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History is
Holly Fowler’s Muse
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SUMMER 2015 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Lynn Adams Smith CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jorge Naranjo ART DIRECTOR Jeffrey Edward Tryon GRAPHIC DESIGNER Matthew DiFalco CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Linda Arntzenius Taylor Smith Ellen Gilbert Anne Levin Stuart Mitchner Greta Cuyler Sarah Emily Gilbert ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Robin Broomer
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contents
48 32 History is Hol ly Fowler’s Muse BY taylor Smi th
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summer 2015
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Photograph by Mason Dent.
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by ellen gi lbert
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The Whitney Wil l Make You Smile by Li nda Ar ntzeni us
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Historic Houses, Glorious Gardens BY anne levi n
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Glamping— Camping With a Twist BY sar ah emi ly gi lbert View from Gansevoort Street. Photograph by Karin Jobst, 2014.
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Curiouser and Curiouser—Alice at 150
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Bay Head Unspoiled Seaside Town BY gr eta cuyler
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Urban Books Reading the World BY Stuart mi tchner
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Charming Chappaqua A Town that Takes its Celebrities in Stride BY anne levi n
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Calendar 30
Urban Shops Artisan Crafted 38
A Wel l-Designed Life 50
Cover Image: Holly Fowler, photographed by Mason Dent.
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QA &
History is Holly Fowler’s Muse Painter and fashion designer Holly Fowler studied fine art at Central Saint Martins in London. by taylor smith
I
t was at Saint Martins that Holly began modeling and succumbed to the influence of fashion. “Everyday there would be toiles and fittings outside the painting studios,” Fowler remembers. “The school was so small! It was like an old house on Charing Cross Lane that I couldn’t help but be influenced by all of the student clothes and art around me.”
“All of these stores have been incredibly supportive of my work and the nature of the painting process. I work with them on a made-to-order basis, so that each item is completely unique and original to the wearer.”
With a background in painting, Fowler spent a lot of time creating textiles from thick cotton canvas—often the kind used for scenery drapes and West End theatre productions. For her thesis collection, she created a fashion line of wearable art on canvas.
UA: How and when did you begin treating the silhouette as a canvas? HF: I started treating the silhouette as a canvas when I realized how much freedom is created by painting on the garment itself. It was when I was still at Saint Martins. I loved painting and it just felt like a natural progression to wear my art.
She studied the jewelry collections of Wallis Simpson along with pieces by Cartier, Bulgari, and Bucellati. Such items were then painted trompe l’oeil onto the canvas. “When the dress is worn by a woman, I want the painting to come to life, so that when she walks, the necklaces and charms move and sway with her,” she says.
UA: What did your first collection for Browns in London consist of? HF: It consisted of my graduate collection translated into a range of silk and leather pieces with hand painted designs all over them. Today, all of my designs are dry cleanable, but this first collection actually wasn’t dry cleanable and yet it still sold out!
Photo by Mason Dent
In contrast to her paintings, many of Fowler’s dresses are simple in cut and shape. They often hang like robes, inspired by the fashions of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.
UA: Describe the pieces that are carried by Bergdorf Goodman in New York.
Upon graduating from Saint Martins, Fowler’s senior collection was bought by Browns in London. Browns helped the young designer to translate her gowns from canvas into silk. Her work was then picked-up by Bergdorf Goodman in New York City, DNA in Qatar, and Moda Operandi.
HF: With Bergdorfs, I now only work on a made-toorder basis. Clients come to Bergdorf and I meet with them and often with their stylist and we discuss what design, style and painting they would like and move
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Fowler shared her creative process with Urban Agenda Magazine.
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(left, center) Photos by Christina Smith; (right) Photo by Claire Huish
forward from there. They are able to choose from my existing designs, take elements from several existing designs and place them into one gown or I can create a bespoke design for them. UA: All of your works are done free hand. Are the dresses one of a kind? Can they be made to order?
HF: I do not create any accessories, but I do paint on accessories. I have just started painting on Hermes Birkin Bags, sold exclusively through Moda Operandi. I also paint on clients’ shoes and leather jackets. I am open to painting on other accessories, as well. UA: Where is your studio? HF: I am based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
HF: Often ladies love to have their own jewelry or their grandmother’s jewelry painted on a dress. All of my pieces are one of a kind, because they are all painted by me. Each dress is completely individual and unique, just as any painting is completely individual and unique; each has its own mood and its own atmosphere. My collection of designs can be made to order in standard US and UK sizes. The beauty of the painting means that you’re able to add to or change elements of the design as you like, creating a very personal touch. Also, the base color of the fabric can be changed, along with the colors of the painting.
UA: What is your artistic process? How do your designs begin?
UA: How long does it take you to complete one dress?
UA: What kinds of fabrics do you like to paint on?
UA: You have worked for Louis Vuitton, Zac Posen, Diane von Furstenberg, Chloe, and John Galliano. Do you freelance or consult with other clients?
HF: I like to paint on silk mainly—silk crepe, duchess satin, and charmeuse. I also love to paint on suede and leather. These fabrics all hold the paint really well and create a good base for my designs. They also fit and flow for the style of my dresses.
HF: Yes, I continue to consult for clients although my work is now predominantly painting and designing my gowns and pieces. UA: What can we expect from your next collection? HF: My next collection of pieces is going to be a series of silk scarves (twelve one-of-a-kind, hand painted designs) and I am going to frame them. Each one will represent a different zodiac sign. I am so excited for this series! I cannot wait to present them. They are golden and full of light and tell the story of the symbolism of each star sign.
Illustration by Holly Fowler
UA: Can the dresses be washed or cleaned? HF: There are a few bespoke dresses that are exempt from this rule, but generally all of the dresses can be dry-cleaned. UA: What types of accessories do you create?
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UA: Who is Pamela and in what ways does she inspire your creations? HF: Princess Pamela is my muse. She is a character based on my Grandmother as a young woman and she has adventures in my painted dresses! I draw illustrations of her and drawings to develop my designs. I always think about what she would get up to in one of my pieces!
HF: It depends on the design. Some gowns can take up to 250 to 300 hours to paint. The simpler designs can take anywhere from 15 to 20 hours.
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HF: My designs can begin and be inspired from anywhere. I love jewelry and painting and stories. I am very inspired by the stories of the Maharajas, Tsars, Kings and Queens. I love the fantasy and adornment of bygone eras.
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Photo by Christina Smith
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Photo by Todd Laffler; lafflerphotography.com
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CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER
ALICE AT I5O GILBERT
JOHN TENNIEL
BY ELLEN
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Lewis Carroll’s (a.k.a. Oxford mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and there are many opportunities to celebrate the work, which along with its sequel, Through the Looking Glass, is quoted (and misquoted) almost as frequently as Shakespeare. The celebrations will be world-wide; here are some that will take place close to home. 12
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Lewis Carroll’s original manuscript will be on display at the Morgan Library and Museum from June 26 through October 11.
