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New York Folklore Society
P.O. Box 764
Schenectady, NY 12301
518/346-7008 Fax 518/346-6617
nyfs@nyfolklore.org
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Position Open
New York Folklore Society
ACQUISITIONS EDITOR
The New York Folklore Society seeks an Acquisitions Editor for its journal, Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore. The Journal is published twice yearly: spring-summer and fall-winter. Duties include acquiring articles, working with authors and contributors in the editing process, shaping content. The Acquisitions Editor works as a team member for a team which includes the Journal’s Editor, the Graphics Designer, and the Executive Director of the New York Folklore Society. This is a contractual position which is compensated by the issue produced.
Qualifications include an advanced degree in folklore and knowledge of current folklore scholarship. Knowledge of the folklore, folklife, and folk arts of New York State is essential, although residency is not required.
To apply, send a current vita to: Ellen McHale, Ph.D.; Executive Director, New York Folklore Society, PO Box 764, Schenectady, NY 12301 or submit electronically to nyfs@nyfolklore.org.
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The New York Folklore Society (NYFS) seeks applications for a Folklorist (4/5 time).
The New York Folklore Society is a professional service organization dedicated to fostering the study, promotion, and continuation of folk arts, folklore, and folklife in New York State. It works with a diverse constituency of folklorists, ethnomusicologists, tradition bearers, community scholars, and cultural organizations to strengthen folk and traditional arts scholarship throughout New York State.
The New York Folklore Society works in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts to administer technical assistance funds for folk and traditional arts. It also pursues an active folk archives program, offers ongoing technical assistance programs, organizes an annual conference on a theme relating to folk arts, publishes the bi-annual journal, Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore, and pursues special projects as they arise.
Responsibilities:
The Folklorist serves as the primary program designer and program delivery person for technical assistance initiatives. The Folklorist must possess at least a master’s degree in folklore, ethnomusicology, or a related discipline. A commitment to applied approaches and evidence of scholarship are essential. S/he must possess superior communication skills and excellent writing skills, with experience in interacting with non-profit organizations and their constituents. Spanish language facility is a plus. The ability to work independently on concurrent projects is essential. S/he must be willing to travel extensively within New York State. Specific responsibilities include:
- Participation in a community scholar field school residency weekend to take place in early summer 2008.
- Along with the project ethnomusicologist, assist with a series of workshops on specific topics relating to traditional music and musicians in New York State (marketing, recording, legal issues, working within school settings) to be completed by close of 2008.
- Serve as Project Director for a comprehensive Latino documentation initiative which includes both archival and ethnographic documentation. This initiative will result in a conference (2009) and publications in print and on the web.
- Provide folklore services for the Capital Region of New York State, including ethnographic documentation and program planning.
- Provide ongoing facilitation of services, including mentoring and professional development, forums, and other opportunities for the field of folk and traditional arts.
This is a 32 hour position, with benefits. As the offices of the New York Folklore Society are located in Schenectady, NY, some job duties will have to be performed on site.
To apply, send a cover letter, resume, salary requirements, and a writing sample to Dr. Ellen McHale, Executive Director, New York Folklore Society, PO Box 764, Schenectady, NY 12301 or nyfs@nyfolklore.org. (518) 346-7008 (telephone) or (518) 346-6617 (fax).
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EXPLORING PLACE: SUMMER FIELD SCHOOL Summer A Term: May 19 - July 11, 2008 Empire State College’s Center for Distance Learning (CDL), in a partnership with the New York Folklore Society, is pleased to offer the summer 2008 blended course (including online and residency components): "Exploring Place: Summer Field School. The purpose of this course is to provide community scholars and students, interested in documenting, presenting, or researching the culture and tradition of their local community, the opportunity to learn fieldwork methods and strategies, and to engage with critical issues that arise in the context of conducting local fieldwork. Find out more here.
