Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Gallery Exhibition: Phillia Yi
Onondaga Community College

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

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

Read a review!

Paik & Cage
Point of Contact Gallery

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

The exhibit is a verbal and visual testimony of a friendship: "Paik & Cage" is a defining encounter of two 1960s masters, Korean video-art precursor Nam June Paik and American composer John Cage.

Nam June Paik's newly digitized, uncut version of Suite (212), which combines 12 short videos starting with The Selling of New York will screen for the duration of the show. This is one of the more significant pieces from the legendary Synapse program that pioneered video as an art form right here in Syracuse in the 1970s.

As a noteworthy accompaniment, the exhibit introduces a never-before-shown photographic profile of John Cage by Cuban artist Raoul Sentenat.

In addition, the exhibit will include a headset-equipped audio installation for the piece Indeterminacy, new aspect of form in instrumental and electronic music, which has John Cage narrating a series of 1-minute Zen Buddhist tales and meditations.

Avant-garde artist and composer, Nam June Paik (1932-2006) pioneered into video as an art form in the 1960s by combining multiple TV screens with sculpture, music and live performers. Trained in music, aesthetics and philosophy, he was a member of the 1960s art movement Fluxus, which was in part inspired by composer John Cage's use of everyday sound in music.

American composer John Cage (1912-1992) was an explorer of electronic music and the non-standard use of musical instruments. Many think of him as the most influential composer of the 20th century. He was instrumental in the development of modern dance and is best known for his 1952 composition 4'33", which is performed without a single note being played.

Think Tech Art Exhibit
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

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

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

Read a review!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Original illustrated works by London Ladd

Ernesto Pujol Exhibition: Walk #1
Light Work Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

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

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

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

Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

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

Marie Antoinette: Styling the 18th Century Superstar
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Local artist and designer Jeffrey Mayer will present a post-modern installation of 20th century fashion design inspired by the 18th century fashion sense of Marie Antoinette. Although Marie Antoinette did not really create a style that was personally unique, what she did for fashion in the 1770s was to solidify, refine and intensify the rococo style created by her grandfather-in-law, Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Pompadour, who died in 1764, six years before the 14-year-old Princess even arrived from Austria. Through the exhibition and a publication to be released in the fall, Mayer will be reinterpreting and discussing Marie Antoinette's key concepts of Fantasy, Luxury, and Exoticism.

Marie Antoinette was originally displayed in 2007 in a small space in Syracuse University's Fashion Design Department where Mayer has been Associate Professor of Fashion History and Design since 1992. For the Everson's installation, Mayer has expanded the visual experience to include more than 40 garments displayed on vintage mannequins, an eclectic collection of contemporary fashion accessories, an interactive audio component, and many unique, custom-designed and hand-made objects.

Warhol Presents
Everson Museum of Art

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

Warhol Presents highlights the early commercial career of Andy Warhol, whose whimsical drawings from the 1950s created fantasies that marketed fashion and glamour through evocation. Warhol's penchant for combining art and advertisement quickly made him one of the most well known illustrators of women's fashion in New York. His talen' was sought out by fashion publication giants, including Glamour, Mademoiselle, Vogue, McCall's and Harper's Bazaar; and women's footwear designer and retailer, I. Miller Shoe Company.

The exhibition presents 18 of Warhol's rarely seen shoe illustrations including Fantasy Shoes (ca. 1956), a whimsical and humorous take on women's footwear design. Exhibited also are drawings of women's accessories and fashion figures, including Female Fashion Figure (1950s); a vibrant depiction of a chic model alongside an equally stylish car.

Warhol's unique well-wrought line also translated to commissions of large-scale window displays for New York stores, including Bonwit Teller and Tiffany's. One example of the artist's window displays is featured in this exhibition in the illustrated reproduction, Miss Dior (1950s); and a 1997 3-dimensional re-creation of Warhol's 1957 Bonwit Teller Window Display, which includes glass perfume bottles and colorful reproduction of a window display screen. Warhol's early drawings and interest in art, identity, and consumerism informed his later pop-icon status, when product and identity literally became his art, and was used to fuel his experimental factory era films.

This exhibition is curated by Natalie Sanderson, Curator of Education at the University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara. The original exhibition, Andy Warhol Presents, was first exhibited at the University Art Museum in 2007.

Dreams of Promise and Peril
The Warehouse Gallery

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

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

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

The Making, and Unmaking, of a Boy Soldier
University Lectures
Featuring Ishmael Beah, human rights activist and author

Price: Free
Hendricks Chapel
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Beah is author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, a book that recounts his years of forced service as a child soldier in his native Sierra Leone. Beah's book is SU's Shared Reading Program selection for 2008.

Syracuse University Setnor School of Music
Antara Winds and African Alchemies

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

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Gallery Exhibition: Phillia Yi
Onondaga Community College

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

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

Read a review!

Paik & Cage
Point of Contact Gallery

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

The exhibit is a verbal and visual testimony of a friendship: "Paik & Cage" is a defining encounter of two 1960s masters, Korean video-art precursor Nam June Paik and American composer John Cage.

Nam June Paik's newly digitized, uncut version of Suite (212), which combines 12 short videos starting with The Selling of New York will screen for the duration of the show. This is one of the more significant pieces from the legendary Synapse program that pioneered video as an art form right here in Syracuse in the 1970s.

As a noteworthy accompaniment, the exhibit introduces a never-before-shown photographic profile of John Cage by Cuban artist Raoul Sentenat.

In addition, the exhibit will include a headset-equipped audio installation for the piece Indeterminacy, new aspect of form in instrumental and electronic music, which has John Cage narrating a series of 1-minute Zen Buddhist tales and meditations.

Avant-garde artist and composer, Nam June Paik (1932-2006) pioneered into video as an art form in the 1960s by combining multiple TV screens with sculpture, music and live performers. Trained in music, aesthetics and philosophy, he was a member of the 1960s art movement Fluxus, which was in part inspired by composer John Cage's use of everyday sound in music.

American composer John Cage (1912-1992) was an explorer of electronic music and the non-standard use of musical instruments. Many think of him as the most influential composer of the 20th century. He was instrumental in the development of modern dance and is best known for his 1952 composition 4'33", which is performed without a single note being played.

Think Tech Art Exhibit
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

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

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

Read a review!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Original illustrated works by London Ladd

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

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

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

Ernesto Pujol Exhibition: Walk #1
Light Work Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

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

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

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

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

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

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

Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

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

Warhol Presents
Everson Museum of Art

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

Warhol Presents highlights the early commercial career of Andy Warhol, whose whimsical drawings from the 1950s created fantasies that marketed fashion and glamour through evocation. Warhol's penchant for combining art and advertisement quickly made him one of the most well known illustrators of women's fashion in New York. His talen' was sought out by fashion publication giants, including Glamour, Mademoiselle, Vogue, McCall's and Harper's Bazaar; and women's footwear designer and retailer, I. Miller Shoe Company.

The exhibition presents 18 of Warhol's rarely seen shoe illustrations including Fantasy Shoes (ca. 1956), a whimsical and humorous take on women's footwear design. Exhibited also are drawings of women's accessories and fashion figures, including Female Fashion Figure (1950s); a vibrant depiction of a chic model alongside an equally stylish car.

Warhol's unique well-wrought line also translated to commissions of large-scale window displays for New York stores, including Bonwit Teller and Tiffany's. One example of the artist's window displays is featured in this exhibition in the illustrated reproduction, Miss Dior (1950s); and a 1997 3-dimensional re-creation of Warhol's 1957 Bonwit Teller Window Display, which includes glass perfume bottles and colorful reproduction of a window display screen. Warhol's early drawings and interest in art, identity, and consumerism informed his later pop-icon status, when product and identity literally became his art, and was used to fuel his experimental factory era films.

This exhibition is curated by Natalie Sanderson, Curator of Education at the University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara. The original exhibition, Andy Warhol Presents, was first exhibited at the University Art Museum in 2007.

Marie Antoinette: Styling the 18th Century Superstar
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Local artist and designer Jeffrey Mayer will present a post-modern installation of 20th century fashion design inspired by the 18th century fashion sense of Marie Antoinette. Although Marie Antoinette did not really create a style that was personally unique, what she did for fashion in the 1770s was to solidify, refine and intensify the rococo style created by her grandfather-in-law, Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Pompadour, who died in 1764, six years before the 14-year-old Princess even arrived from Austria. Through the exhibition and a publication to be released in the fall, Mayer will be reinterpreting and discussing Marie Antoinette's key concepts of Fantasy, Luxury, and Exoticism.