ne of the most remarkable exhibitions undoubtedly will be at the Morgan Library and Museum (225 Madison Avenue, NYC), where Carroll’s original manuscript, on loan from the British Library, will be on display from June 26 through October 11. Representations of Carroll’s inspiration, Alice Liddell, the daughter of Oxford dean Henry Liddell, will include a hand-colored photograph of her by the author, along with her writing case and purse. Original drawings and hand-colored proofs of John Tenniel’s illustrations will be on view, along with Carroll’s diary entry from July 4, 1862, the day of the now-famous boating excursion when he began entertaining the Liddell sisters with the story of Alice. Elaborate story telling came easily to Carroll; the eldest of 11 children, he had often charmed his siblings with clever stories and games. The British Library manuscript of Alice will resurface in Philadelphia from October 14 through 19 at The Rosenbach Museum & Library (2008-2020 Delancey Place). Down the Rabbit Hole, the Rosenbach’s celebration of 150 years of Alice will include an exhibition running from October 14, 2015 through March 27, 2016, with special “hands-on” tours on May 22 and August 28, from 3 to 4 p.m. Wonderland figured prominently in last winter’s Grolier Club (47 East 60th Street, NYC) exhibition, One Hundred Books Famous in Children’s Literature. “Unprecedented in its breadth of fantasy, wordplay, nonsense verse, and mathematical puzzling Alice invites interpretations on multiple levels,
engaging generations of children and scholars alike,” curators noted. Alice returns to the Grolier, this time as the main attraction in a September 26 through November 21 exhibition (and October 7-8 colloquium) on translations of Alice. The list of translations of Alice—it’s been told and retold in about 100 languages is daunting, and it will be interesting to see what turns up at the Grolier: will they include the 1934 Afrikaans edition, Avonture van Alida in Towerland? The Dutch Lize’s Aveonturen in het Wonderland, published in 1874. The 1923 Russian translation by Vladimir Nabokov (using a pseudonym) Perhaps U-Alice Ezweni Lezimanga, a 1982 Zulu rendition, will be on display, or one of the many Polish translations published between 1910 and 2010. That Columbia University’s Butler Library will host an exhibition of Alice memorabilia from September 4 through December 4, seems appropriate. In 1932 Alice Liddell, now Mrs. Alice Hargreaves, was invited by Columbia to mark the centenary of Lewis Carroll’s birth. The 1985 film Dreamchild, with a script by Dennis Potter and starring Coral Browne as the older Mrs. Hargreaves and Ian Holm as a fairly tormented Lewis Carroll, imagines this event. New York University’s Parodies, Spinoffs, and Flat Alice at the Fales Library from September 21 through October 3 includes “continuations and strange books that emanated from Alice,” as well as ephemera (the “flat” part). “One can see how the book has been used as a taking off point for further exploration of a thousand points of light or in some cases dark,” the curators note. On October 11, NYU will host (also at Fales Library) an “Alice Palooza” day of video games, comics, movies, anime, cosplay (costume play), and manga.
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John Tenniel’s “Shower of Cards” illustration (ABOVE LEFT). Roscoe Karns plays Tweedledee and Jack Oakie plays Tweedledum in 1933’s Alice in Wonderland (ABOVE RIGHT). Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment, by Bryan Talbot (TOP).
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DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC.
2010 Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland stars Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, and Matt Lucas as both Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
IN PRINT The question of whether or not the two Alice books are appropriate for children remains mercifully unresolved, though these days it may actually be easier to find Random House and Signet Classic editions of Alice in the adult literature sections of American bookstores. Although some may scoff at the 1993 Dover edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, this basic utilitarian paperback pap costs all of about $3, and contains the unabridged, slightly corrected correcte text as published by The Macmillan Co., N.Y., 1898, along with all of corr Sir John Tenniel’s illustrations from that edition, and a new, specially prepared introductory note. For enlightenment about all things Alice, Martin Gardner’s The Annotated Alice is generally agreed to be the go-to source. For many, of course, the Tenniel illustrations are ne plus ultra. Writer Susan E. Meyer observes that while over 100 artists (and counting) have attempted to create illustrations for Alice, “none has supplanted the original version by John Tenniel whose pictures appear in simple harmony with the prose, as if words and images were created by one hand to form the perfect union.” In truth, the author and illustrator were actually often at odds with each other. Carroll had only grudgingly agreed that the illustrations he himself had created weren’t good enough for publication, and, as a result, he became what one observer described as “a tyrant to his professional illustrators.”
“Take some more tea,” the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. “I’ve had nothing yet,” Alice replied in an offended tone: “so I can’t take more.” “You mean you can’t take less,” said the Hatter: “it’s very easy to take more than nothing.” Not everyone endorses Tenniel’s supremacy. “Alice’s curious world is one that inspires interpretation but defies description,” observes book collector Cooper Edens. “As a result, the illustrations the story has inspired are rich, diverse and there is no singular vision of Wonderland.” A recent edition of Maria Popova’s always-intriguing Brain Pickings newsletter included a generous sampling of alternative visions. The 800-pound elephant in the room is, of course, the question of whether or not Carroll was a pedophile. Perhaps the wisest course to take is to follow critic Alexander Woollcott’s suggestion that “those of us whose own
memories of childhood are inextricably interwoven with all the gay tapestry of Alice in Wonderland would rather leave unexplored the shy, retreating man who left so much bubbling laughter in his legacy to the world.” Joyce Carol Oates, who has spoken of the profound effect that reading Alice had on her as a young child, also believes that “the life of the artist can be detached from the life of the ‘art.’”
MOVIES Those who prefer a cinematic celebration of Alice’s anniversary at home have over two-dozen film adaptations to choose from. The earliest was made in 1905 just 37 years after the novel was written, and was recently restored by the BFI (British Film Institute) National Archive. Eight minutes survive of the original twelve-minute production, which was directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow. At least one writer has pointed out that the 2010 Tim Burton version starring Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter and Burton’s then partner Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, had a precedent in this earlier effort in which Hepworth cast his wife as the Red Queen. (He himself appeared as the frog footman; the Cheshire Cat was played by a family pet.) There’s the star-studded 1933 Paramount version featuring Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle, Gary Cooper as the White Knight, and W.C. Fields as Humpty-Dumpty; the good old Disney version from 1951; or Jonathan Miller’s 1966 BBC adaptation. While it irked traditionalists when it was first released, this Alice has since become a cult classic and no wonder: before he wrote Dreamchild Dennis Potter wrote this script; the music is by Ravi Shankar, and the stars include Peter Cook, Peter Sellers, Alan Bennett, John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave and Eric Idle. For sheer weirdness there is the Czechoslavakian filmmaker Jan Švankmajer’s 1990 Něco z Alenky (Something from Alice), which combines live action with stop motion animation. “Mr. Švankmajer treats his source less as a bedtime story than a font of free-associational fantasy,” observed The New York Times when a video of the movie was released in 2014. As for Tim Burton’s Alice, movie reviewer Manohla Dargis was perplexed by it. “Mr. Burton has done his best work with contemporary stories, so it’s curious if not curiouser that he’s turned his sights on another 19th-century tale,” she wrote. “Perhaps after slitting all those throats in his adaptation of Sweeney Todd, he thought he would chop off a few heads.” New York Public Library at Lincoln Center is planning a five-week run of a number of Alice films, including some real rarities. Those into cutting-edge technology will be glad to know that there’s an Alice App cut available. It includes animated collages along with “optional narration and plenty of hands-on opportunities to interact with the characters, like making Alice grow taller or playing a round of flamingo croquet with the Queen of Hearts.” U
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VIEW FROM THE HUDSON RIVER. PHOTOGRAPHED BY KARIN JOBST 2014
BY LINDA
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ARNTZENIUS PHOTOGRAPHY BY NIC LEHOUX
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PHOTOGRAPH © NIC LEHOUX
T
he Whitney Museum of American Art’s move from the Upper East Side to the once gritty meatpacking district constitutes a seismic shift in Manhattan’s cultural scene and further confirms the city as a safe, family- and tourist-friendly place to visit. The first large-scale museum to take up residence downtown, the Whitney’s new $422 million nine-story building by architect Renzo Piano opened May 1. What the Upper East Side was in the mid-sixties, when the Whitney opened its Marcel Breuer-designed building on 75th Street and Madison Avenue, is now to be found south and west of Chelsea and the West Village. This is the Whitney’s fourth home and it’s bound to be a popular destination for New Yorkers and visitors alike. When reviewing the old Breuer building at the time of its opening, New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable said that good architecture is about an “elusive synthesis that is a near-contradiction in terms: efficiency and beauty.” Although she praised Breuer’s 1966 modernist upside down ziggurat for achieving both efficiency and beauty, most visitors found it unappealing at the time. Huxtable called it the “most disliked building in New York.” Popular opinion was similarly negative for the Pompidou Center in Paris, which Piano designed with Richard Rogers some four decades ago. The new Whitney has elements of Breuer’s Bauhaus masterpiece and Piano’s most famous structure. While it boasts large-scale galleries, it also retains some of Breuer’s intimacy of space as well as qualities that have made the Pompidou a popular meeting place as opposed to an imposing repository for Art, with a capital letter.
