artists next door 4
andrew chatfield 5
documentary film festival 6
arts & ideas 7-18
The Arts Paper a free publication of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven • newhavenarts.org
NMS Presents:
Twilight Tuesdays
July 19: Goza • July 26: Sasha Dobson August 2: Model Decoy • August 9: Lonnie Plaxico
June 2016
The Arts Paper june 2016
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Artists Next Door Linedy Genao Reaches Broadway
staff Cynthia Clair executive director
board of directors
Debbie Hesse director of artistic services & programs Megan Manton director of development Nichole René communications manager Lisa Russo advertising & events coordinator
Where Inspiration Meets Charity Andrew Chatfield Reflects On Performing Classic Albums
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Documentary Film Festival Series Conceived to Organize the Filmmaking Community
The Arts Council of Greater New Haven promotes, advocates, and fosters opportunities for artists, arts organizations, and audiences. Because the arts matter. The Arts Paper is published by the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, and is available by direct mail through membership with the Arts Council. For membership information call 203.772.2788. To advertise in The Arts Paper, call the Arts Council at 203.772.2788. Arts Council of Greater New Haven 70 Audubon Street, 2nd Floor New Haven, CT 06510 Phone: 203.772.2788 Fax: 203.772.2262 info@newhavenarts.org www.newhavenarts.org
directors
Winter Marshall executive administrative assistant
Amanda May Aruani design consultant
Ken Spitzbard treasurer Wojtek Borowski secretary
Christine Maisano director of finance
David Brensilver editor, the arts paper
Eileen O’Donnell president Rick Wies vice president Daisy Abreu second vice president
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Laura Barr Susan Cahan Robert B. Dannies Jr. James Gregg Todd Jokl Mark Kaduboski Jocelyn Maminta Josh Mamis Greg Marazita Rachel Mele Elizabeth Meyer-Gadon Frank Mitchell John Pancoast Mark Potocsny David Silverstone Dexter Singleton Richard S. Stahl, MD
honorary members Frances T. “Bitsie” Clark
In an effort to reduce its carbon footprint, the Arts Council now prints The Arts Paper on more environmentally friendly paper and using soy inks. Please read and recycle.
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Festival 2016 If It’s June, It’s Arts & Ideas Time
The Arts Council is pleased to recognize the generous contributions of our business, corporate and institutional members.
Gateway Community College H. Pearce Real Estate Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tale Newman Architects
executive champions The United Illuminating Company/Southern Connecticut Gas Total Wine & More Yale University
business members Brenner, Saltzman & Wallman, LLP ChameleonJohn Duble & O’Hearn, Inc. Griswold Home Care The Lighting Quotient Travel Ticker United Aluminum
senior patrons Knights of Columbus L. Suzio York Hill Companies Odonnell Company Webster Bank Wiggin and Dana WSHU corporate partners Alexion Pharmaceuticals AT&T Cannelli Printing Edgehill Realtors Firehouse 12 Fusco Management Company Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce Jewish Foundation of Greater New Haven Metropolitan Interactive University of New Haven/ Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts Yale-New Haven Hospital business patrons Albertus Magnus College
foundations and government agencies The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven Connecticut Arts Endowment Fund DECD/CT Office of the Arts Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation The Ethel & Abe Lapides Foundation Josef and Anni Albers Foundation First Niagara Foundation NewAlliance Foundation Pfizer The Wells Fargo Foundation The Werth Family Foundation media partners New Haven Independent New Haven Living WPKN
Neighborhood Music School Presents:
Twilight Tuesdays
Join us for four relaxing evenings of music under the stars! July 19 – Goza Latin Jazz Band: Goza (Spanish for Joy) performs classic and
modern songs and dances from Latin America, Brazil and Spain with guitar, horns, violin, percussion and beautiful, romantic vocals.
July 26 – Sasha Dobson: Singer/songwriter who has toured with Willie Nelson,
Norah Jones and Neil Young explores new spaces to take her sound with her new band.
August 2 – Model Decoy: Local favorite art-rock duo with heavy literary influences and intricate compositions drawn from graphic novels, sci-fi shows and classic films. August 9 – Lonnie Plaxico: Jazz bassist and composer who has performed with
everyone from Art Blakey to Cassandra Wilson presents classic jazz and some of his original compositions with NMS faculty members. Concerts held in the Park of the Arts behind Neighborhood Music School. Rain or shine! Tickets availabe online at NeighborhoodMusicSchool.org.
DA N C E SING P L AY
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100 audubon : new haven re g i s t e r 2 0 3 . 6 24 . 5 1 8 9
NeighborhoodMusicSchool.org
june 2016 •
The Arts Paper june 2016
Letter from the Editor If it’s June, it’s time for the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, the annual cultural celebration that connects us to one another and to the wider world, by way of extraordinary and visionary artists and those that make their work possible. We, the audience, of course, are an integral part of that equation. Each year, the festival’s program begets a theme. This year, it’s “when you’re there, you’re here,” a nod to the connections that art makes, across communities and borders. The unofficial, behind-the-scenes tagline, “it’s all about the ampersand,” communicates a lot about the program itself, and a lot about the organization. At its core, art is the creative expression of ideas—about the human condition and the complex world in which we live. Chad Herzog, the festival’s relatively new programming director (having arrived at the start of last year’s festival), mentioned in April that in planning and bringing this year’s festival to fruition, “paying attention to that ampersand was very important to me.” While the festival has a discreet “Ideas” portion of its annual program, designed to categorize discussions about the human condition and the world in which we live, those discussions—those Ideas—are in broad terms also the source of inspiration for the artists who bring incredible work to the stage and screen. And speaking of the screen, it’s important to remember that New Haven is a place in which artists are expressing themselves all the time. Local filmmaker David Pilot, whose Skin in the Game will be screened during the New Haven Documentary Film Festival this month, is among the many of us who
believe that New Haven is as nourishing an environment for artists as any other. Having relocated here from New York City, Pilot thinks of the local creative community as a “great secret.” And while it might not be much of a secret to those of us who make work in the area, it just might be to the rest of the world. This month, the New Haven Documentary Film Festival will present a slate of movies by filmmakers who live in or have strong ties to the community. The goal of the annual festival, which was launched in 2014, is to organize and grow the local filmmaking community. Just looking at who’s involved with the NHDFF—the organizers and the filmmakers whose documentaries will be screened—it’s obvious that New Haven’s filmmaking community is every bit as rich in talent and accomplishment as New Haven’s other artistic communities. And this is where the ampersand comes in. In the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives, it might seem like we’re more disconnected than connected, especially for those of us who work alone. Our smart phones connect us to much, but not to the experiences we can have together, as creators and as audiences. I’ve been thinking a lot about a YouTube clip that I watch from time to time of Leonard Bernstein conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a performance, at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1988, of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. (The clip to which I’m referring is of the finale. Obviously, one should take in the entire performance, but that is a discussion for another day.) Bernstein stands on the podium, blissing out and letting the music wash over him.
He is both part of the ensemble and part of the audience, immersed in a masterwork that connects us to the composer, to history, to the wider world, and to one another. To watch that extraordinary piece of video is to go where Bernstein, the orchestra, and the audience are in those moments. And it’s to remember that “when you’re there, you’re here,” part of an audience that that performance is still reaching—and also at your desk or on your smart phone, experiencing those remarkable moments by yourself. Technology does let us connect. But as I watch that video clip time and time again, I’m reminded that it’s the second-best thing to having been there. I encourage you to attend as many International Festival of Arts & Ideas programs and as many New Haven Documentary Film Festival screenings as possible and to talk about them with friends, family members, acquaintances, work colleagues, and neighbors. I encourage you, dear reader, to embrace the ampersand. I hope you enjoy the stories presented herein as much as I enjoyed bringing them to you, and that you’ll remember to recycle this print publication once you’ve finished reading it.
On the Cover
Some of a Thousand Words, a program of dance duets by Brian Brooks, left, and Wendy Whelan, performed with the New York-based string quartet Brooklyn Rider, receives its world premiere at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. The program was commissioned by the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, The Joyce Theater, and the Modlin Center for The Arts at University of Richmond. Photo by Erin Baiano.
In the Next Issue …
Sincerely,
David Brensilver, editor The Arts Paper
In the July-August issue of The Arts Paper, we’ll preview Elm Shakespeare Company’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which will be staged August 18 through September 4 in Edgerton Park. A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be directed by Tina Packer, founding artistic director of the Lenox, Massachusetts-based Shakespeare & Company. Pictured here is Elm Shakespeare Company’s 2014 production of Pericles, starring Paul Pryce, left, and Sean Patrick Higgins. Photo by Mike Franzman.
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Le Goût du Prince
Art and Prestige in Sixteenth-Century France May 20–August 28, 2016 YA L E U N I V E R S I T Y A R T GA L L E RY Free and open to the public 1111 Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut | artgallery.yale.edu Image: Saint-Porchaire Workshop, Salt Cellar, mid-16th century. Lead-glazed earthenware. Private collection
• june 2016
Explore Britain in the World 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT 877 brit art | britishart.yale.edu | #YCBAreopens
newhavenarts.org • 3
The Arts Paper june 2016
artists next door
On Her Feet on Broadway linedy genao pursues her dream hank hoffman
L
inedy Genao was diligently plugging away at Plan B for her life, working a bank job in New York City. But when Genao answered an open call for auditions for a new jukebox musical about the careers of Latin singing sensation Gloria Estefan and her producer/husband, Emilio, the possibility of pursuing Plan A beckoned. Since she immersed herself in musical theater at Hamden High School, from which she graduated in 2009, Plan A was to be a singer and stage actress. Genao, in her first professional theater experience, has made it to Broadway. A cast member of On Your Feet!, Genao is the understudy to lead actress Ana Villafane as well as an ensemble member with several roles. When I interviewed her by phone in mid-April, Genao had recently completed a run of 15 performances filling in for Villafane as Gloria Estefan. As part of On Your Feet!, Genao has played Broadway and Chicago, performed on The View and Good Morning America, and helped kick off the 2015 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Her performances have won plaudits from Gloria and Emilio Estefan, who have been intimately involved in creating and overseeing the musical. Recalling auditioning for her second musical in high school—vying for the role of The Witch in Into the Woods—Genao told me, “I felt a calling.” She got so wrapped up in the emotion of singing that she fainted at the end of the song. “After that craziness, I knew it was something I wanted to do because of the way it made me feel,” Genao said. But doubts intruded. Was she good enough? Would a life in music and theater offer career stability? Genao instead studied business at the University of Connecticut, although she did take a few theater-related courses. She had been working at the bank for
Linedy Genao, right, in her March 31 debut as Gloria Estefan, with Omar Lopez-Cepero as Emilio Estefan. Photo by Tracy Barletta.
