Arts Blog

Eastman House representatives held a community forum Monday night to explore the history of restoration at the museum and gardens and to discuss plans for future repairs. The forum was attended by members of the public, Eastman House staff and members of the board of trustees, volunteers and docents, representatives from the City of Rochester as well as the offices of Congresswoman Louise Slaughter.

The forum was held to provide a status update about the mansion restoration project and inform community members about the next phase of restoration efforts.

"We are currently in a critical period right now, leading up to the July 31 deadline for submitting proposals for support through New York State to the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council," said Laura Sadowski, Eastman House Vice President of Community Engagement.

George Eastman's historic home is one of only two National Historic Landmarks in Rochester (the other being the Susan B. Anthony House). Built between 1902 and 1905, the Eastman's mansion reopened to the public in 1990, following a major first-floor restoration effort to return the house to the way it looked during Eastman's lifetime.

Three major areas have been prioritized for the next stage of repairs. These include ongoing window restoration to repair broken panes and rotted wood, repair of rotted wood and cracked columns in the pergola, and repair of rotted wood and peeling paint of the grape arbor. Eastman House is applying for three different grants toward these ends.

The Eastman House serves as a "three-dimensional biography of the man who lived here," said Kathy Conner, Eastman House Legacy Curator, who presented a slideshow exploration of how funding has been used in the past to realize crucial restoration, repairs, and renovations leading up to the reopening of the historic mansion as a museum. Renovations have included additional features that were not contemporary to Eastman, such as air conditioning and storm windows, but which are critical aids in preservation efforts.

Since then, weather and the natural degradation of materials have affected the structural integrity of the site. In 2013, George Eastman House awarded a contract to Bero Architecture, PLLC to conduct a historic site condition survey on George Eastman's historic mansion and garden structures. A total of $3 million in urgent and necessary restoration and repairs were identified.

Last year, George Eastman House received a major grant of $500,000 from the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, in conjunction with the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council, to address an immediate concern with the East Porch and Colonnade at the museum. To date, George Eastman House has raised more than $1 million in private funding to support the total restoration efforts.

Sadowski also briefly mentioned that Eastman House will provide leadership in the creation of a new collaborative initiative among a variety of culture organization in the Finger Lakes region to offer free or significantly reduced admission "to the substantial population living in poverty in the Finger Lakes Region. "Arts and culture make life worth living," she said. "The ability to pay for access must be addressed."

Eastman House has reached out to 135 organizations, and plans to partner with the Rochester-Monroe County Anti-Poverty Initiative, Monroe County Office of Social Services, United Way of Greater Rochester, and their counterparts in surrounding counties to develop strategies of promotion and implementation.

Eastman House Grants Officer Ruth Wagner emphasized the crucial role of the community, and asked that supporters help with the grant proposal by contacting legislators and writing letters of support for the institution.

For more information about the ongoing restoration efforts and how to help, email Ruth Wagner at [email protected], or visit eastmanhouse.org.

The days are ripe for a little jaunt to Cummings Nature Center (6472 Gulick Road, Naples), where you can take in the glory of nature's full blush in reality and on canvas. Through September 8, "Fantastic Fauna," featuring paintings by regional artists Mary Mullard and Anne Smoral, will be on display alongside specimens from the RMSC collections.

Maximize your visit by hiking the trails in the 900-acre preserve. CNC is open to the public Wednesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Holiday hours on Saturday, July 4, are 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Though the trails are open five days a week, the next naturalist-led nature hike is set to be held Saturday, June 27, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., with a theme of "Family Fun: Secrets of Lilliput." This all-ages hike will have kids searching for pixie cups and tiny British soldiers in a miniature forest, and holding earthworms and bugs. Dress in play clothes!

Admission is $3 per person or $10 per family, and free to RMSC members. For more info, call 374-6160 or visit rmsc.org.

