-based Chinese artist Deng Guo Yuan. His work reveals the tradition of Chinese landscape painting and a profound knowledge of modern and international contemporary aesthetics. The film "Deng Guo Yuan" (2010) by French filmmaker Pierre Creton, presented in the Gallery's vault, meticulously documents the creation of one of Deng Guo Yuan's ink paintings in his Tianjin studio. Widely exhibited in China and Europe, this will be the artist's first solo museum exhibition in the United States. The show originated at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum (Tianjin, China), and then traveled in modified form to the Samek Art Gallery at Bucknell University (Lewisburg, PA), to the Provenance Center (New London, CT), and to its last venue, the Warehouse Gallery, for which Deng Guo Yuan will create additional site-specific works.

Dies Irae
Echo

745 N. Salina St. (formerly Craft Chemistry)
Syracuse

Dies Irae, a group show with Thomas Ward III, Heidi Josephine, and Nik Moore featuring a mix of collaborative and original paintings.

Unsung Heroes Film Series: Sister Helen
Redhouse

Price: $8 regular, $5 members
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

One of the most unanimously acclaimed documentaries in recent years and winner of the coveted Sundance Film Festival Directing Award, this emotionally compelling film is an inspirational and uplifting portrait of a truly colorful and most unusual New York character. Brash, foul-mouthed, and no-nonsense, Sister Helen Travis is not your typical saintly soul.

Sister Helen Travis (1930-2000) was a recovering alcoholic and Benedictine sister who spent the last years of her life running a 23-bed halfway house in the rough-and-tumble slum of the South Bronx. She embarked upon this rugged and dangerous ministry in response to the murder of her 15-year-old son, the loss of her husband to alcoholism, and the death of her other son from drugs. This incredible documentary is a stirring tribute to Sister Helen who believed that God puts you where He wants you. Two-time Emmy Award-winner Rob Fruchtman and veteran photographer and filmmaker Rebecca Cammisa moved in with this nun and shot over an 18-month period. They have captured the life and work of a feisty, oddball, and compassionate servant of God who tried to give others a second chance at life.

The Nazi Degenerate Art Show and the Growth of Modern Art in America - An Illustrated Lecture
Temple Society of Concord
Featuring Judith Ellen Meighan

Temple Society of Concord
910 Madison St., Syracuse

Today's cultural wars pale in comparison to the drama of cultural politics in 1937, the year the Nazi Degenerate Art Show opened in Munich. Dr. Judith Meighan, specialist in 20th-century art and Associate Professor in the History of Art in SU's College of Visual and Performing Arts, will take a close look at the Degenerate Art Show and the political will that banished art by Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Chagall and many others as defective works that "insult German feeling...confuse natural form...and reveal an absence of artistic skill." Much of this art was destroyed but a number of works put up for auction to raise money entered notable American collections and museums, including one not yet a decade old, The Museum of Modern Art in NYC. Dr. Meighan, who worked for a decade with these works at MoMA, will compare the political role of avant-garde art in the USA to that of Germany during the war years.

Street Dogs, with Off With Their Heads, Murder the Stout, Still Rings True
Westcott Theater

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Windows Project: Elisabeth Meyer: Black Night/White Night
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The Window Project features an installation by Elisabeth Meyer consisting of organic forms embroidered onto an organza fabric. The overall patterning evokes an association with ocean waves and a net. The transparent quality of the organza background allows the viewer to see through the piece that is hanging from the ceiling covering the entire window front. The work addresses the issue of displacement through traveling. Meyer, who is based in Ithaca, developed the concept for this exhibition while at a residency in Iceland, traveled to India to oversee the production of the embroidery, and created the work on site in Syracuse.

Learning to Write American: Works by Jennifer Drinkwater
Redhouse

Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

These incredibly innovative pieces directly involve the viewer to create meaning, through imagining the missing term, through opening compartments of the painting to explore what is hidden beneath the surface, or by rearranging magnets to create a composition.

Read a review!