Marie Antoinette was originally displayed in 2007 in a small space in Syracuse University's Fashion Design Department where Mayer has been Associate Professor of Fashion History and Design since 1992. For the Everson's installation, Mayer has expanded the visual experience to include more than 40 garments displayed on vintage mannequins, an eclectic collection of contemporary fashion accessories, an interactive audio component, and many unique, custom-designed and hand-made objects.

Street Dreams
Redhouse

Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

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

Dreams of Promise and Peril
The Warehouse Gallery

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

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

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

The History of Hip-Hop
CNY Arts
Rennie Harris Puremovement

Price: Free
Hutchings Auditorium
810 E. Genesee St., adjacent to Syracuse Stage, Syracuse

History of Hip-Hop is a lecture-demonstration of movement, rhythm, sound and image, featuring a cast of dancers, live percussion, riveting vocals, and video-collage projections, featuring dance legend Rennie Harris.

Syracuse Opera Resident Artist Program Soloists
Civic Morning Musicals

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

Gala Opening with the Eroica Trio
Syracuse Symphony Orchestra
Eroica Trio; Syracuse Symphony Pops Chorus
Daniel Hege, conductor

Crouse Hinds Concert Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The most sought-after trio in the world, the Grammy-nominated Eroica Trio thrills audiences with flawless technical virtuosity, irresistible enthusiasm and sensual elegance as they perform Beethoven's Triple Concerto. The SSO will also perform Festive Overture by Shostakovich, Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain and Borodin's Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances.

Read a review!

Poet Tomaz Salamun
Raymond Carver Reading Series

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

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

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

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

Prior to this performance, at 1:00 in the Sutton Pavilion, there will be a discussion:

Nottingham Discussion Series: Women, Race and Power
* Vivian May, associate professor of women's and gender studies in The College of Arts and Sciences at SU
* Val Gray Ward, actress, producer, cultural activist and internationally known theater personality
* The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, Grace Episcopal Church and Episcopal chaplain at SU's Hendricks Chapel

Read a Review!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Dark Elegy
Syracuse University

Price: Free
Syracuse University Quad
Syracuse

They are testaments to the impact of terrorism: sculptures portraying mothers going back to the exact moment they learned their child died in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988, over Lockerbie, Scotland. Some are screaming; others are weeping. Some are curled into a ball; others have fists raised in anger. The 76 larger-than-life figures that comprise the Dark Elegy collection were created by Montauk, NY-based artist Suse Lowenstein, the mother of a Pan Am 103 student victim.

Four of these sculptures will be on display as part of the University's commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Pan Am 103 tragedy.

Gallery Exhibition: Phillia Yi
Onondaga Community College

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

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

Read a review!

Paik & Cage
Point of Contact Gallery

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

The exhibit is a verbal and visual testimony of a friendship: "Paik & Cage" is a defining encounter of two 1960s masters, Korean video-art precursor Nam June Paik and American composer John Cage.

Nam June Paik's newly digitized, uncut version of Suite (212), which combines 12 short videos starting with The Selling of New York will screen for the duration of the show. This is one of the more significant pieces from the legendary Synapse program that pioneered video as an art form right here in Syracuse in the 1970s.

As a noteworthy accompaniment, the exhibit introduces a never-before-shown photographic profile of John Cage by Cuban artist Raoul Sentenat.

In addition, the exhibit will include a headset-equipped audio installation for the piece Indeterminacy, new aspect of form in instrumental and electronic music, which has John Cage narrating a series of 1-minute Zen Buddhist tales and meditations.

Avant-garde artist and composer, Nam June Paik (1932-2006) pioneered into video as an art form in the 1960s by combining multiple TV screens with sculpture, music and live performers. Trained in music, aesthetics and philosophy, he was a member of the 1960s art movement Fluxus, which was in part inspired by composer John Cage's use of everyday sound in music.

American composer John Cage (1912-1992) was an explorer of electronic music and the non-standard use of musical instruments. Many think of him as the most influential composer of the 20th century. He was instrumental in the development of modern dance and is best known for his 1952 composition 4'33", which is performed without a single note being played.

Think Tech Art Exhibit
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Original illustrated works by London Ladd

Ernesto Pujol Exhibition: Walk #1
Light Work Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

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

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

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

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

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

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

Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

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

Five Years at Delavan
Delavan Art Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

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

Marie Antoinette: Styling the 18th Century Superstar
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Local artist and designer Jeffrey Mayer will present a post-modern installation of 20th century fashion design inspired by the 18th century fashion sense of Marie Antoinette. Although Marie Antoinette did not really create a style that was personally unique, what she did for fashion in the 1770s was to solidify, refine and intensify the rococo style created by her grandfather-in-law, Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Pompadour, who died in 1764, six years before the 14-year-old Princess even arrived from Austria. Through the exhibition and a publication to be released in the fall, Mayer will be reinterpreting and discussing Marie Antoinette's key concepts of Fantasy, Luxury, and Exoticism.

Marie Antoinette was originally displayed in 2007 in a small space in Syracuse University's Fashion Design Department where Mayer has been Associate Professor of Fashion History and Design since 1992. For the Everson's installation, Mayer has expanded the visual experience to include more than 40 garments displayed on vintage mannequins, an eclectic collection of contemporary fashion accessories, an interactive audio component, and many unique, custom-designed and hand-made objects.

Warhol Presents
Everson Museum of Art

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

Warhol Presents highlights the early commercial career of Andy Warhol, whose whimsical drawings from the 1950s created fantasies that marketed fashion and glamour through evocation. Warhol's penchant for combining art and advertisement quickly made him one of the most well known illustrators of women's fashion in New York. His talen' was sought out by fashion publication giants, including Glamour, Mademoiselle, Vogue, McCall's and Harper's Bazaar; and women's footwear designer and retailer, I. Miller Shoe Company.

The exhibition presents 18 of Warhol's rarely seen shoe illustrations including Fantasy Shoes (ca. 1956), a whimsical and humorous take on women's footwear design. Exhibited also are drawings of women's accessories and fashion figures, including Female Fashion Figure (1950s); a vibrant depiction of a chic model alongside an equally stylish car.

Warhol's unique well-wrought line also translated to commissions of large-scale window displays for New York stores, including Bonwit Teller and Tiffany's. One example of the artist's window displays is featured in this exhibition in the illustrated reproduction, Miss Dior (1950s); and a 1997 3-dimensional re-creation of Warhol's 1957 Bonwit Teller Window Display, which includes glass perfume bottles and colorful reproduction of a window display screen. Warhol's early drawings and interest in art, identity, and consumerism informed his later pop-icon status, when product and identity literally became his art, and was used to fuel his experimental factory era films.

This exhibition is curated by Natalie Sanderson, Curator of Education at the University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara. The original exhibition, Andy Warhol Presents, was first exhibited at the University Art Museum in 2007.

Street Dreams
Redhouse

Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

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

Dreams of Promise and Peril
The Warehouse Gallery

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

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

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

Life and the Traveler
Orange Line Gallery

Price: Free
Orange Line Gallery
106 Montgomery St., Syracuse

"Life and the Traveler" explores treks to geographical places, real and imagined, as well as journeys to the inner-self in manners of traditional to abstract.

This show will feature five artists new to Orange Line, including Marna Bell, Laura Celuch and Heather Kunst showing photography; Jim Reed with latex on canvas; and Jace Collins featuring works in acrylic, oil and paper on Plexiglas.