Beginning Saturday, June 20, The Schweinfurth Art Center (205 Genesee Street, Auburn) is offering a trio of summer exhibitions. The main gallery will feature "Industrial Nature: Works by Michelle Stitzlein," featuring found object art, which includes piano keys, broken china, rusty tin cans, electrical wire, bottle caps, and plastic bags.

The Schweinfurth will also feature "Material Remix," an exhibit of work by four artists who, like Stitzlein, specialize in utilizing found, recycled or repurposed materials. The group includes Ann Smith Larson of Portland, Oregon, who creates small moving robots resembling animals and birds and integrates broken electronics and machine parts; Jennifer Maestre, a Massachusetts-based artist, internationally known for her unique pencil sculptures; Jonpaul Smith, of Ohio, who creates tapestry-like assemblages with hundreds of interwoven strips of discarded consumer packaging and other collected paper; and Baltimore-based Susie Brandt, a textile artist who has taken what she calls "Aloha shirts" and turned them into "trees of life."

And "Functioning Systems" will feature artwork by Mary Giehl of Syracuse, whose work is inspired by microscopic images of bacteria, algae and other elements found in nature, Giehl's fiber work includes intricate crocheted and felted pieces.

All three shows will remain on view through Sunday, August 16. The exhibit reception will be held Saturday, June 20, from 3 to 5 p.m. On Sunday, June 21, the Schweinfurth will host a special Community Art Day from 1 to 5 p.m. Michelle Stitzlein will lead children and parents in the creation of a large butterfly mosaic with bottle caps for display at the Art Center. The event is free and open to the public

The Art Center is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is $7 for adults and free to children under 12 and members. For more information, call 315-255-1553 or visit myartcenter.org.

For more events, visit our calendar.

Effective July 1, The Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester will return to the Neighborhood of the Arts. The organization announced today that it will move its offices and headquarters to the historic Visual Studies Workshop building at 31 Prince Street.

Following news of an financial crisis in the spring of 2014, the Arts & Cultural Council closed the doors of the North Goodman Street location, formed a partnership with RAPA, and moved its headquarters to Kodak Center for Performing Arts on West Ridge Road.

"The VSW leadership and staff have been so helpful in welcoming us into their historic facility," said David Semple, the council's executive director, in a memo to members and supporters. "We look forward to presenting further opportunities for the arts community to convene as a group inside this marvelous building in months to come."

Visual Studies Workshop owns both the building at 31 Prince Street, and the building right next to it on University Avenue. This latter building has been on the market since October 2015, and has a few potential buyers, says Tate Shaw, director of VSW. The Arts & Cultural Council will join VSW in the 31 Prince Street building, renting an office next to VSW's gallery space.

The council will remain reachable by calling 473-4000, and online at artsrochester.org.

A new light-based arts festival will take place in Village Gate this July, organizers announced Monday. The event, A Street Light Festival, will showcase interactive art and projects in a multitude of forms, coming from artists, engineers, and performers. The festival will be in conjunction with the international Year of Light, as declared by the UN General Assembly in order to promote global awareness about the importance of light-based technologies and the role it plays in the global society.

The Street Light Festival will be free, running Friday, July 17, and Saturday, July 18, 10 p.m. until 1 a.m., in Village Gate's parking lot, weather permitting. In case of rain, the festival will be held in the 2nd floor lobby.

The festival is open for submissions of multidisciplinary projects the incorporate light as well as sound, performance, and projections. The festival also aims to have the audience reimagine The Village Gate area at night, organizers said.

While not unheard of in larger cities like New York or Toronto, the festival will be the first of its kind in the Rochester and upstate New York areas.

Anyone can submit a light-inspired project. Deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. on July 1. Funding is not provided for those submitting works, but those who submit are eligible to win cash prizes ranging from $500 to $1,500.

More information can be found at roctheyol.com.

If you're looking for an engaging read to officially kick off your summer reading list, consider getting a head-start on the work chosen for the 2016 edition of the "If All of Rocheser Read the Same Book..." city-wide book club. Writers & Books has chosen "Queen of the Fall: A Memoir of Girls & Goddesses," by Sonja Livingston.

This slim and poetic work considers the female life through anecdotes of women who Livingston has known personally, through her observations of cultural and mythic icons, and through her own memories of fumbling toward womanhood from an impoverished and often confusing childhood.

We're immersed in Livingston's memory-mapping of the landscape and limitations of her youth through vignettes that float the reader from richly-described reveries of bliss derived from nature to meditations on the bewildering gift and curse of fertility.

No stranger to plumbing the depths for memoir, Livingston's first book, "Ghostbread," a work in the same tricky vein, won an AWP Book Prize for Nonfiction and has been adopted for use by classrooms around the nation.

"This is what the mind can do," she writes in "Queen of the Fall," "if you allow it to rise from its thick beams and dirt-packed basements, if you invite it to wander without tether, unnailed by the hammer of logic."

Her spyglass sweeps around restlessly, settling momentarily on recalled fragments from before she gained an awareness of the world's uglier sides -- though each innocent scene is overlaid with filters forged in experience. Both of Livingston's voices are honest and earnest and so highly relatable.

At the culmination of this season's program, Livingston -- who is an assistant professor in the MFA Program at the University of Memphis, and splits her time between Tennessee and New York State -- will visit Rochester for readings, book signings, and appearances at local libraries, colleges, and senior centers from March 15 to March 19, 2016.

Copies of the book are available for purchase now at the Writers & Books bookstore. For more information on the "If All of Rochester Reads the Same Book..." program, contact the program coordinator, Karen VanMeenen, at [email protected]. For more information on the author, visit sonjalivingston.com.

Writers & Books announced today that Founder and Executive Director Joe Flaherty will retire in June 2016.

Flaherty saw the organization grow from its beginnings as a one-room storefront on South Clinton Avenue in 1981, through its move to its current residence at 740 University Avenue in 1985, and into a thriving literary center that now serves an annual audience of more than 25,000.

"By announcing my retirement a year in advance," Flaherty says, "it provides the opportunity to guarantee the long-term future of the organization by selecting a strong leader to succeed me and putting in place a secure financial foundation."

With the news of Flaherty's retirement came another announcement of the "Writing the Next Chapter Campaign," which has a goal of retiring the organization's debt and creating a permanent fund that will allow for new and expanded programs. Plans include increasing educational scholarships, bringing top writers to Rochester, expanding facilities, and strengthening existing programming.

"It's time for Writers & Books to write its next chapter. I want to make sure the story continues for generations to come," Flaherty says.

For more information, call 473-2590, or visit wab.org.

The fourth annual Finger Lakes Plein Air Competition & Festival kicks off Wednesday, June 10. More than 40 talented artists from across the United States and Canada will visit to paint the beauty of Canandaigua and the Finger Lakes.

In addition to artists, the event draws art lovers and collectors from all over. Attendees can watch the creation of fine art on location at the historic Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion, Canandaigua Lake, and other scenic spots in the lovely region. Throughout the festival, a series of engaging events will be offered, and an exhibition and sale will be held on the final day of the event at Sonnenberg.

This year's competition is to be judged by Nancy Tankersley, founder of the Easton Studio in Maryland, which hosts workshops by top painters from all over the country. The event continues through Sunday, June 14. Here are some highlights, but check the official site for more details. Events marked with an asterisk (*) require paid tickets. Call 394-0030 for details.

Wednesday, June 10: Artists will arrive in Canandaigua and begin painting.

Thursday, June 11: Juried artists will paint all day, rain or shine, in the Canandaigua Lake region. A "Meet the Artists" event* will be held, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the Canandaigua Yacht Club (3524 County Road 16, Canandaigua), with an opportunity to view their preview work.

Friday, June 12: Juried artists will paint all day, rain or shine, in the Canandaigua Lake region. A Judge's Demonstration* by Nancy Tankersley will take place, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., at Wood Library (134 Main Street, Canandaigua).

Saturday, June 13: A "Quick Draw" event will be held 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in which juried artists will paint in and around downtown Canandaigua. Both a Judge's Choice and a People's choice winner will be announced at Finger Lakes Gallery & Frame (175 South Main Street, Canandaigua).

All local and regional artists are welcome to participate in a Community Paint Out. Register between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. for the event, held 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Cash prizes will be awarded to winners at 4 p.m.

A Preview Party Gala: Exhibit & Sale* will be held at the Sonnenberg Gardens Carriage House (151 Charlotte Street, Canandaigua), from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Sunday, June 14: A Breakfast with the Artists and Early Admittance to the Exhibit and Sale* will take place 10 a.m. to noon. The exhibit and sale is free and open to the public from noon to 4 p.m.

For more upcoming events, check out our calendar!

Rochester is busting with artful activity tonight. The following highlights are just a few of the events offered Friday, June 5; check out more options listed at firstfridayrochester.org and in our calendar. All events run 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. tonight, and are free to attend unless otherwise stated.

Cat Clay (Hungerford Building, 1115 East Main Street, Door #2, suite 242) will host a one-night only pop-up exhibit of ceramicist Katie Carey's "About Sprouts." The show will feature fantastic new planters and chia sprouters, showcasing Carey's love of funky, clean forms and surface textures. Cat Clay owner, Clifton Wood's fun and functional clay objects will also be available for purchase, including the ever popular "Mug Shots" mugs. The show takes place 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. For more information, call 414-5643 or visit catclay.com.

Check out "A Further Exploration: A Visual Study of Jazz & Blues," new works by Rob Antonucci and Todd Stahl, at Joe Bean Coffee Roasters (1344 University Avenue). Stahl's work is portrait-based assemblages, while Antonucci's pieces are heavily influenced by American Abstract Expressionists. The reception will take place 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., and the show continues through June 28. A second, closing reception will be held June 26, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The coffee shop is open Monday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 319-5279, or visit joebeanroasters.com.

"Art Friends: Necessary Trouble" is an RIT School of Art summer art exhibition featuring paintings, sculpture, and installation work of Emily Bellinger, Danielle Burch, Zach Dietl, Shane Durgee, Nadine Longmore, Jacquelyn Marie O'Brien, Rachel Simonson, AbioseSpriggs, Mike Strobert, Sarah Taavola, and Kelly Wilton. A reception for the show will take place 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at a new art space located at 460 State Street -- more information about that space to follow in the near future. For more information, visit the facebook event page.

Later in the evening, the Bug Jar's gallery-in-residence, The Lobby (219 Monroe Avenue), will host a rock show and reception, "June Bug," with music by The Temptators, Drippers!, Buffalo Sex Change, and Roger Kuhn, and featuring new artwork by Holly B. Heckler, Brittany Rea, Sophie Signorino, and Jane Lichorowic. Doors are at 8 p.m. ($8 admission), with music starting at 10 p.m. For more information, visit lobbydigital.com or bugjar.com.

"Genesee Valley QuiltFest 2015: The Universe of Quilts" kicks off today, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and continues Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Hosted by the Genesee Valley Quilt Club and held in the Gordon Field House (RIT, 1 Lomb Memorial Drive), the show features more than 600 examples of quilts on display and for sale, a vendor mall, workshops, lectures, demos, special exhibits, and more. Tickets to the event are $10 per day ($8 for seniors/group rate) and $20 for a weekend pass ($16 for seniors/group rate), and children age 12 and younger are admitted for free. For more information and a schedule of events, visit geneseevalleyquiltfest.com.

CITY will be out and about tonight to see the sights. Follow @roccitynews on Instagram to check out the art!