Sunday, June 21, 2009

Interdisciplinary
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

Dinosaur aesthetics, Onondaga Lake and the creation of energy from body sweat are among the subjects addressed in "Interdisciplinary," an exhibition of projects by Syracuse University faculty who received 200809 grants from the College of Visual and Performing Arts Interdisciplinary Committee.

"Interdisciplinary" features the following projects:
* "Creative Collaborations," readings and songs from the class "Poetry and Music Composition," taught by Gregory Mertl, assistant professor of composition in the School of Music
* "Dinosaurs Had Sharp Teeth!" an interactive display about dinosaur aesthetics by Chris Wildrick, assistant professor of foundation in the School of Art and Design
* "The Lake Project: Social Sculpture and the Urban Landscape," featuring photographs of Onondaga Lake by students of Sarah McCoubrey, associate professor of foundation in the School of Art and Design, and Marion Wilson, VPA director of community initiatives
* "Practicing in Public," featuring a video installation by students of Sam Van Aken, associate professor of sculpture in the School of Art and Design, and Laura Heyman, assistant professor of art photography in the Department of Transmedia
* "Singing for an Inclusive Society," featuring photographs and video from a project led by Miso Suchy, associate professor of film in the Department of Transmedia; Lida Suchy; and the Syracuse Community Choir
* "Waste to Work," an exploration of how body sweat can be harnessed to create energy, led by Olivia Robinson, assistant professor of fiber arts/material studies in the School of Art and Design, and Daniela Kostova

For more information about the exhibition, contact Andrew Havenhand at 315-474-1217 or ahavenhand@yahoo.com.

PostSecret
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

In November 2004, Frank Warren began a community art project by handing out postcards to strangers and leaving them in public places in his Washington, D.C. neighborhood. Each self-addressed card invited people to anonymously share a secret. Two requirements were: the secret had to be true and it had to be something that had never been told to another person. Today Warren has been mailed more than 100,000 highly personal and artfully decorated postcards illustrating the soulful secrets never voiced. This extraordinary project has become an international phenomenon with thousands of people participating in scheduled PostSecret events throughout the United States, and through the PostSecret website and blog.

This exhibition features 450 postcards bringing together the most powerful, poignant and beautifully intimate secrets Warren has received in the past four years. In many cases, the illustrations on the cards are just as compelling as the accompanying text.

Sitting Still
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

"What does the world look like from a non-violent point of view? What would happen if the youth of Syracuse city and Syracuse University joined together to explore this question?" These are the questions that led Anne Beffel, a New York based public artist and Associate Professor of Art at Syracuse University and Pam McLaughlin, Everson Curator of Education and Public Programs to bring the Sitting Still contemplative video project to high school students from the Syracuse City School District. Beffel and McLaughlin worked together for over a year to put video cameras in the hands eight young artists, so that they could stop, look, and listen as scenes unfolded before them ranging from those that inspired awe to those that compelled participation and intervention. Within the context of four workshops at the SU Warehouse e-tags studio, students engaged in making video art from a perfectly still point of view, and then used their artworks as the basis for sharing their diverse visions. The workshops were at the heart of this process of opening up to environments -- both physical and social.

Polish Festival

Price: Free
Clinton Square
Downtown, Syracuse

Performers include Polish Dance Ensemble - Cracovia Dance Group, Lenny Gomulka & Chicago Push, Lechowia Dance Company

For more information, visit polishscholarship.com.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Appleseed Productions
Dustin M. Czarny, director

Price: $18 regular; $15 students/seniors
Atonement Lutheran Church
116 W. Glen Ave., Syracuse

This musical takes comedy back to its roots, combining situations from time-tested, 2000-year-old comedies of Roman playwright Plautus with the infectious energy of classic vaudeville. The result is a non-stop laugh-fest in which a crafty slave (Pseudolus) struggles to win the hand of a beautiful but slow-witted courtesan (Philia) for his young master (Hero), in exchange for freedom. Book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

The show stars Greg J. Hipius as Pseudolus and Michael Spinoso as Hysterium, and also features Dan Williams as Hero, Danan Healy as Philia, Patricia Elise Catchouny as Domina, Lanny Freshman as Senex, Bill Ali as Miles Gloriousus, and Mark Allen Holt as Marcus Lycus.

Read a Review!

On Golden Pond
Baldwinsville Theatre Guild
Bryan Allen Jones, director

Price: $15 regular; $12 students/seniors
First Presbyterian Church of Baldwinsville
64 Oswego St., Baldwinsville

This is the love story of Ethel and Norman Thayer, who are returning to their summer home on Golden Pond for the 48th year. He is a retired professor, nearing 80, with heart palpitations and a failing memory—but still as tart-tongued, observant, and eager for life as ever. Ethel, 10 years younger and the perfect foil for Norman, delights in all the small things that have enriched and continue to enrich their long life together. They are visited by their divorced, middle-aged daughter and her dentist finacé, who then goes off to Europe, leaving his teenage son behind for the summer. The boy quickly becomes the "grandchild" the elderly couple have longed for, and as Norman revels in taking his ward fishing and thrusting good books at him, he also learns some lessons about modern teenage awareness-and slang-in return. In the end, as the summer wanes, so does their brief idyll, and in the final, deeply moving moments of the play, Norman and Ethel are brought even closer together by the incidence of a mild heart attack. Time, they know, is now against them, but the years have been good and, perhaps, another summer on Golden Pond still awaits.

The cast includes Tom Minion as Norman Thayer Jr., BJ Newsome as Ethel Thayer, Aileen Kenneson as Chelsea Thayer Wayne, Jay Burris as Bill Ray, Alec Funiciello as Billy Ray, and Lee Lamanche as Charlie Martin.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Postcards to (and from!) the Past
Downtown Writer's Center

Price: Free
YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit is a collaboration between the Arts Branch of the YMCA's after school arts program at Salem Hyde Elementary School, the Onondaga Historical Association, and Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts. On display at the YMCA will be replications of over 100 century-old postcards mailed back and forth between students in the YMCA's program (asking questions of various historical figures from the Syracuse area), and staff members of the OHA (who responded to the students' questions in character). Sometimes poignant, sometimes funny, the kids' questions show an active engagement with their own history—and the postcards themselves are a delight to anyone interested in the area's past. The exhibit is continued across the street at the OHA, and guests are invited and encouraged to visit both galleries to see the complete show.

The Gallery as Studio: Drawings on Delirium
Point of Contact Gallery

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

A world-renowned Uruguayan artist, Ricardo Lanzarini comes from Montevideo to Syracuse to recreate the mundane and the extraordinary in his drawings on delirium made to unexpected scales. The exhibition comes to life at The Point of Contact Gallery where the space has turned into an artist's studio. The work of the exhibit is to be produced entirely on site and directly onto the walls of the gallery in the weeks leading up to the opening. Lanzarini will also share this experiment with students from Syracuse University's Fine Arts Department who will join in the creative process.