Other new work, relevant to the theme, will be shown by artists:
David McKenney, Debra Parry Trichilo, Dustin Angell, Kevin Lucas, Spencer Baker: photography
Father Andrew: digital paintings
Meg Gentile: acrylic, oil, wax, and paper on canvas
Melissa Tiffany: collage
Mick Mather: digitally manipulated photography

The Women's Kingdom; A Jihad for Love
Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences
6th Annual Human Rights Film Festival

Price: Free
Life Sciences Complex Auditorium
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The Womens Kingdom
This short film offers viewers a rare glimpse into the extraordinary society of Mosuo women, keepers of one of the last matriarchal societies in the world, who live beyond structures of mainstream Chinese culture. (Directed by Xiaoli Zhou, 23 minutes, 2005-06, China/USA)

The film festival will feature a special appearance by Parvez Sharma, director of

A Jihad for Love
The film's characters have a vastly different take on Islam; some observe a rigorously orthodox regimen, others lead highly secular lifestyles while remaining spiritually devout. As the camera captures their stories, the film's gay and lesbian characters emerge in all their human complexity, challenging our assumptions about a monolithic Muslim community. This film speaks with a Muslim voice and opens a dialogue that has been mostly non-existent in Islam's recent history. By defining jihad as a "struggle" rather than a "war," the film presents the struggle for love. (Directed by Parvez Sharma, 81 minutes, 2007, USA/UK/France/Germany/Australia). The director will be in attendance.

Presented as part of the 2008 Syracuse Symposium on the theme "Migration."

Lynn Margulis, biologist and author
Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences

Price: Free
Bird Library, Peter Graham Scholarly Commons
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Lynn Margulis, internationally celebrated evolutionary biologist and author, has published a number of books about science and evolution, and also released her first fiction, Luminous Fish: Tales of Science and Love (Chelsea Green Publishing), in 2007. The lecture is presented in cooperation with The Kameshwar C. Wali Lecture and the 2008 Syracuse Symposium: Migration.

Montana Smith and the Curse of the Golden Crocodile
Acme Mystery Company

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

Interactive mystery/comedy.

Fractured Fifties
Senior Theatre Troupe

Price: $7
Fayetteville-Manlius High School
8201 E. Seneca Tpke., Manlius

A night of song, dance, and comedy. For more information, phone 315-445-9951.

Two One-Act Plays: The Blue Vein Society; Sweat
Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company

Price: $15 regular; $8 students/seniors
CFAC Black Box Theater
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

The Blue Vein Society is not just about class and color among African Americans. It is about a world in which we still judge people more by the color of their skin than the content of their character. The play is based on Charles Chesnutt's short story, The Wife of His Youth. Chesnutt is the first African American fiction writer to achieve international acclaim. Separated by slavery and war, a black woman searches for her long-lost husband, only to find that he has changed his name and identity and is part of a club that excludes dark-skinned African Americans. He pretends not to recognize his darker skinned wife from slavery until she and his present fair-skinned fiancée force him to confront his past.

Sweat is one of three short stories in Spunk by Zora Neale Hurston adapted for the stage play by George C. Wolfe. Sweat focuses on the turning point in the life of Delia Jones, a washerwoman from Hurston's hometown of Eatonville, FL. Beginning with an outburst against her abusive husband and finishing with her involvement in his death, the story follows Delia through a transformation, an upheaval of values that Hurston is interested in setting in the context of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. The author makes use of biblical allusion and African American folk culture to attack issues of gender and oppression that were taboo topics at the time and continue to have a wide significance today.

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Summer
LeMoyne College
LeMoyne Chamber Orchestra
Featuring Axel Strauss, violin; Janet Brown, soprano

Price: $15 general public, $10 seniors, free for students and the LeMoyne community
Coyne Center for the Performing Arts
LeMoyne College, Syracuse

Vivaldi's "Summer" from the Four Seasons and Enescu's Violin Sonata No. 3 with Naumburg Award-winning violinist Axel Strauss, jazz-pop arrangements of tunes by Gershwin and The Mamas and the Papas with The Jazzuits, excerpts from Berlioz's Les Nuit d'Ete with soprano Janet Brown, and a medley from the Broadway hit Ragtime.

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

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

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

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The Water Children
Black Box Players
Alex Kantor, director

Price: Free (seating limited; reservations suggested)
Loft Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Wendy MacLeod's The Water Children premiered at Playwrights Horizons in New York. It was subsequently produced at L.A.'s Matrix Theater where it was cited as "the most challenging political play of 1998" by LA Weekly and earned six L.A. Drama Critics Circle nominations.

When 36-year old Megan loses an important role to a younger woman, her agent convinces her to take a part in a commercial for Life Force, a pro-life group. Megan, having had an abortion at 16, and being a staunch liberal, is conflicted about the job. In accepting the role, she unwittingly embarks on the personal journey of her life, spinning into her past, magnifying her present, and leaving her completely at a loss as to her future.

Seating is limited, so please arrive at least a half-hour prior to the performance to assure seating. To make reservations, leave a message on the Black Box Players' voice mailbox at 315-443-2102 or send an e-mail to tickets@blackboxplayers.org. All requests will receive a follow-up phone call from the box office.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Dark Elegy
Syracuse University

Price: Free
Syracuse University Quad
Syracuse

They are testaments to the impact of terrorism: sculptures portraying mothers going back to the exact moment they learned their child died in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988, over Lockerbie, Scotland. Some are screaming; others are weeping. Some are curled into a ball; others have fists raised in anger. The 76 larger-than-life figures that comprise the Dark Elegy collection were created by Montauk, NY-based artist Suse Lowenstein, the mother of a Pan Am 103 student victim.

Four of these sculptures will be on display as part of the University's commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Pan Am 103 tragedy.

Gallery Exhibition: Phillia Yi
Onondaga Community College

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

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

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Paik & Cage
Point of Contact Gallery

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

The exhibit is a verbal and visual testimony of a friendship: "Paik & Cage" is a defining encounter of two 1960s masters, Korean video-art precursor Nam June Paik and American composer John Cage.

Nam June Paik's newly digitized, uncut version of Suite (212), which combines 12 short videos starting with The Selling of New York will screen for the duration of the show. This is one of the more significant pieces from the legendary Synapse program that pioneered video as an art form right here in Syracuse in the 1970s.

As a noteworthy accompaniment, the exhibit introduces a never-before-shown photographic profile of John Cage by Cuban artist Raoul Sentenat.

In addition, the exhibit will include a headset-equipped audio installation for the piece Indeterminacy, new aspect of form in instrumental and electronic music, which has John Cage narrating a series of 1-minute Zen Buddhist tales and meditations.

Avant-garde artist and composer, Nam June Paik (1932-2006) pioneered into video as an art form in the 1960s by combining multiple TV screens with sculpture, music and live performers. Trained in music, aesthetics and philosophy, he was a member of the 1960s art movement Fluxus, which was in part inspired by composer John Cage's use of everyday sound in music.

American composer John Cage (1912-1992) was an explorer of electronic music and the non-standard use of musical instruments. Many think of him as the most influential composer of the 20th century. He was instrumental in the development of modern dance and is best known for his 1952 composition 4'33", which is performed without a single note being played.

Think Tech Art Exhibit
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Original illustrated works by London Ladd

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

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

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

Ernesto Pujol Exhibition: Walk #1
Light Work Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

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

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

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

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

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

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

Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

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

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

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

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

Five Years at Delavan
Delavan Art Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

Warhol Presents
Everson Museum of Art

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

Warhol Presents highlights the early commercial career of Andy Warhol, whose whimsical drawings from the 1950s created fantasies that marketed fashion and glamour through evocation. Warhol's penchant for combining art and advertisement quickly made him one of the most well known illustrators of women's fashion in New York. His talen' was sought out by fashion publication giants, including Glamour, Mademoiselle, Vogue, McCall's and Harper's Bazaar; and women's footwear designer and retailer, I. Miller Shoe Company.

The exhibition presents 18 of Warhol's rarely seen shoe illustrations including Fantasy Shoes (ca. 1956), a whimsical and humorous take on women's footwear design. Exhibited also are drawings of women's accessories and fashion figures, including Female Fashion Figure (1950s); a vibrant depiction of a chic model alongside an equally stylish car.

Warhol's unique well-wrought line also translated to commissions of large-scale window displays for New York stores, including Bonwit Teller and Tiffany's. One example of the artist's window displays is featured in this exhibition in the illustrated reproduction, Miss Dior (1950s); and a 1997 3-dimensional re-creation of Warhol's 1957 Bonwit Teller Window Display, which includes glass perfume bottles and colorful reproduction of a window display screen. Warhol's early drawings and interest in art, identity, and consumerism informed his later pop-icon status, when product and identity literally became his art, and was used to fuel his experimental factory era films.