Sculpted Sound: From Art to Wood to Music -- Works of John & Sondra Bromka
LeMoyne College

Price: Free
Wilson Art Gallery, Noreen Reale Falcone Library
LeMoyne College, Syracuse

For more information, phone 315-445-4153.

Spanglish: Drawing, Collage, Photography and Video
Point of Contact Gallery

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

Spanglish is a project made specifically for the Point of Contact Gallery by New York City artist Celeste Fichter, based on Point of Contact's work in the verbal and the visual arts, and its ties to the Latin American literary and visual arts. Comprised of drawing, collage, photography and video, Spanglish is based solely on the artist's understanding and misunderstanding of the Spanish language.

For several months Fichter studied the Spanish/English dictionary page by page, definition by definition in alphabetical order, pronouncing each word aloud in search of words that sound like other words (in either English or Spanish), and looking for definitions that have intriguing double meanings or spellings that can be manipulated. As a non-Spanish speaker, the attempt to learn a new language through a list of definitions presented many limitations; however it is within the narrow confines of these limitations, and maybe because of them, that new understanding is created.

Fichter is interested in the fluidity of language in general as a tool of expression and visual language specifically. Spanglish is beyond a spoken language, beyond a hybrid of the English and Spanish languages — a visual language made up of words, images, signs and symbols.

Open Apple Steve. Memoriam: an aesthetic homage to Steve Jobs
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

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

Exhibit features works by local artists Vicki Harris, Matthew Keeney, Ellen Leahy, Paul Melnikow, and Kathryn Petrillo, plus works from artists in California, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Utah, Washington DC, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Philippines, and Portugal

Read a review!

Just One Word: Plastics
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

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

For more than a century, plastics have transformed our lives -- from bathroom to battlefield; from supermarket to spacecraft. Begun as a 19th-century replacement material for billiard balls and piano keys, plastics spurred 20th century developments in industry, transportation, medicine, entertainment, and other aspects of contemporary life. The original objects of "Just One Word: Plastics" represent a material history of the modern world.

This exhibition features a representative sample of the Plastics Collection at the Syracuse University Library and presents an overview of major trends in the development of plastics in everyday life. The exhibit focuses on personal and household objects rather than the use of plastics in industry where they are also widely used. Approximately 250 objects divided into 12 categories will be on view. In addition, a small selection of manuscripts and printed materials will be included.

Specific objects to be featured in the exhibition are:
* ornate celluloid combs and a wide variety of plastic toiletries
* phenolic (Bakelite) objects from the 1920s and 30s including jewelry, radios, and other appliances and games
* musical instruments
* post-war toys, dishes, and household items
* original patent books of John Wesley Hyatt, inventor of Celluloid
* product catalogues from the 1930s and 1950s for popular items such as DuPont French Ivory dresser sets, Boltaware molded "stoneware" dishes, and Tupperware, and
* the Pleur-evac, a revolutionary plastic medical device for draining fluid and maintaining pressure in the lungs that helped save the life of President Ronald Reagan.

The Plastics Collection was begun in 2007 as a joint project of the Syracuse University Library and the Plastics History & Artifacts Committee of the Plastics Pioneers Association. The Collection expanded dramatically when the National Plastics Center and Museum in Leominster, MA, closed and transferred its artifacts, books, and manuscripts to Syracuse University's care in 2008.

Westcott Holiday Group Show
Westcott Community Art Gallery

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

Photos, paintings and prints by Steve Susman, Molly Susman, Jessica Breedlove and Kristina Starowitz.

Whereas I Took the Butterfly: Works by Deloss McGraw
YMCA Arts Branch GallerY

Price: Free
YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit of literary "poster paintings" features Deloss McGraw's reflections/interpretations of such writers as Dickinson, Hemingway, Snodgrass and others, often using photographs of the authors, book covers, or other borrowed images.

Untold Stories
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Featuring the diverse works of Alison Fisher: acrylic and mixed media paintings; jewelry made of unique mixed metals and found objects; one-of-a-kind textiles including handbags, scarves, pillows, and throws.