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Thursday, May 1, 2008
The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College, CUNY presents
Writers Read Series Spring 2008: “Verba volant, scripta manent”
Richard Vetere reads from Machiavelli and Caravaggio.
John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, 25 W. 43rd St., 17th floor (between 5th and 6th Avenues), Manhattan
Free
Presentation begins at 6 p.m.
Light refreshments will be served.
Building management requires people attending events after business hours to pre-register with the Calandra Institute by calling (212) 642-2094. You will need to show a photo ID to the building’s concierge.
Pulitzer-nominated playwright Richard Vetere reads from his recently published plays Machiavelli and Caravaggio, which both premiered in 2006. Machiavelli explores the Italian’s personal and political life by using a satirical style similar to Machiavelli’s own dramatic farce The Mandrake. The play poses some questions about life and art: Can there be politics without drama? Drama without sex? Sex without power? Vetere’s drama Caravaggio, which was featured in the Chicago Humanities Festival, tells the story of the great Baroque painter’s troubled life as a fugitive murder and his mysterious death on a Mediterranean beach at Port’Ercole.
“In its best moments, Richard Vetere’s “Caravaggio” recalls the work of Tom Stoppard in its lucid and complex dissection of such issues as religion, realism, art and romanticism. . . . the play is fascinating.” —Chicago Tribune
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Ukrainian Women’s Voices:
Mariana Sadowska & Friends
An Evening of Ukrainian
Village-Style Singing
with co-host Julian Kytasty and
the New York Bandura Ensemble
7-9 p.m.
Milbank Chapel, Columbia Teachers College, West 120th Street at Broadway, Manhattan
Admission: Free and open to the public. Children welcome.
The Center for Traditional Music and Dance, in collaboration with the Music and Music Education Department of Columbia Teachers College, presents Ukrainian Women’s Voices with Mariana Sadowska and Friends, an interactive evening of women’s polyphonic singing in village style. An acclaimed professional singer, actress, and composer, Mariana Sadowska is visiting the U.S. this year from Ukraine as a Fulbright scholar in music at Pennsylvania State University. Sadowska has gathered a group of New-York-area Ukrainian and American women to sing with her this evening in the traditional open-throat village singing style and three-part Ukrainian folk polyphony. Ukrainian-American singer and bandura (a zither-lute with an unfretted neck and thirty or more strings) player Julian Kytasty co-hosts the program, which features performances by the musicians of the New York Bandura Ensemble and other special guests. Singers trained by Sadowska will perform from the audience as well as the stage, encouraging all to join in the singing.
For the past fourteen years, Sadowska has traveled to villages in the Poltava, Polissia, Hutsul, and Lemko regions of Ukraine to collect folksongs and rituals. In each village she cultivated deep relationships with elder tradition-bearers whose lives, songs, and stories have inspired much of her recent work—including New York festival programs developed collaboratively with La MaMa Experimental Theater and Virlana Tkacz, director of Yara Arts Group, as well as a number of CDs including Songs I Learned in Ukraine 2001, Song Tree 2001, Borderland 2005, and The Rusalka Cycle 2007.
For more information, call Eileen Condon at 212-571-1555 ext. 35 or e-mail econdon@ctmd.org.
May 3-4, 2008
Celebration of Celts
Largest Pan-Celtic Festival in the Northeast — History, Heritage, Music and Dance
Saturday 10:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m.
Sunday 10:00 a.m.-6 p.m.
Columbia County Fair Grounds, 130 Church Street, Chatham, NY 12037
Cost: On-line advance tickets: Seniors $10.00, Adults $12.00, Children under 12 free; Family Pack of 4 tickets $30.00
Largest Pan-Celtic festival in New York State honors all eight Celtic nations. Featuring the best in Celtic music from Fusion to traditional, jousting, pipe bands, Green Living Pavilion, dance, clans and associations. Living Celtic Time Line from 900 B.C to 1945, Celtic animal exhibit featuring the rare Exmore Pony, 40 vendors of Celtic merchandise, Single Malt Whiskey Seminar. 2008 Line up: Enter the Haggis,Black 47, Barra McNeils, BarleyJuice, Coyote Run, 77th Regiment Balladeers and much more.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College, CUNY presents the
The Philip V. Cannistraro Seminar Series in Italian American Studies
Spring 2008
Italian in Florida: Shifting Identities in the Wake of Assimilation
Denise Scannell, New York City College of Technology, CUNY
John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, 25 W. 43rd St., 17th floor (between 5th and 6th Avenues), Manhattan
Free and open to the public.