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about a year when she spied the life-changing audition notice at BroadwayWorld.com: an open call for a month-long developmental lab for On Your Feet! Hopefuls would need to sing and dance for the show’s producers. Genao, who is a Latina of Dominican descent, told herself, “I really think I can do this. I can fit in. It’s about my culture.” She got the day off from the bank, arrived early, and, after a two-hour wait, sang “Como La Flor” by the Latina singer Selena. She had four callbacks, telling me that the second-to-last one was “probably the worst audition of my life. I was so nervous I was shaking the entire time.” In the end, she was hired for the developmental lab both as the Gloria Estefan understudy and for ensemble roles. As part of the lab, which began at the end of October 2014, Genao developed her roles. She was notified just before Christmas that year that she was hired for the out-of-town opening in Chicago and for the Broadway run. The play opened in Chicago last June and made its Broadway debut to great acclaim on November 5. On Your Feet! details the story of Cuban émigré Gloria Estefan’s rise to pop stardom as a Latin crossover artist, selling more than 100 million records. With her husband, Emilio, she has won 26 Grammy Awards. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Estefan was seriously injured in a tour-bus accident in 1990, breaking her back. On Your Feet! dramatizes her struggle to resume her career following the accident, spurred on by her avid fans. Genao is particularly excited at having the opportunity to work with the Estefans. “The first day I saw Gloria walk into our rehearsal at the lab I cried so hard,” recalled Genao. She remembered thinking, “This is real! This is happening right now!” Estefan gave her a hug, advising, “No crying allowed! You’re here because you deserve to be,” Genao said. “Seeing them smile and clap for us is so amazing,” enthused Genao. “If she loves what I’m doing, that’s all that matters because it’s her life that I’m portraying.” Being part of a Broadway show is opening doors for Genao. She could barely contain her excitement at having appeared on The View last November. “To have the audience there and to see the hosts live in person was amazing,” said Genao. “We were on fire—our energy, our passion to do what we love and be there and show the world a small glimpse of what this show is.” Genao was invited to sing backup vocals in cabaret performances by On Your Feet! cast member Andrea Burns at the club 54 Below in New York City. “It was an amazing experience because I got to meet so many wonderful and important people in this business,” Genao said. The most important thing Genao has learned as a Broadway performer is the centrality of “responsibility and self-control”
Linedy Genao. Photo by On Your Feet! cast member Carlos Gonzalez.
“The first day I saw Gloria walk into our rehearsal at the lab I cried.” —Linedy Genao
to being successful. As she noted, when working at the bank, it didn’t matter if her back hurt or her throat was raspy. Not so with hitting the Broadway boards for eight performances a week. “In this show, if literally my toe hurts, I can’t do the job to the best of my ability,” Genao said. “From head to toe, I need to be ready every night for the show. I have to make sure to stretch, make sure to warm up vocally. “My voice and my body are my instruments now,” said Genao. She has to consider how everyday activities might impact her ability to perform. For example, can she go to a friend’s birthday party at a loud bar? Doing so could risk taxing her voice by trying to be heard above the din. Making sure to take care of herself “is the biggest thing I’ve learned.” n The original cast recording of On Your Feet!—recorded live at two performances with the mixing overseen by Emilio Estefan—was released on April 29 on the Masterworks Broadway label.
june 2016 •
The Arts Paper june 2016
the roundtable
Where Inspiration Meets Charity reflections on performing classic albums andrew chatfield In January 2009, I performed a classic album for the first time—Pink Floyd’s “Animals” from 1977—at Marinelli’s Supper Club in Burlington, Connecticut. The band was Stanley Maxwell, the original jazz/ funk/rock quartet I had co-founded eight years earlier, plus two special guests for the night: New York-based vocalist Johanna, whom I had known since we were both studying classical music at Syracuse University in the late 1990s; and teenage guitarist Jeff Howard from Canton, a YouTube sensation since the previous fall when his band, the McLovins, covered Phish’s “You Enjoy Myself.” Stanley Maxwell saxophonist Eric DellaVecchia knew of Jeff from Downright Music & Art in Collinsville. When Jeff came to our first instrumental rehearsal at Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, my jaw just about hit the floor. He sounded just like Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour on “Dogs.” The idea to perform Pink Floyd’s Animals originated in July 2008, while Stanley Maxwell was coming back from our performance at the seventh annual Diversafest (“Dfest”) Music Conference and Festival in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That festival also featured headliners the Disco Biscuits, The Roots, Zappa Plays Zappa, and moe. During our 30-hour drive back to Connecticut, we listened to all sorts of music in the van, including Pink Floyd’s Animals, which I thought seemed adaptable to our sound. I also thought Roger Waters’ lyrics were still relevant in their critique of capitalism. The reason we put the show together was to help establish a scholarship in memory of both A.J. and David Nocera Jr.—two of three brothers who had passed away in 2007. Their father, David Nocera, is my wife’s cousin. The unthinkable tragedy moved me to want to give something back to their family. What I had to contribute was music. Both A.J. and Jr. enjoyed the music of Pink Floyd, so I offered to cover Animals in their memory, with the proceeds going to benefit the AJR Nocera Memorial Scholarship Fund. The dinner was a sold-out success, packing Marinelli’s with 400 people. So we decided to make it an annual event. We chose to cover Pink Floyd’s album Wish You Were Here at the second-annual event, in 2010, since the Nocera family had named the fundraiser after that tune in memory of A.J. and Jr. Stanley Maxwell bassist Mark Crino suggested adding backup singers, so we had three vocalists in addition to Johanna. One of those singers, Julie Corbalis, was inspired by the experience to cover all of Bob Dylan’s Desire album with her own band. We covered Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy in 2011, since A.J. and Jr. also loved that band, and Stanley Maxwell had our own arrangement of the tune “The
• june 2016
Andrew Chatfield, performing with Stanley Maxwell in May 2015 at The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts & Cultural Center in Middletown. Photo by Sandy Aldieri, Perceptions Photography.
Ocean,” which had served as an instrumental jam vehicle for us for several years. I had heard Chris DePino play blues harmonica on the New Haven Green at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, so when it came time to cover Led Zeppelin IV in 2012, I knew he’d be perfect for “When the Levee Breaks.” Stanley Maxwell was on hiatus at the time, so second guitarist Matt Splain also did double duty on keyboards, filling in for Evan Green. In 2013, keyboardist Glen Nelson came on board and we tackled The Dark Side of the Moon, 40 years after the classic record’s original release. Pink Floyd’s sixth studio album, Meddle, was next, for the sixth-annual benefit in 2014. For the first several years, the musicians voted on which albums to consider. Last year, I decided to perform two albums in one evening—Led Zeppelin I and Led Zeppelin II—for the seventh-annual Nocera family benefit. That same month, I created a scholarship in memory of my former intern Stephanie Nelson, who had passed away in January 2015. I performed all of The Beatles’ “white album” with a 21-person band at the first annual “Blackbird” benefit concert. The Stephanie Nel-
son Memorial Scholarship Fund supports Middlesex Community College students who intern at Wesleyan University. We typically start planning these events about six months in advance— working with the families to determine a date and venue that works for their benefit concert. Then I reach out to musicians who have performed as part of the event in the past. When concert or rehearsal dates don’t work with their schedule, I look for other musicians who might be available. Johanna sang lead vocals with us for the first five years before moving to Pennsylvania. After Julie Corbalis returned in 2012 to sing backup on Led Zeppelin IV, I asked her to sing lead on Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks with us in 2013. She came back in 2015 to perform the “white album,” and will be here this year for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Guitarist Shawn Persinger and singer Alice-Anne Harwood-Sherrill from my 1980s cover band The Future Heavies joined us for The Beatles and Led Zeppelin shows last summer. And vocalist Sarah LeMieux and bassist Joe Casillo will both be returning this summer for Led Zeppelin III and Presence (Sarah is joining us for Sgt.
Pepper’s, too.) I have been a fan of these artists since I was in high school. Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham inspired me to start playing drums. So learning and performing these classic albums has been a great experience for me, a way to give back to people I care about who have lost their loved ones, and a way to provide scholarships to folks who need them. In the first seven years of concerts for the AJR Nocera Memorial Scholarship Fund, we’ve raised $30,000. And the first concert for the Stephanie Nelson Memorial Scholarship Fund raised nearly $5,000. n Andrew Chatfield is the press and marketing director at the Wesleyan University Center for the Arts. He leads the bands Stanley Maxwell, The Future Heavies, and Bootstrap. He will be playing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on June 18; Led Zeppelin III and Presence on July 16; and Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track on April 1, 2017. Stanley Maxwell will perform original music on Wednesday, June 15, 12-1 p.m. on the New Haven Green, as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Visit andychatfield.com to learn more.
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The Arts Paper june 2016
Film Festival Showcases Wide Range of Documentaries series was conceived to organize the local filmmaking community david brensilver
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n 2014, four filmmakers from New Haven traveled—independently—to the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. There, in Missoula’s established filmmaking community, Gorman Bechard, Jacob Bricca, Lisa Molomot, and Charles Musser decided that New Haven needed an organized filmmaking community of its own. Bechard, whose film Who is Lydia Loveless?—about its namesake singer-songwriter—received its premiere in April at the Columbus International Film + Video Festival, has long lamented the lack of an organized filmmaking community here in New Haven. He’s not been impressed with the New Haven Independent Film Festival, a spinoff of Film Fest New Haven, which ran from 1995 to 2005. In 2014, the Connecticut Film Festival launched the reimagined—and, in Bechard’s eyes, disappointing—version of the erstwhile series. Musser, an author and filmmaker who teaches at Yale University, agrees that there’s a “sense of fragmentation” in the local filmmaking community. He somewhat facetiously refers to himself and Bechard as “Mr. Gownie Supreme” and “Mr. Townie Supreme”—a nod to the divide that exists to varying degrees between Yale and the rest of the New Haven community— while both acknowledging the school’s support for the NHDFF and explaining that he and his fellow film-festival organizers don’t want the event “to be a creature of Yale.” The NHDFF was conceived as a way to build a community that in small part erases that divide while being fed by both sides of it. Launched in June 2014 as a daylong event, the NHDFF has expanded to offer 10 days of programming, opening on
Darcy Dennett’s 2015 film The Champions, about the dogs who were rescued from Michael Vick’s dogfighting operation and the humans who rescued them, will be screened during the New Haven Documentary Film Festival. The screening will serve as a food and toy drive for the New Haven Animal Shelter. Image courtesy of the NHDFF.
