The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Hammond Museum

The Beauty of Publishing

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There’s no business like show business… except for maybe publishing community magazines!  With a cover story in Inside Armonk Magazine about Treasures and its wonderful volunteer and philanthropic efforts, I’m feeling that too. I’m also delighted we could bring you our Inside Chappaqua Magazine cover story in which BGCNW executive director Alyzza Ozer shares so many of the amazing accomplishments of the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester. Both these stories were ‘from the source’–sharing from their hearts–and we may include more of these in future articles about non-profits, too.

Toiling away in my own little corner in my own little chair over the last 18 years, I’m not always immediately aware, but over time, I can become quite buoyed by the impact different stories have on a person, a single organization, or an entire community for that matter.

I won’t lie either. The occasional expressions of gratitude we receive in producing our own little show makes publishing feel like a truly beautiful and worthwhile endeavor. This past fall, we received two such letters! Please see excerpts from each below.

We have some wonderful stories about several of our sponsors in this edition as well, and I present those with deep gratitude, too. The ‘independent’ stories we produce would not be possible without advertising/advertorial support, and in truth, the stories about our sponsors can be equally well received–as most of them are your neighbors and friends, too! And, oh, so impressive.

The beauty of expressing gratitude also emerges as a theme in these current and end of the year ‘beautiful-inside and out’ themed holiday editions. We have several essays addressing that vital feeling of appreciation of others, or even of oneself (if you’re prone to discounting your own beauty; I know I am). I’m personally grateful for all the arts venues bursting back onto the scene, and yup, I sure love getting out of the house again! As much as possible, in fact! in these editions, we visit the Taconic Opera Company and the iconic Capitol Theatre (rock and roll heaven in our backyard) to acquaint you, or at least remind you of all the irresistible shows.

An end note here as well that the holiday season can be especially treacherous for families with children with food allergies, so don’t miss Ella Ilan’s story about two moms making a huge difference. And that’s beautiful too.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! 

Letters to the Editor

“I am writing to send you sincere thanks for your story about the Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden in your September-October issues of Inside Armonk and Inside Chappaqua & Millwood. The articles were so well written and illustrated that we could not have done a better job ourselves! It is clear that the results of your articles have increased our admissions at the Hammond Museum, both because the past several Saturdays have brought the most visitors that we have had in a single day (except our Opening Day), with about a 1/3 increase over prior Saturdays, and also because several individuals specifically remarked that their visit was the result of seeing your article in their local magazine. In fact, a visitor, who is the head of a local community group, remarked today that she heard about the Hammond at a gathering several weeks ago but suddenly “I’m seeing the Hammond promoted everywhere!” She specifically mentioned that one of the primary sources was your magazine. So we cannot thank you enough for your interest and support in our institution…  — Elizabeth Hammer, Executive Director, Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden

“I’m writing to express my gratitude to you and Pia Haas for the story in the September-October issues of Inside Chappaqua & Millwood and Inside Armonk magazines welcoming me in my new role as President and CEO of Caramoor Center for Music & the Arts. The piece captures the richness of the experiences that can be enjoyed at Caramoor year round, whether it be teas, tours and concerts in the Music Room of the Rosen House in the Fall through Spring, or our extensive summer season of outdoor musical performances enhanced by garden strolls, picnics and our Sonic Innovations Sound Art collection. Caramoor is a local gem and we can’t thank you enough for sharing it with your readers. Publications like yours play a vital role in the community and it was an honor to be included. It was also wonderful to work with your photographer Donna Mueller (who, by the way, miraculously coaxed our Sandy to pose for a photo!) and to meet you in person on Chappaqua Day! …  — Edward J. Lewis III, President & CEO, Caramoor Center for Music & the Arts

To all that’s Life Affirming

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If I had to name my most heart wrenching moments in 18 years of publishing locally, it has been unquestionably reporting or covering the loss of a young life. But they have ironically felt the most meaningful, if only in some tiny, immeasurable way, when sharing the memories of a precious son or daughter provided even the smallest degree of comfort to a grieving parent–and to a community of family, friends, and neighbors in mourning too.