Presentation begins at 6 p.m.
Light refreshments will be served.
Building management requires people attending events after business hours to pre-register with the Calandra Institute by calling (212) 642-2094. You will need to show a photo ID to the building’s concierge.
Tampa’s Italian Americans express a counter-discourse disputing the discourse of assimilation in which Italian-American ethnic identity is typically framed. Denise Scannell explores the identities that resonate in the community’s language and their communication practices. The personal narratives of Tampa’s Italians tell a story that includes the fusion of many ethnicities and languages. Many speak a Sicilian shaped by English words, Spanish, and an Italian-American patois. Community members make claims to shifting identities and multiple social realities, revealed in self-identifying comments like “I’m Latin,” “I’m Sicilian,” “I’m Italian,” and “I’m American.” This study explores how Tampa’s Italian Americans speak of themselves as different from others, and examines the ways in which they maintain an ethnic identity through language, in the face of a looming identity crisis.
Fourth Annual St. Mark’s Historic Landmark Fund Lecture
St. Mark’s Preservation Ethic: 40 Years of Innovation: Lessons for the Future?
6:30 p.m.
Parish Hall, St. Mark’s Church In-the-Bowery
131 East 10th Street at Second Avenue, New York
RSVP to info@smhlf.org or call 212-228-2781
A discussion that celebrates the history of preservation at St. Mark’s, looks at the precedents it set throughout New York and the U.S. and considers the future direction of community building through preservation. Panelists include: Lisa Ackerman, Executive Vice President and COO, World Monuments Fund; Stephen Facey, Executive Vice President, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine and President, Board of Trustees, St. Mark’s Historic Landmark Fund; Jeffrey Hebert, Director of Planning at Concordia Architecture & Planning and former Director of Community Planning for the Louisiana Recovery Authority and Moderator: Anthony C. Wood, preservation activist and author of Preserving New York: Winning the Right to Protect a City’s Landmarks.
Friday, May 9, 2008
The Center for Traditional Music and Dance and its Ukrainian Wave Community Cultural Initiative in collaboration with The Ukrainian Museum and New York Bandura Ensemble/Bandura Downtown present
BORDER BALLADS FROM THE STEPPES: MAPPING UKRAINE IN SONG
with Julian Kytasty and the New York Bandura Ensemble
7:00 p.m.
The Ukrainian Museum, 222 East 6th Street, New York, NY (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues)
For more information, contact Eileen Condon, 212-571-1555 x 35, econdon@ctmd.org
Cost: $15, with discounts for Museums and seniors. Contact Museum at 212/228-0110 to reserve tickets. Tickets include gallery admission and a reception to follow the concert.
The first of two concerts in conjunction with an exhibit of historical maps of Ukraine opening at the Museum this spring, this program features traditional Ukrainian ballads researched and performed by third-generation Ukrainian-American bandura player and singer Julian Kytasty, accompanied by the musicians of the New York Bandura Ensemble. The Ukrainian bandura is a harp-like lute with an unfretted neck and thirty or more strings. Drawn from the same historical period as the Museum’s “Mapping of Ukraine” exhibition, the songs and instrumental music bring to life the dance of shifting borders — political, cultural, and personal — that characterizes Ukraine’s early modern period.