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June 2 and continuing through June 12. While Bricca and Molomot have left the area, local documentary filmmakers Rebecca Abbott and Karyl Evans have gotten involved, helping co-directors Bechard and Musser organize the festival. Abbott, whose 2012 documentary (with Tim Malloy) Aeromedical, was screened during last year’s NHDFF, is a professor of film, television, and media arts at Quinnipiac University. Her 2015 documentary Ireland’s Great Hunger and the Irish Diaspora will be screened this year. The festival also plans to screen one of Evans’ films. “I am confident we will show at least one of Karyl’s documentaries” at this year’s festival, Musser said in an email. “Likely her most recent, Letter from Italy, 1944: A New American Oratorio (2015), but we are also considering a response to Stanley Nelson’s The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015), which left out the important events around New Haven in 1969-70. Karyl has made a documentary [African Americans in Connecticut: Civil War to Civil Rights] that deals with important aspects of that subject.” Talking about the New Haven filmmaking community or lack thereof, Abbott said, “I tend to work on my own,” pointing out that even among those for whom that’s the case, filmmakers like seeing one another’s work. Evans agreed, explaining that filmmakers who work on their own might for that reason not have abundant opportunities to meet others. “I literally have found that,” Evans said. “So as soon as I heard about this festival, I was so excited.” Local filmmaker David Pilot, whose 2014 documentary Skin in the Game will be screened during the NHDFF, sees plenty of possibility in New Haven. “I look at the glass (as being) half full, having come from New York City,” Pilot said, musing about New York, “It’s not a community for creative development. It’s a community for commerce.” Pilot believes that New Haven has a personality given to invention and entrepreneur-
ship. It’s a place brimming with talent, even if the filmmaking community is somewhat disorganized. “I think there’s an underestimation of the great value and resource that New Haven is,” he said. “I think what we have here is a great secret. You don’t need to be in New York anymore. In fact, it’s too hard a life. It’s a perfect situation here.” In addition to Yale University and other resources, New Haven is home to the International Festival of Arts & Ideas (June 10-25, this year), with which the NHDFF is partnering to bring documentary filmmaker and native New Havener Alex Gibney to town to present and discuss a number of his films, including Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), Taxi to the Dark Side (2007), Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Elliot Spitzer (2010), The Armstrong Lie (2013), and Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015). Gibney will appear in a Q&A talk and as part of a panel discussion titled “The Documentary Art of Investigation & Revelation.” All Gibney-related screenings and events will take place at the Whitney Humanities Center. Mary Lou Aleskie, the executive director of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, said, “The (Arts & Ideas) festival has had a longstanding partnership with the Yale (Summer) Film Institute. Charlie Musser, the director of the program, has been a great partner who made incredible moments for our festival over the years. From Spike Lee to John Sayles, we have been fortunate to hear from some the most influential filmmakers of our time. We are so happy that a New Haven Documentary Festival has organically emerged and is giving us the chance to recognize all those who are from our own community. In this context Alex Gibney is the perfect creator to be the center of this year’s film offerings and the festival.” Beyond the programs it’s presenting in conjunction with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, the New Haven Documentary Film Festival plans to present Darcy Dennett’s 2015 film The Champions, about
the dogs who were rescued from Michael Vick’s dogfighting operation and the humans who rescued them. The screening will serve as a food and toy drive for the New Haven Animal Shelter. The NHDFF will also present a collection of short films that deal with the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Bechard’s Who is Lydia Loveless? will be presented at Café Nine. Loveless will perform after the film is screened. At press time, a full NHDFF schedule was not available. The offerings will include at least a few student-directed films, chosen through a competition that Evans is overseeing. “We actually have a substantial group of people who make this festival happen,” Musser pointed out in an email. “They include festival manager Katherine Germano and operations coordinator Anthony Sudol (who is also a judge of the student entries), and our webmaster, Kristine Bechard. Karyl. Evans was a huge help last year—along with Michael Morand (president of the New Haven Free Public Library). … Gorman and I also worked with both Karyl and Rebecca in terms of selection. They bring people to our attention and we work together to reach filmmakers and seize opportunities.” Clearly, the New Haven Documentary Film Festival presents an opportunity for local filmmakers to be more connected. “In general,” Musser said, “we see the New Haven Documentary Film Festival as a way to build community. Filmmakers don’t know each other. And devoted documentary viewers don’t know about the powerful work being produced here in Greater New Haven, as well as Connecticut (and Rhode Island).” n
Numerous films by native New Havener Alex Gibney will be presented by the New Haven Documentary Film Festival in partnership with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Gibney will appear in a Q&A talk and as part of a panel discussion titled “The Documentary Art of Investigation & Revelation.” Image courtesy of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.
David Pilot’s 2014 documentary Skin in the Game, which chronicles the rise and fall of Internet porn sensation Raven Riley (pictured) and those around her, will be screened during the New Haven Documentary Film Festival. Photo courtesy of Mr. Pilot.
Gorman Bechard’s 2016 film Who is Lydia Loveless?—about its namesake singer-songwriter—received its premiere in April at the Columbus International Film + Video Festival. Loveless will perform an acoustic set after a screening at Café Nine during the New Haven Documentary Film Festival. Image courtesy of the NHDFF.
The New Haven Documentary Film Festival will take place June 2-12 at the Whitney Humanities Center, the New Haven Free Public Library, and Café Nine. Visit nhdocs.com for detailed festival information. Also visit artidea.org for information about programs focused on the work of Alex Gibney.
june 2016 •
The Arts Paper june 2016
Welcome to the 2016 International Festival of Arts & Ideas Dear Friends, It’s always exciting to see many years of festival planning come to life, but especially in these pages, for you, our most curious and intrepid arts and culture devotees. At 21 years of age, your festival has truly come of age! This June will see a record number of world premieres and festival commissions presented. The combination of internationally recognized artists and sought-after scholars and thought leaders makes Arts & Ideas a unique destination for extraordinary experiences, delighting globe-trotting culture-lovers as well as neighbors from around the corner. This is a festival that has something for everyone. With a focus on the things we have in common, the festival is devoted to bringing people together. Together in celebration. Together in joy. Together in understanding. Together in the things we love. A marriage of great art with big ideas addressing the pressing issues of the day, bringing us all into the action. So as we take our place, in our city, in our state, and on the world stage, we embark on a two-week-long intensive adventure through 200-plus events, all devoted to connecting us more meaningfully with who we are, where we come from, and where we live—together— because when you’re there, you’re here!
Here … at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A. Here … at a profound celebration of one another. Here … where what we share is infinitely stronger than anything that divides us. So whether it’s the legendary George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic or the incredible American premiere of the coming-of-age musical romp Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, or the world premiere of ballet star Wendy Whelan and choreographer Brian Brooks’ latest creation, Arts & Ideas audiences know they are having a unique local experience that is being talked about and watched around the world. Happy festival! Don’t miss a minute of it. Let The Arts Paper take you the behind-the-scenes. Sincerely, Mary Lou Aleskie Executive Director International Festival of Arts & Ideas For more details and tickets, visit the International Festival of Arts & Ideas on Facebook, Twitter (@artidea), Instagram (@artsideasct), and Snapchat (@artsideasct), and at artidea.org.
Mary Lou Aleskie. Photo courtesy of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.
Join the Arts Council! The Arts Council of Greater New Haven is dedicated to enhancing, developing, and promoting opportunities for artists, arts organizations, and audiences throughout the Greater New Haven area. Join us today! newhavenarts.org/membership The Arts Paper Read our feature articles and download the latest edition. issuu.com/artscouncil9 #ARTNHV Blog The Arts Council’s blog, which covers all things art in Greater New Haven. artNHV.com Arts Council on Facebook Get the inside scoop on what’s happening in the arts now! facebook.com/artscouncilofgreaternewhaven
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Photography Judy Sirota Rosenthal info@sirotarosenthal.com www.sirotarosenthal.com 203-281-5854
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The Arts Paper june 2016
Music Lineup Explores Different Sounds, Themes free concert series is rich in cultural, stylistic diversity lucile bruce Downbeats, upbeats, backbeats, heartbeats. Whatever your taste, you’ll find it this month as the International Festival of Arts & Ideas continues its annual tradition of offering free evening concerts on the New Haven Green. This year’s program features new and established bands with cross-cultural sensibilities, musicians building on their own traditions while finding new sounds via musical combinations and experimentation. At a moment in which many people—in the United States and around the world— feel uncertain about what the future may bring, this lineup of artists demonstrates a relentless optimism about the human spirit and a fierce belief in the power of music to speak to what is truest and most important in life. The legendary George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic kick off the series on Saturday, June 11. The “Godfather of Funk,” as Clinton is known, invented his distinctive style of funk music in the late 1960s and dominated the African American musical scene throughout the 1970s. At 74, he’s a giant in American popular music whose first New Haven performance is not to be missed. “When people find out George Clinton is coming they go nuts,” Chad Herzog, the festival’s program director, said. “We’re very excited to have him.” Just a few days after the death of the rock icon Prince,
George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic will present a free concert on the New Haven Green. Photo of Mr. Clinton by William Thoren.
Free Admission & Parking 1 State Street, New Haven, Connecticut 203-865-0400 • kofcmuseum.org
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The Arts Paper june 2016
Herzog mentioned that it was Prince who introduced Clinton when Clinton and his band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “They built Parliament Funkadelic and changed the world,” Prince said, speaking at the induction ceremony in 1997. “There was something futuristic about Parliament Funkadelic, and that was only fitting because they played a huge role in creating the future of music. “Needless to say he’s been a big influence on me and everyone I know,” he said. “That’s all we talk about. That’s all we groove on.” The series continues on Sunday, June 12 when Grammy Award winner Lila Downs returns for her second appearance at the festival. Downs offers a completely different yet similarly experimental sound: Shifting gears in terms of style, genre, culture, and gender, she and her band combine soaring vocals with traditional Mexican music and Latin American hip-hop, jazz, blues, and klezmer influences. Downs last performed at the festival in 2007 against the real-time backdrop of federal raids targeting illegal immigrants in New Haven. The raids started on June 7, right before the festival began; This year, immigration is once again in the news—in heated and sometimes hateful presidential campaign rhetoric and as the U.S. Supreme Court debates legal matters (in United States v. Texas) that will determine whether the non-citizen parents of children who are U.S. citizens can be deported. “We need voices like hers more than ever now,” Herzog said, reflecting on the way Downs’ music crosses borders, transcends categories, and offers powerful commentary on some of the most urgent social questions of our time. During the festival’s middle weekend, on June 18, 47SOUL and M.A.K.U. SoundSystem take the festival stage for the first time. “47SOUL is one of our eight U.S. premiers,” Herzog noted. “This is their first trip to America.” The band performs Palestinian street music in new ways for a globally expanding audience. The 47SOUL website describes it this way: “Their sound is rooted in Arabic Dabke, the celebration dance music from the Bilad Al-Sham area, the name for the land that spans Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan. 47SOUL hypes it up with analog synthesizers, drum machines, epic guitar lines, and tripped-out English and Arabic verses from the four singers. The electronic and urban influence in their music takes them far out of the ‘world music’ context and places them in the genre of a new generation of international electronic/hip hop acts that are reinventing the old for the future.” Of the band’s sound—called “ShamStep”— Herzog said, “When you hear it, if you don’t move to it, there’s some-
Lila Downs. Photo by Alex Z.
thing wrong.” In fact, explains the 47SOUL website, ShamStep is all about freedom of movement, “whether that’s sparking new dance styles or singing about breaking down border check points.” M.A.K.U. SoundSystem follows 47SOUL on the same evening.
“When people find out George Clinton is coming, they go nuts.”
—Chad Herzog
“We have a collision of sounds happening that night,” Herzog said. Based in New York City, M.A.K.U. is an immigrant band whose musicians hail mostly from Colombia. “Their music blends so well with 47SOUL, yet is so different,” Herzog mused, predicting that it’s going to be impossible to sit still that night. Between 47SOUL’s freedom of movement themes and MAKU’s motto—“We put on a party for everyday people”— concertgoers should be prepared to kick off their shoes and dance.