Piano conceived of the entrance to the new Whitney as an extension of the streetscape rather than a monumental entryway to an august institution. People are drawn to outdoor café tables and lime-green chairs scattered in a forecourt on Washington Street; they sit casually on the low museum steps while street vendors hawk their wares along the edge of the sidewalk nearby. Brauer’s building married form and function. Artists loved it. A “workable museum raised to the level of architectural art,” said Huxtable. The new museum has been described as “a mish mash,” but on the whole, reviews have been enthusiastic. “Historic art was seen to better advantage in architect Marcel Breuer’s more structured confines,” commented art critic Lee Rosenbaum in the Wall Street Journal. “This building also has somehow to stand up to Breuer’s design, which could hardly be improved upon. The old galleries are perfectly scaled, circumscribed but fluid, serious and endearing. Even the staircase on Madison Avenue is a masterpiece of architectural craft and character, an attraction all by itself.” In contrast, said Rosenbaum, “The new museum isn’t a masterpiece. But it is a deft, serious achievement, a signal contribution to downtown and the city’s changing cultural landscape. Unlike so much big-name architecture, it’s not some weirdly shaped trophy building into which all the practical stuff of a working museum must be fitted.” At 220,000 square feet, the new building is nearly three times the size of the 85-year-old museum’s last home. But where Breuer’s building was compact and monolithic, a fortress disconnected from the outside world, the new Whitney is multifaceted, with tons of windows and outdoor terraces. Visitors will readily appreciate why the move is the talk of the town. While the art on the walls is not to be missed, it’s the building that is currently the real draw. It’s easy to see why.
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ARCHITECTURAL ACHIEVEMENT Bordered on the west by the Hudson River and on the east by the High Line, the 1.5-mile park 30 feet above street level atop a former elevated railway, the new building is filled with light. The glass-enclosed ground floor gives views straight through the building to the water. From the Hudson side it looks vaguely ship-like. From the north it appears a little ungainly, reminiscent of the industrial-looking Pompidou Center with a pale-bluish steel façade and pipe work that climbs toward undisguised mechanical structures on the roof. A huge floor-to-ceiling window on the east end of the fifth floor provides an elevation over the High Line. The building’s exterior northern wall serves as a canvas for work by the New York artist Mary Heilmann. Known for colorful, geometric paintings, Heilmann has hung a 30-foot-tall bubble-gum-pink vinyl panel there; she has also installed several dozen brightly painted plywood chairs as public seating on one of the museum’s four terraces. These terraces offer grand views of the city that take in the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and beyond. Currently, the sightline to the river at street level is obstructed by Sanitation Department buildings but there are plans to remove these and to create a new park that will open up the area around the museum and connect its busy lobby to a sequence of public spaces.
DESIGNED TO MAKE YOU SMILE
FOR LIVING ARTISTS The Whitney’s mission is not just to display collected works but to foster living artists and Piano has used durable materials that allow for changing installations. This is an artist-friendly space offering creative free rein with 50,000 square feet of gallery floors made of reclaimed pine from former area factories, exposed mechanical systems and walls that hang from a lattice-like grid on the ceiling and can be reconfigured in multiple ways. The idea is that artists should feel free to hammer nails into the floor or even tear up small sections if needed, to make the space their own. The biggest gallery has 18,200-square-foot of floor space and has no columns and therefore no interrupted views. It is the largest column-free museum gallery in New York City. Museum Director Adam Weinberg describes it as “an aspirational space” that will “inspire and challenge contemporary artists.” PHOTOGRAPH © NIC LEHOUX
The lobby is a vast, bright space of glass walls, concrete floors and enormous columns with a gift shop in one open corner and a restaurant in the other. There is also a book store and a free-admission gallery at the rear of the lobby, housing an exhibition devoted to the tastes of the museum’s founder, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, and its first director, Juliana Force. An extra-long ticket counter has 10 registers and large crowds can move with ease. Light fixtures of gray metal suspended in rows from taut cables
strike an elegant note. The huge open staircase features hanging strings of bare light bulbs by the Cuban-born artist Félix González-Torres that have a carnival effect. The Whitney has always been known for maintaining an intimacy between viewer and art and that continues in this new building, as is immediately apparent in the four huge elevators (one is 15 feet wide) that feature panels by the late sculptor and conceptual Pop artist Richard Artschwager (1923-2013). The elevators move along a central, structural spine; the galleries are cantilevered and south facing with administrative offices and classrooms facing north. Transparency is the word to associate with Piano’s design: on the top floors transparency extends the views from the galleries into offices and storage rooms and then outward to sky and city. A theater/performance space on the third floor, has a huge picture window jutting out toward the Hudson River.
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Alexander Calder, Hanging Spider, c. 1940.
Robert Bechtle, '61 Pontiac, 1968-1969.
Edward Hopper, Early Sunday Morning, 1930.
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Glenn Ligon, R端ckenfigur, 2009.
Georgia O'Keeffe, Music, Pink and Blue No. 2, 1918.
R. H. Quaytman, Distracting Distance, Chapter 16, 2010.
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PHOTOGRAPH © NIC LEHOUX
INAUGURAL SHOW America Is Hard to See examines the history of art in the United States from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present and elaborates the themes, ideas, beliefs, and passions that have galvanized American artists in their struggle to work within and against established conventions, often directly engaging their political and social contexts. Numerous pieces that have rarely, if ever, been shown appear alongside beloved icons. Old favorites are juxtaposed in thought-provoking ways with contrasting images. Clearly, the intent is to question assumptions about the American art canon and to demonstrate that American art is continually evolving. One deeply disturbing wall presents images of the lynching and torture of African-Americans, including Harry Sternberg’s agonizing lithograph, Southern Holiday. Visitors will find favorite pieces such as Edward Hopper’s Early Sunday Morning, Jasper Johns’s Three Flags, and Andy Warhol’s Green Coca-Cola Bottles and new discoveries, such as the swirling abstract, Noise Number 13, by poet E.E. Cummings. Several men appear to be sprinting across an expanse on the fifth floor courtesy of artist Jonathan Borofsky, known for his series of Hammering Man sculptures and paintings The exhibition title comes from a poem by Robert Frost; it suggests ever-changing artistic perspectives. Some 650 pieces by 400 artists whose work is in the museum’s 22,000-item permanent collection are organized chronologically in twenty-three thematic “chapters,” named after an individual
piece of artwork rather than artistic movement or genre. The chapter, “Music, Pink and Blue,” is named for an abstract by Georgia O’Keeffe and showcases works that marry sound and color. Works in different mediums are displayed together so as to show the ways in which artists have broken the boundaries between various modes of production. The curatorial staff, led by the museum’s Chief Curator and Deputy Director for Programs Donna De Salvo, who came to the Whitney over a decade ago from the London’s Tate galleries, seems intent on championing artistic freedom in keeping with the tradition of the longstanding Whitney Biennial exhibition. The Biennial became the museum’s signature show shortly after the New York heiress and collector Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney founded the museum in 1930. Whitney was not only a pioneer of modern art institutions in New York City, she was an artist in her own right, a sculptor. America Is Hard to See will continue in its present form through September 27 and in a reduced form thereafter. A Frank Stella retrospective is scheduled to open at the end of October. And if you are wondering what will happen to the old landmark Bauhaus-inspired Whitney building, it still belongs to the Museum, and has been leased to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for eight-years. The main entrance to the Whitney Museum of American Art is at 99 Gansevoort Street, New York, NY 10014, near the intersection of Gansevoort and Washington streets. For more information, call 212.570.3600, or visit: whitney.org. U
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Van Vleck House and Gardens, photograph by Charles Fischer.
