ArtsWestchester

Axial Theatre’s April 6 Benefit: A Dual Celebration!

March 16, 2018 by Inside Press

Welcoming New Leaders and Ushering in 20^th Anniversary

Event to be held in the Gallery of ArtsWestchester

Westchester, NY – Axial Theatre’s annual spring benefit will be a special dual celebration this year as it welcomes the company’s new co-artistic directors, Catherine (Cat) Banks and Linda Giuliano, and ushers in a milestone year –the 20^th anniversary of the professional theatre company based in Pleasantville.

The event will take place on Friday, April 6, from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Gallery of ArtsWestchester and will feature cabaret performances by Axial singers; gourmet bites and libations from Jean-Jacques Culinary Creations in Pleasantville; and a live auction featuring a luxury getaway to the Italian Riviera and a South African safari. ArtsWestchester is located at 31 Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains.

The Banks-Giuliano duo will officially take over on September 1, 2018, the beginning of Axial’s 20^th production year, joining Betsy Klampert, managing director and general counsel, as Axial’s leadership team. Howard Meyer, Axial’s founder and current artistic director, will remain the head of Howard Meyer’s Acting Program, and a member of the board.

Catherine Banks, who has performed leading roles and co-directed several Axial productions since coming to Axial three years ago, says, “Creating a theater company the caliber of Axial, nurturing it and sustaining it for 20 years takes a leader of diverse skills and irrepressible passion. It is an honor to carry on the legacy Howard Meyer has created. The original mission statement, creating collaborative, relevant and provocative theatre, is one that deeply resonates with me, and I believe that Axial will find its future by upholding these core values and beliefs in the next phase of its journey. I truly look forward to working with Linda to best interpret that mission in today’s dynamic world.”

Linda Giuliano, a playwright who is currently Axial’s literary manager and associate artistic director says, “Theatre is community. Great leaders serve. Howard has sustained 20 years of vision, theatre craft and leadership as artistic director. It is a responsibility and privilege for this role to be passed on to Catherine and me. We hope to serve the evolution of Axial’s present and future. We hope to bring stories to the stage that inspire, move and change artist, audience and our community.”

Banks began acting with her local award-winning children’s theater at the tender age of 11. Following college at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, she continued to study acting and founded her own production company, Bombshell Productions in New York City. She comes to Axial with over 20 years of high-level experience in business, having worked as senior vice president of operations for a financial services company prior to starting her own business in 2014. She is currently a member of Howard Meyer’s master class, a faculty member of the acting program where she teaches children and teens, and an Ensemble member of Axial Theatre. Banks will perform the role of Lenny in the upcoming Axial production of Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart this May. She appeared last fall as Audrey (one of the two leads) in Axial’s world premiere of Katie Baldwin Eng’s Nectar.

Giuliano, an Axial Ensemble member for 14 years, has had plays produced through Axial, such NYC groups as Playwrights Horizon and Midtown Festival and with companies in the U.S. and Canada. A founding member of WritersGroup, a 25-plus-year-old group of six playwrights who write, direct, produce and teach in New York and Maine, Giuliano currently runs the Sunday Writers series at Axial, as well as Axial’s staged reading series wherein new works and classics are presented at various local sites. She has worked in mental health for 34 years as a licensed clinical social worker.

Meyer notes, “After 20 years of guiding the organization, it is time to pass the baton to the capable and gifted hands of Cat and Linda. As we enter this milestone season, it is time for fresh ideas and new leadership.”

Managing Director Betsy Klampert echoes these sentiments, adding “I am thrilled to be part of this thriving theater community. Howard’s leadership has taken Axial to its 20^th year and Cat and Linda will raise the curtain on another 20 years of theater magic. Stay tuned.”

The benefit’s cabaret singers will be accompanied by concert pianist Dan Forman; Axial Ensemble member Patrick McGuinness will serve as auctioneer. A silent auction also will be held.

General admission tickets for the benefit are $60, including all food, wine and other beverages.

For more information, visit https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3361706, Axial’s Facebook page or its Website; or contact Axial at AxialTheatre@gmail.com; (914) 286-7680.