Lanzarini's work balances extremes of scale, crafting an extensive abstract image from precise, miniscule characters, whose everyday activities serve as a window into a miniature world, frozen in time. These drawings sarcastically explore the two major paradigms in figurative art of the 20th century: Social and Fantastic Realism

The exhibit will last through the summer and then Lanzarini returns to Point of Contact to perform an "erasure" of the work on September 4. The book catalogue documenting the entire project will be presented at the close.

Frenay & Lenin
Liverpool is the Place

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

Syracuse Area Music Hall of Famers Gary Frenay and Arty Lenin play a wide array of rock from oldies to British Invasion to power pop originals.
Rain Date: Tuesday, June 23

For information on concerts or to see if a concert has been rained out, please call 315-457-3895.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Postcards to (and from!) the Past
Downtown Writer's Center

Price: Free
YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit is a collaboration between the Arts Branch of the YMCA's after school arts program at Salem Hyde Elementary School, the Onondaga Historical Association, and Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts. On display at the YMCA will be replications of over 100 century-old postcards mailed back and forth between students in the YMCA's program (asking questions of various historical figures from the Syracuse area), and staff members of the OHA (who responded to the students' questions in character). Sometimes poignant, sometimes funny, the kids' questions show an active engagement with their own history—and the postcards themselves are a delight to anyone interested in the area's past. The exhibit is continued across the street at the OHA, and guests are invited and encouraged to visit both galleries to see the complete show.

The Gallery as Studio: Drawings on Delirium
Point of Contact Gallery

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

A world-renowned Uruguayan artist, Ricardo Lanzarini comes from Montevideo to Syracuse to recreate the mundane and the extraordinary in his drawings on delirium made to unexpected scales. The exhibition comes to life at The Point of Contact Gallery where the space has turned into an artist's studio. The work of the exhibit is to be produced entirely on site and directly onto the walls of the gallery in the weeks leading up to the opening. Lanzarini will also share this experiment with students from Syracuse University's Fine Arts Department who will join in the creative process.

Lanzarini's work balances extremes of scale, crafting an extensive abstract image from precise, miniscule characters, whose everyday activities serve as a window into a miniature world, frozen in time. These drawings sarcastically explore the two major paradigms in figurative art of the 20th century: Social and Fantastic Realism

The exhibit will last through the summer and then Lanzarini returns to Point of Contact to perform an "erasure" of the work on September 4. The book catalogue documenting the entire project will be presented at the close.

Recent works by Al Bremer and Kate Timm
SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium

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

Sitting Still
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

"What does the world look like from a non-violent point of view? What would happen if the youth of Syracuse city and Syracuse University joined together to explore this question?" These are the questions that led Anne Beffel, a New York based public artist and Associate Professor of Art at Syracuse University and Pam McLaughlin, Everson Curator of Education and Public Programs to bring the Sitting Still contemplative video project to high school students from the Syracuse City School District. Beffel and McLaughlin worked together for over a year to put video cameras in the hands eight young artists, so that they could stop, look, and listen as scenes unfolded before them ranging from those that inspired awe to those that compelled participation and intervention. Within the context of four workshops at the SU Warehouse e-tags studio, students engaged in making video art from a perfectly still point of view, and then used their artworks as the basis for sharing their diverse visions. The workshops were at the heart of this process of opening up to environments -- both physical and social.

PostSecret
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

In November 2004, Frank Warren began a community art project by handing out postcards to strangers and leaving them in public places in his Washington, D.C. neighborhood. Each self-addressed card invited people to anonymously share a secret. Two requirements were: the secret had to be true and it had to be something that had never been told to another person. Today Warren has been mailed more than 100,000 highly personal and artfully decorated postcards illustrating the soulful secrets never voiced. This extraordinary project has become an international phenomenon with thousands of people participating in scheduled PostSecret events throughout the United States, and through the PostSecret website and blog.

This exhibition features 450 postcards bringing together the most powerful, poignant and beautifully intimate secrets Warren has received in the past four years. In many cases, the illustrations on the cards are just as compelling as the accompanying text.

Xiaowen Chen: Spectacle and 100 Last Names
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The two solo exhibitions, Xiaowen Chen: Spectacle and Xiaowen Chen: 100 Last Names, present work from the past nine years by Chinese-born, Ithaca-based artist Chen. Having lived in the United States for the past two decades, Chen has focused his work on the space between East and West. From his many return trips to China, Chen has created digital images and video projections reflecting American and Chinese attitudes toward the 21st-century role of media and technology and identity issues. His work of overlapping the cultures of East and West addresses his search for what he called in 1993 the "manifestation of the universal and the expression of the particular."

Chen places himself in the position of both the American and the Chinese tourist. He has noted that when photographing in China he feels like a foreigner, while in the U.S. he feels like a traveler. His work addresses both China's historical transformation and his personal experience as an émigré.

Like other artists of his generation, Chen grew up under Mao Tse-tung's Cultural Revolution and was exposed to a visual vocabulary that highlighted fragmentation and repetition. As a result, works by Xiaowen Chen evoke cultural clichés and stereotypes.

Vicktory Dogs Exhibition
The Warehouse Gallery

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

Pit bulls victimized in the notorious dog-fighting ring of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick are the subject of the exhibition. "Vicktory Dogs" is the brainchild of Cyrus Mejia, who, along with his wife and a group of animal lovers, founded Best Friends Animal Society, the nation's largest sanctuary for abused and abandoned animals.

The exhibition features giclée prints of 22 dogs rescued by Best Friends after Vick's indictment. By depicting the dogs up close in his painting, Mejia hopes people will confront their own prejudices about pit bulls in general and will think twice about exploiting them or fearing them, or both.

Friday (and Tuesday) FLICS: The Wedding Banquet
ArtRage Gallery

Price: $5 suggested donation
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

A gay, Taiwanese-American man goes to some lengths to pull the wool over the traditional eyes of his family visiting from overseas. Oscar, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Film, Asia-Pacific Film Festival, GlAAD Media Award, Berlin Film Festival. (Directed by Ang Lee, 1993)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Postcards to (and from!) the Past
Downtown Writer's Center

Price: Free
YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit is a collaboration between the Arts Branch of the YMCA's after school arts program at Salem Hyde Elementary School, the Onondaga Historical Association, and Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts. On display at the YMCA will be replications of over 100 century-old postcards mailed back and forth between students in the YMCA's program (asking questions of various historical figures from the Syracuse area), and staff members of the OHA (who responded to the students' questions in character). Sometimes poignant, sometimes funny, the kids' questions show an active engagement with their own history—and the postcards themselves are a delight to anyone interested in the area's past. The exhibit is continued across the street at the OHA, and guests are invited and encouraged to visit both galleries to see the complete show.

The Gallery as Studio: Drawings on Delirium
Point of Contact Gallery

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

A world-renowned Uruguayan artist, Ricardo Lanzarini comes from Montevideo to Syracuse to recreate the mundane and the extraordinary in his drawings on delirium made to unexpected scales. The exhibition comes to life at The Point of Contact Gallery where the space has turned into an artist's studio. The work of the exhibit is to be produced entirely on site and directly onto the walls of the gallery in the weeks leading up to the opening. Lanzarini will also share this experiment with students from Syracuse University's Fine Arts Department who will join in the creative process.