This exhibition is curated by Natalie Sanderson, Curator of Education at the University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara. The original exhibition, Andy Warhol Presents, was first exhibited at the University Art Museum in 2007.

Marie Antoinette: Styling the 18th Century Superstar
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Local artist and designer Jeffrey Mayer will present a post-modern installation of 20th century fashion design inspired by the 18th century fashion sense of Marie Antoinette. Although Marie Antoinette did not really create a style that was personally unique, what she did for fashion in the 1770s was to solidify, refine and intensify the rococo style created by her grandfather-in-law, Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Pompadour, who died in 1764, six years before the 14-year-old Princess even arrived from Austria. Through the exhibition and a publication to be released in the fall, Mayer will be reinterpreting and discussing Marie Antoinette's key concepts of Fantasy, Luxury, and Exoticism.

Marie Antoinette was originally displayed in 2007 in a small space in Syracuse University's Fashion Design Department where Mayer has been Associate Professor of Fashion History and Design since 1992. For the Everson's installation, Mayer has expanded the visual experience to include more than 40 garments displayed on vintage mannequins, an eclectic collection of contemporary fashion accessories, an interactive audio component, and many unique, custom-designed and hand-made objects.

Street Dreams
Redhouse

Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

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

Dreams of Promise and Peril
The Warehouse Gallery

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

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

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

Life and the Traveler
Orange Line Gallery

Price: Free
Orange Line Gallery
106 Montgomery St., Syracuse

"Life and the Traveler" explores treks to geographical places, real and imagined, as well as journeys to the inner-self in manners of traditional to abstract.

This show will feature five artists new to Orange Line, including Marna Bell, Laura Celuch and Heather Kunst showing photography; Jim Reed with latex on canvas; and Jace Collins featuring works in acrylic, oil and paper on Plexiglas.

Other new work, relevant to the theme, will be shown by artists:
David McKenney, Debra Parry Trichilo, Dustin Angell, Kevin Lucas, Spencer Baker: photography
Father Andrew: digital paintings
Meg Gentile: acrylic, oil, wax, and paper on canvas
Melissa Tiffany: collage
Mick Mather: digitally manipulated photography

3rd Annual Syracuse University MFA Invitational
Spark Contemporary Art Space

Spark Contemporary Art Space
1005 E. Fayette St., Syracuse

All MFA Candidates from the Departments of Art and Transmedia at Syracuse University have been invited to exhibit their artwork. There will be a "Meet & Greet" opening reception with the artists in attendance.

I Want to be a Pilot; China Blue
Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences
6th Annual Human Rights Film Festival

Price: Free
Life Sciences Complex Auditorium
Syracuse University, Syracuse

I Want to be a Pilot
Deep in the slums of East Africa, a 12-year-old has only one dream -- to be able to fly. This moving film depicts a poverty stricken orphan boy, living in Kenya, who looks towards the heavens and dreams of being an airline pilot and of escaping his bleak life of poverty. (Directed by Diego Quemada Diez, 12 minutes, 2006, Kenya/Mexico/Spain)

China Blue
This critically acclaimed film is a powerful and poignant journey into the harsh world of sweatshop workers. Shot clandestinely, it is a deep-access account of what both China and the international retailers don't want us to see. (Directed by Micha Peled, 86 minutes, 2005, China/USA)

Presented as part of the 2008 Syracuse Symposium on the theme "Migration."

Society for New Music
Onondaga Community College

Price: Free
Storer Auditorium
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

Music by Roberto Sierra, Marc Mellits, Ed Ruchalski and Rodrigo, performed by Mili Fernandez, Rob Bridge, Rob Sanderl, and Ed Ruchalski.

Words and Music Songwriter Showcase
Folkus Project
Featuring Donna Colton and the Troublemakers with Mike Gibson, Len Widdekind, and Laura Courtwright

Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

The Words and Music Songwriter Showcase is a celebration of original music from Central New York and beyond, featuring established and emerging artists of all genres in an up-close-and-personal acoustic setting. The series is hosted by singer-songwriter, author, and NPR contributor Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers.

Donna Colton and the Troublemakers are a tangle of acoustic rock/folk/pop/alt-country and a touch of blues. Colton can belt out a song with gritty passion and in the next breath croon to make you cry. Bass player Sam Patterelli and drummer Dave Salce finesse beats and weave patterns that keep the rhythm in motion. Their original music and lyrics are crafted to draw you in and make you see the movie too. Their latest release, Tryst, was named the No. 1 CD for 2007 by Post-Standard music critic Mark Bialczak. Colton and Patterelli share most of the songwriting duties and Dave Salce created most of the drum tracks.

Bohemian Rhapsody
NYS Baroque
Featuring Pegasus Early Music

Price: $23 regular, $18 seniors, $7 student, $5 children 12 and under
First Unitarian Universalist Society of Syracuse
109 Waring Rd. (at the corner of Nottingham Rd.), Dewitt

A special-event collaboration with Pegasus Early Music, Deborah Fox, director

Sound the trumpets! Strike the viols! We explore the flourishing of music in German and Austrian lands after the Thirty Years War, and the dawning of the extravagant and experimental new style known as Stylus Phantasticus. Music by Biber, Schmelzer, Rittler, and others.

Pops Series: Bugs Bunny On Broadway
Syracuse Symphony Orchestra
George Daugherty, conductor

Crouse Hinds Concert Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The musical masterpieces of Wagner, Rossini, Strauss, Tchaikovsky and others are brilliantly interpreted through the "hare-raising" cartoon scores of Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn in this uniquely spirited, fun and sophisticated combination of classic animation and symphonic music. Via cartoon jewels such as What's Opera, Doc? and The Rabbit of Seville, see and hear "The Ring Cycle" and "The Barber of Seville" as never before! This concert has sold out the world's greatest concert halls and opera houses.

Fractured Fifties
Senior Theatre Troupe

Price: $7
Fayetteville-Manlius High School
8201 E. Seneca Tpke., Manlius

A night of song, dance, and comedy. For more information, phone 315-445-9951.

Two One-Act Plays: The Blue Vein Society; Sweat
Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company

Price: $15 regular; $8 students/seniors
CFAC Black Box Theater
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

The Blue Vein Society is not just about class and color among African Americans. It is about a world in which we still judge people more by the color of their skin than the content of their character. The play is based on Charles Chesnutt's short story, The Wife of His Youth. Chesnutt is the first African American fiction writer to achieve international acclaim. Separated by slavery and war, a black woman searches for her long-lost husband, only to find that he has changed his name and identity and is part of a club that excludes dark-skinned African Americans. He pretends not to recognize his darker skinned wife from slavery until she and his present fair-skinned fiancée force him to confront his past.

Sweat is one of three short stories in Spunk by Zora Neale Hurston adapted for the stage play by George C. Wolfe. Sweat focuses on the turning point in the life of Delia Jones, a washerwoman from Hurston's hometown of Eatonville, FL. Beginning with an outburst against her abusive husband and finishing with her involvement in his death, the story follows Delia through a transformation, an upheaval of values that Hurston is interested in setting in the context of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. The author makes use of biblical allusion and African American folk culture to attack issues of gender and oppression that were taboo topics at the time and continue to have a wide significance today.

Read a Review!

Goodbye Charlie
Appleseed Productions
William Edward White, director

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

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

Read a Review!

What Do I Know About War?
ArtRage Gallery
Featuring Margo Lee Sherman

Price: $15 advance sale; $20 at the door
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

What Do I Know About War? is a one-act, one woman show created and performed by Margo Lee Sherman. Margo Sherman is a founding member of the Bread & Puppet Theater and has created and performed over 30 solo shows. Critically acclaimed in the New York Times for being "brilliant with the small gesture," Margo uses 15 characters to take an unflinching look at the human cost of war and its tragic dehumanization.

The performance will be preceded by coffee and dessert at 7:00pm.

Seating is limited. For reservations, phone 315-559-5387 or email info@artragegallery.org. Off-street parking is available at 408 & 414 Lodi St. ArtRage is handicapped accessible.

This event is a fundraiser for ArtRage Gallery.

The Water Children
Black Box Players
Alex Kantor, director

Price: Free (seating limited; reservations suggested)
Loft Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Wendy MacLeod's The Water Children premiered at Playwrights Horizons in New York. It was subsequently produced at L.A.'s Matrix Theater where it was cited as "the most challenging political play of 1998" by LA Weekly and earned six L.A. Drama Critics Circle nominations.