Universally acclaimed as one of the leading bandurists of his generation worldwide, Julian Kytasty learned his extensive vocal and instrumental repertoire from his father, grandfather, and great-uncle as well as through careful study of historical sources. He has directed
Ukrainian bandura and choral ensembles on four continents for nearly three decades and
is co-founder, with bandurist Mike Andrec, of the ground-breaking Experimental Bandura Trio. Kytasty holds an MFA in music theory and composition from Concordia University.
A second Bandura Downtown concert of historical ballads related to “The Mapping of Ukraine” will take place at the Museum in September.
World Music Institute presents
Carnatic Visions
Aruna Sairam
Friday, May 9, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 10, 8:00 p.m.
Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street, New York
Tickets: 212/517-ASIA
Cost: $25; WMI Friends & Asia Society members, students, seniors $20
Aruna Sairam is one of the most beloved representatives of Carnatic vocal music—a style that is rooted in the devotional songs and music from the temples of South India. Known for her distinctive style and deeply moving performances, she has performed to critical acclaim in India and abroad and received major Indian classical music honors, including the prestigious title of “Sangita Choodamani.” Her program will feature a special selection of songs from her new recording, Divine Inspiration, on the World Village/ Harmonia Mundi USA label.
World Music Institute presents
Songs of Cape Verde
Mayra Andrade
10:00 p.m.
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, West 57th St and 7th Avenue, New York
Cost: $36, $44; WMI Friends $32, $40
Mayra Andrade is a rising star in Cape Verdean music, a genre made famous throughout the world by Cesaria Evora. Blending indigenous Cape Verdean styles, including African-based batuku and funana rhythms, with Brazilian music, jazz and French chanson, she has captivated critics and audiences alike throughout Europe and Cape Verde. Born in Cuba to Cape Verdean parents, she grew up in Senegal, Angola, Germany and Cape Verde, and has lived in Paris since 2003. She has opened for Cesaria Evora and Angelique Kidjo, and recorded with Charles Aznavour and Lenine. In 2007, her acclaimed debut recording Navega received the prestigious German Record Critics Award. She has recently been nominated for best newcomer in the BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards. This program marks her US solo concert debut.
Sunday, May 11, 3 p.m. Lecture-Demo: “Voice and Spirituality” with Aruna Sairam
Tickets $15, WMI Friends, Students, Seniors $12
Polish Community Center presents
Polish American Buffet
4-8 p.m.
Polish Community Center, 225 Washington Ave. Ext.
For more information, call 518-456-3995
$13.95/person
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Mother-Daughter Stringband
Old Songs, Inc.
8:00 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Old Songs Community Arts Center, 37 S. Main St., Voorheesville, NY, 518/765-2815, oldsongs@oldsongs.org
Cost: $17/adults; $5/ages 12 and under
A very special Mother’s Day weekend concert with a quartet featuring Lyn Hardy and Abby Newton with their daughters Ruth Ungar Merenda and Rosie Newton. Fiddles, cello, guitar, and lots of great singing on an old and new folk repertoire.
May 9-11, 2008
DanceAfroCuba, Inc. announces
Dance Camp 2008
Beginning 2 p.m. May 9, 2008. Ending 2 p.m. on May 11, 2008
Iroquois Springs, Bowers Road, Rock Hill, NY
For more information, e-mail shauna@danceafrocuba.com
Cost: Workshop packages from $190-$400
Come learn dance traditions of Cuba. Participants can choose from over twenty classes in Afro-Cuban folkloric traditions and popular dance. Classes will be offered for beginners and intermediate/advanced levels. Classes will be offered in Orisha, Arara and Congo-derived dance.
Set in the beautiful Catskill Mountains, DanceAfroCuba will conduct a weekend dance intensive May 9-11, 2008 at Iroquois Springs. Located in Rock Hill, New York (approximately 90 miles from New York City), Iroquois Springs is a 200 acre multi-use facility and provides a magnificent setting for this unique event.