Lanzarini's work balances extremes of scale, crafting an extensive abstract image from precise, miniscule characters, whose everyday activities serve as a window into a miniature world, frozen in time. These drawings sarcastically explore the two major paradigms in figurative art of the 20th century: Social and Fantastic Realism

The exhibit will last through the summer and then Lanzarini returns to Point of Contact to perform an "erasure" of the work on September 4. The book catalogue documenting the entire project will be presented at the close.

Recent works by Al Bremer and Kate Timm
SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium

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

(Shade/Light) Red Excursions
Redhouse

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

Patrick Blackburn's newest multimedia installation creates an environment which seduces visitors and subtly asks them to leave their preconception of viewing art aside. Instead, visitors are invited to experience the artwork in the present moment. Blackburn explores the use of familiar media objects as a means of experiencing audio and visual art.

Blackburn is an artist, musician, composer and producer of audio and visual landscapes. He has worked in the design and production of numerous gallery installation and limited editions music albums and sound artworks. In his own artwork, Blackburn uses emergent technologies and behavioral patterns such as music generated by a system that ostensibly has no inputs. Thus his artwork cannot be called a composition in the traditional sense but rather open-end soundscapes, designed to continue indefinitely, without a chance to ever repeat. His work continues to create itself even in the audience's absence.

Interdisciplinary
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

Dinosaur aesthetics, Onondaga Lake and the creation of energy from body sweat are among the subjects addressed in "Interdisciplinary," an exhibition of projects by Syracuse University faculty who received 200809 grants from the College of Visual and Performing Arts Interdisciplinary Committee.

"Interdisciplinary" features the following projects:
* "Creative Collaborations," readings and songs from the class "Poetry and Music Composition," taught by Gregory Mertl, assistant professor of composition in the School of Music
* "Dinosaurs Had Sharp Teeth!" an interactive display about dinosaur aesthetics by Chris Wildrick, assistant professor of foundation in the School of Art and Design
* "The Lake Project: Social Sculpture and the Urban Landscape," featuring photographs of Onondaga Lake by students of Sarah McCoubrey, associate professor of foundation in the School of Art and Design, and Marion Wilson, VPA director of community initiatives
* "Practicing in Public," featuring a video installation by students of Sam Van Aken, associate professor of sculpture in the School of Art and Design, and Laura Heyman, assistant professor of art photography in the Department of Transmedia
* "Singing for an Inclusive Society," featuring photographs and video from a project led by Miso Suchy, associate professor of film in the Department of Transmedia; Lida Suchy; and the Syracuse Community Choir
* "Waste to Work," an exploration of how body sweat can be harnessed to create energy, led by Olivia Robinson, assistant professor of fiber arts/material studies in the School of Art and Design, and Daniela Kostova

For more information about the exhibition, contact Andrew Havenhand at 315-474-1217 or ahavenhand@yahoo.com.

PostSecret
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

In November 2004, Frank Warren began a community art project by handing out postcards to strangers and leaving them in public places in his Washington, D.C. neighborhood. Each self-addressed card invited people to anonymously share a secret. Two requirements were: the secret had to be true and it had to be something that had never been told to another person. Today Warren has been mailed more than 100,000 highly personal and artfully decorated postcards illustrating the soulful secrets never voiced. This extraordinary project has become an international phenomenon with thousands of people participating in scheduled PostSecret events throughout the United States, and through the PostSecret website and blog.

This exhibition features 450 postcards bringing together the most powerful, poignant and beautifully intimate secrets Warren has received in the past four years. In many cases, the illustrations on the cards are just as compelling as the accompanying text.

Sitting Still
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

"What does the world look like from a non-violent point of view? What would happen if the youth of Syracuse city and Syracuse University joined together to explore this question?" These are the questions that led Anne Beffel, a New York based public artist and Associate Professor of Art at Syracuse University and Pam McLaughlin, Everson Curator of Education and Public Programs to bring the Sitting Still contemplative video project to high school students from the Syracuse City School District. Beffel and McLaughlin worked together for over a year to put video cameras in the hands eight young artists, so that they could stop, look, and listen as scenes unfolded before them ranging from those that inspired awe to those that compelled participation and intervention. Within the context of four workshops at the SU Warehouse e-tags studio, students engaged in making video art from a perfectly still point of view, and then used their artworks as the basis for sharing their diverse visions. The workshops were at the heart of this process of opening up to environments -- both physical and social.

Vicktory Dogs Exhibition
The Warehouse Gallery

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

Pit bulls victimized in the notorious dog-fighting ring of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick are the subject of the exhibition. "Vicktory Dogs" is the brainchild of Cyrus Mejia, who, along with his wife and a group of animal lovers, founded Best Friends Animal Society, the nation's largest sanctuary for abused and abandoned animals.

The exhibition features giclée prints of 22 dogs rescued by Best Friends after Vick's indictment. By depicting the dogs up close in his painting, Mejia hopes people will confront their own prejudices about pit bulls in general and will think twice about exploiting them or fearing them, or both.

Xiaowen Chen: Spectacle and 100 Last Names
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The two solo exhibitions, Xiaowen Chen: Spectacle and Xiaowen Chen: 100 Last Names, present work from the past nine years by Chinese-born, Ithaca-based artist Chen. Having lived in the United States for the past two decades, Chen has focused his work on the space between East and West. From his many return trips to China, Chen has created digital images and video projections reflecting American and Chinese attitudes toward the 21st-century role of media and technology and identity issues. His work of overlapping the cultures of East and West addresses his search for what he called in 1993 the "manifestation of the universal and the expression of the particular."

Chen places himself in the position of both the American and the Chinese tourist. He has noted that when photographing in China he feels like a foreigner, while in the U.S. he feels like a traveler. His work addresses both China's historical transformation and his personal experience as an émigré.

Like other artists of his generation, Chen grew up under Mao Tse-tung's Cultural Revolution and was exposed to a visual vocabulary that highlighted fragmentation and repetition. As a result, works by Xiaowen Chen evoke cultural clichés and stereotypes.

The Power of Revolt: Grassroots Resistance in Oaxaca
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

A powerful exhibit of photographs from the Oaxaca, Mexico resistance movement combined with original political posters from art collectives there.

In 2006, Oaxaca, Mexico came alive with a broad and diverse movement that captivated the nation and inspired communities organizing for social justice around the world. Fueled by long ignored social contradictions, what began as a teachers' strike demanding more resources for education quickly turned into a massive movement that demanded direct, participatory democracy.

Hundreds of thousands of Oaxacans raised their voices against the abuses of the state government. They participated in marches of up to 800,000 people, planned strategy at the barricades, occupied government buildings, took over radio stations, held sit-ins, and reclaimed spaces for public art and altars for assassinated activists. In the now Legendary March of Pots and Pans, 2,000 women peacefully took over and operated the state television channel for three weeks.