On June 19, Red Baraat, an eight-piece band from Brooklyn, returns to the festival with its North Indian-style rock/ jazz fusion sound. Red Baraat is rooted in the tradition of the 17th century Indian brass band. Sunny Jain, a master dhol player (an Indian drum) and the band’s leader and founder, is a second-generation American, born to Punjabi immigrants who came to the United States in the 1970s. He grew up in Rochester, New York, and experienced brass bands while traveling in India as a child. Many different people and cultures surrounded him throughout his childhood in Rochester— what he describes as “a swirl of everything.” “There’s a long tradition of brass bands in India, akin to the regional ‘territory bands’ that were all over the U.S. in the 1930s,” Jain explained. “People assume our sound is influenced by the New Orleans brass tradition. It shares qualities with New Orleans jazz, but the main impetus was the experience I had as a child hearing Indian brass bands.” Red Baraat consists of percussion and horns including trumpet, trombone, and sousaphone; a guitar player was only recently added. “A couple of years before I started the band,” Jain said, “I was feeling the push to engage people on another mission beyond just art. I wanted to speak to certain issues that mattered to me.” Often, he said, people first notice what the band looks like. With musicians of Indian, African American, Korean, and European descent, including one Sikh and one Jewish member, Red Baraat embodies a global multiculturalism that’s rare in any context including the professional music scene. Yet, Jain said, “It isn’t something I’ve focused on. This is the community I’ve always played with and I grew up with. “This is the world we’re living in,” he added. “Let’s all get out of our boxes and understand that.” The cultural influences of all the players imbue the “voice” of Red Baraat’s amalgamated sound. “It’s a big, hearty journey that we take people on,” Jain said. “It’s not a sit-back-and-watch show. We’re engaging the audience. It’s a community experience for everyone. We rely on the audience as much as they rely on us.” On June 25, the festival’s closing night, circus company Cirque Mechanics will be accompanied onstage by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra in a huge spectacle performance, the troupe’s daring feats made possible by a pedal-powered apparatus called the “Gantry Bike.” This family friendly event caps off the festival’s daylong celebration of the 150th anniversary of the modern-day bicycle design being patented in New Haven by Pierre Lallement. For all their variety and uniqueness, this year’s headliners have at least one thing in common: They remind us of the unbounded joy and possibility that come from combining seemingly disparate elements to form something new. “It’s going to be a great time,” Herzog said. n
Dhol player and Red Baraat bandleader Sunny Jain. Photo by Polina Yamschikov.
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The Arts Paper june 2016
Festival to Present Lots of New Work, New Faces program features two world premieres, eight u.s. premieres, and three commissions david brensilver
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s a manifestation of the strategic plan that was put in place in March 2013, the leadership at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas last year implemented a Fund for the Future Campaign designed to increase the organization’s capital reserves to $3 million, with an eye in part on funding the creation and presentation of new works. At press time, the campaign, which was launched in November 2014 and will continue into September of this year, has raised $2.4 million. This year’s festival will present two world premieres and eight U.S. premieres. Three works that will be presented as part of the 2016 program were commissioned by the International
Festival of Arts & Ideas. After celebrating its 20 year in 2015, the festival’s leadership set their sights on “empowering artists and making an investment in a way that allowed them to make projects that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to make without our support,” Executive Director Mary Lou Aleskie said. To that end, the Fund for the Future Campaign is as much an “awareness-raising campaign,” Aleskie said, as it is a fundraising effort. Thinking about the festival in a yearto-year way, she said, is just the “tip of the iceberg,” a “short-term look” at the larger mission. The fundraising effort helps the organization operate in a three-year planning and budgeting process and “smooths the line of volatility” in the economy, Aleskie said. It allows the festival to look ahead, and not just at the next season. In his artist statement, Chad Herzog, the festival’s (relatively) new programming director, having arrived in New Haven on the day last June that the festival began, writes: “As a cultural curator, I create an environment for artists to make new work.
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Kaleider’s The Money will have its U.S. premiere at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Photo by Steve Tanner/Kaleider.
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I develop an audience that can experience their work.” To Herzog, the festival’s future is about “making sure that new work is being made and then seen.” “If we’re not doing that, who’s going to?” he asked rhetorically. When he arrived at the festival last year, several programming cornerstones for 2016 had been identified, including Steel Hammer, a work by SITI Company, composer Julia Wolfe, and the New Yorkbased contemporary-music ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars that takes as its inspiration the legend of African American folk hero John Legend; Restless Creature, a dance duet by dancers-choreographers Wendy Whelan and Brian Brooks; and a new work by composer Maria Schneider. While Steel Hammer premiered in 2014 at the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival of New American Plays, new dance work by Whelan and Brooks and new music by Schneider will be presented this year at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, which commissioned them. A consortium of New England-based arts presenters (including the International Festival of Arts & Ideas) commissioned new work from Schneider and will present that music this season. Restless Creature, a work that Whelan created with fellow choreographers Kyle Abraham, Josh Beamish, Brooks, and Alejandro Cerrudo, received its premiere in 2013 at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts. Aleskie and her colleagues at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas had been planning to bring it here, but that never happened. Instead, the festival decided to play a role, along with The Joyce Theater and the Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond, in the development of a new project involving Whelan and Brooks. The result, Some of a Thousand Words, will premiere at the festival this month. Herzog was careful to point out that “we’re not playing an artistic role here. We’re creating an opportunity for these artists to make (new work).” Whelan and Brooks first collaborated on First Fall, a duet conceived in 2012 that was premiered as part of Restless Creature. The piece was set to music by Philip Glass performed by the New York-based string
Trumpet player Piotr Damasiewicz leads his namesake quintet in a program called Off the Charts with the Bang On a Can All-Stars. Photo courtesy of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.
quartet Brooklyn Rider. The ensemble will provide music for Some of a Thousand Words, another collection of dance works. Whelan, who retired from the New York City Ballet in 2014 having served an apprenticeship with the company in 1984 and joined the troupe in 1986, said the new work will be the yield of Brooks’ ideas. The project, she said, is “bringing our collaboration to a different place than where it was” and establishing “a deeper connection.” “I know his vocabulary a little bit more,” she said. “I know his method of creating.” Part of what the festival is doing, in supporting artists like Whelan, Brooks, and Schneider, is fostering relationships between those folks and between artists and new audiences. For three Polish jazz ensembles, that means performing in the United States for the first time. In a program called “Off the Charts,” the Bang on a Can All-Stars will share a bill with the Marcin Wasilewski
Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, Lee Hall’s adaptation of Alan Warner’s novel The Sopranos, receives its U.S. premiere at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. The show, a co-production of the National Theatre of Scotland and Live Theatre (Newcastle), is directed by National Theatre of Scotland founding Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone. Photo by Manuel Harlan.
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Trio, the Obara International Quartet, and the Piotr Damasiewicz Quintet. “These guys are huge throughout Europe,” Herzog said of the Polish groups. “They’re players.” The idea of presenting the jazz groups on a program with Bang on a Can All-Stars “is that ensemble music is broader than any single definition,” Aleskie said. “Blurring borders is what this is all about in many ways, both in form and geography.” “To bring European jazz to the states, man, that’s a struggle,” Piotr Turkiewicz, a Wrocław, Poland-based producer said. “We’re doing this because we’re lucky.” Turkiewicz knows Aleskie from their service on the board of the International Society for the Performing Arts. He’s vice president of the European Jazz Network; the artistic director of Jazztopad, a festival in Wrocław; and the head of developing and programming at that city’s National Music Forum performance hall. In Poland, he refers to Jazztopad—a 10-day festival in Wrocław with editions in other countries—as a contemporary improvisation festival. Using the word “jazz,” he said, would have people expecting mainstream swing. Expectations can be delightful things to play with, and The Money, among other festival programs, does just that. A “play experience,” as described by producer Emily Williams, that will have its U.S. premiere at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, The Money was conceived by Seth Honnor, the artistic director at Kaleider, an organization that was created in 2012 to “make work that was playable and invited audiences to play a role,” Williams (the organization’s executive producer) said. “All of the work that we make asks the audience to be active.” The Money is a site-responsive piece that will take place inside The Quinnipiack Club. The gist of the piece, without giving too much away, is that audience members
can sit and watch as “Silent Witnesses” or participate as “Benefactors” who put up a few bucks and work with one another to decide how their pooled money will be spent. It’s a game, and it’s also theater. “We kind of talk about it as a ‘play experience’ that you have choice in,” Williams explained. “It isn’t a social experiment,” she said. “It is a piece of art.” When researchers have asked Kaleider for data, the organization has declined to give it up. “This is Arts & Ideas in toto,” Aleskie said. The work presented by the International Festival of Arts & Ideas is really about the artistic expression of progressive ideas. It’s about art and ideas being inextricably linked. In coming here from Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where he worked as the director of performing arts and curator of college’s performance series, Herzog said, “Paying attention to that ampersand was very important to me.” Giving a platform to innovative artists, Aleskie said, is a priority that is “organically connected to our values and who we are.” n Visit artidea.org to learn about the two world premieres, the eight U.S. premieres, and the three works commissioned by the International Festival of Arts & Ideas that will be presented during this year’s festival. Follow the International Festival of Arts & Ideas on Facebook, Twitter (@artidea), Instagram (@artsideasct), and Snapchat (@artsideasct).
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All About the Ampersand at 21, ideas programming gets a facelift lucy gellman
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lmost exactly a year ago, International Festival of Arts & Ideas Program Manager Alex Ripp had a revelation: 20 years into the festival, thousands of New Haveners still didn’t know about the Ideas programming that existed, completely free of charge, to benefit the public. “I’ll never forget,” she said. “Last year, we had a meeting with some community members, and I was there to talk about programming. I said: ‘There’s this Ideas series,’ and they said ‘What? Like, it’s free?’ We had people who were part of pop-up committees and they just didn’t know. I think it’s tucked away.” She could understand the problem on its surface. Several of the Ideas events took place at Yale University venues, to which members of the New Haven public didn’t always feel welcome. The university also hadn’t done a great job of opening its arms wide to the community. The festival had pedaled the programming as something intellectual. Not everyone was going to be interested in that, she conceded. But she also saw an alarming reality: If people didn’t attend the Ideas programming—events that covered hands-on technical ballet to food science to puppetry—the series could be a case-study in wasted potential. She left the meeting with a new goal: to let people know about the festival. Like, really let people know. After all, what was the point of something intended to bring the community together if the community wasn’t biting? That was March 2015. A year later, she and Chad Herzog, the festival’s new programming director, are barreling toward that with a careful but optimistic approach, making the city’s 21st festival “all about the ampersand”—one of festival Executive Director Mary Lou Aleskie’s favorite adages around the office—in a way that is bigger and tighter than ever before. “It [Ideas] hasn’t always been the sexiest part,” said Herzog. “I like to think we’ve worked at making it sexier by talking about it.” “We are a city of ideas, but they shouldn’t just be confined to the ivory tower, and they don’t need to be,” said Ripp. “I think everything should be smart and intelligent and interesting, but it shouldn’t be inaccessible and dry. We’re also thinking about how we can keep evolving, and I think the series has been changing.”