Historic Houses, Glorious Gardens by anne levin
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century ago, touring impressive homes and gardens was a popular warm weather pastime. Just read up on Edith Wharton or Henry James, both of whom were known to spend weeks, if not months, being driven from one Gilded Age estate to another—perhaps gathering details for their novels.
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The Garden at Vanderbilt Mansion, photograph by WD Urbin, NPS.
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ou don’t have to be a novelist to feel the urge to snoop around palatial Wealthy businessman Joseph Van Vleck Sr. moved his family to Montclair homes and gracious gardens. Within short distance of New York City, to escape sooty Brooklyn in 1868. The house he built was one of several that there are several of these remnants of an earlier era that are open to the have been on the grounds over the years. The surviving, U-shaped Italianate villa public. Some are opulent, while others are was built by descendant Howard Van Vleck, whose simpler and focused on history. Many hold heirs gifted the house and grounds to The Montclair special programs throughout the year. Foundation 22 years ago. Here are details on four very special, very The private gardens are open daily, dawn to dusk, different homes and gardens of note. From the and the house is used for meetings, retreats, and urban Ballantine House in Newark to the wisteriafundraisers. “It’s a unique 1916 limestone building, draped Van Vleck estate in Montclair, each is unique just two stories,” says Fischer. “No alterations have and worthy of a day trip. been done. We don’t have tours of the house, but Those wisteria at the Van Vleck House & Gardens you can pretty much see what’s inside by looking peak during mid-May, but there is plenty of foliage through the windows.” to admire throughout the year at this former private Several events are held during warm weather estate that has been open to visitors since 1993. Six months, including outdoor concerts and a film of the original 12 acres of property are available for festival. The property is at 21 Van Vleck Street in viewing, wandering, and experiencing nature. Montclair. Visit www.vanvleck.org for information. “The courtyard just explodes in robin’s egg blue After the television series “The Roosevelts” aired flowers when the wisteria blooms, and we have on PBS last fall, the Hyde Park National Historic wonderful azaleas and rhododendrons, too,” says Site that was a beloved refuge for Franklin Delano Chuck Fischer, director of the site which is run by Roosevelt and his family was suddenly inundated The Montclair Foundation. “We have trees, flowers, with visitors. Not that this landmark, which is made and shrubs blooming all the time. What’s unique Rose garden at Vanderbilt Mansion, photograph by WD Urbin, NPS. up of three separate sites, has suffered from low about this place is that it was never created as public gardens. This was a private attendance. Part of the National Park Service, Hyde Park, which is 90 miles north home. The family decided to cultivate a unique, eclectic group of trees and shrubs of New York City, has long been a tourist magnet. and plantings that is unchanged. We maintain the integrity of the property and it “We were inundated with visitors after that series ran on TV,” says Scott is a place where people come to relax.” Rector, Hyde Park’s chief of interpretation. “But that was wonderful. People love
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Ballantine House, photographs courtesy of Newark Museum.
it here and it was great to see so many flocking to us. The great thing about The house was recently painted to reflect a period in its history around 1880. Hyde Park is the sense of place. We focus on that and why it was so important It is only open to the public for special programs once a month, but gardens at to FDR. Throughout his entire life, this is where he got so much personal relief Durand-Hedden can be visited throughout the season. “You sense a feeling here and satisfaction.” of going back in time,” says Newberry. “There’s an Along with Springwood, Roosevelt’s lifelong home, intermittent stream that runs through, and a meadow the site boasts the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential that slopes up the hill. We have a lovely herb garden Library and Museum; Top Cottage, where he went to that is quite large, maintained by the Maplewood “escape the mob” at the big house; Val-Kill, the private Garden Club. There is a fabulous ash tree that you see retreat of Eleanor Roosevelt; and the Vanderbilt Mansion as you enter.” National Historic Site, which illustrates an opulent way The Durand-Hedden House and Garden is at 523 of life modeled on the English country house. Ridgewood Road in Maplewood. For more information, “Most people who come here are interested in visit info@duranhedden.org. Roosevelt, but we have three national historic sites, There are no gardens to speak of at The Ballantine all of which have beautiful gardens,” says Rector. “And House, which has been part of the Newark Museum that surprises people. We have 16 miles of trails for since 1937. The focus at this limestone mansion is its hiking, too.” interior, specifically how the prosperous Ballantine There is a free shuttle service between the brewing family most likely lived in the spring of 1891. properties from May through October. The Hyde Park That was about six years after the family moved in. Historic Site is on Route 9 in Hyde Park, New York. Walking into the rooms that have been interpreted to Visit www.nps.gov/hofr/ for more information. reflect that era, a suite of galleries called “House and Smaller but no less significant is the DurandHome,” one is immediately transported to another era. Hedden House and Garden in Maplewood, a historic Eight period rooms, two hallways, and six thematic house museum that explores the past through galleries are filled with things that might have been nature, architecture, music, food, social life, and other found in an “ideal home” occupied by a family of activities. Past programs have ranged from carving means just before the turn of the century. wood from a fallen ash tree on the property to Civil Three bedrooms upstairs have been restored to War brigade re-enactments. the Victorian period, while the downstairs includes a “We’re a little jewel in town,” says Susan Newberry, billiard room, parlor, reception room, library, dining president of the Durand-Hedden House and Garden. room, and an interactive music room. Now a wing of “We have a vernacular house that represents the the Newark Museum, the house originally had 27 rooms history of Maplewood and its early roots, which and was designated a National Historic Landmark in go back to 1790, with an addition from about 1860. 1985. A family that loved the house and lived here from Ulysses G. Dietz, the museum’s curator of the 1920s colonialized everything, and we try to decorative arts during a restoration of the house two represent them with a 1930s kitchen, so as to show decades ago, called the Renaissance- and Romanesque the continuum.” Revival-style structure not only “very Georgian in There are frequent exhibitions of paintings by The Durand-Hedden House. Photograph courtesy of Susan Newberry. proportion and spirit,” but also “the only Victorian artist Asher B. Durand, whose brother owned the house in the state of this importance.” In 1976, the first house. The painter was born a few blocks away. “He was one of the people who year the Ballantine House was opened to the public, the museum’s fall quarterly started the Hudson River School of painting, and we have a field study as well as said it “represents a time when beer was Newark’s king and the Ballantines were some portraits by him,” Newberry says. the ‘kings of brewing.’” The site stages substantial exhibitions, mostly on local themes. Recent The Ballantine House is at 47 Washington Street in Newark. Visit www. exhibitions have focused on architecture in Maplewood and a theater in town newarkmuseum.org for more information. where shows were performed before going to Broadway.
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Van Vleck garden, photograph by Charles Fischer.