Monday, May 12, 2008
The Dutchess County Arts Council and the New York Folklore Society announce
Getting to the “Roots”: Teaching with Traditional Music in the Classroom
An Arts-in-Education Workshop for Educators and Traditional Musicians
3:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Cunneen Hackett Theater, 12 Vassar Street, Poughkeepsie, NY
For more information, e-mail shauna@danceafrocuba.com
Cost: Free but pre-registration is required.
Participants must register by calling the Arts Council at 845-454-3222, no later than Wednesday, April 16, 2008. Space is limited so don’t wait to register.
Organized by the Dutchess County Arts Council and the New York Folklore Society, with support from The New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors,
this workshop is open to all Pre K-12 educators, administrators, teaching musicians/artists, traditional musicians and PTA members in Dutchess and Ulster counties, as well as surrounding Mid-Hudson Valley counties.
Participants in this three-hour workshop will learn about creating music-centered Arts-in-Education (AIE) partnerships between schools and traditional musicians and/or nonprofit cultural organizations offering traditional music programs. Traditional musicians are practitioners of culturally-specific instrumental or vocal musical traditions. These men and women sing and/or play music indigenous to their cultural, ethnic or religious heritage. Most often these musicians have learned their repertoire through informal transmission. That means that instead of being formally trained in conservatories, these men and women learned their craft from community elders highly respected for their musicianship. Through their art, traditional musicians share information about and perpetuate their heritages.
During this workshop, musicians and traditional artisans will learn about creating partnerships for Arts In Education programs and possible funding sources for these programs; educators will learn how traditional musicians’ culturally rich and unique perspectives can enhance the curriculum in many subjects and will observe performance examples of successful AIE programs from teaching musicians. Both artists and educators will benefit from a session about the nuts and bolts of AIE, including aligning program activities to a curriculum and the New York State Learning Standards.
Participating teachers will receive a Certificate of Completion, which they may submit to their districts to request Professional Development credits.
For additional information, contact Polly Adema or Loretta Spence at the Arts Council (845-454-3222).
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The Gotham Center presents the latest programs in its History Forum series:
Rediscovering Jacob Riis: Exposure Journalism and Photography in Turn-of-the Century New York
6:30 p.m.
Recital Hall, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue @ 34th Street
Cost: Free. Seating is limited. Admittance will be on a first come, first served basis, no reservations.
For more information: 212-817-8460
Bonnie Yochelson, curator and author of Berenice Abbott: Changing New York, and Daniel Czitrom, Professor of History, Mount Holyoke College, offer a fresh look at the Progressive era social reformer, journalist, and pioneer photographer who publicized the conditions of the desperately poor in turn-of-the-century New York. A deeply contradictory figure, Riis was a conservative activist and skillful entertainer, an ingenious publicist driven by moral passion, and a revolutionary photographer whose relationship to the camera was diffident at best. Book signing to follow.
May 15-17, 2008
American Banjo Fraternity Rally
Free Performance 7:30 p.m., May 17, 2008
Genetti Hotel, 200 West Fourth Street, Williamsport, PA 17701
Players and listeners are invited to the Spring Rally
of the American Banjo Fraternity and a free
performance of 1900s music on May 17, 2008.
This presentation features performances on 5-string
banjos of different sizes using nylon strings. The
banjos are played with bare fingers, no picks.
For further information, please go to www.abfbanjo.org.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Dan Berggren performs Folk Music of the Adirondacks at the New York Folklore Society as part of May’s Art Night in Schenectady
6:00 p.m.
New York Folklore Society, Gallery of Folk Art, 133 Jay Street, Schenectady
Cost: Free
A familiar voice at coffeehouses, museums, and performance venues throughout New York State, Dan Berggren has been collecting, writing and singing folk music of the Adirondacks for over thirty years. His many albums build on his Adirondack roots and highlight the history and daily life of hard working folks and communities. Dan Berggren will be performing as part of Art Night Schenectady.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Dutchess County Arts Council Folk Arts Program, Stewart’s Shops & Mid-Hudson Japanese Community Association present
JAPANESE CHILDREN’S DAY
A Hands-on Celebration of Japanese Children’s Culture — for kids of all ages!