a season of changes And changing it is, fast. While the 20th iteration of the festival looked back to go forward, introducing programming that both commemorated the event’s history and suggested the path it might next take, this year’s program is keeping a keen eye on activities that do more to engage New Haven’s cultural communities, particularly
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the city’s youth, and encourage interdisciplinary thought among those new to A&I, who may well be the future of the festival. That’s the idea behind the first annual Citywide Youth Summit, intended to honor young, often disenfranchised and ignored New Haven voices when it convenes downtown on Sunday June 12. Moderated by Youth Activism Project Director Wendy Lesko, the summit will be the first Ideas event of its kind to give the floor entirely to youth, something Aleskie has said is increasingly important to her as she considers the diversity of the city. In particular, the summit will give A&I fellows—high school sophomores and juniors from around the city, who help prepare the festival each year as a learnby-living-it kind of tool—a chance to shine. “The idea of youth on stage as panelists
“We are a city of ideas, but they shouldn’t just be confined to the ivory tower, and they don’t need to be.” —Alex Ripp is something that’s been in the works for a long time, and it’s just coming to fruition,” said Ripp. “It started last year with the Town Hall … the festival fellows ran that. But beyond that, I really want young people to be in the audience. I don’t want it to seem like this is scary adult stuff.” The Town Hall was an A&I forum intended to directly engage the New Haven community through discussion about what was happening on the ground in the city. But the programming doesn’t stop there. If the summit starts with a multitude of voices, it also delves into a multitude of programming, teasing out the thick cultural webbing that exists between arts programs like Steel Hammer, a retelling of the John Henry legend, and accessibility- and labor-related talks around the 150th birthday of the bicycle being patented in New Haven. Don’t fret if that’s not your thing; Ripp and Herzog have also devised new ways to incorporate medicine, science, gastronomy, and the performing arts. A June 23 panel titled “Alzheimers, Aging, and the Arts,” will follow Chinese puppeteer Maleonn Ma through a short performance,
researchers Mary S. Mittelman and Arash Salardini parsing through it with creative producer Maureen Towey after the fact. The panel was born out of Ma’s visit earlier this year, when he and Salardini, co-director of the Yale Memory Clinic and associate leader of clinical core at the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Yale, struck up a discussion about arts engagement and memory loss. The two stayed in touch, Ma ultimately agreeing to return for the summer. Or Writing Home, a completely new commission that asks writers Veronica Gonzalez Peña, Emanuel Xavier, and Francisco Goldman, all immigrants to the United States, what home means to them in a moment of alarming momentum from an anti-immigrant, anti-refugee faction of the right wing. In addition to its tie back to works like Steel Hammer, Ripp said, it may strike a chord with New Haveners who have welcomed refugees to several of the city’s neighborhoods this year. “Many times, when artists are touring around the world, they’re asked to do some kind of outreach or audience-development program,” Herzog explained. “Oftentimes a theater maker may be holding a masterclass in a theater with theater students, or a musician is doing the same thing on stage with other musicians. To be able to get them outside of that comfort zone to something they’re into, encouraged to do, and want to be doing is what makes these talks pretty exciting for not just us, but for them as artists.” Ripp added that she hopes that this festival differs from years past in its ability to let students, young adults, and global citizens of all ages know that it’s so much better to open yourself to the possibility of something new—to live on that ampersand where connections are constantly made—than to forego an activity because it might not totally hit the mark. “I think a huge boon of Ideas is that it’s free,” Ripp said. “I say to people: ‘If you go, and you don’t like it, I don’t want you to leave, but you can leave. You can sit in the back and leave! It’s trying something new and there’s no risk. You could learn something new.” n
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The Arts Paper june 2016
CALENDAR
Classes & Workshops
Exhibitions
Connecticut Natural Science Illustrators Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, 170 Whitney Ave. 203-695-1215. ctnsi.com. Art Classes. Mixed Media Painting, Drawing from the Dioramas, Flowers Through the Microscope, Plein Air Sketching, Drawing and Painting Feathers, and Painting Shorebirds. Classes offered Monday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Visit website for more information or email ctnsi.info@gmail.com.
Guilford Art Center 411 Church Street, Guilford. 203453-5947. guilfordartcenter.org. Bowls: A National Juried Exhibition. This exhibit explores the continuing vitality of this simplest, most ancient, and most elemental of forms, as exemplified in the work of contemporary artists. On view June 17-July 31. Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sunday, 12-4 p.m. Free. Kehler Liddell Gallery 873 Whalley Ave., New Haven. 203-389-9555. kehlerliddellgallery.com. Home Away, Home/Home, Not Home. Variations on a theme: two new photography shows premiere at Kehler Liddell Gallery beginning June 2: Home Away, Home by Marjorie Gillette Wolfe and Home, Not Home by Mark K. St. Mary. The show runs through July 3. See website for schedule and gallery hours. Opening reception: Saturday, June 11, 4-7p.m. Free.
Guilford Art Center 411 Church St, Guilford. 203-453-5947. guilfordartcenter.org. Summer Classes and Workshops. Register now for summer classes and workshops for youth and adults. Special half-day and full-day summer programs available for 3 1/2 year olds and older youngsters. Programs run June 20-August 12. Private Art Instruction For adults and children. Learn in a working artist’s studio. Ideal for artists, home-schooled youngsters, and those with special needs. Portfolio preparation offered. Draw, paint, print, and make collage in a spacious light-filled studio at Erector Square in New Haven. Relaxed and professional. I can also come to you. Lessons created to suit individual. References available. Email lizpagano@snet.net. Suzanne Siegel Studio 2351 Boston Post Road, Building 2, Suite 210, Guilford. 203-215-1468. suzannesiegel.net. Painting Workshops. Watercolor workshops with Brooklyn-based guest artist Elizabeth O’Reilly, and more. Workshops ongoing through June 30. See workshops page on website. Beginning Watercolor, all levels, June 3-5; Elizabeth O’Reilly’s watercolor workshops, all levels, June 11-12; 100 Works of Art in a Weekend: Water-based Mixed Media, all levels, July 9 -10; Contemporary Approaches with Watercolor, all levels, ongoing through August 1.
New Haven Lawn Club 193 Whitney Ave., New Haven. 203-777-3494. debralee.cook@gmail.com. Alternate Perspectives. An exhibition of 20 architecturally oriented watercolor paintings by Daniel Rosner (emeritus professor of chemistry, Yale University) and 18 intriguing photos by Bridgeport-based artist Penrhyn Cook will be on display. On view through July 11. Open daily, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission to exhibition is free. Price lists available. This astrolabe, made in 1537 by German engineer and astronomer Georg Hartmann, is the oldest object in the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History’s collection of historical scientific instruments. It is featured in the exhibit Treasures of the Peabody: 150 Years of Exploration and Discovery, on view through January 8, 2017. Photo by Robert Lorenz, courtesy of the Peabody.
Dance 11 Saturday Neighborhood Music School Dance Concert Ballet program at 11 a.m.; modern, tap, and jazz programs at 1 p.m.; teen and adult divisions
at 3:30 p.m. Celebrating the 33rd year of the dance program at NMS, we will feature works by students of all ages who have worked on collaborative choreography in several different dance genres. ACES Educational Center for the Arts Hall, 55 Audubon St., New Haven. 203624-5189. neighborhoodmusicschool.org.
New Haven Museum 114 Whitney Ave., New Haven. 203-562-4183. newhavenmuseum.org. Fun, Fascinating and Made in the Elm City. “From Clocks to Lollipops: Made in New Haven,” highlights an astonishing variety of goods that were, and some that still are, produced in the Elm City. The exhibition runs through September 3 and features more than 100 objects, advertisements, trade cards, photographs and more, with a wide-ranging products made in New Haven. On view Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and Saturday, 12-5 p.m. Free the first Sunday of each month, 1-4 p.m. Perspectives ... The gallery at Whitney Center 200 Leeder Hill Drive, South Entrance, Hamden. Knack. This exhibition, presented by The Arts Council of Greater New Haven and the Whitney Center and curated by Debbie Hesse, brings together artists, artisans, and teachers who are affiliated with regional service organizations that support artistic practices through training programs, workshops, and community interaction with the goal of promoting creative self-expression, job creation, wellness, and community integration. The exhibition features art created by affiliates of Chapel Haven, Universal Arts, Opportunity House, Fellowship Place, Marrakech, East Street Arts, Play with Grace, and Vista Live Innovations. On view Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4-7 p.m., and Saturdays, 1-4 p.m., through September 6.
Susan Powell Fine Art, in Madison, presents Visions of Land and Sea, an exhibition of shoreline scenes, June 24-July 29. Pictured here is Deborah Quinn-Munson’s Shimmering Light. Image courtesy of the gallery.
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Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery Arts Council of Greater New Haven, 70 Audubon St., 2nd Floor, New Haven. 203-772-2788. newhavenarts.org. Mono is Many. The Arts Council of Greater New Haven presents Mono is Many, an exhibition curated by Debbie Hesse and Jennifer Van Elswyk. Artists have long been drawn to the seductive appeal of the monoprint for its immediate, painterly quality. A lowtech printmaking approach, the monoprints offers artists opportunities to explore color, composition, repetition, and variation from a fixed image. Mono is Many explores the many ways artists are adapting this time-old technique, through their unique vision and experimentation within the medium, to investigate contemporary concerns. Opening reception: Thursday, June 2, 5-7 p.m. Free and open to the public. The exhibition is on view Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., through June 17.
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Creative Arts Workshop faculty member Barbara Harder, left, works with student Abigail Wilcox during a recent printmaking class. The summer term at CAW begins on June 20. Photo by Katrina Goldburn.
Artfarm will hold a June 17 fundraising event called “Shakespeare Goes to Italy” to benefit its annual Shakespeare in the Grove production. This year, the organization will stage Goldoni’s Servant of Two Masters July 13-24. The June 17 fundraising event at the Community Health Center in Middletown will feature a taste of commedia dell’ arte, as well as wine and food. Pictured is Artfarm Executive Director Dic Wheeler in the role of commedia dell’ arte character Arlecchino. Photo submitted.
Susan Powell Fine Art 679 Boston Post Road, Madison. 203-318-0616. susanpowellfineart.com. Visions of Land and Sea. On view are 70 marine and beach scenes, shoreline landscapes, and marsh and river views by 25 award-winning artists. “Each painting evokes the memory of an everyday summer moment and simple beauty of nature,” says gallery owner Susan Powell. Join us for hors d’oeuvres and meet the artists on Friday, June 24, from 5-8 p.m. On view June 24-July 29. Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sundays and other times by appointment. Free.
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History 170 Whitney Ave., New Haven. 203-432-5050. peabody.yale.edu. Treasures of the Peabody: 150 Years of Exploration and Discovery. It’s the 150th anniversary of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Founded in 1866 with a generous gift from international financier George Peabody, the museum has served as a world leader for 150 years in the collection, preservation, and study of objects that document the diversity and history of both nature and humanity. On view through January 8, 2017. Hours: Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, 12-5 p.m. $6-$13.
Whitney Humanities Center 53 Wall St., New Haven. 203-432-0670. whc.yale.edu/gallery-whitney. Painting in Time: Discovery, Analysis, and Interpretation of a Roman Shield. The current exhibit presents a multidisciplinary study of one of the site’s most unique artifacts and one of archaeology’s rarest finds—a wooden Roman shield painted with scenes from the Trojan War. On view through June 15. During fall and spring term, the Gallery at the Whitney is open to the public Monday and Wednesday, 3-5 p.m., or by appointment at 203-432-0670. Free.
Yale University Art Gallery, Robert L. McNeil Jr. Lecture Hall Yale Center for British Art, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. 203-432-2800. britishart.yale.edu. Modernism and Memory: Rhoda Pritzker and the Art of Collecting. In celebration of its reopening this spring, the Yale Center for British Art presents a special exhibition highlighting the collection of modern British Art formed by Rhoda Pritzker (1914-2007). On view through August 21. Free and open to the public!
Yale Institute of Sacred Music 409 Prospect Street, New Haven. 203-432-3220. ism.yale.edu/calendar. Between Clock and Bed. Exhibition curated by Jon seals (MAR ‘15). Works by Laura Mosquera, Natalija Mijatovic, Kirsten Moran, Stephen Knudsen, Kenny Jensen, and Ronnie Rysz. On view through June 2. Exhibition hours are weekdays, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Free and open to the general public.