(top)Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site, (middle) Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt. (bottom) Rose garden and gravesite of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Photography by WD Urbin, NPS. summer 2015
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calendar highlights Saturday, June
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Thursday, June
Celebrate Wall Street Bonus Season at the Wall Street Spring Festival, a pop-up restaurant showcasing a menu designed by Michelin-rated chefs. The event will benefit the United Nations’ global initiatives through World Program USA. www.wallstreetspringfestival.com The 36th Annual Shelter Island 10K Run. 2014 Boston Marathon winner and Olympic Silver Medalist Meb Keflezighi will compete in the race. Runners can register at www.lightboxreg.com Storm King Art Center’s Annual Summer Solstice Celebration in the Hudson Valley. www.stormking.org
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Monday, July
The 92nd Street Y hosts a lecture “On Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis” with Barbara Leaming and Valerie Smaldone. www.92y.org Cruise the Hudson River during La Nuit en Rosé, the world’s first food and wine festival dedicated to Rosé wine and Rosé Champagne. Guests will also be able to sample the culinary delights of STK, Fig & Olive, The Lambs Club, and more (through June 27). www.nuitrose.com
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Singer-songwriter Morrissey performs with special guest Blondie at Madison Square Garden. www.thegarden.com
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Saturday, July
Start of the Lincoln Center Festival. This year’s events include the Danny Elfman multimedia celebration, “Music From the Films of Tim Burton” (through August 2). www.lincolncenterfestival.org
Tuesday, July
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Saturday, July
First Tuesdays at the French Institute Alliance Francaise (FIAF) in New York City. Practice your French language skills with other New Yorkers over a glass of wine or a free, mini-French class (repeats monthly). www.fiaf.org Penn and Teller open at the Marquis Theatre on Broadway. The vaudeville magicians present stage magic from their Las Vegas show and classics from their repertoire (through August 16). www.broadway.com
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Watch the US Polo team take on their rival Ireland as part of the Newport International Polo Series XXIII at the Newport International Polo Grounds in Portsmouth, RI. www.nptpolo.com
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The 6th Annual Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation Unconditional Love Gala. Chairwoman Jean Shafiroff and Board President Jonathan W. McMann will welcome guests to a Great Gatsby themed evening with music by The Alex Donner Orchestra. This year’s location will be revealed upon the purchase of a ticket. 631.488.8000
Thursday, July
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Start of the AC Food and Wine Festival in Atlantic City (through July 25). www. ac.gourmetshows.com
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6/20 2000 Academy Award Nominees for Best Actor and Best Actress, 2001. Colored gels over pen and ink. Collection of The Al Hirschfeld Foundation. ©The Al Hirschfeld Foundation, www. AlHirschfeldFoundation.org
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The New Music Seminar (NMS) is a distinguished convention and festival held annually in New York City (through July 23). www.newmusicseminar.com
Monday, June
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2015 Elly Awards Luncheon by the Women’s Forum of New York. www. womensforumny.org
Wednesday, June
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The Central Park Conservancy’s Evening in the Garden. www.centralparknyc.org
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In this highly anticipated premiere at NJPAC, actor Cary Elwes provides behind-the-scenes commentary and answers questions following a full screening of the classic film, The Princess Bride. www.njpac.org The Spotted Pig hosts the 7th Annual Pride Party following the parade through the West Village. www.thespottedpig.com
Saturday, July
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Physique 57 Pop-Up Shop Opening at the Montauk Beach House. Classes will be taught on the lawn (through July 26). www.thembh.com The 39th Annual Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks. http://social.macys.com/ fireworks
ongoing
Wednesday, July
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President Jimmy Carter reads from and signs copies of his latest book, A Full Life at Bookends Bookstore in Ridgewood, New Jersey. www.bookends.com
Thursday, July
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Blues-rock singer Katie Buchanan performs songs from her new album GLOW at The Bitter End, located at 147 Bleecker Street in New York. www. bitterend.com
Saturday, July
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Dowry Designs and LuRu Home Trunk Show and Sample Sale in Southampton. www.luruhome.com The Daily Front Row stages a luxurious day of wellness in collaboration with the Hampton’s most popular fitness studios, salons, and spas. Experience the best of summer beauty and fitness. www. themaidstone.com
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Sunday, July
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Friday, August
Last day to see “Sultans of Deccan India, 1500-1700: Opulence and Fantasy” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. www. metmuseum.org
The Chardonnay Run, a national 5K wine racing series at Hudson River Park’s Pier 26 in New York City. www. thechardonnayrun.com
Celebrate everything Harlem during Harlem Week (through August 22). www.harlemweek.com
Opening of Public Theater’s Cymbeline in Central Park (through August 23). www.publictheater.org
Tuesday, August
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New York Yankees vs. the Boston Red Sox (also August 5 and August 6). www. yankees.com
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The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) is the largest multi-arts festival in North America with more than 200 companies performing for 16 days at over 20 different venues across the city (through August 30). www. fringenyc.org
Sunday, August
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Long Island’s Annual Ellen’s Run brings nearly 1,000 runners and walkers to Southampton for the largest race of its kind on the East End. Proceeds benefit The Ellen Hermanson Breast Center at Southampton Hospital. www.ellensrun.org
Thursday, August
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In anticipation of the US Open, New York City’s top chefs showcase their culinary skills at the Taste of Tennis. In addition to world-class tennis players, the event features impressive food, themed lounges, signature cocktails, and live music. www.tasteoftennis.com
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Art Exhibitions: “Yoko One: One Woman Show, 19601971;” MoMA “The Hirschfeld Century: The Art of Al Hirschfeld;” New-York Historical Society “Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends;” The Metropolitan Museum of Art “Leighton’s Flaming June;” The Frick Collection “Honoring Nepal: A Special Installation;” Rubin Museum of Art “How Posters Work;” Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum “Life at the Limits: Stories of Amazing Species;” American Museum of Natural History “Global Fashion Capitals;” The Museum at FIT
Theatre Performances: An American in Paris; Palace Theatre Les Miserables; Imperial Theatre Finding Neverland; Lunt-Fontanne Theatre Chicago; Ambassador Theatre Something Rotten; St. James Theatre Churchill; The New World Stages The Audience; Schoenfeld Theatre An Act of God; Studio 54
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ongoing
Friday, August
Wednesday, July
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The Great Harbor Yacht Club in Nantucket hosts The Nantucket Historical Association’s fourth annual Antiques & Design Show. www.nha.org
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An exhibition of works by De Wain Valentine from the 1960s and 1970s at David Zwirner contemporary art gallery in New York. The exhibit focuses on the artist’s achievements in the field of minimalist sculpture. www.davidzwirner.com
Saturday, August
Sunday, August
Monday, August
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Gallery talk on the artist Agnes Martin at Dia:Beacon in the Hudson Valley. www.diaart.org
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Start of the US Open at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Flushing, Queens (through September 13). www.usopen.org
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The 2015 Dream Up Festival presents original theatrical works at the Theater for the New City (through September 20). www.dreamupfestival.org
august
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Yoko Ono. Cut Piece. 1964. Performed by Yoko Ono in New Works of Yoko Ono, Carnegie Recital Hall, New York, March 21, 1965. Photograph by Minoru Niizuma. © Minoru Niizuma. Courtesy Lenono Photo Archive, New York
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Glamping
Camping With a Twist by Sarah Emily Gilbert | images courtesy of Glamping Hub
With adventure tourism on the rise, travelers are swapping their “sun and sand” vacation packages for zip lining, canopy tours, and the newly popular, glamping. A term that combines “glamour” and “camping,” glamping allows for the ultimate authentic camping experience.
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eatured in reality television shows like Project Runway and the Real Housewives, it is clear that this sophisticated form of camping appeals to those who long for a night under the stars, but with modern comforts. From eco structures like yurts and tree houses to resortstyle tents and fully furnished cabins, each glamping site requires a varying degree of “roughing it.” Regardless of where you sleep, glamping provides access to some of the most remote (sometimes hostile) environments hitherto unsafe, or uninhabitable, for tourists. This allows travelers an experience akin to early explorers and helps bolster tourism in remote regions around the globe. Staffed with local touring experts and professional guides to assist with outdoor adventures, glamping sites offer a myriad of physical activities and services that appeal to thrill seekers and the more sedate vacationers. A hybrid of leisure and adventure tourism, glamping is the choice for those looking to escape. Courtesy of Glampinghub.com and Tree Bones Resort, Urban Agenda highlights some of the most exclusive glamping sites from around the world:
FULL OCEAN VIEW YURTS ON BIG SUR COAST, CALIFORNIA Tree Bone Resort modernizes the circular tents once used by nomads with their own distinctive Ocean View Yurts. As their name suggests, these weatherproof tents, with colorful and cozy interiors, boast some of the most memorable ocean vistas along Big Sur’s 90-mile Pacific coast. Bordered by Redwood-filled state parks, the Santa Lucia Mountains on its East, and coastline on its West, the yurts are surrounded by Mother Nature’s beauty. Complete with a pool, hot tub, and breakfast buffet, this glamping site even has a “Human Nest” where guests can sleep in an oversized bird’s nest. Residence: Yurt with modern amenities and furnishings, bathroom nearby. Units: 16 two-people/units. Amenities: Running water, pool, hot tub, breakfast buffet. Top Activities: Backpacking, swimming, hiking. Price: $299/night. To book visit: www.treebonesresort.com.