1:00-3:00 p.m.
Hyde Park Free Library Annex (next to the library), 2 Main Street, Hyde Park, NY
Cost: Free
For further
information, contact Polly Adema, DCAC Staff Folklorist at 845-454-3222 or visit the Dutchess County Arts Council website.
During this interactive program, children will learn how
Japanese families celebrate Children’s Day. Featured activities include making origami koinobori (fish-shaped
streamers traditionally associated with Children’s Day) or kabuto (the traditional, highly ornate helmet of
samurai), listening to and watching kamishibai (Japanese paper theater or visual storytelling) and tasting
traditional Japanese children’s sweets like kashiwamochi or daifuku (versions of glutinous rice cakes filled with
red bean paste).
Japanese Children’s Day, which falls on May 5, is widely celebrated in Japan and among Japanese living in the
United States. The Arts Council’s Japanese Children’s Day program is the first in a series exploring how people
from counties whose populations are represented in the Mid-Hudson Valley celebrate and honor their children.
Children and adults are welcome to come and go at this family friendly, interactive event.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Heritage Folk Music Concert Series
Rich Bala
3-5 p.m.
Dutch Arms Chapel, 16 John St., Saugerties, NY.
Admission: $8
For more information, call Bob Lusk at (845) 338-8587, email heritagefolkmusic@gmail.com or go to our web page at http://www.heritageconcerts.blogspot.com
The Heritage Music Concert Series celebrates the unique musical history of the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains. Rich Bala, folk balladeer will reprise his program of the songs of the 19th Century songwriter (1798-1861), Henry Backus. Mr. Backus was known throughout the Northeast as the “The Saugerties Bard.” He was the composer of romantic, regional and historic songs such as “My Hearts in Old Esopus” and “Explosion of Steamer Steindeer.” Rich Bala performs authentic, traditional folk music that weaves a tale of living history about our nation’s people and heritage. Since 1986, Rich has performed at coffeehouses, festivals, concert series, schools, museums, libraries, and historic sites from Boston, Massachusetts to Beaufort, North Carolina. Rich has taught courses, using folk songs to illustrate various aspects of history, at many Elderhostels, teacher training workshops, and conferences sponsored by The New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown, NY, and also at the SUNY Field Campus in Ashokan, New York.
Wednesday, May 20, 2008
The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College, CUNY presents the
“Documented Italians” Film and Video Series
Spring 2008
“My Brother, My Sister, Sold for a Fistful of Lire,” (1998), 90 min.
Basile Sallustio, dir.
Screenings takes place at the Graduate School of Journalism, 230 West 41st Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues, Room 308, Manhattan
Free and open to the public.
Presentation begins at 6 p.m.
Seating is Limited
Building management requires people attending events after business hours to pre-register with the Calandra Institute by calling (212) 642-2094. You will need to show a photo ID to the building’s concierge.
In 1952, Pia Dilisa was ten-years-old when she last saw her younger brother Dominic and sister Antoinetta perched atop a donkey leaving their mountain village in Molise forever. Her widowed and destitute father had renounced his paternity of the two children handing them over to an Italian/American Catholic adoption agency, which in turn “sold” the children to Americans for $10,000 a head. Nearly fifty years later, contadina Dilisa is desperate and determined to locate her siblings and uncover the machinations of this clandestine operation. Her investigation begins at her local church, where the 96-year-old priest lambasts Dilisa for her questions, to the Vatican, and finally to New York and Chicago. Director Basile Sallustio, Dilisa’s nephew by marriage, follows his resolute aunt while bringing to light the trafficking of tens of thousands of Italian children between 1945 and 1965.
Post-screening discussion with the director led by Jane Schneider, CUNY Graduate Center.