"Off the Wall" Holiday Art Sale
Associated Artists of Central New York

Manlius Village Library
Manlius Village Center, 1 Arkie Albanese Dr., Manlius

Child of the Universe: Works by George Kilpatrick
Community Folk Art Center

Price: Free
Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Local media figure George Kilpatrick is featured in his exhibition Child of the Universe, a tribute to the life and work of his late father George Kilpatrick Sr. The exhibition features a variety of paintings and sculptures that evoke Kilpatrick's philosophical views on humanity and its place in the universe.

26th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children, members free
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

The museums transforms into a festive 1800s street scene with more than 40 gingerbread creations in storefront windows.

Gifts for the Home
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Looking for that perfect, one-of-a-kind piece of home décor? Then check out this exhibition featuring original watercolors, wooden clocks and spoons, ceramic mugs, blown glass vases, and other handcrafted gifts at a variety of price points.

Artists represented include:
Lucie Wellner, of Pompey, watercolor paintings
Dennis MacDonald, of Fabius, brooms
Emily Reason, of Marshall, N.C., porcelain pottery
Rick Barrick, of Lancaster, Pa., candles
Jonathan Simons, of Kempton, Pa., wooden spoons
Schlabaugh & Sons, of Kalona, Iowa, clocks

VisualBooks: Works by Scott McCarney
Light Work Gallery

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

This unique and beautiful exhibition explores the book as a sculptural object that employs a variety of image-making processes. McCarney's carefully hand-bound editions and found-altered books incorporate photographic imagery and utilize the space of the gallery to explore reading as display (on pedestals and shelves, hanging from the ceiling, mounted on the wall).

McCarney creates his sculptural objects and photo-based editions as one-of-a-kind, hand-made pieces as well as small runs of print-on-demand books. According to Hannah Frieser, director of Light Work, "Scott McCarney rethinks the book form, considering books as a starting point rather than a mere vehicle for information and images."

Read a review!

Landmarks of New York
Onondaga Historical Association

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

Landmarks of New York is a traveling exhibit of 90 stunning black and white photographs of New York City buildings that have been accorded landmark status by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The exhibit is curated by Dr. Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, New York City's first director of cultural affairs and acclaimed author of the book that serves as the basis for the exhibit, The Landmarks of New York: An Illustrated Record of the City's Historic Building. In conjunction with the show, Dennis Connors, OHA's Curator of History, selected over 20 contemporary and historic photographs to highlight Onondaga County's own architectural inheritance.

Six Sides of Japanese Package Design
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

The exhibition focuses on the way the design of the package relates to Japanese culture and consumerism.

Based on a collection of different Japanese products, "Six Sides of Japanese Package Design" is the result of a collaboration between undergraduate communications design students in the class Problem-Solving Strategies, taught by Roderick Martinez, and graduate museum studies students in the class Museum Studies Practicum, taught by Bradley Hudson. Divided into six groups, the students selected themes that each highlight a different dimension of package design in Japan. Each section of the gallery is a realization of the groups' respective themes in the form of a museum exhibition.

The Design Gallery is located on the first floor of The Warehouse. Patrons should enter The Warehouse via the ground-floor door, adjacent to the café on West Fayette Street or the first-floor door on West Washington Street.

The Art of Gift Giving
Szozda Gallery

Szozda Gallery
Delavan Center, 501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

This group show of new works by favorite artists includes an eclectic mix of photography, paintings, drawings and mixed media, with as varied a host of subject matter as the techniques used to create them. Featured artists includ Rob Glisson, Harry-Freeman Jones, Kwangpyo (Steve) Koh, Emily Elizabeth, Ray Trudell, Phil Parsons, Barbara Conte-Gaugel, R.L. Mercer, C. J. Hodge, Roscha Folger, Diana Godfrey, Dona Flaherty and Linda Esterley. These are artists who have successfully shown before and now, in the spirit of giving, have produced new art especially for this show as a way of thanking the many audiences who continue to enjoy and appreciate their particular creations.

Expressions of Joy: Annual Holiday Show
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Fine art and fine craft created by local artists.

57th Annual Art Mart
Syracuse Allied Arts, Inc.