3 Friday
Galas & Fundraisers Black & White Gala 2016 Support Guilford Art Center at this fundraising event at Pine Orchard Yacht & Country Club. This year’s fun theme is adult coloring books. Guests will receive signature cocktails, dinner, dancing to live music, and live and silent auctions. There will also be a full-color candy bar of sweet treats! Tickets available at guilfordartcenter.org. Guilford Art Center, 411 Church St., Guilford. 203-453-5947.
Lys Guillorn, left, and Chris Arnott will cohost a Bloomsday celebration at the Best Video Film and Cultural Center on June 16 with readings and musical performances by special guests honoring James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses. Photos submitted.
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The Arts Paper june 2016
Neighborhood Music School’s annual Spring Dance Concert takes place on June 11 and will feature performances by students of all ages from the school’s ballet, jazz, modern, and tap-dance programs. Photo by Stephanie Anestis.
5 Sunday Cabaret & Cocktails Enjoy drinks and hors d’oeuvres at Harvest, on the outdoor patio. Featured performers include the new Audubon Voices Youth Chorus; “The Quintessentials” adult vocal ensemble; members of the Cabaret Class; and two young vocal students. This event will raise funds to support Neighborhood Music School’s tuition-free Audubon Voices program! Sponsored by Robinson & Cole. Harvest Wine Bar, 1104 Chapel St., New Haven. 203-624-5189. neighborhoodmusicschool.org.
17 Friday Shakespeare Goes to Italy Rooftop Gala For its 11th season of Shakespeare in the Grove, Artfaram is producing Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters. The show runs July 13-24. This fundraiser features Italian wines and food, music, theater, and a taste of commedia dell’ arte. Join the Artfarm ensemble and board for a spectacular night overlooking the river valley. Community Health Center, 675 Main St., Middletown. 860-346-4390. art-farm.org.
Kids & Families Yale University Art Gallery, Robert L. McNeil Jr. Lecture Hall 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. 203432-2800. britishart.yale.edu. Children’s Film Festival. The annual Children’s Film Festival at the Yale Center for British Art will feature inspiring and award-winning independent short films for a young audience. This year the festival is expanding to a full day of programming, which includes filmmaking activities, screenings for multiple ages, as well as a
• june 2016
feature film (showing at 3:30 p.m.) for everyone. June 11, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Audience members may come and go as they please and admission is free. No registration required. Free and open to the public!
Music 2 Thursday, 4 Saturday, 5 Sunday John Williams in Concert The New Haven Symphony Orchestra presents music by the award-winning composer. Led by NHSO principal pops conductor Chelsea Tipton, the NHSO performs iconic movie music from Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, and other films. KidTix and Blue Star Tickets are sponsored by Frontier. KidTix and Blue Star Tickets available. $10 student tickets with ID. June 2, 7:30 p.m., Shubert Theater, 247 College St., New Haven. The Symphony at the Shubert Series is sponsored by Marcum, LLC. $15-$74. June 4, 2:30 p.m., Hamden Middle School, 2623 Dixwell Ave., Hamden. $35/$49. June 5, 3 p.m., Shelton Intermediate School, 675 Constitution Blvd. North, Shelton. $35/$49. Shelton Pops Series sponsored by RD Scinto. 203-865-0831. NewHavenSymphony.org.
4 Saturday Music Haven Summer Performance Party Music Haven kicks off its 10th anniversary with performances by our 80 students—plus many more fun acts and family friendly activities all day! (Rain location: Wexler-Grant School, 55 Foote St., New Haven.) Admission is free. For more information about Music Haven, visit musichavenct.org. 12 p.m. Scantlebury Park, 139 Ashmun, New Haven. 203-745-9030.
5 Sunday
30 Thursday
Silent Movie Family Matinee Our youngest audience members love Orchestra New England’s silent-movie event, with Maestro James Sinclair directing a delightful live accompaniment to classic films of the 1920s. A fun, free popcorn reception follows this annual family concert! 4 p.m. Reserved seating $35, general admission $20, students $5, family of three $50, family of four $70. Co-Op High School Theater, 177 College St., New Haven. 203-777-4690. orchestranewengland.org.
Nation Beat Dance to northeast Brazilian grooves and New Orleans funk as the Brooklyn-based collective Nation Beat returns to Wesleyan University. 7 p.m. Free. Wesleyan University Center for the Arts, CFA Courtyard, Washington Terrace, Middletown. 860-685-3355. wesleyan.edu/cfa.
9 Thursday & 12 Sunday
Exhibition Tours Docent-led tours of Modernism and Memory: Rhoda Pritzker and the Art of Collecting. Tours offered June 4-August 21. Thursdays at 11 a.m. and Sundays at 1 p.m. Docent-led tours of the special exhibition The Poet of Them All: William Shakespeare and Miniature Designer Bindings from the Collection of Neale and Margaret Albert. Tours offered June 16-August 14. Thursdays at 11 a.m. and Sundays at 1 p.m. Special tours June 17 and June 18 at 2 p.m. and August 20 at 11 a.m. Free and open to the public! Yale University Art Gallery, Robert L. McNeil Jr. Lecture Hall, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. 203-432-2800. britishart.yale.edu. Please meet in the Entrance Court.
Playing Images with the Haven String Quartet An exploration of music and art with the Haven String Quartet and Jessica Sack, the Jan and Frederick Mayer Senior Associate Curator of Public Education at Yale University. Explore how combining sound and sight can enhance what you see and hear. Featuring live music, this talk connects close listening to music with close looking at art. June 9 at 5:30 p.m. and June 12 at 3 p.m. Free. Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. 203-745-9030. musichavenct.org.
11-16 Saturday-Thursday Music Haven presents: The String Quartet Truck In conjunction with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, the Haven String Quartet brings classical music to the streets of New Haven with the String Quartet Truck. The truck stops at various locations in New Haven through June 11-16. For daily updates during the festival, visit stringquartettruck.com. Free. Music Haven, 117 Whalley Ave., New Haven. 203-745-9030. musichavenct.org.
Talks & Tours
15 Wednesday Exhibition Opening Lecture In this opening lecture, James Reid-Cunningham will explore the complex balance of art and craft in artistic bookbinding in the 21st century, as illustrated in The Poet of Them All: William Shakespeare and Miniature Designer Bindings from the Collection of Neale and Margaret Albert. Lecture beings at 5:30 p.m. Free and open to the public! Yale University Art Gallery, Robert L. McNeil Jr. Lecture Hall, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. 203-432-2800. britishart.yale.edu.
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28 Tuesday Aaron Jafferis: Preaching from the Choir: Can Hip Hop Theater Change Us? Hip-hop poet and playwright Aaron Jafferis performs excerpts of works in progress and grapples with existential questions. 12:10 p.m. Free. Wesleyan University Center for the Arts, Ring Family Performing Arts Hall (Former CFA Hall), 287 Washington Terrace, Middletown. 860-6853355. wesleyan.edu/cfa.
Bulletin Board Policies and Rates
Theater Kinky Boots Broadway’s huge-hearted, highheeled hit! With songs by Grammy- and Tony-winning pop icon Cyndi Lauper, this joyous musical celebration is about the friendships we discover and the belief that you can change the world when you change your mind. June 8-12. Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday at 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 p.m. & 8 p.m.; Sunday at 1 p.m. & 6:30 p.m. Prices vary by performance and seat location. Shubert Theater, 247 College St., New Haven. 203-5625666. shubert.com.
The Arts Paper Bulletin Board Listings Policies and Rates, effective with the December 2015 issue.
The Haven String Quartet/Music Haven’s String Quartet Truck will appear around town during the month of June. Visit musichavenct.org for a schedule. Photo by Kathleen Cei.
Services and Space Listings must be arts related. Listings are limited to 350 characters (this includes spaces). All listings must be paid in advance for publication.
The Arts Paper advertising and calendar deadlines: The deadline for advertisements and calendar listings for the July-August 2016 issue of The Arts Paper is: Tuesday, May 31, at 5 p.m.
Call for Artists and Volunteer listings are FREE and must be art related.
Classes & Workshops listings should be posted to our online calendar page and is a membership privilege.
RATES Organizations/Businesses The Mario Pavone Trio appears on June 3 at Firehouse 12 as part of the venue’s spring jazz series. Photo of Mr. Pavone by Enid Farber.
Future deadlines are as follows: September 2016: Monday, July 25, 5 p.m. October 2016: Monday, August 29, 5 p.m.
Member organizations and businesses are entitled to three complimentary classified listings in The Arts Paper per year. Listings are also posted on the Arts Council’s website, newhavenarts.org. Rates: $15 per listing, three listings for $30. Listings must be paid for in advance.
Artists
November 2016: Monday, September 26, 5 p.m.
Individual artist members are entitled to one complimentary classified listing per year. Rates: $10 per listing, three listings for $25. Listings must be paid for in advance.
December 2016: Friday, October 28, 5 p.m. January-February 2017: Monday, November 28, 5 p.m.
Non-members Rates: $20 per listing, three listings for $50. Listings must be paid for in advance.
Calendar listings are for Arts Council members only and should be submitted online at newhavenarts. org. Arts Council members can request a username and password by sending an e-mail to communications@newhavenarts.org.
Please note that the size limitation of listings is 350 characters with spaces. The Arts Council reserves the right to edit your listing for length or content. The Arts Council provides these listings as a service to the community and is not responsible for the content or deadlines. Call for Artists/Volunteers are free and open to all arts organizations, educational institutions, and creative businesses.
The Arts Council’s online calendar includes listings for programs and events taking place within 12 months of the current date. Listings submitted by the calendar deadline are included on a monthly basis in The Arts Paper.
To submit a Bulletin Board listing Tamisha Guy in Kyle Abraham’s Absent Matter, which the choreographer’s company, Abraham.In.Motion, will perform at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas as part of a larger presentation called Live Music Program, a collaboration with jazz artist Robert Glasper. Photo by Ellen Crane Photography.