This film and video series is co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Journalism (CUNY) and the National Italian American Foundation , in conjunction with the Pesaro Film festival’s “New Italian-American Cinema.“
Thursday, May 22, 2008
NYS ARTS present a RURAL WORKSHOP:
Building Strong Boards: Recruitment, Training & Best Practices
5:30 - 8:30 p.m.
St. Lawrence County Arts Council 51 Market Street, Potsdam, NY, 315-265-6860, slcartscouncil@yahoo.com
Cost: $10
This workshop will cover board basics and board roles in organizational oversight and planning.
Instructor: Anne Ackerson.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Center for Traditional Music and Dance presents
Tantshoyz: Yiddish Dance Workshop/Party
with Live Klezmer Band
7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
JCC in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam (at 76th St.), Manhattan
Admission: $10, $8 for JCC and Workmen’s Circle members
For more information, call Pete Rushefsky at 917-326-9659
Center for Traditional Music and Dance presents a Tantshoyz (Yiddish for “Dance House”) Yiddish Dance Workshop/Party. A master dance leader will teach you the steps. A live klezmer band will feature some of New York’s hottest klezmer musicians— Jake Shulman-Ment (violin) and Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl - the traditional hammered dulcimer of klezmer music). The event is targeted to adults with beginners and teens absolutely welcome. Yiddish Dance is the traditional dance of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. For hundreds of years, Jews have practiced a diverse repertoire of traditional circle and couple dances, including freylekhs, shers, bulgars and horas. While klezmer music has experienced a world-wide revival over the past 30 years, the Tantshoyz series presents a rare opportunity to learn to dance to the music.
Slate Valley Museum,
a growing and dynamic professional museum in
Upstate New York on the Vermont border, seeks a full time Assistant
Director/Educator beginning August 1, 2008.
The museum interprets the
history of the region’s slate industry with emphasis on geology,
immigration, and tools and technology. A new visitor/interpretive
center addition that will house an exhibit of large quarry machinery
will open in June 2008. Ideal candidate is an energetic generalist
with education background who will 1) work closely with the Executive
Director in exhibition research, collections care and management,
public programming, and grant research; and, 2) direct school
programs, adult group programs, and volunteer docent training.
Minimum requirements are a B.A. in museum studies or closely related
field, familiarity with standards-based school programming, excellent
writing skills, strong public speaking ability, and willingness to
share responsibilities in a small museum setting. Year-round, Tuesday
through Saturday work schedule, some evenings. Salary is $30,000.
Please send cover letter, resume, and list of three references to
Mary Lou Willits, Executive Director, via e-mail at
mlw@slatevalleymuseum.org or regular mail at Slate Valley Museum, 17
Water St., Granville, NY, 12832 by May 10, 2008.
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The Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester Announces
Spring 2008 Education through the Arts Grants
Matching grants of up to $2,500 are available for partnerships between schools and teaching artists or cultural organizations.
Deadline: Wednesday June 4, 2008, at 4:00 PM
Information Sessions (mandatory for first-time applicants)
Friday May 16, 2008, at 12:00 - 1:00 PM
Tuesday May 20, 2008, at 4:00 - 5:00 PM
Thursday May 22, 2008, at 4:00 - 5:00 PM
Or by appointment
All information sessions will be held at:
Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester,
277 N. Goodman Street,
Rochester, NY 14607
The Education through the Arts matching grant program is a local Arts in Education funding program that is administered by the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester. This program is funded and supported by the Arts in Education Program at the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) through the Local Capacity Building Initiative.
The Local Capacity Building Initiative is a statewide effort to provide local support for widespread participation in arts in education. To that end, the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester is invited by NYSCA to make grants in support of partnerships between schools and teaching artists or cultural organizations that focus on the integrated study of the arts and non-arts subjects. The applicants of record for this program will be a school and either an individual teaching artist or a cultural organization. Eligible projects will involve a direct collaboration between at least one classroom teacher and one teaching artist. Funding decisions are based on the criteria and local funding priorities as outlined in these application materials.