White Plains Jazz Fest: A Fun-Filled Festival for Jazz Aficionados and Music Lovers of All Ages

August 25, 2017 by The Inside Press

(L-R):: Wayne Bass, White Plains Commissioner of Recreation and Parks; Janet Langsam, CEO, ArtsWestchester; Kevin Nunn, Executive Director of the White Plains Business Improvement District; Kenny Lee (trumpet/flugelhorn) of Kenny Lee All Stars; Deputy Westchester County Executive Kevin Plunkett; Tom van Buren, Artistic Program Director, ArtsWestchester; and Tom Roach, Mayor of the City of White Plains

By Amanda Kraus

There’s good news for Westchester-based jazz lovers who may not be able to trek to New Orleans for Jazz Fest this year. This September, Westchester residents can simply take a quick trip to White Plains for the city’s sixth annual Jazz Fest in the downtown area, in collaboration with ArtsWestchester, The City of White Plains, and the White Plains Business Improvement District. “Every year gets better and better,” said Wayne Bass, White Plains Commissioner of Recreation and Parks and a key organizer of the event. The once single-day event now spans the five days of September 13-17 and will feature various world-renowned jazz musicians such as 14-time Grammy Winner Paquito D’Rivera, a clarinet and saxophone virtuoso and New Orleans-based saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr., as well as talented emerging local artists.

Janet Langsam, the CEO of ArtsWestchester and an Armonk resident, envisions a county in which every resident has the availability and affordability to participate in the arts with Jazz Fest being one of those opportunities. Most of the Jazz Fest events are free and others have a nominal fee.

Jazz Fest was created to enrich the lives of not only downtown White Plains residents but also the wider Westchester community. “By bringing live music into downtown White Plains, people who might not be familiar with jazz can be exposed to a new genre of music. If you want to know what it’s about, you can just walk in to Jazz Fest and be a part of it. It’s all about opening up our minds and trying to create community –music is something that brings people of all races, nationalities, and backgrounds together. It has that common denominator,” notes Bass.

The festival kicks off with a jazz stroll, in which numerous local restaurants will have musicians playing in either their dining rooms or in surrounding outdoor areas. People can walk down the street and catch as many performances as they’d like. There will be performances in the ArtsWestchester building, in addition to Sunday’s culminating event, which takes place on Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains, where there will be tents plus food vendors. The festival features a wide range of jazz music, from Afro-Caribbean to blues.

It includes both solo performers and bands including a small orchestra led by versatile Colombian pianist and composer Pablo Mayor to an ensemble led by local Peekskill-based jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz educator Ray Blue. The last day of the festival provides a grand finale of jazz sounds originating from Colombia, Puerto Rico, Dixieland and more.

With so much to do and see, it’s hard to find a reason not to go to Jazz Fest. Whether you’re a long-time jazz enthusiast or new to the genre, you’re guaranteed to have a good time no matter what day you choose to attend. For more information and a performance schedule visit www.artswestchester.org.

Amanda Kraus is an intern at the Inside Press this summer.

Art Shows in Armonk & Beyond

October 21, 2016 by Marianne Campolongo

Autumn is a great time to see art close to home. From legendary French artists to some of your very own neighbors, there is much to enjoy in the local art scene this fall.

Armonk Outdoor Art Show

Perfect fall weather greeted the 55th annual Armonk Outdoor Art Show, a two-day juried event featuring paintings, drawings, sculpture, printmaking, photography, ceramics, jewelry, and other tactile arts by 185 artists. Ranked among the top art shows nationally, the event draws established and emerging artists from across the country. In recent years, the show has hosted a tent for local high school artists, who, like other participating artists, must be juried into the show, giving them a glimpse of the professional art world.

Painter Rosalind Oesterle has participated since moving to Armonk the 1970s. Her paintings have changed over the years from delicate florals to pastel and jewel-toned nonrepresentational paintings, winning her the nod each year from the jury, since even long-time participants must re-apply and have their work evaluated each year.

Award-winning artist and Armonk resident Judi Offenberg returned to show her luxuriously colored silk paintings this year for the fifth time at the Armonk Outdoor Art Show, on September 24, 2016. Photo © 2016 Marianne A. Campolongo.

Oesterle, a member of the American Watercolor Society and a veteran of countless art shows across the country says her favorite is close to home. “The [Armonk] show is fabulous. It’s the best show.”

Armonk resident Judi Offenberg returned to show her luxuriously-colored silk paintings this year. Originally a textile designer, she fell in love with silk painting when her daughter Melissa did a high school project. She “bought supplies, read books, and taught myself,” she said. Her work has been exhibited widely, but “winning a prize at the show two years ago, was the biggest honor of my life,” she said.

Armonk resident Lana Sidoti, who exhibited her bold and beautiful enameled jewelry and wall pieces for the fourth time this year, and Luis Perez, a longtime show volunteer who entered his watercolors and drawings for the first time, are both members of the Northern Westchester Artists Guild (NWAG), which has been an important catalyst for many local artists to begin showing their work.

Long time Armonk Outdoor Art Show volunteer and Armonk resident Luis Perez showed his drawings for the first time at the Armonk Outdoor Art Show, on September 24, 2016. Photo © 2016 Marianne A. Campolongo.