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please email your listing to: communications@newhavenarts.org.
june 2016 •
The Arts Paper june 2016
BULLETIN BOARD Call For Artist Members The Kehler Liddell Gallery in New Haven is seeking applications from new prospective members. Visit kehlerliddell.com/ membership for more information. Artists Enjoy a day of art and entertainment in celebration of the local community in downtown New Haven. The Shops at Yale invite all professional and amateur artists, students, and artist groups to participate in the first New Haven Chalk Art Festival on Broadway Island in the heart of Yale University and the Broadway Shopping District. Please fill out the registration form to secure a space (spaces limited) and to be eligible for the grand prize. There is no cost to participate, however you must submit one or more sketches of your artwork by August 12. Participants must submit the registration form by end of day August 12. Please call or email Stephanie McDonald with any questions: 203982-0676. For more information and to register visit theshopsatyale.com/chalkart. Artists Call for Entries: The Loft Artists Association presents Lost and Found, a Tri-State juried exhibition, September 8-October 2, held at the Loft Artists Galleries, 575 Pacific St. Stamford. Artists in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey are invited to submit their entries electronically no later than July 18. Cash awards totaling $1,000 will be presented at the opening. For more information, and a submission link, please visit loftartists.com under the heading “2016 Open Juried Show.” Artists The Smithtown Township Arts Council invites submissions for its upcoming juried fine art exhibition Animals in Art—Our Partners on the Planet at the Mills Pond Gallery. Juror/judge: Tim Newton. Artists are encouraged to share their artistic vision of animals, both domestic and wild. Artwork may include any animals that live on land, in the sea or in the air, and can range from realism to surrealism to abstraction. Open to American artists ages 18 or older. All media considered except photography and computer-generated art. Entry fee $45 for up to three images. Awards: $1,000 Best of Show, $500 second place, $250 third place. Prospectus at stacarts.org/exhibits/show/96 or email gallery@stacarts.org. Entry deadline: June 3. Exhibit dates: July 30-August 24. 660 Route 25A, St. James, NY, 11780. 631-862-6575. gallery@ stacarts.org. Artists Jaden Events is accepting applications for the Thames River Art & Craft Show. It is a two-day, juried show held on the beautiful coastal campus of Mitchell College in New London on June 25 & 26, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. both days. We have a special Referral Refund promotion to help with booth costs. This is an outdoor show, rain or shine, and 10x10-foot white (or light tan) canopies are required. Please visit our Facebook page or website for more information (facebook.com/ThamesRiverArtAndCraftShow) or jadenevents.com. Accepting applications until June 10. Artists Arts Center Killingworth’s 2015–2016 Spectrum Gallery exhibits, including the gallery show. Seeking fine artists and artisans in all media. For artist submission, visit spectrumartgallery.org or email barbara@spectrumartgallery.org. Spectrum Gallery and Store, 61 Main St., Centerbrook. Artists The Gallery Review Committee of The New Alliance Gallery at Gateway Community
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College is looking for artists to submit resumes and images for possible exhibition in 2016. Please send your resume and cover letter along with a DVD of not less than 20 and no more than 25 images to: Gallery Review Committee, Gateway Community College, 20 Church St., Room S329, New Haven, CT, 06510. Artists The Tiny Gallery: a very big opportunity for very small art. The Tiny Gallery is a premiere space for “micro” exhibitions in the historic Audubon Arts District, located within the lighted display “totem” outside Creative Arts Workshop, at 80 Audubon St., in New Haven. The Tiny Gallery is open to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Submissions will be considered on a rolling basis and should include a written proposal, artist statement, and images of artwork. Call 203-562-4927 x. 14, email gallery@creativeartsworkshop.org, or visit creativeartsworkshop.org/tiny. Filmmakers The New England Underground Film Festival is seeking entries for its sixth annual edition, to be held October 8 at the Best Video Film and Cultural Center in Hamden. The festival welcomes narrative, nonfiction, and experimental works, either feature-length or short subjects. The final deadline for submission is August 20. More information can be found on the festival website, newenglanduff.webs.com. Instructors Are you a maker who loves to share your knowledge? If so, MakeHaven has been looking for you. We are hiring instructors to teach: fabrication, woodworking, 3D printing, sewing, mechanics, brewing, arduino, electronics, cooking, and other maker activities. What could you teach us? makehaven.org. Musicians The New Haven Chamber Orchestra has openings in the violin, viola, and bass sections for the 2015–2016 season. The orchestra rehearses on Tuesday evenings at the Fair Haven School, 164 Grand Ave. Rehearsals begin after Labor Day. To sit in on a rehearsal or to audition, contact the orchestra via email at info@newhavenchamberorchestra.org. Photographers Are you a fan of photography? A program of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, the Photo Arts Collective aims to cultivate and support a community of individuals who share an interest in photography through workshops, lectures, exhibitions, portfolio reviews, group critiques, and special events. The Photo Arts Collective meets the first Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Kehler Liddell Gallery, 873 Whalley Ave., New Haven. Singers The award winning Silk’n Sounds Chorus is looking for new members from the area. We invite women to join us at any of our rehearsals to learn more. We enjoy four part a cappella harmony in the barbershop style, lively performances, and wonderful friendships. Rehearsals are held every Tuesday, 6:30–9 p.m., at the Spring Glen United Church of Christ, 1825 Whitney Ave., Hamden. The chorus is holding a Spring Membership Drive through June 7. Contact Lynn at 203-623-1276 for more information or visit silknsounds.org. Singers New Haven Oratorio Choir invites auditions by choral singers (all parts). We are a chamber ensemble rehearsing weekly (Wednesday nights) at Church of the Redeemer, New Haven, under the leadership of Daniel Shaw. We perform a varied repertoire of sacred and secular classical music, including contemporary composers, with two main concerts per season (December and May). Our 2015–16 season will
include works by Tavener, Gardiner, and Brahms. An audition consists of meeting with Artistic Director Daniel Shaw, doing some general vocalizing, and performing a one-to-two-minute unaccompanied selection chosen by the singer. An audition may be scheduled at that time, or visit our website, nhoratorio.org, to learn more about NHOC, and follow the link there to schedule an audition.
Creative Services Video recording with Sony, photography and pictures for sale, personalized/custom greeting cards, paper banners “done by hand,” mutant portraits, slideshows, host of Oasis D’Neon Video Magazine, New Haven history (artists, musicians), proofreader, writer, teacher, raconteur, driver/ transporter, logo/poster/sign design, model, interior/ exterior painting. For more information, email oasisdneon@gmail.com.
Volunteers Volunteers are a vital part of Artspace’s operation. Volunteering with Artspace is a great way to support the organization, meet new people, and develop new skills. Our volunteers provide a service that is invaluable to making Artspace function smoothly. We simply couldn’t operate without the tremendous support of our volunteers. To find out more about volunteer opportunities, please contact Shelli Stevens shelli@artspacenh.org.
Historic Home Restoration Contractor Period-appropriate additions, baths, kitchens, and remodeling. Sagging porches straightened/leveled, wood windows restored, plaster restored, historic, molding and hardware, Vinyl/aluminum siding removed, wood siding repaired/replaced. Connecticut and New Haven Preservation Trusts. RJ Aley Building Contractor 203-226-9933. jaley@rjaley.com.
Volunteers, Artists, and Board Members Secession Cabal, a New Haven-based group of outsider artists working in theatre, film, visual art, and other mediums, seeks people for our board, sponsors, volunteers with fundraising experience, and artists working in all mediums who agree with our mission and create radical, brave work. Volunteers/board members/sponsors: Please send a brief introduction. Artists: Please email a letter of interest/introduction with examples of your bravest work. More information at art-secession.org.
Invest in Your Images Artists, photographers, arts organizations and startups. Photos edited for web content, profile image, or your photo projects. High-caliber image is everything in today’s market. Outsource your photo-editing needs. Contact Liz Tranzillo at 347-262-4011. Web Design & Art Consulting Services Startup business solutions. Creative, sleek Web design by art curator and editor for artist, design, architecture, and small-business sites. Will create and maintain any kind of website. Hosting provided. Also low-cost in-depth artwork analysis, writing, editing services. 203.387.4933. azothgallery@comcast.net.
Creative Services
Space
Art Installation Specialists, LLC An art-handling company serving homeowners, art professionals, offices, galleries, and museums. We offer packing, long-distance or local shipping, and installation of paintings, mirrors, plaques, signage, tapestries, and sculpture, as well as framing, pedestals, exhibit design, and conservation. Contact Paul Cofrancesco at 203752-8260, Gabriel Da Silva at 203-982-3050, e-mail: artinstallationspecialistsllc@gmail.com, or visit artinstallationspecialistsllc.com.
Artist Studio West Cove Studio and Gallery offers work space with two large Charles Brand intaglio etching presses, lithography press, and stainless-steel work station. Workshops and technical support available. Ample display area for shows. Membership: $75 per month. 30 Elm St., West Haven. Individual Studio space also available. Call 609-638-8501 or visit westcovestudio.org.
Art Mentoring The goal of art mentoring is to give artists individual feedback on their artwork and help them to focus and develop a cohesive body of work. More information at suzannesiegel.net. “I’ve taken many classes and workshops with Suzanne over several years. I totally enjoy her style of teaching. I’m about to use several adjectives to describe Suzanne, and I’m selecting them with great thought,” said Anne Coffey. “She is calm, creative, prepared, a problem-solver, and very encouraging. Suzanne has helped me greatly to progress in my art.” Chair Repair We can fix your worn-out chair seats if they are cane, rush, Danish cord, Shaker tape, or other woven types. Celebrating our 25th year! Work is done by artisans at The Association of Artisans to Cane, a project of Marrakech, Inc., a private nonprofit organization that provides services for people with disabilities. Open Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.–4 p.m.; Friday 8 a.m.-3 p.m. 203-776-6310.
Studio Space Spacious three-car garage with open floor plan. Has its own heat and electricity and would make a really nice art studio. Great location in the Mt. Carmel/Hamden Center area (just off Whitney Avenue, near Eli’s Restaurant.) $495 per month, plus utilities. Call Charlie at 203-415-3393. Studio Space Events hall for dance and performing arts use. A 1,500-square-foot space with adjoining rooms in a turn-of-the-century mansion in a historic district. Hardwood floors. Vintage stage with curtains. Mahogany woodwork and glass doors. Ample natural light. Chairs and tables on premises. Contact whitneyartsctr@aol.com.
Jobs Please visit newhavenarts.org for up-to-date local employment opportunities in the arts.
Read, share, and download The Arts Paper online! Visit issuu.com/artscouncil9
Creative Events/Crafting Parties Our beautiful light-filled space in East Rock is the perfect spot to host an intimate creative gathering or party. We’ll work with you to provide the programming, snacks, drinks, and decorations that will make your event memorable. Rent our space for up to three hours. thehvncollective.com.
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International Festival of Arts & Ideas Festival 2016, June 10-25 Headline Concerts on the New Haven Green George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic June 11, 7 p.m. Lila Downs June 12, 7 p.m. 47SOUL and M.A.K.U Soundsystem June 18, 7 p.m. Red Baraat June 19, 7 p.m. Cirque Mechanics with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra June 25, 7 p.m.
Ticketed Events Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour A co-production of the National Theatre of Scotland and Live Theatre (Newcastle) American Premiere June 9-25 Abraham.In.Motion Live Music Program June 14-16 Maria Schneider Orchestra Arts & Ideas Commission June 15 Steel Hammer Julia Wolfe, Siti Company, and Bang on a Can All-Stars June 16-18 The Bookbinder American Premiere June 17-19 The Money A Kaleider Production, conceived by Seth Honnor American Premiere June 18-25 Off the Charts International Jazz Collides with Bang on a Can All-Stars June 19 Air Play June 21-25 The Square Root of Three Sisters Created and performed by the Dmitry Krymov Lab and the Yale School of Drama World Premiere June 21-25 Yang Hao Pied À Terre Arts & Ideas Commission and World Premiere June 21 & 22
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Wendy Whelan and Brian Brooks with Brooklyn Rider Some of a Thousand Words, Arts & Ideas Commission and World Premiere June 23 & 24
Dan-El Padilla Peralta: Black and Brown Humanity/ties June 25, 3 p.m.
Special Programs
Yale Institute for Music Theatre Open Rehearsal Readings June 24 & 25
Revealing Scams, Lies, Trickery and Deceit: The Documentaries of Alex Gibney June 10-12
Ideas: Lectures & Conversations Writing Home: Narratives of Place and Displacement in the Americas In collaboration with Pen America June 11, 1 p.m. Anne-Marie Slaughter: The Care Economy June 11, 3 p.m. Majora Carter: Urban Onshoring June 12, 1 p.m. No Minimum Age: Youth Activism and Social Change June 12, 3 p.m. Taking Ownership: Music and Intellectual Property in the Digital Age June 14, 5:30 p.m. American Myth Into Art: Steel Hammer and the John Henry Story June 15, 5:30 p.m.