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Unique Tree Houses on Lake Bled, Slovenia All of your childhood dreams come true in this tree house for adults. Six wooden houses are connected by a series of suspended bridges that will literally and figuratively elevate your senses. Located in Northwest Slovenia amidst some of the highest peaks of the Julian Alps, Lake Bled is a hub for adventurers. Possible activities include white water rafting on the Alpine rivers, traveling to neighboring islands on a traditional Slovenian boat, or hiking the mountainous terrain. If you’re exhausted from all the activity, you can tuck yourself away in the treetops and appreciate the breathtaking views of the Karawanks Mountain Range by lantern-light. Residence: Tree House with modern amenities and furnishings, kitchen, en-suite bathroom. Units: 6 four-people/units. Amenities: TV, minibar, running water. Top Activities: Zip lining, wine tasting, tennis, hiking. Price: $435/night To book visit: www.glampinghub.com.
Luxury Tent Rentals in Woollamia, Australia Pristine white beaches and crystal clear waters await you in the Jervis Bay area of New South Wales. In the middle of Australia’s native fauna and flora, lavish tents let you live among the koalas and kangaroos, with the safety and comforts of home. While the room service and private bathroom might make you forget you’re camping, the dolphin-friendly waters and cliff-top hiking trails bring you back to nature. A prime location for aquatic activity, this coastal spot has coral reefs, coves, and lagoons that are ready to be explored. The perfect mix of peaceful coastlines and wild adventures, Woollamia is the epitome of upscale camping. Residence: Tent with modern amenities and furnishings, en-suite bathroom. Units: 11 two-person units, 1 four-person unit, Amenities: Airport transfer, lounge, room service, outdoor fire pit, complimentary bikes and canoes. Top Activities: Snorkeling, hiking, canoeing, photography. Price: $355/night To book visit: www.glampinghub.com.
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Glamping Tour through Leh, Jammu & Kashmir, India This five-day tour offers diverse itineraries that include visits to historic sites and an introduction to the rich culture and customs of both ancient and modern India. Guests will be led through some of the oldest Buddhist monasteries in the surrounding regions of Leh, drive along the Indus River to visit awe-inspiring palaces, visit local villages, and participate in ceremonies like the Morning Prayer. If you’re ready to explore India in a new way, secure your spot for this glamping tour, which runs from June 15 until September 30. Residence: Luxury tent with modern amenities and furnishings, en-suite bathroom. Units: 1 unit (guest number varies). Amenities: Butler service, laundry service.
Top Activities: Historic sites, village tours, local sightseeing/excursions, photography. Price: Starting at an estimated $843/night To book visit: www.glampinghub.com.
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Cabins on the Island of Roatﾃ］, Honduras Fall asleep to the sound of the Caribbean Sea lapping beneath you at this premiere glamping site on one of the Honduras Bay Islands. With year round temperatures hovering between 80 and 90 degrees, the striking blue
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water surrounding you will become your home away from home. Through various all-inclusive packages guests can enjoy fishing, kayaking, snorkeling, and day trips to Pigeon Cay via sailboat. With a private deck, outdoor shower, and hammock, these cabins on the sea redefine luxury.
Residence: Elevated cabins above the Caribbean with modern amenities and furnishings, en-suite bathroom. Units: 6 units (guest number varies). Amenities: Shower, fan, hammock. Top Activities: Hiking, swimming, fishing, snorkeling. Price: Vacation Packages starting at $1,600. To book visit: www.glampinghub.com.
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ARTISAN CRAFTED Batik One Shoulder Maxi Dress in Blue Multi, Maiyet, $2,995; www.maiyet. com. Proceeds benefit master artisans in India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Mongolia, and Peru. Cypress Chandelier Earrings in Gold, Satya Jewelry, $119; www.satyajewlery. com. Satya Jewelry donates to children’s charities around the world including Commit 2 Change, Charity Water, and The Manjushree Orphanage. Tiger in the Wild Palette (Limited Edition Eye and Cheek Palette), Chantecaille, $78; www.chantecaille.com. Proceeds benefit TRAFFIC, an international wildlife trade monitoring organization to help save tigers in the wild.
Kiki Heel, Accompany, $475; www. accompanyus.com. Proceeds benefit master artisan Ulla Johnson of Peru. Tatu Beaded Necklace in Natural, Soko, $85; www.shopsoko.com. Proceeds benefit master artisans Wamaitha and David of Nairobi, Kenya. Mosaic in Marigold and Black, Block Shop Textiles, $120; www.blockshoptextiles.com. The company invests 5% of its profits into healthcare programming for its artisans, living and working in Bagru, India. In 2014, Block Shop Textiles ran their first mobile healthcare clinic in conjunction with Jaipur Hospital.
Product selection by Sarah EmilyGilbert
Lagoon in Blue Cuff Maxi Bracelet in Brass and Blue Solar Gaya, Mela Artisans, $100; www.melaartisans. com. Proceeds benefit master artisans in Jaipur, India.
Kenya 2 Messenger Bag, FEED, $200; www.feedprojects.com. FEED’s mission is to create products that help feed the world. Every product supports the brand’s humanitarian programs.
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Restaurant & Enoteca
The best destination is just minutes from downtown Princeton. A great venue for meetings and celebrations! Plenty of parking. 4484 Route 27, Kingston, New Jersey | 609.497.1777
www.enoterra.com
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MONETTI CUSTOM HOMES
GREG MOLYNEUX GREG MOLYNEUX
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Bay Head’s pristine beaches and salt marshes. A house by Robert Monetti of Monetti Custom Homes, Brielle, New Jersey, and architect John Amelchenko of Aquatecture Associates, Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. Philadelphia. Many of the streets in Bay Head The Lenni-Lenape Indians were Bay Head’s t the mouth of Barnegat Bay lies a were named after prominent Princetonians, earliest inhabitants in the 1600s, followed by quaint Victorian village with a Philadelphians and New Yorkers who were its family atmosphere that appears New Englanders who became farmers, founders. Many current residents are their fishermen and seamen, according to the Bay relatively untouched by time. Bay direct descendants. Head Borough is located on the Head Business Association. In 1876, David In the winter months, the population of Bay Mount, a Princeton banker, bought beach Jersey Shore’s barrier island, Head is about 1,000 people, although that number acreage from a retired sea captain. A few years nestled between Point Pleasant swells to about 10,000 in the summer, Mayor to the north and Mantoloking later, he and fellow bankers Edward Howe and Curtis says. Houses in Bay Head are built on small to the south. lots and tend to be close to one another. Land is Bay Head is less than one square mile so valuable and home prices range between everything is within walking distance—pristine $400,000 to more than $5 million. beaches, a popular wine and cheese shop, “The biggest change (over the years) is the lack restaurants, a bakery, public tennis courts, gift of businesses,” says Curtis. “We used to have close shops, bed & breakfasts, even a bank. to 80 to 85 businesses and now we’re down to “But there’s no honky-tonk, no bars and no about 40. From five hotels to one, and we’re down loud noises,” says Mayor Bill Curtis. “There are to two bed and breakfasts.” Some stores closed in no attractions and that’s what the younger the wake of competition from chain and big box people are looking for. The people who are here stores or found they couldn’t make a living in the now like the quiet style.” small town. Even without a commercial boardwalk like Bay Head town features 1.3 miles of beach the one in Seaside Heights to the south, there’s with 11 public entrances. A project to install new still plenty to do in this small town. Visitors can William Harris formed the Bay Head Land sewer, water and gas lines along Route 35 is take a trip to Twilight Lake, a local waterfowl Company to develop the farms, woods, expected to be completed soon and public cranberry bogs and bayberry dunes into what is sanctuary. There’s a twice-monthly farmers parking is allowed along the main thoroughfare now Bay Head. The town began to grow market that runs from late June through August for day trippers looking for an easy walk to the and free outdoor movie nights for locals and between 1882 and 1919 when train service beach. visitors alike. became available to and from New York and
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PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN R. CALLAHAN/AMERICAN MILLWORK & CABINETRY