City Hall Commons Atrium
201 East Washington St., Syracuse

Our gift shop of fine art and crafts handmade by local guild and independent artists is Syracuse's one-stop shopping haven during the holiday season. Find unique pottery, stained glass, paintings, jewelry, hand-crafted soaps and candles, and much more.

For more information, phone 315-243-6359 or 315-637-6562.

Engineered Perspectives: Railroad Culture in the Modern World
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

"Engineered Perspectives: Railroad Culture in the Modern World" examines how depictions of the railroad transformed our perception of the railroad industry. Whether the purpose of an artistic work was to entertain the viewer, to provide cultural commentary, or to call attention to the railroad's impact on the economic climate, each one inevitably had an effect on the way the audience viewed and understood the railroad in modern society.

In partnership with the Syracuse University Art Galleries and the Special Collections Research Center, the students enrolled in the Advanced Curatorship course in the Graduate Program in Museum Studies have worked together to thematically demonstrate visual testimonies to the railroad's reign over the industrialized world.

Emilio Sanchez: No Way Home--Images of the Caribbean and New York City
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

"No Way Home" features a selection of 24 paintings, watercolors, drawings and prints drawn from the recently acquired collection of work by Cuban-American artist Emilio Sanchez (1921-1999). Best known for his brightly colored, strongly shadowed images of Caribbean and New York City architecture, this exhibition reveals the artist's ongoing interest in repetitive patterns. The show highlights a recent gift to the University Art Collection from the Emilio Sanchez Foundation of over 250 paintings, drawings and prints.

Sources & Structures: The Art of Robert Stackhouse
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

This 25-year retrospective, organized by the SUArt Galleries, surveys the development of Robert Stackhouse as an artist. In addition to investigating the roots of his best-known imagery -- Viking ships, whales, snakes, and wood A-frame constructs -- this exhibition examines how he conceives of these designs through his drawings, watercolors, and prints. "Sources and Structures" considers how Stackhouse has made a personal examination of these natural and man-made forms and developed a body of work that explores affinities between architecture and biological anatomy.

Margie Hughto: A Fired Landscape
Everson Museum of Art

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

Internationally renowned ceramic artist Margie Hughto presents her first site-specific museum installation entitled A Fired Landscape, a "clay painting" spanning 50 feet of gallery wall space. Inspired by the artist's spectacular backyard gardens and natural landscape just steps from her studio, The Fired Landscape installation consists of Setting Sun, a brilliantly colored ceramic wall relief displayed continuously on five angled walls. The visitor encounter is reminiscent of what one experiences when surrounded by the natural environment. Overall, Setting Sun is a ceramic abstraction, but Hughto establishes a connection to the landscape that inspired it by adding impressions of natural objects such as native ferns, marine life and fossils, into the wet clay and then coating the surfaces with brilliant color. The rich palette of burnt oranges and fiery reds evoke the sun’s glowing light and radiating warmth. Tiny pieces of glass embedded in the clay prior to firing add sparkle to the glossy green and blue glazes used to suggest the artist's lily pond.

From Here to There: Alec Soth's America
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $10 regular, $8 students/seniors/military, members and children under 5 free
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

"From Here to There: Alec Soth's America" provides a focused look at an extraordinary photographer whose compelling images of the American road and its unexpected turns form powerful narrative vignettes. The exhibition will be the artist's first major survey assembled in the United States, exploring over 15 years of his career, and including an extensive new body of work.

Since his inclusion in the 2004 Whitney and São Paulo biennials, Soth's reputation as one of the most interesting voices in contemporary photography has continued to grow. Though he has followed the itinerant path laid forth by photographers such as Robert Frank, William Eggleston, and Stephen Shore, Soth's is a distinct perspective, one in which the wandering, searching, and the process of telling is as resonant as the record of these remarkable encounters. When considered together, Soth's pictures probe the individualities of people, objects, and places he encounters; offer insight to broader sociologies, and in the process form a collective portrait of an unexpected America.