For more information, to register for an information session, or to schedule an individual appointment, please contact Michael Futter, Director of Development and Grant Programs for the Arts & Cultural Council, at (585) 473-4000, extension 202, or via email at mfutter@artsrochester.org.
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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
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New York Foundation for the Arts
STRATEGIC OPPORTUNITY STIPENDS (SOS)
SOS, a project of the New York Foundation for the Arts, is designed to help individual artists of all disciplines take advantage of unique opportunities that will significantly benefit their work or career development. Support ranges from $100 to $600 for specific, forthcoming opportunities that are distinct from work in progress.
The next deadline for opportunities in July - October is Wednesday, May 28.
For more information go to the NYFA website or call 273-0552x229.
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Community Art$Grants
for not-for-profit organizations
Community Art$Grants for Organizations is a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program, created to encourage and promote the development and strengthening of arts and cultural activities in local communities throughout New York State. Grants of up to $5000 are available to qualified not-for-profit organizations and municipalities in Albany, Rensselaer and Schenectady counties, to provide arts and cultural programming of high artistic quality. Deadline grant for 2009 programs is Thursday, October 9, 2008. Application seminars will be held throughout the three counties beginning in July. For more information on these seminars and to download a copy of the guidelines and application, visit http://www.artscenteronline.org/grants/orggrants.aspx or call 518/273-0552x229.
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ONGOING EXHIBITS
Thread to the Past: Ukrainian Folk Art from the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair
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
Organized by Lubow Wolynetz, curator of the Museum’s folk art collection, the exhibition revisits the Ukrainian pavilion at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair and traces the determination of the UNWLA’s (Ukrainian National Women’s League of America) leadership to obtain and exhibit a representative collection of Ukrainian folk art. More than 100 of the 600 items purchased by the UNWLA for display in Chicago — and viewed by almost 2,000,000 visitors to the Ukrainian pavilion — are included in the exhibition.
October 7, 2007 - May 4, 2008
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 Pysanka and the Rushnyk: Guardians of Life
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
Each spring, the Museum mounts a new exhibition of pysanky — Ukrainian Easter eggs. This year’s exhibition, entitled The Pysanka and the Rushnyk: Guardians of Life, features over 200 of the unique eggs and includes a selection of exquisitely embroidered rushnyky (ritual cloths) by noted Ukrainian American folk artist, researcher, and educator Myroslava Stachiw, who recently donated her collection to the Museum. The pysanka and the rushnyk are two of the items most commonly used in Ukrainian ritual practices.
March 7, 2008 - June 30, 2008
Long Island Museum presents Our Journeys/Our Stories: Portraits of Latino Achievement
Wed.-Sat., 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sun., Noon - 5:00 p.m.
Long Island Museum, 1200 Route 25A, Stony Brook, NY 11790
For more information, telephone 631-751-0066, or e-mail mail@longislandmuseum.org
Cost: $7/adults, $6/seniors, $3/students 6-17
Bilingual exhibition featurning 27 individuals and one extended family whose stories of risk taking, innovations and leadership are told through specially commissioned color photographs and biographical profiles. Each individual tells a distinct story but all share common Latino experiences, values and ideals.
April 1 - June 8, 2008
Long Island Museum presents Bohemian Paradise: David Burliuk, Nicolai Cikovsky and the Hampton Bays Art Group
Wed.-Sat., 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sun., Noon - 5:00 p.m.
Long Island Museum, 1200 Route 25A, Stony Brook, NY 11790
For more information, telephone 631-751-0066, or e-mail mail@longislandmuseum.org
Cost: $7/adults, $6/seniors, $3/students 6-17
Exhibition includes original paintings by various 20th century Russian and European emigre artists with similar ideologies and very different styles who met in NY and established a flourishing summer art colony on Long Island’s east end.
April 1 - July 13, 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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