You’ll learn about the remarkable life of a young lady, Linda Zhang, her unyielding passion to save our planet and the impact she had on all those who knew her.

I met Linda’s warm and wonderful parents at an event at the Chappaqua Library earlier this summer when a first Linda Zhang writing award was presented. Writing was another passion of Linda’s. Pamela Brown’s article about Linda and the foundation formed in her honor: www.lindazhangfoundation.org

As we went to press, news came of another devastating loss to the community, that of Danielle Taylor Leventhal, an immensely talented artist described by her family and friends as “a beautiful ray of sunshine and a strong-willed woman.” Danielle’s mom, Jennifer, had sent me her family’s poignant words in a story I then posted about this brilliant, joy-filled young lady. https://www.theinsidepress.com/in-remembrance-of-danielle-taylor-leventhal/

A packed service at Temple Beth El led by Rabbi Jaffe–the remembrances by her family and friends – conveyed the enormity of the love for Danielle and her legacy.

If this letter column feels ‘heavy’ for back- to-school editions, as spotlighted by various stories, I hope you might see it as life affirming instead, because learning more about these two wonderful souls really has been.

Please enjoy all the articles assembled with gratitude and with a hopeful but watchful eye over ‘everything Covid’.  Speaking of gratitude, please don’t miss our stories about the Byram Hills Education Foundation ‘funding our student’s futures’, the New Castle United for Youth ‘EXPERIENCE’, as told by two interns, and one of Byram Hill’s student Anika Bobra who has created a remarkable podcast devoted to promoting gratitude widely.

Personal and family enrichment via fabulous local options are always something to be grateful for.  So, do help celebrate ‘comeback’ events –  Community Day in New Castle, the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival, Feed Me Fresh: An Edible Evening. and the Armonk Outdoor Art Show!

Do visit the Chappaqua Library’s new Teen and Children’s Rooms! Do feel inspired by Chappaqua’s Edward Lewis, the new director of Caramoor, and partake in any of its ever exciting programming. And also by Hammond’s executive director Elizabeth Hammer who kindly provided me with a fascinating private tour of this small gem of a Museum and its lush Japanese sculpture gardens.

Finally, I’m well into a second decade supporting the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center. Please consider attending/supporting its upcoming annual fundraiser honoring Andrew Greenspan.  https://hhrecny.org/inspire_events/

Here’s also my ‘welcome back’ to you, and my wish to you for love and happiness and to all that’s life affirming.

Let’s Visit the Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden Together

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I already anticipated tranquility and beauty before visiting the Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden in North Salem, so I was not surprised to experience just that–a welcome reminder that this Westchester County gem offers a grand opportunity to ‘just breathe’ after this challenging stretch of time. 

That alone would be ‘enough.’ But as a pleasant surprise, it turned out to be delightfully more than that, too. It offered an opportunity to celebrate women, via showcasing deeply thoughtful, mega-talented women artists, their heartfelt works inside the newly reopened museum, or elegantly presented as sculpture throughout its plush and stunning gardens. That aspect of a Hammond experience may well have been in the spirit that its passionate founder, Natalie Hays Hammond, envisioned for visitors, too. 

Director Liz Hammer stands in front of the Hammond’s Tea House, through which visitors enter the Japanese Stroll Garden and first experience the Zen rock garden and gain a moment of quiet and contemplation.
PHOTO by Grace Bennett

“Natalie was a woman ahead of her time…” began Elizabeth Hammer, Executive Director of Hammond, at the start of a toasty July tour of this sprawling 7-acre gem which sits gracefully atop rolling hills, a bucolic and elegant neighbor to the horse farms of North Salem–described to the public as a “fabled center of innovative art and Asian culture”–a truth immediately made evident on a tour which took place three months following the Museum’s celebrated reopening following a painful 17 months of Covid-induced closure.   

