Northern Westchester Artists Guild

Artists Share their Passion via ‘Art Around Town’

November 13, 2019 by The Inside Press

The Northern Westchester Artists Guild is a nonprofit organization of artists whose mission it is to share art by the community for the community. This was the genesis of Art Around Town.

Art Around Town has become an annual tradition in the hamlet of Chappaqua. It is “a vibrant celebration of art, music and community” per Julia Bialek of the Inside Press.

Merchants and artists are matched and the anticipation of the event begins. The annual art festival opening night celebration is held at the end of May/early June during the golden hours of spring. Food and libations abound. The town becomes alive with activity. There is singing in the streets. Work stays exhibited for the month of June at the host shops and restaurants. Downtown Chappaqua miraculously morphs into a strolling art gallery! Art invigorates our communities, our town and our merchants.

Art Around Town inspires the imagination of every community member, from child to senior. It brings the community together in charming downtown Chappaqua. nwartistsguild.org.

Courtesy of the Northern Westchester Artists Guild

‘Holidays Around Town,’ December 1-3, to Celebrate Art, Music…and Community!

October 19, 2017 by Inside Press

The Traditional New Castle Festivities will also include a New ‘Salon Style’ Artist Showcase

By Grace Bennett

What happens when three wonderful organizations in town team up to help New Castle residents and merchants alike enjoy the holiday season with artist appreciation and good cheer? You receive ‘Holidays Around Town’… and its priceless gift of community bonding. Sprinkle in some joy to the world, Chappaqua style, and it will be a weekend to cherish and remember forever.

The Chappaqua Orchestra Concert and Tree Lighting at the Greeley House are a time-honored tradition in New Castle that take place the first weekend in December. This year, however: “We’re kicking things up a notch,” confirmed Leslie Weissman, co-founder with Peg Kafka-Sackler of The Northern Westchester Artists Guild (NWAG), a not for profit consortium of some 75 area artists. NWAG took the initiative to spearhead Holidays Around Town and the plans are as follows:

The festivities begin Friday, December 1, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m at the New Castle Historical Society (aka Horace Greeley House) concurrent with the Chappaqua-Millwood Chamber of Commerce’s annual Wine Around Town. Merchants up and down King Street and Greeley Avenue will open their doors and graciously greet guests offering wine and spirits and assorted bites and treats.
On Saturday, December 2, from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m, NWAG will again be hosting the art show at the Greeley House. Enjoy holiday selections and classical music performed by the celebrated Chappaqua Orchestra at the Bell School. Following the concert, join neighbors and friends on a stroll over to the town’s beloved annual tree lighting at the Greeley House, where you will be greeted with libations an fine art inside!
Finally, on Sunday, December 3, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., and the newest offering during this traditional New Castle weekend, is a ‘salon style’ event showcasing 18 NWAG artists plus a holiday party with snacks inside the Greeley House hosted by the staff and volunteers of the New Castle Historical Society. Each artist of NWAG will be ‘taking over a room,’ offering visitors a chance to meet with the artist, ask questions, and of course view his/her works ranging from large scale paintings, photographic prints, sculpture to watercolor and wearable art. Art will be for sale too. “We love when our artists sell a work,” said Weissman. “It’s very satisfying for all of us.” “We have so many talented artists, and some have never shown their work,” added Kafka-Sackler. “It’s a great feeling of accomplishment to show and, in particular, when someone wants to make a purchase.”

Weissman and Kafka-Sackler said their motivation for producing the weekend go well beyond any dollar sales. They emphasized the unique role art can play in bringing a community together. Kafka-Sackler described a universal “feeling of civility” art creates. “It creates a wonderful environment for neighbors and friends to mingle,” she said. Weissman described a “calming effect” too. “It’s Art for Good.”

To keep abreast of the plans for Holidays Around Town and for news of other NWAG events, please visit www.nwartistsguild.org.

Grace Bennett is the Publisher and Editor of the Inside Press, and hopes to partake in the festivities.

Artist Danielle Leventhal on Painting… and the Excitement about the 3rd Annual Art Around Town

June 1, 2017 by Inside Press

By Danielle Leventhal

I’m thrilled to be participating in the third annual Art Around Town event in Chappaqua. When this event first started, I was a junior at ‘WashU’ in St. Louis, where I studied painting and art history. I never guessed that I would be able to exhibit my work in the town I grew up in after moving back to New York last May.

Le Jardin du Roi is the perfect place to show my work. I have so many fond memories of birthday brunches, reunions and family dinners at Le Jardin. The work I’m showing for this event is a mix of some older pieces from school and new paintings. In college, I focused on portraits, and my thesis was a zeitgeist collection of paintings that I did based on live-sitters, all female students ages 18-22.

I was interested in the brain and the human ability to be naturally empathetic, and how we can intuitively tune in to another person’s emotions and intentions. Since then, I’ve gone on to explore other subjects in my paintings, including places and landscapes from my memory and old photographs. In all of my work, I am exploring color theory through the application of paint, layers of printmaking and mark-making.

Greeley grad Danielle Leventhal received a BFA in Painting, with a second major in Art History, from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis in 2016. She works in the mediums of oil paint, watercolor, and printmaking. Ms. Leventhal is the recipient of the Jeffrey Frank Wacks Scholarship for Fine Arts, the Mary Cowan Harford Award in Watercolor, and the Scholastic National Silver Medal for Painting. Her paintings and prints will be up the month of June.

3rd Annual Art Around Town Comes to Chappaqua

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

ART UNDER the BRIDGE: Making Connections through ART

April 20, 2015 by The Inside Press

May 16th kicks off the Northern Westchester Artists Guild’s “Art Under the Bridge” series running every third Saturday from 9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m.. May through October by the Chappaqua train station under the bridge.

Local fine artists, painters, printmakers, ceramists, photographers, fiber artists, sculptors, and jewelry designers all will exhibit their work under the bridge that links the Farmers Market and the Flea Market to the shops at lower King Street.

Shop for fresh locally grown farm goods, shop at the flea market; then stroll under the bridge and see the amazing art work also locally produced!

All work is available for purchase.

NWAG is a non profit organization, and a proud member of the Chappaqua/Millwood Chamber of Commerce.

The Northern Westchester Artisits Guild supports and encourages artists in their endeavors.

We see all forms of art as a vital expression of our voice in the community.

If you would like more information about this event, contact Peg Sackler:

914-715-0575, pegsackler@optonline.net or visit: www.nwartisitsguild.org