Lisa Gentile Band
Liverpool is the Place

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

The country-pop vocal stylings of Lisa Gentile.
Rain Date: Thursday, June 25

For information on concerts or to see if a concert has been rained out, please call 315-457-3895.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Postcards to (and from!) the Past
Downtown Writer's Center

Price: Free
YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit is a collaboration between the Arts Branch of the YMCA's after school arts program at Salem Hyde Elementary School, the Onondaga Historical Association, and Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts. On display at the YMCA will be replications of over 100 century-old postcards mailed back and forth between students in the YMCA's program (asking questions of various historical figures from the Syracuse area), and staff members of the OHA (who responded to the students' questions in character). Sometimes poignant, sometimes funny, the kids' questions show an active engagement with their own history—and the postcards themselves are a delight to anyone interested in the area's past. The exhibit is continued across the street at the OHA, and guests are invited and encouraged to visit both galleries to see the complete show.

The Gallery as Studio: Drawings on Delirium
Point of Contact Gallery

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

A world-renowned Uruguayan artist, Ricardo Lanzarini comes from Montevideo to Syracuse to recreate the mundane and the extraordinary in his drawings on delirium made to unexpected scales. The exhibition comes to life at The Point of Contact Gallery where the space has turned into an artist's studio. The work of the exhibit is to be produced entirely on site and directly onto the walls of the gallery in the weeks leading up to the opening. Lanzarini will also share this experiment with students from Syracuse University's Fine Arts Department who will join in the creative process.

Lanzarini's work balances extremes of scale, crafting an extensive abstract image from precise, miniscule characters, whose everyday activities serve as a window into a miniature world, frozen in time. These drawings sarcastically explore the two major paradigms in figurative art of the 20th century: Social and Fantastic Realism

The exhibit will last through the summer and then Lanzarini returns to Point of Contact to perform an "erasure" of the work on September 4. The book catalogue documenting the entire project will be presented at the close.

Recent works by Al Bremer and Kate Timm
SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium

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

(Shade/Light) Red Excursions
Redhouse

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

Patrick Blackburn's newest multimedia installation creates an environment which seduces visitors and subtly asks them to leave their preconception of viewing art aside. Instead, visitors are invited to experience the artwork in the present moment. Blackburn explores the use of familiar media objects as a means of experiencing audio and visual art.

Blackburn is an artist, musician, composer and producer of audio and visual landscapes. He has worked in the design and production of numerous gallery installation and limited editions music albums and sound artworks. In his own artwork, Blackburn uses emergent technologies and behavioral patterns such as music generated by a system that ostensibly has no inputs. Thus his artwork cannot be called a composition in the traditional sense but rather open-end soundscapes, designed to continue indefinitely, without a chance to ever repeat. His work continues to create itself even in the audience's absence.

Interdisciplinary
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

Dinosaur aesthetics, Onondaga Lake and the creation of energy from body sweat are among the subjects addressed in "Interdisciplinary," an exhibition of projects by Syracuse University faculty who received 200809 grants from the College of Visual and Performing Arts Interdisciplinary Committee.

"Interdisciplinary" features the following projects:
* "Creative Collaborations," readings and songs from the class "Poetry and Music Composition," taught by Gregory Mertl, assistant professor of composition in the School of Music
* "Dinosaurs Had Sharp Teeth!" an interactive display about dinosaur aesthetics by Chris Wildrick, assistant professor of foundation in the School of Art and Design
* "The Lake Project: Social Sculpture and the Urban Landscape," featuring photographs of Onondaga Lake by students of Sarah McCoubrey, associate professor of foundation in the School of Art and Design, and Marion Wilson, VPA director of community initiatives
* "Practicing in Public," featuring a video installation by students of Sam Van Aken, associate professor of sculpture in the School of Art and Design, and Laura Heyman, assistant professor of art photography in the Department of Transmedia
* "Singing for an Inclusive Society," featuring photographs and video from a project led by Miso Suchy, associate professor of film in the Department of Transmedia; Lida Suchy; and the Syracuse Community Choir
* "Waste to Work," an exploration of how body sweat can be harnessed to create energy, led by Olivia Robinson, assistant professor of fiber arts/material studies in the School of Art and Design, and Daniela Kostova

For more information about the exhibition, contact Andrew Havenhand at 315-474-1217 or ahavenhand@yahoo.com.

Sitting Still
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

"What does the world look like from a non-violent point of view? What would happen if the youth of Syracuse city and Syracuse University joined together to explore this question?" These are the questions that led Anne Beffel, a New York based public artist and Associate Professor of Art at Syracuse University and Pam McLaughlin, Everson Curator of Education and Public Programs to bring the Sitting Still contemplative video project to high school students from the Syracuse City School District. Beffel and McLaughlin worked together for over a year to put video cameras in the hands eight young artists, so that they could stop, look, and listen as scenes unfolded before them ranging from those that inspired awe to those that compelled participation and intervention. Within the context of four workshops at the SU Warehouse e-tags studio, students engaged in making video art from a perfectly still point of view, and then used their artworks as the basis for sharing their diverse visions. The workshops were at the heart of this process of opening up to environments -- both physical and social.

PostSecret
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

In November 2004, Frank Warren began a community art project by handing out postcards to strangers and leaving them in public places in his Washington, D.C. neighborhood. Each self-addressed card invited people to anonymously share a secret. Two requirements were: the secret had to be true and it had to be something that had never been told to another person. Today Warren has been mailed more than 100,000 highly personal and artfully decorated postcards illustrating the soulful secrets never voiced. This extraordinary project has become an international phenomenon with thousands of people participating in scheduled PostSecret events throughout the United States, and through the PostSecret website and blog.

This exhibition features 450 postcards bringing together the most powerful, poignant and beautifully intimate secrets Warren has received in the past four years. In many cases, the illustrations on the cards are just as compelling as the accompanying text.

Vicktory Dogs Exhibition
The Warehouse Gallery

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

Pit bulls victimized in the notorious dog-fighting ring of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick are the subject of the exhibition. "Vicktory Dogs" is the brainchild of Cyrus Mejia, who, along with his wife and a group of animal lovers, founded Best Friends Animal Society, the nation's largest sanctuary for abused and abandoned animals.

The exhibition features giclée prints of 22 dogs rescued by Best Friends after Vick's indictment. By depicting the dogs up close in his painting, Mejia hopes people will confront their own prejudices about pit bulls in general and will think twice about exploiting them or fearing them, or both.

Xiaowen Chen: Spectacle and 100 Last Names
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The two solo exhibitions, Xiaowen Chen: Spectacle and Xiaowen Chen: 100 Last Names, present work from the past nine years by Chinese-born, Ithaca-based artist Chen. Having lived in the United States for the past two decades, Chen has focused his work on the space between East and West. From his many return trips to China, Chen has created digital images and video projections reflecting American and Chinese attitudes toward the 21st-century role of media and technology and identity issues. His work of overlapping the cultures of East and West addresses his search for what he called in 1993 the "manifestation of the universal and the expression of the particular."

Chen places himself in the position of both the American and the Chinese tourist. He has noted that when photographing in China he feels like a foreigner, while in the U.S. he feels like a traveler. His work addresses both China's historical transformation and his personal experience as an émigré.