The winner of this year’s first $1,000 Sylvia Rogers Best New Artist prize at the show is another NWAG member, Natalya Aikens from Pleasantville. Her amazing quilts based on her photographs use reclaimed fabric and repurposed plastic bags to make a beautiful environmental statement. Debra Graham, an NWAG member from Scarsdale, won 3rd prize in the Printmaking, Drawing and Pastels category, the second time she has won a prize for her intricately detailed drawings.

Northern Westchester Artists Guild

The Northern Westchester Artists Guild (NWAG), has several treats in store locally. Their show collective expressions at Art and Sound Gallery in Greenwich, Conn. runs through the end of October. When that show ends, the Guild will also be sponsoring a pop-up show at Art and Sound Gallery featuring drawings, paintings, mixed media, and photography on the walls as well as tactile art. It is scheduled for November 12 through December 23, Tuesday through Sunday and by appointment. Check the website artandsound.com for more information.

Byram Hills High School seniors (l to r) Juliana Zepf, a ceramicist and paper sculptor, Gabrielle Kleinberg, painter, and Allegra Samsen, photographer, hold up some of their art on display at the Armonk Outdoor Art Show outside a tent dedicated to the work of 24 student artists primarily from Armonk but also from surrounding towns, whose work was juried into the show, on September 24, 2016. Photo © 2016 Marianne A. Campolongo

Art In Rye: Armonk artist Perez and prize winner Aikens are among the 16 Guild artists exhibiting their work at a unique show sponsored by the Strong Oestriech team from the Armonk Real Estate office of Douglas Elliman. Each artist will showcase their work in a separate room of a spectacular new $7 million home coming on the market at 135 Highland Road, Rye. The show opens October 28 with morning (8:30-11 a.m.) and evening (6-8 p.m.) receptions and continues October 29-30, 2-5 p.m. A portion of the proceeds benefit Rye-ACT, which helps battle underage drinking and drug use.

Katonah Museum of Art

Matisse Drawings: Curated by Ellsworth Kelly from The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation Collection opens at the Katonah Museum of Art, October 23. The exhibition features 45 drawings by legendary French artist Henri Matisse, curated by Ellsworth Kelly before his death in 2015. Works from Kelly’s own large-scale Suite of Plant Lithographs (1965-66) accompany the show. Kelly earned an international reputation by the early 1950s as one of the most important Minimalist artists in the United States.

“There are many ways to look at and appreciate art, but seeing through the eyes of one artist onto another can be both transformative and illuminating,” says Museum Executive Director Darsie Alexander. The show, organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in collaboration with the Matisse Foundation, runs through January 29, 2017.

Bruce Museum

Her Crowd: New Art by Women from Our Neighbors’ Private Collections, which opened at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Conn.` in September and runs through Jan. 2, offers a singular opportunity to view art from the walls of some of America’s most influential contemporary art collectors living in Fairfield and Westchester Counties. Themes specific to women such as motherhood, beauty, gender, and sexuality are in evidence, as are works from both established artists such as Yayoi Kusama and Tara Donovan, and up-and-coming artists. Kenneth E. Silver, Mia Laufer and Zvi Grunberg curated the exhibition.

A film series and lectures by scholars and show artists Alessandra Expósito and Margaret Lee compliment the exhibition. See www.brucemuseum.org for the schedule.

ArtsWestchester

Armonk resident Lana Sidoti returned to the Armonk Outdoor Art Show for a fourth year to exhibit her bold and beautiful enameled jewelry and wall pieces, seen here on September 24, 2016. Photo © 2016 Marianne A. Campolongo.

Remedy, which looks at the healing power of art, opened at ArtsWestchester in White Plains this month and runs through Jan. 14. “The artists in this exhibition engage with the relationship between arts and healing on a number of levels,” says Gallery Director Kathleen Reckling. “Some are inspired by the methods, instruments, and institutions that diagnose and treat our ailments. Others remind us that art is a remedy in and of itself.” The artists from across the country work in many media. “The work is provocative, it is humorous, and it is also poignant,” says Reckling. For example, works such as Laura Splan’s “Prozac, Thorazine, Zoloft,” oversized “pill-ows,” soft and welcoming, offer a humorous take on the comfort provided by the prescriptions they represent while “Asylum,” haunting photographs by Christopher Payne, document abandoned mental institutions across the country.

Gallery hours: Tuesday-Friday 12-5 p.m., Saturday 12-6 p.m. Free events during the show’s run include a Healing Drum Circle, Saturday, October 22, 1 p.m.

Marianne Campolongo is a professional photographer and freelance writer from Chappaqua. A member of the Northern Westchester Artists Guild and other arts oriented organizations, she enjoys exploring new ways to use Photoshop and other digital magic to see where her imagination can take her photographs.

MARIANNE A. CAMPOLONGO PHOTOS