The beaches are privately owned but open to the public and managed by the non-profit Bay Head Improvement Association. Founded in 1898, BHIA provides beach lifeguards, people who patrol the beaches and the sale of seasonal and day passes. The cost of access is $80 for a full season, $45 for a half season and $8 for a day badge. Children under 12 are free. Comparable beaches cost $110 for a seasonal pass and $10 for a day pass. Dogs are not allowed on the beach in the summer. Food and beverages are prohibited, although water is allowed in clear, plastic containers. “From the start, homeowners said ‘others can use my beaches, but I don’t want it set up as a picnic area,’” BHIA director Tom Gage says. Bay Head’s roughly 75 beachfront homeowners pay for all of the beach maintenance—pushing sand onto the beach, building fences, protecting the dunes, plantings, etc. And in late October of 2012, when Superstorm Sandy battered the East Coast and devastated the Jersey Shore, Bay Head escaped much of the disaster that affected neighboring communities. That’s because a sea wall, originally constructed in the late 1800s and replaced with a 16-foot-high engineered underground rock wall in 1962, helped mitigate the damage. Jennifer Irish, an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, was part of a team that arrived in Bay Head in November 2012 to survey the damage in Bay Head and neighboring Mantoloking. Their study and report, funded by the National Science Foundation, is titled “Buried relic seawall mitigates Superstorm Sandy’s impacts.” “From a few minutes after we got to the beach, we could tell the area was dramatically impacted and we could see stark differences between the two towns,” Professor Irish said. “It became obvious there was a story there from a coastal perspective. Oceanfront homes in Mantoloking were virtually missing. In Bay Head, they had significant and obvious damage and were flooded, but they were physically there.” In addition, the team noted that Mantoloking had more areas that had been breached by water, leaving sections that connected the ocean and the bay. Gage agrees. “During Sandy, Bay Head suffered just like everyone else, but that section (with the sea wall) suffered least of all. The homes were damaged, but not washed away.” Watching the seawall’s protection in the wake of Superstorm Sandy spurred the remaining homeowners to action. At an expense of approximately $200,000 each, homeowners to the north and south of the existing seawall extended the seawall into the north end of Mantoloking and up past the northern border into Point Pleasant. That work was completed in March of this year. “The new sections of wall are 18 feet high,” reports Gage. Every business was severely damaged by the storm, but 90 percent of those businesses were back in operation by the summer of 2014, according to Curtis. “Bay Head is back and vibrant and I think it’s going to be even better than it was prior to Sandy,” says Curtis. U
BY CAR
BY TRAIN
Take Route 195 East to Route 34 South (towards Brielle), Route 34 becomes Route 35 South and will take you directly into the Borough of Bay Head.
Bay Head is the final stop on NJ Transit’s North Jersey Coast Line.
WHERE TO STAY
BAY HEAD CHEESE SHOP & BOTTLES TOO 91 Bridge Avenue
THE GRENVILLE HOTEL & RESTAURANT 345 Main Avenue 732.892.3100
Seasonal soups, homemade quiche, hot/cold hors d’oeuvres, cheese, spreads, etc.
The four story hotel features 29 guest rooms (standard, midsize and suites). The restaurant is BYOB. Open for lunch and dinner and brunch on Sundays.
CURTIS’ CENTRAL MARKET 536 Main Avenue Offers breakfast and lunch. Also has groceries and liquor.
www.thegrenville.com THE BENTLEY INN BED & BREAKFAST 694 Bay Avenue 732.892.9589 An 1886 Victorian mansion located three houses from the beach. There are 21 guest rooms, off-street parking and more.
www.bentleyinn.com BAY HEAD SANDS BED & BREAKFAST INN 2 Twilight Road 732.899.7016 A 1910 shingle-style structure, featuring a parlor with original stained glass windows. There are eight bedrooms, each with an ocean or lake view and amenities. Located one block east of the Bay Head Train Station.
DORCAS RESTAURANT 58 Bridge Avenue Open during the summer only. Offers soups, salad, sandwiches, plus specials for lunch. Open Saturdays and Sunday for breakfast. Open for ice cream Thursday-Saturday evenings during the summer.
MUELLER’S BAKERY 80 Bridge Avenue Features fresh, handmade baked goods- pastries, cakes, bread, bagels, doughnuts, coffee, etc.
THERESA’S SOUTH 530 Main Avenue Offers dinner nightly and brunch on Sunday. Features homemade pastas and entrees from different cuisines. BYOB.
www.bayheadsands.com
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URBAN BOOKS
Reading the World
WIKIPEDIA
by Stuart Mitchner
Reese Witherspoon treks in Wild, a 2014 American biographical drama film directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, written by Nick Hornby, and based on Cheryl Strayed's 2012 memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail.
I
n his introduction to the 1946 Scribner’s edition of Henry James’s The American Scene, W.H. Auden observes that while travel is the “easiest subject for the journalist” who requires only “a flair for being on the spot where interesting events happen,” it is the most difficult for the artist, “who is deprived of the freedom to invent, free only to select and never to modify or add, which calls for imagination of a very high order.” Except that, as Auden goes on to show, James found ways to invent, modify, or add, exploiting his “descriptive conceits” with rhapsodies on “the golden apples of the Jersey shore” and the pleasure of “being ever so wisely driven, driven further and further, into the large lucidity of—well, of what else shall I call it but a New Jersey condition?”
a book is encountered affects the way it’s read, Lane cites Claus Westermann reading the Psalms in a Russian prison camp and Eldridge Cleaver reading Thomas Merton in Folsom Prison.
195 COUNTRIES Of course you don’t have to go to dangerous places or leave your comfortable study to take the world on or in, which is the idea behind The World Between Two Covers: Reading the Globe (Liveright $24.95) by Ann Morgan, who writes in the opening, “I glanced up at my bookshelves, the proud record of more than twenty years of reading, and found a host of English and North American greats staring down at me…I had barely touched a work by a foreign language author in years…The awful truth dawned. I was a literary xenophobe.” This revelation prompted her to set up a blog in 2012, “A Year of Reading the World,” the goal being to read a book translated into English from each of the world’s 195 UN-recognized countries in the form of classics, folktales, current favorites and commercial triumphs, novels, short stories, and memoirs.
BACKPACKING The most widely read recent example of travel narrative is Cheryl Strayed’s 2012 Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail. Still on the bestseller list two years later thanks in part to the Reese Witherspoon film, Wild bears out Auden’s notion of “a flair for being on the spot where interesting events happen.” If nothing else, Strayed put backpacking into the mainstream of travel writing, thus Belden C. Lane’s Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice (Oxford $24.95), which includes a quote from Wild among a slew of epigraphs. “I long to hear the saints speak with a stark clarity, six miles in from the trailhead,” Lane says in the prologue. “Their task is to call me up short. They leave me speechless before a mystery that’s beyond my understanding, but not beyond my love.” In a chapter titled “The Risk-Taking Character of Wilderness Reading,” Lane talks about reading dangerous books in dangerous landscapes, where the “place heightens the vulnerability occasioned by the text.” As examples of how the place where
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THE END OF INNOCENCE Don George’s introduction to his newest anthology An Innocent Abroad: Life-Changing Trips from 35 Great Writers (Lonely Planet $15.95), recalls his days at Princeton University: “I went to live in Paris right after graduating from Princeton, following in the footsteps of F. Scott Fitzgerald, or so I fancied.” A member of the Class of 1975, George is the Global Travel Editor for Lonely Planet Publications and has edited numerous other Lonely Planet anthologies. In his quarter century of wandering, he claims to have visited more than 60 countries and has published more than 600 articles in
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newspapers and magazines worldwide. He also writes Salon.com’s weekly travel column, “Wanderlust,” and was the founder and editor of its awardwinning travel site. Sounding the theme of innocence and experience, George introduces a cast of authors that includes Dave Eggers (“in the backroom of a Bangkok brothel-cum-nightclub”), Sloane Crosley (“on a cliff overlooking a sharkinfested Australian bay”), Pico Iyer (“a succession of ill-fated initiations in South America”), Tim Cahill (“a series of rootless adventures in North America”), Richard Ford (“an ill-advised journey by car into the heart of hashish country”), and Simon Winchester (“ice-bound by fjord-freezing storms in Greenland”). To acknowledge his title’s debt to Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad, George adds a quote from the original: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrowmindedness....Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
DEEPER INTO VERMEER Travels in Vermeer: a Memoir by Michael White (Persea $17.95) relates how the author, a poet, finds escape from a bad divorce through viewing the paintings of Vermeer, in six world cities: Amsterdam, The Hague, Delft, London, Washington, and New York. White meditates on Vermeer’s women, the artist’s relationship to his subjects, and the way composition “reflects back to the viewer such deep feeling.” Clyde Edgerton, the author of Walking Through Egypt, finds Travels in Vermeer to be “a unique dance among genres” whose “clear and powerful descriptions touch on the mysteries of seduction, loss, and the artistic impulse.” Kirkus Reviews calls it “An enchanting book about the transformative power of art.”