Featuring approximately 100 photographs made between 1994 and the present, "From Here to There" will include rarely-seen early black-and-white images as well as examples from Soth's best-known series "Sleeping by the Mississippi" and "Niagara." Interspersed throughout the exhibition will be a broad range of portraits made over the past 15 years. The exhibition will also include a new body of work the artist has been developing since 2006, exploring places of escape in America and individuals who seek to flee civilization for a life off the grid. To add insight into Soth's process, the exhibition additionally features a Library space, which includes a reading area for publications, a selection of maquettes for book and 'zine projects, short video works, and ephemera gathered on the road.

Deng Guo Yuan
The Warehouse Gallery

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

This exhibit will highlight ink brush paintings by Tianjin-based Chinese artist Deng Guo Yuan. His work reveals the tradition of Chinese landscape painting and a profound knowledge of modern and international contemporary aesthetics. The film "Deng Guo Yuan" (2010) by French filmmaker Pierre Creton, presented in the Gallery's vault, meticulously documents the creation of one of Deng Guo Yuan's ink paintings in his Tianjin studio. Widely exhibited in China and Europe, this will be the artist's first solo museum exhibition in the United States. The show originated at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum (Tianjin, China), and then traveled in modified form to the Samek Art Gallery at Bucknell University (Lewisburg, PA), to the Provenance Center (New London, CT), and to its last venue, the Warehouse Gallery, for which Deng Guo Yuan will create additional site-specific works.

Sculpture Club Exhibition
XL Projects

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

A collaborative group show displaying a wide variety of work done by the undergraduate members of SU's Sculpture Club. With more than 20 artists being shown, the exhibition provides an excellent opportunity to see the vast array of artwork students have been creating in the sculptural field. The show is curated by Alex Svoboda and Sarah Whitehouse.

Dies Irae
Echo

745 N. Salina St. (formerly Craft Chemistry)
Syracuse

Dies Irae, a group show with Thomas Ward III, Heidi Josephine, and Nik Moore featuring a mix of collaborative and original paintings.

Daughters of Ixchel: The Photography of Mary Lawyer O'Connor
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

"Daughters of Ixchel" is a collection of images of Maya women and their hand-woven textiles that brings awareness and understanding of vibrant Maya cultures and the challenges they face. The exhibit will be a look into the lives of women weavers from Guatemala and Southern Mexico. Portrait and documentary photography along with text will tell their stories and will include original textiles. We will highlight fair-trade, worker-owned cooperatives and the political history of Guatemala where, despite persecution and genocide, Maya weavers maintain traditional methods, patterns, colors and styles that flourish and evolve.

Mary Lawyer O'Connor lives in Pompey and is a founder and current head of the Montessori School of Syracuse.

CNYFood Speaker and Film Series: Food Stamped
Featuring Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows

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

Brew & View Film Series: Star Trek 3 and Star Trek 4
Syracuse International Film Festival

Price: $10 (single or double feature)
Palace Theater
2384 James St., Syracuse

CMM Annual Christmas Concert
Civic Morning Musicals

Price: Free
Hosmer Auditorium, Everson Museum
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

CMM presents its festive Christmas Holiday Concert. Performing under the direction of Jerry Exline and Irwin Goldberg, the CMM Singers will share the program with Quattro Pianisti; Martha Grener, vocalist/flutist; Maryna Mazhukhova, piano; Strings a tres, with Jojn Harnois and friends; Linda Wallowitz, vocalist; and Nancy Pease, piano. Jerry Exline and Irwin Goldberg will also appear as duo pianists.

Young Musicians Project Holiday Concert
Imagine Syracuse

Price: Freewill donation
Our Lady of Pompei Church
301 Ash St., Syracuse

The youth orchestra, ensembles, instrument groups, and choir will perform.

For more information, phone 315-243-6204.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Windows Project: Elisabeth Meyer: Black Night/White Night
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The Window Project features an installation by Elisabeth Meyer consisting of organic forms embroidered onto an organza fabric. The overall patterning evokes an association with ocean waves and a net. The transparent quality of the organza background allows the viewer to see through the piece that is hanging from the ceiling covering the entire window front. The work addresses the issue of displacement through traveling. Meyer, who is based in Ithaca, developed the concept for this exhibition while at a residency in Iceland, traveled to India to oversee the production of the embroidery, and created the work on site in Syracuse.