At the outset, I learned that the Hammond family name comes with considerable accomplishment. Natalie Hammond was born in Lakewood, New Jersey, in 1904. Never married and childless, she started the museum on her own in 1957, as an heiress to her father John Hays Hammond, a mine engineer who together with Cecil Rhodes developed the diamond mines in South Africa. Her brother John Jay Hammond Jr., who was married (but also childless) was an inventor who founded the Hammond Castle in Gloucester, MA. Hammer relayed that Natalie’s activity and interest in the arts was boundless and varied–from a passion for the symbolic patterns of needlepoint (she authored a book on the anthology of pattern) to helping establish a woman’s production group with the Martha Graham Dance Company. The seeds to a life mission–to foster an East/West cultural understanding–began with travel to Japan in the 1920s; the culmination of her learning and efforts may have been with the opening of the Japanese Garden in 1961. 

So, mission accomplished by Natalie who also recognized the special challenges women faced; Hammond’s rotating exhibits perhaps reflect what the board and staff have gathered was understood to be an unyielding support for women. A current Broad Powers exhibit celebrates the 100th anniversary of the women’s suffragette movement; in it, three artists collaborated to share their whimsical visions, and challenge visitors. Marcy Freedman, also an art historian, for example, takes landmark paintings of women and transposes them into contemporary clothes and occupations. “It gives you a window to learn about someone through their activity,” explained Hammer. Carla Rae Johnson, a second artist, asks you “to envision yourself as a Virginia Woolf or Harriet Tubman but in her mind in a contemporary progressive setting of going to clean the river or help children at the border.” 

One of the three collaborators of Broad Power, Mary McFerran examines the sacrifices and contradictions experienced by the Suffragists as they struggled to achieve women’s right to vote. 

Mary McFerran brings to life the contradictory messages women grappled with as they fought vigorously for their freedom. “Fashion was not so free; women were still wearing corsets,” noted Hammer. “Today’s stilettos?” The artist challenges you “to not forget what women put up with–harassment, divorce, and ostracism–all for agitating for the right to vote.”  

Meanwhile, in the exhibit called Voices: I Remember, each of the six women artists ‘voices’ rings loud through their works. Jill Parry painted images of her mother while the artist kept vigil over her final days. At the other end of life, Eleni Smolen, inspired by a photograph of herself when she was young, painted the Girl by the Sea and Guardians Series as an exploration of memory and the ambiguity of nostalgia.

While the museum exhibits challenge you to think, the stroll will reward you with a chance to simply relax and enjoy Hammond’s glorious nod to nature, and indeed to capture the Zen of humanity’s fresh start today… as you admire Japanese cypress, “a grove of maple trees that turn really bright red and orange in the autumn,” a dense stand of bamboo and ‘smoke bushes’ which dot a ‘mature’ 60-year-old garden. Take your time, too, contemplating each of the artists’ sculptures under the open skies; at least a half dozen, along with traditional Japanese statuary, are interspersed on Hammond property throughout the stroll garden. For a dash of something fun, consider the giant stone chess ‘board’ on one lawn, with its oversized pieces for a family match.

FALL PROGRAMMING

The museum and stroll garden are open April through November, Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. Come with your family and friends…and bring a picnic lunch and a blanket and enjoy the tranquility and beauty of your surroundings.

A complete schedule of coming events and lectures, including the museum’s popular Moon Viewing Festival on September 11th and a symposium about the garden on September 24th, as well as information about memberships, member benefits and the opportunity to arrange for an individual, family or group tour of the gallery and stroll garden, can be found on the Hammond website: www.HammondMuseum.org. To schedule a docent-led tour with tea and Japanese sweets, call (914) 669-5033; for special pop-up events and extended hours, visit the website. 

The Hammond can also be booked for special family occasions such as weddings, bar- and bat-mitzvahs and family reunions as well as corporate events with a flair and surrounded by the serenity of nature. 

Photos courtesy of the Hammond Museum