The Food Lab with J. Kenji López-Alt: Cooking Demonstration June 17 Chocolate! The Science of Delicious with Fritz Knipschildt June 24
Tours, Activities, and More Walking, Exhibition, Bike, and Boat Tours Master Classes & Workshops Scene on the Green Family Series Do.Make.Create. Pop-Up Celebrations Schedule of events courtesy of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Visit artidea.org for more information.
Yale-In-China Showcase June 16, 12:30 p.m. Pico Iyer: When Houses Are Not Homes June 16, 5:30 p.m. Stories We Tell: Narrative and Empathy June 18, 1 p.m. J. Kenji López-Alt: The Food Lab June 18, 3 p.m. Town Hall: Work as Opportunity and Obstacle June 18, 5 p.m. Assimilation or Autonomy?: How Culture Can Help the Refugee Crisis June 19, 1 p.m. The American Dream: Millennials and the Presidential Election June 19, 3 p.m. A Duty to Look?: Human Rights and Imagery June 21, 5:30 p.m. Power From the Earth: The Shift to Renewable Energy in Connecticut June 22, 5:30 p.m. Alzheimer’s, Aging, and the Arts June 23, 5:30 p.m. Dan Austin: You Can Go Anywhere June 25, 1 p.m.
Eric Berryman, foreground, with Robert Black, Emily Eagen, Katie Geissinger, in a performance of Steel Hammer at the Harvey Theater at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Photo by Richard Termine.
june 2016 •
The Arts Paper member organizations & partners
Arts & Cultural Organizations
The Choirs of Trinity Church on the Green trinitynewhaven.org
ACES Educational Center for the Arts aces.k12.ct.us
City Gallery city-gallery.org 203-782-2489
Alyla Suzuki Early Childhood Music Education alylasuzuki.com 203-239-6026 American Guild of Organists sacredmusicct.org Another Octave CT Women’s Chorus anotheroctave.org Artfarm art-farm.org Arts Center Killingworth artscenterkillingworth.org 860-663-5593 Arts for Learning Connecticut www.aflct.org Artspace artspacenh.org 203-772-2709 Artsplace: Cheshire Performing & Fine Art cpfa-artsplace.org 203-272-2787 Ball & Socket Arts ballandsocket.org Bethesda Music Series bethesdanewhaven.org 203-787-2346 Blackfriars Repertory Theatre blackfriarsrep.com Branford Art Center branfordartscenter.com Branford Folk Music Society branfordfolk.org Center for Independent Study cistudy.homestead.com Chestnut Hill Concerts chestnuthillconcerts.org 203-245-5736
• june 2016
Civic Orchestra of New Haven civicorchestraofnewhaven.org Classical Contemporary Ballet Theatre ccbtballettheatre.org College Street Music Hall collegestreetmusichall.com Connecticut Dance Alliance ctdanceall.com Connecticut Gay Men’s Chorus ctgmc.org 1-800-644-cgmc Connecticut Natural Science Illustrators ctnsi.com 203-934-0878
Greater New Haven Community Chorus gnhcc.org 203-624-1979 Guilford Art Center guilfordartcenter.org 203-453-5947 Guitartown CT Productions guitartownct.com 203-430-6020 Hamden Art League hamdenartleague.com 203-494-2316 Hamden Arts Commission hamdenartscommission.org Hillhouse Opera Company hillhouseoperacompany.org 203-464-2683 Hopkins School hopkins.edu Hugo Kauder Society hugokauder.org
Creative Concerts 203-795-3365
The Institute Library institutelibrary.org
CT Folk ctfolk.com
International Festival of Arts & Ideas artidea.org
DaSilva Gallery dasilva-gallery.com 203-387-2539 East Street Arts eaststreetartsnh.org 203-776-6310 EcoWorks CT ecoworksct.org Elm City Dance Collective elmcitydance.org
International Silat Federation of America & Indonesia isfnewhaven.org Jazz Haven jazzhaven.org Kehler Liddell Gallery 203-389-9555 kehlerliddell.com Knights of Columbus Museum kofcmuseum.org
Make Haven makehaven.org
One True Palette onetruepalette.com
Vintanthromodern vintanthromodernvintage.com
Creative Businesses
Mattatuck Museum mattatuckmuseum.org
Orchestra New England orchestranewengland.org 203-777-4690
Wesleyan University Center for the Arts wesleyan.edu/cfa
Access Audio-Visual Systems accessaudiovisual.com
Pantochino Productions pantochino.com
West Cove Studio & Gallery westcovestudio.com 609-638-8501
Meet the Artists and Artisans meettheartistsandartisans.com 203-874-5672 Melinda Marquez Flamenco Dance Center melindamarquezfdc.org 203-361-1210 Milford Fine Arts Council milfordarts.org 203-878-6647 Music Haven musichavenct.org 203-745-9030
Paul Mellon Arts Center choate.edu/artscenter Performing Arts Academy of CT artsinct.org Play with Grace playwithgrace.com Reynolds Fine Art reynoldsfineart.com
Musical Folk musicalfolk.com
Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, New Haven Branch nhrscds.org
Neighborhood Music School neighborhoodmusicschool.org 203-624-5189
Shoreline Arts Alliance shorelinearts.org 203-453-3890
New Haven Ballet newhavenballet.org 203-782-9038
Shubert Theater shubert.com 203-562-5666
New Haven Chorale newhavenchorale.org
Silk n’ Sounds silknsounds.org
New Haven Free Public Library nhfpl.org
Silk Road Art Gallery silkroadartnewhaven.com
New Haven Oratorio Choir nhoratorio.org
Susan Powell Fine Art susanpowellfineart.com 203-318-0616
New Haven Museum newhavenmuseum.org 203-562-4183
The Bird Nest Gallery thebirdnestsalon.com
New Haven Paint and Clay Club newhavenpaintandclayclub.org 203-288-6590
The Company of Writers companyofwriters.net 203-676-7133
New Haven Symphony Orchestra newhavensymphony.org 203-865-0831
The Second Movement secondmovementseries.org
Elm Shakespeare Company elmshakespeare.org 203-874-0801
Legacy Theatre legacytheatrect.org
Firehouse 12 firehouse12.com 203-785-0468
Long Wharf Theatre longwharf.org 203-787-4282
New Haven Theater Company newhaventheatercompany.com
Theater Department at SCSU/ Crescent Players southernct.edu/theater
Gallery One CT galleryonect.com
Lyman Center at SCSU www.lyman.southernct.edu
New World Arts Northeast 203-507-8875
University Glee Club of New Haven universitygleeclub.org
Whitney Arts Center 203-773-3033 Whitney Humanities Center yale.edu/whc
Foundry Music Company www.foundrymusicco.com Hull’s Art Supply and Framing hullsnewhaven.com 203-865-4855 Toad’s Place toadsplace.com
Whitneyville Cultural Commons 1253whitney.com
Community Partners
Yale Cabaret yalecabaret.org 203-432-1566 Yale Center for British Art yale.edu/ycba
Department of Arts Culture & Tourism, City of New Haven cityofnewhaven.com 203-946-8378
Yale Institute of Sacred Music yale.edu.ism 203-432-5180
DECD/CT Office of the Arts cultureandtourism.org 860-256-2800
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History peabody.yale.edu
Fractured Atlas fracturedatlas.org
Yale Repertory Theatre yalerep.org 203-432-1234 Yale School of Music music.yale.edu 203-432-1965 Yale University Bands yale.edu/yaleband 203-432-4111
New Haven Preservation Trust nhpt.org The Amistad Committee ctfreedomtrail.org Town Green Special Services District infonewhaven.com Visit New Haven visitnewhaven.com Westville Village Renaissance Alliance westvillect.org
newhavenarts.org • 19
The Arts Paper arts council programs
Perspectives … The Gallery at Whitney Center Location: 200 Leeder Hill Drive, South Entrance, Hamden Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4-7 p.m., and Saturdays, 1-4 p.m.
Knack Curated by Debbie Hesse Knack brings together artists, artisans, and teachers who are affiliated with regional service organizations that support artistic practices through training programs, workshops, and community interaction with the goal to promote creative self-expression, job creation, wellness, and community integration. The exhibition features art created by affiliates of Chapel Haven, Universal Arts, Opportunity House, Fellowship Place, Marrakech, East Street Arts, Play with Grace, ACES ACCESS, and Vista Life Innovations. Dates: On view through September 6
Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery Location: The Arts Council of Greater New Haven, 70 Audubon St., 2nd Floor, New Haven Hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Mono is Many Curated by Debbie Hesse and Jennifer Van Elswyk Artists have always been drawn to the seductive appeal of the monoprint for its immediate, painterly quality. A low-tech printmaking approach, monoprints offer artists a unique opportunity to explore color, composition, repetition, and variation from a fixed image. Mono is Many is an exhibition that explores the many ways artists are adapting this time-tested technique, through unique visions and experimentations within the medium, to investigate contemporary concerns. Dates: On view through June 17 Opening reception: Thursday, June 2, 5-7 p.m. Free and open to the public.
Arts On AIR Listen to the Arts Council’s Arts On Air broadcast on Monday, June 20, during WPKN’s Community Programming Hour, 12-1 p.m. Hosted by the Arts Council’s communications manager, Arts On Air engages in conversations with local artists and arts organizations. Listen live and online at wpkn.org.
Advice from the AC Need help finding exhibition space/opportunities, performance/rehearsal space, or developing new ways to promote your work or creative event? Schedule a free one-on-one consultation with Debbie Hesse, the organization’s director of artistic services and programs, by calling 203772-2788. Walk-ins are also welcome. Dates: June Art Advice sessions will be held on Thursday, June 9, 1-4 p.m., at the James Blackstone Memorial Library, 758 Main St., Branford, and Thursday, June 23, at the New Haven Free Public Library, 1-4 p.m.
Writers Circle Join us for our June Writers Circle: “Summer Kickoff Open Mic” We invite writers of all genres to share a five minute (or less) reading of their work with members of the writers circle and their guests. This is a great opportunity to get feedback on your work and to learn how it resonates with people who’re experiencing it for the first time. RSVP required: junewriterscircle2016.eventbrite.com For more information, please visit newhavenarts.org and the Arts Council’s social-media pages for information about Writers Circle events. To be added to the Writers Circle email list, please email Communications@ NewHavenArts.org. Date: Wednesday, June 29, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Location: The Institute Library, 847 Chapel St., New Haven Please visit infonewhaven.com/parking-map for information about parking in the area.
Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery. Mono is Many. Meghan Shah.
Photo Arts Collective The Photo Arts Collective is an Arts Council program that aims to cultivate and support a community of individuals who share an interest in photography, through workshops, lectures, exhibitions, portfolio reviews, group critiques, and events. The Photo Arts Collective meets the first Thursday of the month at the Kehler Liddell Gallery, 873 Whitney Ave., New Haven, at 7 p.m. To learn more, send email to photoartscollective@gmail.com. For more information on these events and more visit newhavenarts.org or check out our mobile events calendar using the Arts, Nightlife, Dining & Information (ANDI) app for smartphones.
Perspectives ... The Gallery at Whitney Center. Knack. Leigh Busby.
Perspectives ... The Gallery at Whitney Center. Knack. Do Walker.
Perspectives ... The Gallery at Whitney Center. Knack. Richard Cummings.