Like other artists of his generation, Chen grew up under Mao Tse-tung's Cultural Revolution and was exposed to a visual vocabulary that highlighted fragmentation and repetition. As a result, works by Xiaowen Chen evoke cultural clichés and stereotypes.

The Power of Revolt: Grassroots Resistance in Oaxaca
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

A powerful exhibit of photographs from the Oaxaca, Mexico resistance movement combined with original political posters from art collectives there.

In 2006, Oaxaca, Mexico came alive with a broad and diverse movement that captivated the nation and inspired communities organizing for social justice around the world. Fueled by long ignored social contradictions, what began as a teachers' strike demanding more resources for education quickly turned into a massive movement that demanded direct, participatory democracy.

Hundreds of thousands of Oaxacans raised their voices against the abuses of the state government. They participated in marches of up to 800,000 people, planned strategy at the barricades, occupied government buildings, took over radio stations, held sit-ins, and reclaimed spaces for public art and altars for assassinated activists. In the now Legendary March of Pots and Pans, 2,000 women peacefully took over and operated the state television channel for three weeks.

Wild Card Exhibit -- Price Check: Syracuse
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

An interactive curatorial exhibition organized by two former staffers at the Delavan, Courtney Rile and Roslyn Esperon, for a research project that examines the variations of the visual art market based upon geographic proximity to a major art center.

Opening: Reflections
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Featuring works by Marna Bell, Deborah Walsh, Mary Lou Colgin, and Carol Osborne-Ackles.

Homestyle Homicide: The Freagan Family Reunion
Acme Mystery Company

Price: $25.95 plus tax and gratuities (includes meal and show)
Spaghetti Warehouse
689 N. Clinton St., Syracuse

Interactive comedy murder mystery.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Postcards to (and from!) the Past
Downtown Writer's Center

Price: Free
YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit is a collaboration between the Arts Branch of the YMCA's after school arts program at Salem Hyde Elementary School, the Onondaga Historical Association, and Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts. On display at the YMCA will be replications of over 100 century-old postcards mailed back and forth between students in the YMCA's program (asking questions of various historical figures from the Syracuse area), and staff members of the OHA (who responded to the students' questions in character). Sometimes poignant, sometimes funny, the kids' questions show an active engagement with their own history—and the postcards themselves are a delight to anyone interested in the area's past. The exhibit is continued across the street at the OHA, and guests are invited and encouraged to visit both galleries to see the complete show.

The Gallery as Studio: Drawings on Delirium
Point of Contact Gallery

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

A world-renowned Uruguayan artist, Ricardo Lanzarini comes from Montevideo to Syracuse to recreate the mundane and the extraordinary in his drawings on delirium made to unexpected scales. The exhibition comes to life at The Point of Contact Gallery where the space has turned into an artist's studio. The work of the exhibit is to be produced entirely on site and directly onto the walls of the gallery in the weeks leading up to the opening. Lanzarini will also share this experiment with students from Syracuse University's Fine Arts Department who will join in the creative process.

Lanzarini's work balances extremes of scale, crafting an extensive abstract image from precise, miniscule characters, whose everyday activities serve as a window into a miniature world, frozen in time. These drawings sarcastically explore the two major paradigms in figurative art of the 20th century: Social and Fantastic Realism

The exhibit will last through the summer and then Lanzarini returns to Point of Contact to perform an "erasure" of the work on September 4. The book catalogue documenting the entire project will be presented at the close.

Recent works by Al Bremer and Kate Timm
SUNY Oswego Metro Center at the Atrium

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

Opening: Terrain
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Opening reception 6:00-8:00 pm.

Sharon Gordon: Oil Paintings
John Lombardi: Works in Stone

(Shade/Light) Red Excursions
Redhouse

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

Patrick Blackburn's newest multimedia installation creates an environment which seduces visitors and subtly asks them to leave their preconception of viewing art aside. Instead, visitors are invited to experience the artwork in the present moment. Blackburn explores the use of familiar media objects as a means of experiencing audio and visual art.

Blackburn is an artist, musician, composer and producer of audio and visual landscapes. He has worked in the design and production of numerous gallery installation and limited editions music albums and sound artworks. In his own artwork, Blackburn uses emergent technologies and behavioral patterns such as music generated by a system that ostensibly has no inputs. Thus his artwork cannot be called a composition in the traditional sense but rather open-end soundscapes, designed to continue indefinitely, without a chance to ever repeat. His work continues to create itself even in the audience's absence.

Interdisciplinary
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

Dinosaur aesthetics, Onondaga Lake and the creation of energy from body sweat are among the subjects addressed in "Interdisciplinary," an exhibition of projects by Syracuse University faculty who received 200809 grants from the College of Visual and Performing Arts Interdisciplinary Committee.

"Interdisciplinary" features the following projects:
* "Creative Collaborations," readings and songs from the class "Poetry and Music Composition," taught by Gregory Mertl, assistant professor of composition in the School of Music
* "Dinosaurs Had Sharp Teeth!" an interactive display about dinosaur aesthetics by Chris Wildrick, assistant professor of foundation in the School of Art and Design
* "The Lake Project: Social Sculpture and the Urban Landscape," featuring photographs of Onondaga Lake by students of Sarah McCoubrey, associate professor of foundation in the School of Art and Design, and Marion Wilson, VPA director of community initiatives
* "Practicing in Public," featuring a video installation by students of Sam Van Aken, associate professor of sculpture in the School of Art and Design, and Laura Heyman, assistant professor of art photography in the Department of Transmedia
* "Singing for an Inclusive Society," featuring photographs and video from a project led by Miso Suchy, associate professor of film in the Department of Transmedia; Lida Suchy; and the Syracuse Community Choir
* "Waste to Work," an exploration of how body sweat can be harnessed to create energy, led by Olivia Robinson, assistant professor of fiber arts/material studies in the School of Art and Design, and Daniela Kostova

For more information about the exhibition, contact Andrew Havenhand at 315-474-1217 or ahavenhand@yahoo.com.

Reflections
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Featuring works by Marna Bell, Deborah Walsh, Mary Lou Colgin, and Carol Osborne-Ackles.

Wild Card Exhibit -- Price Check: Syracuse
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

An interactive curatorial exhibition organized by two former staffers at the Delavan, Courtney Rile and Roslyn Esperon, for a research project that examines the variations of the visual art market based upon geographic proximity to a major art center.

PostSecret
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

In November 2004, Frank Warren began a community art project by handing out postcards to strangers and leaving them in public places in his Washington, D.C. neighborhood. Each self-addressed card invited people to anonymously share a secret. Two requirements were: the secret had to be true and it had to be something that had never been told to another person. Today Warren has been mailed more than 100,000 highly personal and artfully decorated postcards illustrating the soulful secrets never voiced. This extraordinary project has become an international phenomenon with thousands of people participating in scheduled PostSecret events throughout the United States, and through the PostSecret website and blog.

This exhibition features 450 postcards bringing together the most powerful, poignant and beautifully intimate secrets Warren has received in the past four years. In many cases, the illustrations on the cards are just as compelling as the accompanying text.