RIDING FIRST CLASS Of today’s “literary writers,” Paul Theroux has enjoyed extraordinary success in the travel narrative genre, beginning with his blockbuster best-seller The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia (1975). In the wake of that first triumph, the 74-year-old Theroux has produced something like a dozen similarly railwaythemed books, including a 2008 sequel, where he retraces the journey (Ghost Train to the Eastern Star) and, his most recent installment in this series of a lifetime, The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari (Houghton Mifflin $27). The Booklist review of that one assumes that “ultimate” means “final” and imagines the author “in an autumnal state of mind” as he “ponders his own mortality.” As a lover of train journeys, I admired the concept and enjoyed The Great Railway Bazaar, but only at arm’s length, the arm being Theroux’s. Certain
terms surfacing from the reviews of his latest journey suggest that he’s still the same “grouchy,” “curmudgeonly” traveling companion he’s always been. Mark Twain’s celebration of travel as “fatal to narrow-mindedness” and productive of “broad, charitable views of men” doesn’t apply to Theroux, whose congenital unpleasantness has apparently never deterred vicarious travelers from the displeasure of his company. Finally, Theroux bears out Auden’s distinction between the journalist and the artist. As a fastidious traveler, he offers little beyond “a flair for being on the spot where interesting events happen,” while in a work of fiction like The Mosquito Coast he’s able to draw from an “imagination of a very high order.”
RIDING ROUGH My response to The Great Railway Bazaar is admittedly complicated by the fact that in the spring of 1976, while people were still buying, reading and talking about that book, Little Brown released my own travel memoir, Indian Action: An American Journey to the Great Fair of the East. It would be hard to imagine two more diametrically opposed adventures in the genre. Theroux traveled firstclass all the way. His “traveling persona,” as described in the front page send-off in the Times Book Review, was “acerbic, bookish, deadpan, observant, bibulous and rather passive (except for a fierce determination to secure comfortable accommodation and something to drink).” Mine was upbeat, rhapsodic, hyperactive, and headlong. If you read Indian Action, you bang around in the back of trucks, eating dust, getting high on exotic concoctions called Mad Dog Pie, and travelling third-class on Indian Railways. The reviews were exciting (“a virtuoso celebration in dancing language,” “a rollicking, often frightening trip to a psychedelic heart of darkness,” “a drug generation On the Road,” full of “zest, wonder, and downright hairiness”), but the only one that counted, in the Times Book Review, came half a year too late and compared my “dancing language” to positions in the Kama Sutra. True enough.
ASSORTED OTHERS Some other new titles include The Lost World of the Old Ones: Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest (Norton $27.95) by veteran mountain climber David Roberts; Jewish New York: A History and Guide to Neighborhoods, Synagogues, and Eateries (Pelican paperback $24.95) by Paul Kaplan; and The WeeGee Guide to New York: Roaming the City with Its Greatest Tabloid Photographer (Prestel $39.95), which includes contemporary and period fold-out maps.
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CHARMING
CHAPPAQUA BY ANNE
LEVIN
A Town that Takes its Celebrities In Stride
Bill and Hillary Clinton at the Memorial Day parade in Chappaqua, May 25, 2015. (PHOTO BY BARBARA KINNEY)
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S
The garden of Bill and Hillary Clinton's home, Chappaqua, New York. (PHOTO BY: DAVID BURNETT) ixteen years ago, Bill and Hillary Clinton bought a house on a quiet cul de sac in Chappaqua, New York. The political power couple was putting down post-White-House roots so that Hillary could run, and win, the election to become United States senator from New York. The ink on the real estate deal was barely dry before the media was staking out this leafy town in the middle of Westchester County. Now that Hillary is gearing up for a presidential run, little Chappaqua is certain to become the focus of renewed media attention. But that isn’t likely to faze the residents of this upscale village known for highly rated schools, lots of open land, and a train-commute to Manhattan that takes only 45 minutes. While Chappaqua is not as tony as Greenwich, it has had its share of celebrated residents. Past and present homeowners include Vanessa Williams, Ben Stiller, Alan Arkin, Andrew Cuomo, and Woody Guthrie’s daughter Nora Guthrie. Chappaqua citizens have grown to take sightings of the Clintons and these other celebrity homeowners in stride. The Clintons, when they are in town, are known to stroll the streets and patronize the local Starbucks. They might stop in at the gazebo, where concerts are held on some summer evenings, or patronize some of the shops. They talk to everybody. “The difference between our town compared with more densely populated towns in Westchester is that here, celebrities can blend in. They can go get their cars washed and shop in the stores. They have their security, but they walk around town like normal people,” says Barry Graziano, the brokers’ manager for Houlihan Lawrence Real Estate’s Chappaqua office, which he has overseen for the past three years. “They have embraced the community as if it’s their own. They’re almost always at big celebrations, and they make it a point to make it part of their schedules. They are definitely a presence.” The Clinton house is on the north end of Chappaqua, on a cul de sac of seven to nine homes. Visible from the road, it is a 100-year-old Dutch Colonial
with 11 rooms. “They’re in the ten o’clock position. They have security set up, but other than that it’s a typical house on a typical street,” Graziano said. The couple paid approximately $1.7 million for their five-bedroom house on Old House Lane in 1999. What would it be worth today? “My systems suggest it would be between $2.5 million and $3 million, but that’s not counting some of the internal stuff and upgrades they’ve put in,” says Graziano. “It’s based on square footage and amenities, but it’s hard to say for sure.” The median sale price for a home in Chappaqua was $978,000 as of March 2015, which is up 48.2 percent since March 2014, according to Graziano. “We’re big on Colonials,” he said of the housing stock. “We don’t have a lot of old-world Tudors, but we have old farmhouses. A couple of new developments have relatively young construction, and a lot of these communities have a mix of architectural styles. That difference in styles is what gives the neighborhoods character.” Chappaqua was home to Horace Greeley, the famous journalist and a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, in the nineteenth century. The local high school is named after him. The name Chappaqua comes from the Native American Mohegan tribes who called the area Shepequa, which refers to the abundance of water sources such as the Saw Mill River and Roaring Brook. Until a few years ago, the campus of Reader’s Digest took up 120 acres in Chappaqua. The site became the subject of nearly a decade of debate when a developer announced plans to add retail and residential space to the existing office space. The proposal, after much modification, was finally approved last year. The town prides itself on being family-friendly. “We do a lot of community events—Memorial Day, Fourth of July—and we have a quaint, low-key atmosphere,” says Graziano. “We have sporting areas and local trails. Places like Larchmont are closer to the city, but here you get more land for your money. Chappaqua is just a great community—a great place to raise kids.” U
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