When 36-year old Megan loses an important role to a younger woman, her agent convinces her to take a part in a commercial for Life Force, a pro-life group. Megan, having had an abortion at 16, and being a staunch liberal, is conflicted about the job. In accepting the role, she unwittingly embarks on the personal journey of her life, spinning into her past, magnifying her present, and leaving her completely at a loss as to her future.

Seating is limited, so please arrive at least a half-hour prior to the performance to assure seating. To make reservations, leave a message on the Black Box Players' voice mailbox at 315-443-2102 or send an e-mail to tickets@blackboxplayers.org. All requests will receive a follow-up phone call from the box office.

The Eaten Heart
Redhouse
The Debate Society

Price: $38 regular, $35 students/seniors
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

Inspired by Giovanni Boccccio's The Decameron, The Eaten Heart captures the essence of loneliness and a longing for desire by portraying over a dozen characters seeking anonymity within the confines of a remote roadside motel. Plot lines include a preacher's wife suffering from infidelity, an obliviously skilled magician, and a plotting husband bent on revenge. The Eaten Heart opened to critical acclaim in spring 2007 in New York City, winning awards for Best Actress, Best Company, and named among the Top Five Shows of 2007 by Aaron Riccio of "Show Showdown".

The play will be staged by the Brooklyn-based The Debate Society. Led by creative team Hannah Bos, Paul Tureen (writers/performers) and Oliver Butler (director/developer), The Debate Society stages plays with unexpected stories set in supremely intricate, vividly theatrical worlds. Past productions include A Thought About Raya and The Snow Hen. The company has toured in Portland, OR, Austin, TX, Hartford, CT, and Martha's Vineyard.

Read a review!

Agnes of God
Simply New Theatre
John Nara, director

Price: $20 regular, $15 students/seniors
BeVard Room, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Dr. Martha Livingstone, a court-appointed psychiatrist, is asked to determine the sanity of a young nun accused of murdering her own baby. Miriam Ruth, the Mother Superior, seems bent on protecting Sister Agnes from the doctor, and Livingstone's suspicions are immediately aroused. In searching for solutions to various mysteries -- Who killed the baby? Who fathered the child? -- Livingstone forces all three women, herself included, to face some harsh realities in their own lives, and to re-examine the meaning of faith and the commitment of love.

Read a review!

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

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

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

Read a Review!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Dark Elegy
Syracuse University

Price: Free
Syracuse University Quad
Syracuse

They are testaments to the impact of terrorism: sculptures portraying mothers going back to the exact moment they learned their child died in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988, over Lockerbie, Scotland. Some are screaming; others are weeping. Some are curled into a ball; others have fists raised in anger. The 76 larger-than-life figures that comprise the Dark Elegy collection were created by Montauk, NY-based artist Suse Lowenstein, the mother of a Pan Am 103 student victim.

Four of these sculptures will be on display as part of the University's commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Pan Am 103 tragedy.

Five Years at Delavan
Delavan Art Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Delavan Art Gallery
501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

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

Marie Antoinette: Styling the 18th Century Superstar
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Local artist and designer Jeffrey Mayer will present a post-modern installation of 20th century fashion design inspired by the 18th century fashion sense of Marie Antoinette. Although Marie Antoinette did not really create a style that was personally unique, what she did for fashion in the 1770s was to solidify, refine and intensify the rococo style created by her grandfather-in-law, Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Pompadour, who died in 1764, six years before the 14-year-old Princess even arrived from Austria. Through the exhibition and a publication to be released in the fall, Mayer will be reinterpreting and discussing Marie Antoinette's key concepts of Fantasy, Luxury, and Exoticism.

Marie Antoinette was originally displayed in 2007 in a small space in Syracuse University's Fashion Design Department where Mayer has been Associate Professor of Fashion History and Design since 1992. For the Everson's installation, Mayer has expanded the visual experience to include more than 40 garments displayed on vintage mannequins, an eclectic collection of contemporary fashion accessories, an interactive audio component, and many unique, custom-designed and hand-made objects.

Warhol Presents
Everson Museum of Art

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

Warhol Presents highlights the early commercial career of Andy Warhol, whose whimsical drawings from the 1950s created fantasies that marketed fashion and glamour through evocation. Warhol's penchant for combining art and advertisement quickly made him one of the most well known illustrators of women's fashion in New York. His talen' was sought out by fashion publication giants, including Glamour, Mademoiselle, Vogue, McCall's and Harper's Bazaar; and women's footwear designer and retailer, I. Miller Shoe Company.

The exhibition presents 18 of Warhol's rarely seen shoe illustrations including Fantasy Shoes (ca. 1956), a whimsical and humorous take on women's footwear design. Exhibited also are drawings of women's accessories and fashion figures, including Female Fashion Figure (1950s); a vibrant depiction of a chic model alongside an equally stylish car.

Warhol's unique well-wrought line also translated to commissions of large-scale window displays for New York stores, including Bonwit Teller and Tiffany's. One example of the artist's window displays is featured in this exhibition in the illustrated reproduction, Miss Dior (1950s); and a 1997 3-dimensional re-creation of Warhol's 1957 Bonwit Teller Window Display, which includes glass perfume bottles and colorful reproduction of a window display screen. Warhol's early drawings and interest in art, identity, and consumerism informed his later pop-icon status, when product and identity literally became his art, and was used to fuel his experimental factory era films.

This exhibition is curated by Natalie Sanderson, Curator of Education at the University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara. The original exhibition, Andy Warhol Presents, was first exhibited at the University Art Museum in 2007.

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

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

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

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

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

Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

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

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

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

Original illustrated works by London Ladd

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

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

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

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

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

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

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

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

Migrating Memories, Migrating Arts: Photographic Retrospective
Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences

Panasci Lounge, Schine Student Center
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition celebrates the formative cultural fermentation occurring in the present regional landscape of Central New York. These photographs document Folk Arts: Soul of Syracuse, a series of community-University collaborative programs hosted by the Department of Anthropology in SU's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs with Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement Services, the Center for New Americans, St. Vincent de Paul Church, and Tabernacle Baptist Church in 2007 and 2008. This exhibit is part of the 2008 Syracuse Symposium: Migration.

Life and the Traveler
Orange Line Gallery

Price: Free
Orange Line Gallery
106 Montgomery St., Syracuse

"Life and the Traveler" explores treks to geographical places, real and imagined, as well as journeys to the inner-self in manners of traditional to abstract.

This show will feature five artists new to Orange Line, including Marna Bell, Laura Celuch and Heather Kunst showing photography; Jim Reed with latex on canvas; and Jace Collins featuring works in acrylic, oil and paper on Plexiglas.

Other new work, relevant to the theme, will be shown by artists:
David McKenney, Debra Parry Trichilo, Dustin Angell, Kevin Lucas, Spencer Baker: photography
Father Andrew: digital paintings
Meg Gentile: acrylic, oil, wax, and paper on canvas
Melissa Tiffany: collage
Mick Mather: digitally manipulated photography

Dreams of Promise and Peril
The Warehouse Gallery

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

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

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

The Mall on Top of My House; VHS Kahloucha
Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences
6th Annual Human Rights Film Festival

Price: Free
Life Sciences Complex Auditorium
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The Mall on Top of My House
The film explores the consequences of rampant land reclamation and the flouting of environmental laws through the eyes of a fisherman who lives in a dark underground tunnel. He constantly negotiates with the chaos of traffic, fancy malls, and luxury housing built on land that was once his to reach the sea that once sustained him and his community. (Directed by Aditi Chitre, 6 minutes, animation, 2006, India)

VHS Kahloucha
A story about a charismatic, impassioned house painter, named Moncef Kahloucha, who has always harbored a great love for cinema, especially 1970s cinema. Armed with his VHS Panasonic 3500 and deep in production on his latest feature, Tarzan of the Arabs, we see Tunisia's Quentin Tarantino employ the help of local acting talent to stage intense chases, choreograph fight sequences and fantastical plotlines. We observe to what lengths Kahloucha will go for the perfect shot. For anyone who has ever dreamed of making a movie, Kahloucha's story is an inspirational revelation. (Directed by Nejib Belkadi, 80 minutes, 2006.)