Sitting Still
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

"What does the world look like from a non-violent point of view? What would happen if the youth of Syracuse city and Syracuse University joined together to explore this question?" These are the questions that led Anne Beffel, a New York based public artist and Associate Professor of Art at Syracuse University and Pam McLaughlin, Everson Curator of Education and Public Programs to bring the Sitting Still contemplative video project to high school students from the Syracuse City School District. Beffel and McLaughlin worked together for over a year to put video cameras in the hands eight young artists, so that they could stop, look, and listen as scenes unfolded before them ranging from those that inspired awe to those that compelled participation and intervention. Within the context of four workshops at the SU Warehouse e-tags studio, students engaged in making video art from a perfectly still point of view, and then used their artworks as the basis for sharing their diverse visions. The workshops were at the heart of this process of opening up to environments -- both physical and social.

Vicktory Dogs Exhibition
The Warehouse Gallery

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

Pit bulls victimized in the notorious dog-fighting ring of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick are the subject of the exhibition. "Vicktory Dogs" is the brainchild of Cyrus Mejia, who, along with his wife and a group of animal lovers, founded Best Friends Animal Society, the nation's largest sanctuary for abused and abandoned animals.

The exhibition features giclée prints of 22 dogs rescued by Best Friends after Vick's indictment. By depicting the dogs up close in his painting, Mejia hopes people will confront their own prejudices about pit bulls in general and will think twice about exploiting them or fearing them, or both.

Xiaowen Chen: Spectacle and 100 Last Names
The Warehouse Gallery

The Warehouse Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

The two solo exhibitions, Xiaowen Chen: Spectacle and Xiaowen Chen: 100 Last Names, present work from the past nine years by Chinese-born, Ithaca-based artist Chen. Having lived in the United States for the past two decades, Chen has focused his work on the space between East and West. From his many return trips to China, Chen has created digital images and video projections reflecting American and Chinese attitudes toward the 21st-century role of media and technology and identity issues. His work of overlapping the cultures of East and West addresses his search for what he called in 1993 the "manifestation of the universal and the expression of the particular."

Chen places himself in the position of both the American and the Chinese tourist. He has noted that when photographing in China he feels like a foreigner, while in the U.S. he feels like a traveler. His work addresses both China's historical transformation and his personal experience as an émigré.

Like other artists of his generation, Chen grew up under Mao Tse-tung's Cultural Revolution and was exposed to a visual vocabulary that highlighted fragmentation and repetition. As a result, works by Xiaowen Chen evoke cultural clichés and stereotypes.

The Power of Revolt: Grassroots Resistance in Oaxaca
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

A powerful exhibit of photographs from the Oaxaca, Mexico resistance movement combined with original political posters from art collectives there.

In 2006, Oaxaca, Mexico came alive with a broad and diverse movement that captivated the nation and inspired communities organizing for social justice around the world. Fueled by long ignored social contradictions, what began as a teachers' strike demanding more resources for education quickly turned into a massive movement that demanded direct, participatory democracy.

Hundreds of thousands of Oaxacans raised their voices against the abuses of the state government. They participated in marches of up to 800,000 people, planned strategy at the barricades, occupied government buildings, took over radio stations, held sit-ins, and reclaimed spaces for public art and altars for assassinated activists. In the now Legendary March of Pots and Pans, 2,000 women peacefully took over and operated the state television channel for three weeks.

Friday (and Tuesday) FLICS: Coming Out Under Fire
ArtRage Gallery

Price: $5 suggested donation
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

A historical account of military policy regarding homosexuals during World War II. The documentary includes interviews with several gay WWII veterans. Best Documentary, Berlin Film Festival, GLAAD Media Award, Outstanding Documentary, Peabody Award, Sundance Film Festival Recognition. (Directed by Arthur Dong, from book by Allen Berube, 1994)

Henninger High School Jazz Ensemble
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Scholastic Stage
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Westhill High School Jazz Ensemble
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Main Stage (Jamesville Beach)
Jamesville Beach Park, Jamesville

Syracuse Department of Parks & Recreation Stan Colella All-Star Band
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Scholastic Stage
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Syracuse Fireworks Celebration
Featuring Stan Colella Orchestra; After FX

Price: Free
Inner Harbor
W. Kirkpatrick St., Syracuse

Music begins at 5:30; fireworks at 9:30.

The John Tropea Band
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Main Stage (Jamesville Beach)
Jamesville Beach Park, Jamesville

Paul V. Moore High School Vocal Jazz Ensemble
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Scholastic Stage
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

The Randy Brecker/Bill Evans Soulbop Band
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Main Stage (Jamesville Beach)
Jamesville Beach Park, Jamesville

Featuring Randy Brecker, Bill Evans, Rodney Holmes, Katreese Barnes, Frank Gravis, and Mitch Stein.

Oswego High School Jazz Ensemble
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Scholastic Stage
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

The West Coast/East Coast Dream Band
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Main Stage (Jamesville Beach)
Jamesville Beach Park, Jamesville

Featuring David Garfield, Alex Ligertwood, Randy Brecker, Larry Klimas, Doug Bossi, Lenny Castro, Steve Ferrone, and Will Lee.

West Genesee High School Jazz Band
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Scholastic Stage
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Spyro Gyra
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Main Stage (Jamesville Beach)
Jamesville Beach Park, Jamesville

With Jay Beckenstein, Tom Schuman, Julio Fernandez, Scott Ambush, and Bonny B.

Late Night Jam for Hiram
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Main Stage (Jamesville Beach)
Jamesville Beach Park, Jamesville

A festival-closing All-Star jam session for 2009 Jazz Fest Dedicatee Hiram Bullock featuring the members of Soulbop, Creatchy & The Cats, Spyro Gyra, and The John Tropea Band.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Appleseed Productions
Dustin M. Czarny, director

Price: $18 regular; $15 students/seniors
Atonement Lutheran Church
116 W. Glen Ave., Syracuse

This musical takes comedy back to its roots, combining situations from time-tested, 2000-year-old comedies of Roman playwright Plautus with the infectious energy of classic vaudeville. The result is a non-stop laugh-fest in which a crafty slave (Pseudolus) struggles to win the hand of a beautiful but slow-witted courtesan (Philia) for his young master (Hero), in exchange for freedom. Book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

The show stars Greg J. Hipius as Pseudolus and Michael Spinoso as Hysterium, and also features Dan Williams as Hero, Danan Healy as Philia, Patricia Elise Catchouny as Domina, Lanny Freshman as Senex, Bill Ali as Miles Gloriousus, and Mark Allen Holt as Marcus Lycus.

Read a Review!

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Wild Card Exhibit -- Price Check: Syracuse
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

An interactive curatorial exhibition organized by two former staffers at the Delavan, Courtney Rile and Roslyn Esperon, for a research project that examines the variations of the visual art market based upon geographic proximity to a major art center.

Reflections
Delavan Art Gallery

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

Featuring works by Marna Bell, Deborah Walsh, Mary Lou Colgin, and Carol Osborne-Ackles.

Artists Marna Bell and Mary Lou Colgin will be in attendance 12:00-3:00 pm.