Learning to Write American: Works by Jennifer Drinkwater
Redhouse

Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

These incredibly innovative pieces directly involve the viewer to create meaning, through imagining the missing term, through opening compartments of the painting to explore what is hidden beneath the surface, or by rearranging magnets to create a composition.

Read a review!

Sculpted Sound: From Art to Wood to Music -- Works of John & Sondra Bromka
LeMoyne College

Price: Free
Wilson Art Gallery, Noreen Reale Falcone Library
LeMoyne College, Syracuse

For more information, phone 315-445-4153.

Spanglish: Drawing, Collage, Photography and Video
Point of Contact Gallery

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

Spanglish is a project made specifically for the Point of Contact Gallery by New York City artist Celeste Fichter, based on Point of Contact's work in the verbal and the visual arts, and its ties to the Latin American literary and visual arts. Comprised of drawing, collage, photography and video, Spanglish is based solely on the artist's understanding and misunderstanding of the Spanish language.

For several months Fichter studied the Spanish/English dictionary page by page, definition by definition in alphabetical order, pronouncing each word aloud in search of words that sound like other words (in either English or Spanish), and looking for definitions that have intriguing double meanings or spellings that can be manipulated. As a non-Spanish speaker, the attempt to learn a new language through a list of definitions presented many limitations; however it is within the narrow confines of these limitations, and maybe because of them, that new understanding is created.

Fichter is interested in the fluidity of language in general as a tool of expression and visual language specifically. Spanglish is beyond a spoken language, beyond a hybrid of the English and Spanish languages — a visual language made up of words, images, signs and symbols.

Everything is Illustrated III and Talking Wallpaper
SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium

SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium
2 Clinton Square, Syracuse

There will be an artist reception this evening 5:00-7:00 pm.

Gallery A: Everything is Illustrated III, featuring work by Holly DePue, Beth Mand, and Kristen Tryon
Gallery B: Talking Wallpaper, featuring recent work by Miles George and Aaron Lee

Open Apple Steve. Memoriam: an aesthetic homage to Steve Jobs
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

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

Exhibit features works by local artists Vicki Harris, Matthew Keeney, Ellen Leahy, Paul Melnikow, and Kathryn Petrillo, plus works from artists in California, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Utah, Washington DC, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Philippines, and Portugal

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Just One Word: Plastics
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

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

For more than a century, plastics have transformed our lives -- from bathroom to battlefield; from supermarket to spacecraft. Begun as a 19th-century replacement material for billiard balls and piano keys, plastics spurred 20th century developments in industry, transportation, medicine, entertainment, and other aspects of contemporary life. The original objects of "Just One Word: Plastics" represent a material history of the modern world.

This exhibition features a representative sample of the Plastics Collection at the Syracuse University Library and presents an overview of major trends in the development of plastics in everyday life. The exhibit focuses on personal and household objects rather than the use of plastics in industry where they are also widely used. Approximately 250 objects divided into 12 categories will be on view. In addition, a small selection of manuscripts and printed materials will be included.

Specific objects to be featured in the exhibition are:
* ornate celluloid combs and a wide variety of plastic toiletries
* phenolic (Bakelite) objects from the 1920s and 30s including jewelry, radios, and other appliances and games
* musical instruments
* post-war toys, dishes, and household items
* original patent books of John Wesley Hyatt, inventor of Celluloid
* product catalogues from the 1930s and 1950s for popular items such as DuPont French Ivory dresser sets, Boltaware molded "stoneware" dishes, and Tupperware, and
* the Pleur-evac, a revolutionary plastic medical device for draining fluid and maintaining pressure in the lungs that helped save the life of President Ronald Reagan.

The Plastics Collection was begun in 2007 as a joint project of the Syracuse University Library and the Plastics History & Artifacts Committee of the Plastics Pioneers Association. The Collection expanded dramatically when the National Plastics Center and Museum in Leominster, MA, closed and transferred its artifacts, books, and manuscripts to Syracuse University's care in 2008.