Presented as part of the 2008 Syracuse Symposium on the theme "Migration."

El Charango; My First Contact
Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences
6th Annual Human Rights Film Festival

Price: Free
Life Sciences Complex Auditorium
Syracuse University, Syracuse

El Charango
This short, Spanish-language film explores the relationship between the Bolivian stringed instrument, known as the charango, and Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain), the richest silver deposit in the world, and the peasant miners who were forced to work the mines and their struggle for human rights. (Directed by Jim Virga, 22 minutes, 2006, Bolivia; produced by Tula Goenka, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications)

My First Contact
This critically acclaimed film chronicles the story of a tribe of native Ikpeng Indians in Brazil who were relocated by white men to a reservation more than 40 years ago. The film gives painful testament to memory and captures how tribal elders re-enact the "first contact" with the white men for the younger generation. (Directed by Maria Correa and Karane Ikpeng, 83 minutes, 2007, Brazil)

Presented as part of the 2008 Syracuse Symposium on the theme "Migration."

Devil Rode on a Horseback
Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences
6th Annual Human Rights Film Festival

Price: Free
Life Sciences Complex Auditorium
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Devil Rode on a Horseback
The film documents genocide in Darfur through the eyes of Brian Steidle, a former U.S. Marine who lands a job through the Internet as an unarmed military observer taking photographs for the African Union in Darfur. Stark footage makes the film challenging to watch as Steidle captures Sudan's natural beauty as well as its turmoil from helicopters, moving vehicles, and inside peoples homes.
(Directed by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg, 85 minutes, 2007, Sudan)

Presented as part of the 2008 Syracuse Symposium on the theme "Migration."

Family Series: Bugs Bunny On Broadway
Syracuse Symphony Orchestra
George Daugherty, conductor

Crouse Hinds Concert Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The whole family will enjoy this uniquely spirited combination of classic animation and spectacular symphonic music.

Jazz Bash Open House
CNY Jazz Arts Foundation

Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

A marathon day of jazz, food, drink, fun and a dynamite silent auction full of great items. Drop in for a few minutes or a few hours, place some bids, have a nosh, and get serenaded by a cavalcade of groups like LuBossa, Mark Hoffmann and Friends, and the Noah Kellman Trio with special guest artists from the CNY Jazz Orchestra sitting in to jam! All proceeds go to the Jazz Central building fund.

Tournament of Bands

Price: $6
West Genesee High School
5201 W. Genesee St., Syracuse

NYS Field Band Conference competition performances. For more information, phone 315-487-4612.

Pops Series: Bugs Bunny On Broadway
Syracuse Symphony Orchestra
George Daugherty, conductor

Crouse Hinds Concert Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The musical masterpieces of Wagner, Rossini, Strauss, Tchaikovsky and others are brilliantly interpreted through the "hare-raising" cartoon scores of Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn in this uniquely spirited, fun and sophisticated combination of classic animation and symphonic music. Via cartoon jewels such as What's Opera, Doc? and The Rabbit of Seville, see and hear "The Ring Cycle" and "The Barber of Seville" as never before! This concert has sold out the world's greatest concert halls and opera houses.

Barrio Boheme
Syracuse Opera

Price: Free
Ward Park
Shonnard Street between Oswego and West St., Syracuse

Barrio Boheme, based on the opera La Boheme, is the story of four young lovers who are trying to deal with envy, disloyalty and the search for true love in 1960s Spanish Harlem.

There will be free food, courtesy of the Rescue Mission and the Samaritan Center, from 3:30-4:00 pm.

The production stars soprano Laura Bohn as Mimi, mezzo-soprano Shirin Eskandani as Musetta, tenor Nathaniel Peake as Rodolfo, and baritone Carlos Aguirre as Marcello, with pianist Eric Andries.

Rain location is St. Lucy's Church, 432 Gifford St., Syracuse.

Snow White
Magic Circle Children's Theatre

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

Interactive children's show -- help Snow White and the dwarfs foil the schemes of the Wicked Queen.

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

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

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

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Goodbye Charlie
Appleseed Productions
William Edward White, director

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

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

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The Water Children
Black Box Players
Alex Kantor, director

Price: Free (seating limited; reservations suggested)
Loft Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Wendy MacLeod's The Water Children premiered at Playwrights Horizons in New York. It was subsequently produced at L.A.'s Matrix Theater where it was cited as "the most challenging political play of 1998" by LA Weekly and earned six L.A. Drama Critics Circle nominations.

When 36-year old Megan loses an important role to a younger woman, her agent convinces her to take a part in a commercial for Life Force, a pro-life group. Megan, having had an abortion at 16, and being a staunch liberal, is conflicted about the job. In accepting the role, she unwittingly embarks on the personal journey of her life, spinning into her past, magnifying her present, and leaving her completely at a loss as to her future.

Seating is limited, so please arrive at least a half-hour prior to the performance to assure seating. To make reservations, leave a message on the Black Box Players' voice mailbox at 315-443-2102 or send an e-mail to tickets@blackboxplayers.org. All requests will receive a follow-up phone call from the box office.

The Eaten Heart
Redhouse
The Debate Society

Price: $38 regular, $35 students/seniors
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

Inspired by Giovanni Boccccio's The Decameron, The Eaten Heart captures the essence of loneliness and a longing for desire by portraying over a dozen characters seeking anonymity within the confines of a remote roadside motel. Plot lines include a preacher's wife suffering from infidelity, an obliviously skilled magician, and a plotting husband bent on revenge. The Eaten Heart opened to critical acclaim in spring 2007 in New York City, winning awards for Best Actress, Best Company, and named among the Top Five Shows of 2007 by Aaron Riccio of "Show Showdown".

The play will be staged by the Brooklyn-based The Debate Society. Led by creative team Hannah Bos, Paul Tureen (writers/performers) and Oliver Butler (director/developer), The Debate Society stages plays with unexpected stories set in supremely intricate, vividly theatrical worlds. Past productions include A Thought About Raya and The Snow Hen. The company has toured in Portland, OR, Austin, TX, Hartford, CT, and Martha's Vineyard.

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Agnes of God
Simply New Theatre
John Nara, director

Price: $20 regular, $15 students/seniors
BeVard Room, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Dr. Martha Livingstone, a court-appointed psychiatrist, is asked to determine the sanity of a young nun accused of murdering her own baby. Miriam Ruth, the Mother Superior, seems bent on protecting Sister Agnes from the doctor, and Livingstone's suspicions are immediately aroused. In searching for solutions to various mysteries -- Who killed the baby? Who fathered the child? -- Livingstone forces all three women, herself included, to face some harsh realities in their own lives, and to re-examine the meaning of faith and the commitment of love.

Read a review!

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

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

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

This performance will be followed by a cabaret by The Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company in the Sutton Pavilion.

Read a Review!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Dark Elegy
Syracuse University

Price: Free
Syracuse University Quad
Syracuse

They are testaments to the impact of terrorism: sculptures portraying mothers going back to the exact moment they learned their child died in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988, over Lockerbie, Scotland. Some are screaming; others are weeping. Some are curled into a ball; others have fists raised in anger. The 76 larger-than-life figures that comprise the Dark Elegy collection were created by Montauk, NY-based artist Suse Lowenstein, the mother of a Pan Am 103 student victim.

Four of these sculptures will be on display as part of the University's commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Pan Am 103 tragedy.

Ernesto Pujol Exhibition: Walk #1
Light Work Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

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

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

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

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

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

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

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

Migrating Memories, Migrating Arts: Photographic Retrospective
Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences

Panasci Lounge, Schine Student Center
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition celebrates the formative cultural fermentation occurring in the present regional landscape of Central New York. These photographs document Folk Arts: Soul of Syracuse, a series of community-University collaborative programs hosted by the Department of Anthropology in SU's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs with Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement Services, the Center for New Americans, St. Vincent de Paul Church, and Tabernacle Baptist Church in 2007 and 2008. This exhibit is part of the 2008 Syracuse Symposium: Migration.

Warhol Presents
Everson Museum of Art

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

Warhol Presents highlights the early commercial career of Andy Warhol, whose whimsical drawings from the 1950s created fantasies that marketed fashion and glamour through evocation. Warhol's penchant for combining art and advertisement quickly made him one of the most well known illustrators of women's fashion in New York. His talen' was sought out by fashion publication giants, including Glamour, Mademoiselle, Vogue, McCall's and Harper's Bazaar; and women's footwear designer and retailer, I. Miller Shoe Company.

The exhibition presents 18 of Warhol's rarely seen shoe illustrations including Fantasy Shoes (ca. 1956), a whimsical and humorous take on women's footwear design. Exhibited also are drawings of women's accessories and fashion figures, including Female Fashion Figure (1950s); a vibrant depiction of a chic model alongside an equally stylish car.

Warhol's unique well-wrought line also translated to commissions of large-scale window displays for New York stores, including Bonwit Teller and Tiffany's. One example of the artist's window displays is featured in this exhibition in the illustrated reproduction, Miss Dior (1950s); and a 1997 3-dimensional re-creation of Warhol's 1957 Bonwit Teller Window Display, which includes glass perfume bottles and colorful reproduction of a window display screen. Warhol's early drawings and interest in art, identity, and consumerism informed his later pop-icon status, when product and identity literally became his art, and was used to fuel his experimental factory era films.

This exhibition is curated by Natalie Sanderson, Curator of Education at the University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara. The original exhibition, Andy Warhol Presents, was first exhibited at the University Art Museum in 2007.

Marie Antoinette: Styling the 18th Century Superstar
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Local artist and designer Jeffrey Mayer will present a post-modern installation of 20th century fashion design inspired by the 18th century fashion sense of Marie Antoinette. Although Marie Antoinette did not really create a style that was personally unique, what she did for fashion in the 1770s was to solidify, refine and intensify the rococo style created by her grandfather-in-law, Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Pompadour, who died in 1764, six years before the 14-year-old Princess even arrived from Austria. Through the exhibition and a publication to be released in the fall, Mayer will be reinterpreting and discussing Marie Antoinette's key concepts of Fantasy, Luxury, and Exoticism.

Marie Antoinette was originally displayed in 2007 in a small space in Syracuse University's Fashion Design Department where Mayer has been Associate Professor of Fashion History and Design since 1992. For the Everson's installation, Mayer has expanded the visual experience to include more than 40 garments displayed on vintage mannequins, an eclectic collection of contemporary fashion accessories, an interactive audio component, and many unique, custom-designed and hand-made objects.

Dan Duggan and Friends in Concert

Price: Free
Pebble Hill Presbyterian Church
5299 Jamesville Rd., Dewitt

Robert Auler, piano
Joyful Noise Concert Series

Price: Free. Donations accepted
Liverpool First United Methodist Church
604 Oswego St., Liverpool

The performance will feature music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin, Nikolai Kapustin, and Jonathan Pieslak. Mr. Auler made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2004, and has performed throughout Europe.

Barrio Boheme
Syracuse Opera

Price: Free
Ward Park
Shonnard Street between Oswego and West St., Syracuse

Barrio Boheme, based on the opera La Boheme, is the story of four young lovers who are trying to deal with envy, disloyalty and the search for true love in 1960s Spanish Harlem.

There will be free food, courtesy of the Rescue Mission and the Samaritan Center, from 3:30-4:00 pm.

The production stars soprano Laura Bohn as Mimi, mezzo-soprano Shirin Eskandani as Musetta, tenor Nathaniel Peake as Rodolfo, and baritone Carlos Aguirre as Marcello, with pianist Eric Andries.

Rain location is St. Lucy's Church, 432 Gifford St., Syracuse.

Agnes of God
Simply New Theatre
John Nara, director

Price: $20 regular, $15 students/seniors
BeVard Room, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Dr. Martha Livingstone, a court-appointed psychiatrist, is asked to determine the sanity of a young nun accused of murdering her own baby. Miriam Ruth, the Mother Superior, seems bent on protecting Sister Agnes from the doctor, and Livingstone's suspicions are immediately aroused. In searching for solutions to various mysteries -- Who killed the baby? Who fathered the child? -- Livingstone forces all three women, herself included, to face some harsh realities in their own lives, and to re-examine the meaning of faith and the commitment of love.

Read a review!

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

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

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

Read a Review!

The Water Children
Black Box Players
Alex Kantor, director

Price: Free (seating limited; reservations suggested)
Loft Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Wendy MacLeod's The Water Children premiered at Playwrights Horizons in New York. It was subsequently produced at L.A.'s Matrix Theater where it was cited as "the most challenging political play of 1998" by LA Weekly and earned six L.A. Drama Critics Circle nominations.

When 36-year old Megan loses an important role to a younger woman, her agent convinces her to take a part in a commercial for Life Force, a pro-life group. Megan, having had an abortion at 16, and being a staunch liberal, is conflicted about the job. In accepting the role, she unwittingly embarks on the personal journey of her life, spinning into her past, magnifying her present, and leaving her completely at a loss as to her future.

Seating is limited, so please arrive at least a half-hour prior to the performance to assure seating. To make reservations, leave a message on the Black Box Players' voice mailbox at 315-443-2102 or send an e-mail to tickets@blackboxplayers.org. All requests will receive a follow-up phone call from the box office.

There will be a talk-back following this performance.

Two One-Act Plays: The Blue Vein Society; Sweat
Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company

Price: $15 regular; $8 students/seniors
CFAC Black Box Theater
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

The Blue Vein Society is not just about class and color among African Americans. It is about a world in which we still judge people more by the color of their skin than the content of their character. The play is based on Charles Chesnutt's short story, The Wife of His Youth. Chesnutt is the first African American fiction writer to achieve international acclaim. Separated by slavery and war, a black woman searches for her long-lost husband, only to find that he has changed his name and identity and is part of a club that excludes dark-skinned African Americans. He pretends not to recognize his darker skinned wife from slavery until she and his present fair-skinned fiancée force him to confront his past.

Sweat is one of three short stories in Spunk by Zora Neale Hurston adapted for the stage play by George C. Wolfe. Sweat focuses on the turning point in the life of Delia Jones, a washerwoman from Hurston's hometown of Eatonville, FL. Beginning with an outburst against her abusive husband and finishing with her involvement in his death, the story follows Delia through a transformation, an upheaval of values that Hurston is interested in setting in the context of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. The author makes use of biblical allusion and African American folk culture to attack issues of gender and oppression that were taboo topics at the time and continue to have a wide significance today.

Read a Review!

Herculine
Simply New Theatre

Price: $25
Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

Workshop reading of a new play by Garrett Heater.

"I was born to love." Adelaide Barbin was raised as a girl and, following doctor examinations at the age of 20, reintroduced into society as a man. Her memoirs from the late 1850s document her difficult transition from school mistress to Parisian gentleman and the resulting catastrophic impact on herself and those she loved.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Dark Elegy
Syracuse University

Price: Free
Syracuse University Quad
Syracuse

They are testaments to the impact of terrorism: sculptures portraying mothers going back to the exact moment they learned their child died in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988, over Lockerbie, Scotland. Some are screaming; others are weeping. Some are curled into a ball; others have fists raised in anger. The 76 larger-than-life figures that comprise the Dark Elegy collection were created by Montauk, NY-based artist Suse Lowenstein, the mother of a Pan Am 103 student victim.

Four of these sculptures will be on display as part of the University's commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Pan Am 103 tragedy.

Numbers Without Number
Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts

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

A public artwork memorializing casualties from the war in Iraq, designed by students in the "Advanced Curatorship" course in VPA's graduate program in museum studies under the guidance of Edward A. Aiken, associate professor of museum studies. It will be installed by museum studies students and others from design programs in VPA's School of Art and Design.

"Numbers Without Number" honors all individuals who have died in the war in Iraq regardless of nationality, religious affiliation, age or gender. It is designed as a place for the public to remember and reflect.

The installation of the memorial coincides with "Visible Memories," an interdisciplinary conference exploring the intersections between visual culture and memory studies, which will be held on the SU campus Oct. 2-4.

Migrating Memories, Migrating Arts: Photographic Retrospective
Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences

Panasci Lounge, Schine Student Center
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition celebrates the formative cultural fermentation occurring in the present regional landscape of Central New York. These photographs document Folk Arts: Soul of Syracuse, a series of community-University collaborative programs hosted by the Department of Anthropology in SU's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs with Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement Services, the Center for New Americans, St. Vincent de Paul Church, and Tabernacle Baptist Church in 2007 and 2008. This exhibit is part of the 2008 Syracuse Symposium: Migration.

Gallery Exhibition: Phillia Yi
Onondaga Community College

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

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

Read a review!

Paik & Cage
Point of Contact Gallery

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

The exhibit is a verbal and visual testimony of a friendship: "Paik & Cage" is a defining encounter of two 1960s masters, Korean video-art precursor Nam June Paik and American composer John Cage.

Nam June Paik's newly digitized, uncut version of Suite (212), which combines 12 short videos starting with The Selling of New York will screen for the duration of the show. This is one of the more significant pieces from the legendary Synapse program that pioneered video as an art form right here in Syracuse in the 1970s.

As a noteworthy accompaniment, the exhibit introduces a never-before-shown photographic profile of John Cage by Cuban artist Raoul Sentenat.

In addition, the exhibit will include a headset-equipped audio installation for the piece Indeterminacy, new aspect of form in instrumental and electronic music, which has John Cage narrating a series of 1-minute Zen Buddhist tales and meditations.

Avant-garde artist and composer, Nam June Paik (1932-2006) pioneered into video as an art form in the 1960s by combining multiple TV screens with sculpture, music and live performers. Trained in music, aesthetics and philosophy, he was a member of the 1960s art movement Fluxus, which was in part inspired by composer John Cage's use of everyday sound in music.

American composer John Cage (1912-1992) was an explorer of electronic music and the non-standard use of musical instruments. Many think of him as the most influential composer of the 20th century. He was instrumental in the development of modern dance and is best known for his 1952 composition 4'33", which is performed without a single note being played.

Think Tech Art Exhibit
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

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

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

Read a review!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ernesto Pujol Exhibition: Walk #1
Light Work Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

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

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

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

Duck Soup (1933)
Syracuse Cinephile Society

Price: $3 regular, $2.50 members
Spaghetti Warehouse
689 N. Clinton St., Syracuse

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Dark Elegy
Syracuse University

Price: Free
Syracuse University Quad
Syracuse

They are testaments to the impact of terrorism: sculptures portraying mothers going back to the exact moment they learned their child died in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988, over Lockerbie, Scotland. Some are screaming; others are weeping. Some are curled into a ball; others have fists raised in anger. The 76 larger-than-life figures that comprise the Dark Elegy collection were created by Montauk, NY-based artist Suse Lowenstein, the mother of a Pan Am 103 student victim.

Four of these sculptures will be on display as part of the University's commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Pan Am 103 tragedy.

Numbers Without Number
Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts

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

A public artwork memorializing casualties from the war in Iraq, designed by students in the "Advanced Curatorship" course in VPA's graduate program in museum studies under the guidance of Edward A. Aiken, associate professor of museum studies. It will be installed by museum studies students and others from design programs in VPA's School of Art and Design.

"Numbers Without Number" honors all individuals who have died in the war in Iraq regardless of nationality, religious affiliation, age or gender. It is designed as a place for the public to remember and reflect.

The installation of the memorial coincides with "Visible Memories," an interdisciplinary conference exploring the intersections between visual culture and memory studies, which will be held on the SU campus Oct. 2-4.

Migrating Memories, Migrating Arts: Photographic Retrospective
Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences

Panasci Lounge, Schine Student Center
Syracuse University, Syracuse

The exhibition celebrates the formative cultural fermentation occurring in the present regional landscape of Central New York. These photographs document Folk Arts: Soul of Syracuse, a series of community-University collaborative programs hosted by the Department of Anthropology in SU's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs with Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement Services, the Center for New Americans, St. Vincent de Paul Church, and Tabernacle Baptist Church in 2007 and 2008. This exhibit is part of the 2008 Syracuse Symposium: Migration.

Gallery Exhibition: Phillia Yi
Onondaga Community College

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

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

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Paik & Cage
Point of Contact Gallery

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

The exhibit is a verbal and visual testimony of a friendship: "Paik & Cage" is a defining encounter of two 1960s masters, Korean video-art precursor Nam June Paik and American composer John Cage.

Nam June Paik's newly digitized, uncut version of Suite (212), which combines 12 short videos starting with The Selling of New York will screen for the duration of the show. This is one of the more significant pieces from the legendary Synapse program that pioneered video as an art form right here in Syracuse in the 1970s.

As a noteworthy accompaniment, the exhibit introduces a never-before-shown photographic profile of John Cage by Cuban artist Raoul Sentenat.

In addition, the exhibit will include a headset-equipped audio installation for the piece Indeterminacy, new aspect of form in instrumental and electronic music, which has John Cage narrating a series of 1-minute Zen Buddhist tales and meditations.

Avant-garde artist and composer, Nam June Paik (1932-2006) pioneered into video as an art form in the 1960s by combining multiple TV screens with sculpture, music and live performers. Trained in music, aesthetics and philosophy, he was a member of the 1960s art movement Fluxus, which was in part inspired by composer John Cage's use of everyday sound in music.

American composer John Cage (1912-1992) was an explorer of electronic music and the non-standard use of musical instruments. Many think of him as the most influential composer of the 20th century. He was instrumental in the development of modern dance and is best known for his 1952 composition 4'33", which is performed without a single note being played.

Think Tech Art Exhibit
Syracuse Technology Garden Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Original illustrated works by London Ladd

Ernesto Pujol Exhibition: Walk #1
Light Work Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Limestone Art and Framing Gallery
105 Brooklea Dr., Fayetteville

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

Price: Free
Skaneateles Artisans
11 Fennell St., Skaneateles

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

Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth
Syracuse University Art Museum

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

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

Marie Antoinette: Styling the 18th Century Superstar
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Local artist and designer Jeffrey Mayer will present a post-modern installation of 20th century fashion design inspired by the 18th century fashion sense of Marie Antoinette. Although Marie Antoinette did not really create a style that was personally unique, what she did for fashion in the 1770s was to solidify, refine and intensify the rococo style created by her grandfather-in-law, Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Pompadour, who died in 1764, six years before the 14-year-old Princess even arrived from Austria. Through the exhibition and a publication to be released in the fall, Mayer will be reinterpreting and discussing Marie Antoinette's key concepts of Fantasy, Luxury, and Exoticism.

Marie Antoinette was originally displayed in 2007 in a small space in Syracuse University's Fashion Design Department where Mayer has been Associate Professor of Fashion History and Design since 1992. For the Everson's installation, Mayer has expanded the visual experience to include more than 40 garments displayed on vintage mannequins, an eclectic collection of contemporary fashion accessories, an interactive audio component, and many unique, custom-designed and hand-made objects.

Warhol Presents
Everson Museum of Art

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

Warhol Presents highlights the early commercial career of Andy Warhol, whose whimsical drawings from the 1950s created fantasies that marketed fashion and glamour through evocation. Warhol's penchant for combining art and advertisement quickly made him one of the most well known illustrators of women's fashion in New York. His talen' was sought out by fashion publication giants, including Glamour, Mademoiselle, Vogue, McCall's and Harper's Bazaar; and women's footwear designer and retailer, I. Miller Shoe Company.

The exhibition presents 18 of Warhol's rarely seen shoe illustrations including Fantasy Shoes (ca. 1956), a whimsical and humorous take on women's footwear design. Exhibited also are drawings of women's accessories and fashion figures, including Female Fashion Figure (1950s); a vibrant depiction of a chic model alongside an equally stylish car.

Warhol's unique well-wrought line also translated to commissions of large-scale window displays for New York stores, including Bonwit Teller and Tiffany's. One example of the artist's window displays is featured in this exhibition in the illustrated reproduction, Miss Dior (1950s); and a 1997 3-dimensional re-creation of Warhol's 1957 Bonwit Teller Window Display, which includes glass perfume bottles and colorful reproduction of a window display screen. Warhol's early drawings and interest in art, identity, and consumerism informed his later pop-icon status, when product and identity literally became his art, and was used to fuel his experimental factory era films.

This exhibition is curated by Natalie Sanderson, Curator of Education at the University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara. The original exhibition, Andy Warhol Presents, was first exhibited at the University Art Museum in 2007.

Dreams of Promise and Peril
The Warehouse Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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