Terrain
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Sharon Gordon: Oil Paintings
John Lombardi: Works in Stone

Sitting Still
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

"What does the world look like from a non-violent point of view? What would happen if the youth of Syracuse city and Syracuse University joined together to explore this question?" These are the questions that led Anne Beffel, a New York based public artist and Associate Professor of Art at Syracuse University and Pam McLaughlin, Everson Curator of Education and Public Programs to bring the Sitting Still contemplative video project to high school students from the Syracuse City School District. Beffel and McLaughlin worked together for over a year to put video cameras in the hands eight young artists, so that they could stop, look, and listen as scenes unfolded before them ranging from those that inspired awe to those that compelled participation and intervention. Within the context of four workshops at the SU Warehouse e-tags studio, students engaged in making video art from a perfectly still point of view, and then used their artworks as the basis for sharing their diverse visions. The workshops were at the heart of this process of opening up to environments -- both physical and social.

PostSecret
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

In November 2004, Frank Warren began a community art project by handing out postcards to strangers and leaving them in public places in his Washington, D.C. neighborhood. Each self-addressed card invited people to anonymously share a secret. Two requirements were: the secret had to be true and it had to be something that had never been told to another person. Today Warren has been mailed more than 100,000 highly personal and artfully decorated postcards illustrating the soulful secrets never voiced. This extraordinary project has become an international phenomenon with thousands of people participating in scheduled PostSecret events throughout the United States, and through the PostSecret website and blog.

This exhibition features 450 postcards bringing together the most powerful, poignant and beautifully intimate secrets Warren has received in the past four years. In many cases, the illustrations on the cards are just as compelling as the accompanying text.

Art in the Park: Summer Fine Arts and Crafts Show
MArcellus-Skaneateles Art Guild

Price: Free
Marcellus Park
Route 175 and Platt Road, Marcellus

For more information, phone 315-636-8775.

Organic Watermarks: Photographs by Gus Bennett, Jr.
Community Folk Art Center

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

In the exhibition "Organic Watermarks," New Orleans photographer Gus Bennett, Jr., displays portraits of New Orleans residents juxtaposed with layers of debris from Hurricane Katrina. Watermarks on concrete and other surfaces, leaves, textures, colors and remnants left behind by Katrina form layers in front of, behind and even merged onto the surface of the skin of the subjects. Together, the subjects and debris become storytellers of New Orleans post-Katrina. Shot entirely in natural light, the overall mood of the pieces is almost of an ethereal quality, with the ghost-like images of debris commingling with the subjects. According to Bennett, as many as 82 layers comprise one individual portrait. The subjects either appear draped in fabric or nude, which the artist explains is a means of eliminating social class or status: "with Katrina, everyone got left behind." With "Organic Watermarks," Bennett creates true works of beauty, proving that even in the aftermath of chaos, hope can still prevail.

Purple Treatment: Ceramic Works by Eunjung Shin
Community Folk Art Center

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

In "Purple Treatment," Eunjung Shin's figurative ceramic sculptures represent stories from the artist's life. Shin has taken personal memories and transformed them into three-dimensional artistic expressions. The highly detailed figures are skillfully rendered and express a range of emotions. Shin describes some of her figures as "clowns" because they hide their true selves, putting on a face to the world in order to please others. Many of the pieces prompt the viewer to look inward to reflect upon their meaning.

Interdisciplinary
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

Dinosaur aesthetics, Onondaga Lake and the creation of energy from body sweat are among the subjects addressed in "Interdisciplinary," an exhibition of projects by Syracuse University faculty who received 200809 grants from the College of Visual and Performing Arts Interdisciplinary Committee.

"Interdisciplinary" features the following projects:
* "Creative Collaborations," readings and songs from the class "Poetry and Music Composition," taught by Gregory Mertl, assistant professor of composition in the School of Music
* "Dinosaurs Had Sharp Teeth!" an interactive display about dinosaur aesthetics by Chris Wildrick, assistant professor of foundation in the School of Art and Design
* "The Lake Project: Social Sculpture and the Urban Landscape," featuring photographs of Onondaga Lake by students of Sarah McCoubrey, associate professor of foundation in the School of Art and Design, and Marion Wilson, VPA director of community initiatives
* "Practicing in Public," featuring a video installation by students of Sam Van Aken, associate professor of sculpture in the School of Art and Design, and Laura Heyman, assistant professor of art photography in the Department of Transmedia
* "Singing for an Inclusive Society," featuring photographs and video from a project led by Miso Suchy, associate professor of film in the Department of Transmedia; Lida Suchy; and the Syracuse Community Choir
* "Waste to Work," an exploration of how body sweat can be harnessed to create energy, led by Olivia Robinson, assistant professor of fiber arts/material studies in the School of Art and Design, and Daniela Kostova

For more information about the exhibition, contact Andrew Havenhand at 315-474-1217 or ahavenhand@yahoo.com.

The Power of Revolt: Grassroots Resistance in Oaxaca
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

A powerful exhibit of photographs from the Oaxaca, Mexico resistance movement combined with original political posters from art collectives there.

In 2006, Oaxaca, Mexico came alive with a broad and diverse movement that captivated the nation and inspired communities organizing for social justice around the world. Fueled by long ignored social contradictions, what began as a teachers' strike demanding more resources for education quickly turned into a massive movement that demanded direct, participatory democracy.

Hundreds of thousands of Oaxacans raised their voices against the abuses of the state government. They participated in marches of up to 800,000 people, planned strategy at the barricades, occupied government buildings, took over radio stations, held sit-ins, and reclaimed spaces for public art and altars for assassinated activists. In the now Legendary March of Pots and Pans, 2,000 women peacefully took over and operated the state television channel for three weeks.

Dominique's Dane Creations Dance Recital: Finally Feels Like Home

Price: $10 adults; $8 children under 12
Nottingham High School
3100 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Featuring youth from the Westcott Community Center's Kid's Club After School Program.

For more information, contact Dominique Dawkins at 315-214-1996 or Nicole Dawkins at 315-415-9230.

Johnny Got His Gun
ArtRage Gallery

Price: $5 suggested donation
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

"Johnny Got His Gun" presents the story of 18-year-old Joe Bonham (Timothy Bottoms), who brushes off the urgings of his girl-friend Kareen (Kathy Fields) to just run away rather than ship out (WWI). Once in the French trenches, he quickly loses his own company and throws in with some British troops. One fearsomely rainy night, he's sent out to bury a German soldier who had died caught in the barbed wire above their trench and whose rotting body had begun to stink. A direct shell hit on the way back from this errand injures Bonham horribly and irreparably. A military doctor, Col. Tillery (Eduard Franz) declares Bonham "completely de-cerebrated" by his injuries but worth keeping alive, secretly, for research purposes. But Bonham's in there, walled up in the remnants of his body. Tillery later reappears—white-haired now and a general—the only mark of how much time has passed before Bonham's breakthrough Morse Code communication with the "fourth nurse" (Diane Varsi), who first inscribes a message on his chest with her finger as he frantically nods his head.