Westcott Holiday Group Show
Westcott Community Art Gallery

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

Photos, paintings and prints by Steve Susman, Molly Susman, Jessica Breedlove and Kristina Starowitz.

Whereas I Took the Butterfly: Works by Deloss McGraw
YMCA Arts Branch GallerY

Price: Free
YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit of literary "poster paintings" features Deloss McGraw's reflections/interpretations of such writers as Dickinson, Hemingway, Snodgrass and others, often using photographs of the authors, book covers, or other borrowed images.

Untold Stories
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Featuring the diverse works of Alison Fisher: acrylic and mixed media paintings; jewelry made of unique mixed metals and found objects; one-of-a-kind textiles including handbags, scarves, pillows, and throws.

"Off the Wall" Holiday Art Sale
Associated Artists of Central New York

Manlius Village Library
Manlius Village Center, 1 Arkie Albanese Dr., Manlius

Child of the Universe: Works by George Kilpatrick
Community Folk Art Center

Price: Free
Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Local media figure George Kilpatrick is featured in his exhibition Child of the Universe, a tribute to the life and work of his late father George Kilpatrick Sr. The exhibition features a variety of paintings and sculptures that evoke Kilpatrick's philosophical views on humanity and its place in the universe.

26th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children, members free
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

The museums transforms into a festive 1800s street scene with more than 40 gingerbread creations in storefront windows.

Gifts for the Home
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Looking for that perfect, one-of-a-kind piece of home décor? Then check out this exhibition featuring original watercolors, wooden clocks and spoons, ceramic mugs, blown glass vases, and other handcrafted gifts at a variety of price points.

Artists represented include:
Lucie Wellner, of Pompey, watercolor paintings
Dennis MacDonald, of Fabius, brooms
Emily Reason, of Marshall, N.C., porcelain pottery
Rick Barrick, of Lancaster, Pa., candles
Jonathan Simons, of Kempton, Pa., wooden spoons
Schlabaugh & Sons, of Kalona, Iowa, clocks

VisualBooks: Works by Scott McCarney
Light Work Gallery

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

This unique and beautiful exhibition explores the book as a sculptural object that employs a variety of image-making processes. McCarney's carefully hand-bound editions and found-altered books incorporate photographic imagery and utilize the space of the gallery to explore reading as display (on pedestals and shelves, hanging from the ceiling, mounted on the wall).

McCarney creates his sculptural objects and photo-based editions as one-of-a-kind, hand-made pieces as well as small runs of print-on-demand books. According to Hannah Frieser, director of Light Work, "Scott McCarney rethinks the book form, considering books as a starting point rather than a mere vehicle for information and images."

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Landmarks of New York
Onondaga Historical Association

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

Landmarks of New York is a traveling exhibit of 90 stunning black and white photographs of New York City buildings that have been accorded landmark status by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The exhibit is curated by Dr. Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, New York City's first director of cultural affairs and acclaimed author of the book that serves as the basis for the exhibit, The Landmarks of New York: An Illustrated Record of the City's Historic Building. In conjunction with the show, Dennis Connors, OHA's Curator of History, selected over 20 contemporary and historic photographs to highlight Onondaga County's own architectural inheritance.

Six Sides of Japanese Package Design
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

The exhibition focuses on the way the design of the package relates to Japanese culture and consumerism.

Based on a collection of different Japanese products, "Six Sides of Japanese Package Design" is the result of a collaboration between undergraduate communications design students in the class Problem-Solving Strategies, taught by Roderick Martinez, and graduate museum studies students in the class Museum Studies Practicum, taught by Bradley Hudson. Divided into six groups, the students selected themes that each highlight a different dimension of package design in Japan. Each section of the gallery is a realization of the groups' respective themes in the form of a museum exhibition.

The Design Gallery is located on the first floor of The Warehouse. Patrons should enter The Warehouse via the ground-floor door, adjacent to the café on West Fayette Street or the first-floor door on West Washington Street.

The Art of Gift Giving
Szozda Gallery

Szozda Gallery
Delavan Center, 501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse