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Northern Forest Center announces
Ways of the Woods: People and the Land in the Northern Forest
2008 Tour
Warren County Youth Fair, Warren County Fairgrounds, Schroon River Road, Warrensburg
For more information, contact Carolyn Graney, cgraney@northernforest.org
The Center’s mobile museum about the changing relationships among people and the land. This traveling exhibition combines interactive displays with live performance and demonstration to showcase the history, culture and heritage of the Northern Forest. In 2008, the tour visits schools, forestry expos and logging festivals, recreation and heritage events and a host of state and county fairs. For additional dates and locations, see the 2008 Tour Schedule.

Northern Forest Center announces
2008 Tour: Ways of the Woods: People and the Land in the Northern Forest
New York State Woodsmen’s Field Days Boonville, NY
For more information, contact Carolyn Graney, cgraney@northernforest.org
See July 15-20 listing above for more information

CALL FOR PAPERS: The Land of Our Return: Diasporic Encounters with Italy April 23-25, 2009 Deadline for submissions: September 1, 2008. The The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, (Queens College, CUNY) announces its annual conference to take place in Manhattan, April 23-25, 2009, on the theme of “The Land of Our Return: Diasporic Encounters with Italy.” For Virgil’s Aeneas, Italy was “the land of our return,” the place his ancestor Darnanus left generations earlier. The Aeneid is thus an epic recounting of the Trojan hero’s return, or nostos, to Italian soil. This poetic conceit offers numerous possibilities to explore the political, economic, social, and cultural impact of historical and contemporary travel and communication by Italian immigrants and their descendants to Italy. Italian immigration was one of the largest movements of free labor in world history with over twenty-six million people immigrating between 1870s to the 1970s. Italian immigrants’ objective was, for the most part, to make enough money to return home. Forty-nine percent of the immigrants traveling to the Americas returned between 1905 and 1920. According to historian Donna Gabaccia, “The paese [town] had created its diaspora, but the diaspora in turn transformed the paese.” What was the impact of returning immigrants and their descendants on the home society? The political dimensions of return are evident in the transnational movement of anarchists, as well as Risorgimento and later anti-fascist refugees. Religious belief and practice have long been a critical aspect of immigrant return, with remittances sent as donations pinned to the processed religious statue and post-World War II workers visiting the hometown during the annual festa. After World War II, Italian Americans traveled to Italy increasingly as tourists and by the 1970s tourist companies began catering to this “ethic roots” market. There they experienced the disparity between personal connections to an ancestral paese and the ever changing reality of the larger nation state. In recent years, a growing number of descendants of Italian immigrants are reclaiming their Italian citizenship for various reasons. The imagined and actual “return” has historically been a source of creativity in all genres, from comedian Eduardo “Farfariello” Migliaccio’s 1917 song “Pascale e’ Turnato d’all’Italia” to author Helen Barolini’s 1979 novel Umbertina, to director Frank Ciota’s 2002 film Ciao America. This interdisciplinary conference is open to authors, cultural studies scholars, filmmakers, literary critics, performers, social scientists, and visual artists. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to: Return migration Economic impact Return of political refugees Return as religious pilgrimage Reclaiming Italian citizenship Metaphoric and mediated returns, e.g., radio, film, television, web sites The senses of return, e.g., nostalgia, curiosity, displacement, etc. Return as “ethnic roots” tourism Study Abroad programs as return Learning Italian Italian reception of cultural imports by artists such as John Fante, Astor Piazzolla, Martin Scorsese, and others Return as creative inspiration, e.g., literature, photography, cinema Reclamation of folk culture, e.g., music, dance, storytelling Comparative experiences from different parts of the diaspora Papers should last no longer than twenty minutes. Email abstract proposals (up to 250 words, plus audio-visual requirements, and a brief curriculum vitae) by September 1, 2008 to calandra@qc.edu, to whom inquiries may also be addressed. In like fashion, creative writers must email a copy of their work they wish to present; visual artists must email samples of their work that they wish to discuss as jpg files, along with their abstract proposal; and filmmakers must mail a DVD copy of their work for review. Include title, name, affiliation, and postal and email addresses as part of the submission. Contributors will be advised of their acceptance or otherwise by November 15, 2008. The official language of the conference will be English. The conference will result in a publication of refereed essays from papers delivered. Send all correspondence to: The Land of Our Return Conference John D. Calandra Italian American Institute 25 West 43rd Street, 17th Floor New York, NY 10036 Tel: 212.642.2094 Email: calandra@qc.edu

Lace, the Spaces Between: Domestic Lace making and the Social Fabric of the Italian American Community in Corning
Presented by the ARTS of the Southern Finger Lakes and the Corning Painted Post Historical Society
Benjamin Patterson Inn Museum, 59 W. Pulteney St., Corning, NY
For more information, please call the Corning Painted Post Historical Society, 607-937-5281 or The ARTS, 607-962-5871 x222
You are invited to share the joys and hardships of the Italian American immigrant experience through the practice of lace making. Lace, the Spaces Between: Domestic Lace making and the Social Fabric of the Italian American Community in Corning. Domestic handmade lace is a metaphor for the Italian American experience in Corning. It symbolizes cultural continuity as well as the cultural change. It carries social meanings about the role of women, beauty and cleanliness, the home, the immigrant experience and tradition. Rejecting domestic lace is a means of embracing modernity and Americanization. Lace is a way to tell the particular story of Italians in Corning and the common story of change through immigration and between generations.
February 22 - December 19, 2008

The Mapping of Ukraine: European Cartography and Maps of Early Modern Ukraine, 1550-1799
The Ukrainian Museum
222 East 6th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues), New York, NY
Wed. thru Sun. 11:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
(212) 228-0110, info@UkrainianMuseum.org
The Mapping of Ukraine: European Cartography and Maps of Early Modern Ukraine, 1550-1799, includes 42 original maps published by European mapmakers over a 250-year period. A majority of the maps in the exhibition are from the Museum’s Marie Halun Bloch Collection, which consists of 52 maps bequeathed to the Museum by the Ukrainian American writer of children’s books upon her death in 1998. Dr. Bohdan Kordan, the curator of the exhibition, is Professor of International Relations and Chair of the Department of Political Studies, St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon.
See May 9 calendar listing for concert of Ukrainian ballads held in conjunction with this exhibit.
April 20, 2008 - October 5, 2008

UNDER OPEN SKIES: “Painting Nature Past and Present”
Presented by the Genesee Country Village & Museum in partnership with Genesee Valley Plein Air Painters, Inc.
John L. Wehle Art Gallery, Genessee Country Village & Museum, Mumford, NY
10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekends, holidays and Tuesday-Friday in July and August
10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday in June (beginning June 3) and September
Closed Mondays, except for May 26, Sept. 1 and Oct. 6.
For more information, contact Shirley Figueroa, 585-538-6822 x260 or Shaunta Collier-Santos, 585-538-6822 x249
Admission Fees (subject to change): Art Gallery Only: adults $6, seniors 62+ & students with ID $5, youth (ages 4-16) $4.
The 5,000-square foot exhibition offers breathtaking vistas of nature captured by artists past and present, from the late 18th-century through the 21st-century. The exhibit unites the rarely seen collections of the Rochester Historical Society with stellar sporting art collected by Genesee Country Village & Museum founder, John L. Wehle. Complimenting the 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century art will be the 150 juried paintings from the Genesee Valley Plein Air Painters, Inc., a locally based artist association who continue the 19th-century passion for “plein air” painting, or painting outdoors in the open air using natural light. Artist members of the Genesee Valley Plein Air Painters began this themed project of capturing 19th-century urban and rural life in spring 2007. They have focused on the regional farming industry (grain production, animals, fishing), transportation systems (Erie Canal, river, railroads, Finger Lakes), 19th-century urban industry and business (historic sites, homes and structures in Rochester, Buffalo and historic towns and villages), the War of 1812 (lighthouses, on shore location of battles).
May 11 - October 13, 2008

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