There are plenty of Trumbo films out there to sample—critical and box office successes alike—including a couple Oscar-winners (ironically both of those scripts credited to "fronts" during the 13 years Trumbo spent black-listed and couldn't work openly in Hollywood films). But "Johnny Got His Gun" was part of Trumbo for a long time. Based on a news clip he'd seen about a British soldier with devastating injuries from the trenches of World War I, Trumbos 1939 novel kept the time frame but shifted young recruit Joe Bonham's story to the US military. And after he'd published the novel, Trumbo saw combat intimately in the South Pacific as a war correspondent. Trumbo's son Christopher says that making the film was "the best response he could manage to the carnage of the war in Vietnam." (Directed by Dalton Trumbo, 1971/2009)

Artist Reception and Panel Discussion
Community Folk Art Center
Featuring Gus Bennett, Jr. and Eunjung Shin

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

Reception and discussion in conjunction with the exhibits "Organic Watermarks" and "Purple Treatment."

Skaneateles Middle School Jazz Ensemble
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Scholastic Stage
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Manlius-Pebble Hill Jazz Combo
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Main Stage (Jamesville Beach)
Jamesville Beach Park, Jamesville

Corcoran High School Jazz Ensemble
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Scholastic Stage
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Al Chez & The Brothers of Funk Big Band
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Main Stage (Jamesville Beach)
Jamesville Beach Park, Jamesville

Christian Brothers Academy Jazz Ensemble
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Scholastic Stage
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

The Steelheads, with Special Guest Andy Narell
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Main Stage (Jamesville Beach)
Jamesville Beach Park, Jamesville

Liverpool High School Jazz Ensemble
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Scholastic Stage
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

The David Garfield Band
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Main Stage (Jamesville Beach)
Jamesville Beach Park, Jamesville

Featuring David Garfield, Alex Ligertwood, Larry Klimas, Doug Bossi, Lenny Castro, Steve Ferrone, and Ernest Tibbs.

OCC Jazz Band
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Scholastic Stage
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Kenny G
Syracuse Jazz Fest

Price: Free
Jazz Fest Main Stage (Jamesville Beach)
Jamesville Beach Park, Jamesville

The Emperor's New Clothes
Magic Circle Children's Theatre

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

Interactive retelling of the classic story.

The Falsettos Murder
Without A Cue

Price: $39.50 includes dinner, show, tax, and gratuity
Glen Loch Restaurant
4626 North St., Jamesville

In this a parody of the HBO mega hit, The Sopranos, Tony and his entourage are in town for—what else?—a waste management convention. When somebody gets whacked it's nothing personal, strictly "business."

For reservations, phone 315-469-6969. For more information, visit www.glenloch.net.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Appleseed Productions
Dustin M. Czarny, director

Price: $18 regular; $15 students/seniors
Atonement Lutheran Church
116 W. Glen Ave., Syracuse

This musical takes comedy back to its roots, combining situations from time-tested, 2000-year-old comedies of Roman playwright Plautus with the infectious energy of classic vaudeville. The result is a non-stop laugh-fest in which a crafty slave (Pseudolus) struggles to win the hand of a beautiful but slow-witted courtesan (Philia) for his young master (Hero), in exchange for freedom. Book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

The show stars Greg J. Hipius as Pseudolus and Michael Spinoso as Hysterium, and also features Dan Williams as Hero, Danan Healy as Philia, Patricia Elise Catchouny as Domina, Lanny Freshman as Senex, Bill Ali as Miles Gloriousus, and Mark Allen Holt as Marcus Lycus.

Read a Review!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Interdisciplinary
Syracuse University School of Art and Design

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

Dinosaur aesthetics, Onondaga Lake and the creation of energy from body sweat are among the subjects addressed in "Interdisciplinary," an exhibition of projects by Syracuse University faculty who received 200809 grants from the College of Visual and Performing Arts Interdisciplinary Committee.

"Interdisciplinary" features the following projects:
* "Creative Collaborations," readings and songs from the class "Poetry and Music Composition," taught by Gregory Mertl, assistant professor of composition in the School of Music
* "Dinosaurs Had Sharp Teeth!" an interactive display about dinosaur aesthetics by Chris Wildrick, assistant professor of foundation in the School of Art and Design
* "The Lake Project: Social Sculpture and the Urban Landscape," featuring photographs of Onondaga Lake by students of Sarah McCoubrey, associate professor of foundation in the School of Art and Design, and Marion Wilson, VPA director of community initiatives
* "Practicing in Public," featuring a video installation by students of Sam Van Aken, associate professor of sculpture in the School of Art and Design, and Laura Heyman, assistant professor of art photography in the Department of Transmedia
* "Singing for an Inclusive Society," featuring photographs and video from a project led by Miso Suchy, associate professor of film in the Department of Transmedia; Lida Suchy; and the Syracuse Community Choir
* "Waste to Work," an exploration of how body sweat can be harnessed to create energy, led by Olivia Robinson, assistant professor of fiber arts/material studies in the School of Art and Design, and Daniela Kostova

For more information about the exhibition, contact Andrew Havenhand at 315-474-1217 or ahavenhand@yahoo.com.

PostSecret
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

In November 2004, Frank Warren began a community art project by handing out postcards to strangers and leaving them in public places in his Washington, D.C. neighborhood. Each self-addressed card invited people to anonymously share a secret. Two requirements were: the secret had to be true and it had to be something that had never been told to another person. Today Warren has been mailed more than 100,000 highly personal and artfully decorated postcards illustrating the soulful secrets never voiced. This extraordinary project has become an international phenomenon with thousands of people participating in scheduled PostSecret events throughout the United States, and through the PostSecret website and blog.

This exhibition features 450 postcards bringing together the most powerful, poignant and beautifully intimate secrets Warren has received in the past four years. In many cases, the illustrations on the cards are just as compelling as the accompanying text.

Sitting Still
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

"What does the world look like from a non-violent point of view? What would happen if the youth of Syracuse city and Syracuse University joined together to explore this question?" These are the questions that led Anne Beffel, a New York based public artist and Associate Professor of Art at Syracuse University and Pam McLaughlin, Everson Curator of Education and Public Programs to bring the Sitting Still contemplative video project to high school students from the Syracuse City School District. Beffel and McLaughlin worked together for over a year to put video cameras in the hands eight young artists, so that they could stop, look, and listen as scenes unfolded before them ranging from those that inspired awe to those that compelled participation and intervention. Within the context of four workshops at the SU Warehouse e-tags studio, students engaged in making video art from a perfectly still point of view, and then used their artworks as the basis for sharing their diverse visions. The workshops were at the heart of this process of opening up to environments -- both physical and social.

Baltics Bound Concert
Seneca Camerata
Robert Cowles, conductor

Price: Freewill offering
Eastwood Baptist Church
3212 James St., Syracuse

Come hear the Seneca Camerata (made up of singers from the Syracuse Vocal Ensemble and the Hobart & William Smith Colleges Chorale) as they prepare for their Baltic Tour and trip to the Estonian Song Festival.

Featuring 20th-century American music by Leonard Bernstein, William Schumann, Earl George, and others.

Sweet Soul Sunday
Showcase Sundays
Featuring Brownskin Band

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

For more information, visit showcasesundays.com.