The Big Apple: Summer In The City

With a little more than two weeks left before I depart for New York City, you can be sure that I am fully engaged in all aspects of planning for the summer that is currently getting underway.

One of the reasons I love New York City so much, is the amazing range of free events that take place right across the five boroughs every summer. Once flights, accommodation, and food is accounted for, I will spend very little on high-priced events and activities during my stay. Having said that, I have already booked a series of concerts that have caught my attention at the City Winery and Highline Ballroom, but apart from these, and maybe one or two others, most of my entertainment will come from low cost music venues or the incredible array of free events available to every visitor and New Yorker.

The official New York City visitors site, NYCgo should be at the top of everyone’s list of websites when researching things to do—not just over the summer, but all year round. Here is a sampling of some of the summer concerts, movies and theatre events on offer, the vast majority of which are completely free:

Free Summer Movies…

You can watch a free movie every night of the week somewhere across the five boroughs. More than 130 sessions are currently scheduled, but be quick, in some instances the free summer film series have already begun. What you can expect to see: La La Land, Life of Pi, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Lego Batman Movie, The Big Lebowski, Blazing Saddles, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Muppet Movie, Logan, The Secret Life of Pets, Finding Dory, Selma, and Hidden Figures, just to name a baker’s dozen from the extensive smorgasbord on offer.

See Also: New York City Parks Summer Movies…

If you don’t want to spend your evenings watching movies, you can always catch some live music.

Free Summer Concerts…

The best things in life really are free, especially when it comes to NYC's summer concerts. Every May through August (Yes, the free summer concert season has also begun), you can hear live music of all kinds across the City without spending a dime. Whether it's punk on Staten Island, indie rock on the Manhattan waterfront, a classy night outdoors with the Metropolitan Opera or a diverse lineup of jazz and world music at SummerStage and Celebrate Brooklyn!, New York City's free open air performances are sure to please music lovers of all tastes. So what are you waiting for? Get out your digital calendars and start booking in your full summer concert schedule.

Other Free Concert Seasons

SummerStage…

Celebrate Brooklyn!…

Lincoln Center Out of Doors…

New York City Parks Summer Concerts…

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I’m not sure what it is about Brookfield Place… that draws me in like a magnet whenever I find myself in Lower Manhattan. One of the attractions is definitely the relief from the city’s heat and humidity that the vast atrium provides. Other draws are the numerous food outlets on site, clean restrooms (Yay!), and the schedule of free events programmed over the summer, which include art installations and music events. While not as extensive as other free musical offerings around the city, the location of Brookfield Place by the Hudson River still makes it a fine spot to rest and recuperate while enjoying the live music on offer. 

The stunning setting for the annual Lowdown Hudson Music Fest

The main events at Brookfield Place are the gigs at the annual Lowdown Hudson Music Fest:

Lowdown Hudson Music Fest Presents Common, and OK GO

Arts Brookfield’s annual summer music festival, the Lowdown Hudson Music Fest, returns to the heart of downtown New York for its seventh summer on July 18 and 19. Bringing fun, lively, world-class musical talent to the picturesque Waterfront Plaza at Brookfield Place, this year’s festival will be headlined by rapper and producer Common on Tuesday, July 18, and quirky veteran rockers OK GO on Wednesday, July 19. Both shows are free to attend and open to the public. In keeping with the summer festival vibe, shows are standing room only and will feature a festival bar. Event is rain or shine, except for extreme weather conditions.

Lowdown Hudson Music Fest…

Tuesday, July 18: COMMON

Wednesday, July 19: OK GO

Other events at Brookfield Place

Brookfield Place Events…

Brookfield Place Après Wednesdays…

New York City Parks Summer Theatre…

These free theatre shows include performances of Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor, on the Bryant Park lawn; and the Bard’s Richard III at Carroll Park, Brooklyn. Children can enjoy live performances of Charlotte’s Web, and Madagascar at the Sobelsohn Playground in Forest Park, Queens; and Cinderella Samba, at Dry Harbor Playground also in Forest Park, Queens.

Free Tours…

And as if all the above were not enough, visitors can also join one of the many free tours that take place across the city. These include tours arranged by Big Apple Greeter, Central Park Conservancy, Tours by Foot, Grand Central Partnership, the Greenwich Village Alliance, and many others.

You can be sure dear reader, that the above collection represents just a fraction of the hundreds of events and activities, many of which are free or low cost, that will be taking place across New York City this, and every summer. Personally, I can't wait to immerse myself in the cultural heart of the this amazing metropolis once again.

NYC Arts Round-Up #5: MoMA, Barberini Tapestries, Studio Museum in Harlem

Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction

Through August 13, 2017

The Museum of Modern Art

The exhibition Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction shines a spotlight on the stunning achievements of women artists between the end of World War II (1945) and the start of the Feminist movement (around 1968). In the postwar era, societal shifts made it possible for larger numbers of women to work professionally as artists, yet their work was often dismissed in the male dominated art world, and few support networks existed for them. Abstraction dominated artistic practice during these years, as many artists working in the aftermath of World War II sought an international language that might transcend national and regional narratives—and for women artists, additionally, those relating to gender.

Drawn entirely from the Museum’s collection, the exhibition features nearly 100 paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, prints, textiles, and ceramics by more than 50 artists. Within a trajectory that is at once loosely chronological and synchronous, it includes works that range from the boldly gestural canvases of Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler, and Joan Mitchell; the radical geometries by Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape, and Gego; and the reductive abstractions of Agnes Martin, Anne Truitt, and Jo Baer; to the fiber weavings of Magdalena Abakanowicz, Sheila Hicks, and Lenore Tawney; and the process-oriented sculptures of Lee Bontecou, Louise Bourgeois, and Eva Hesse.

"Making Space" shines a spotlight on the stunning achievements of women artists between the end of World War II (1945) and the start of the Feminist movement (around 1968). Join us for a conversation with MoMA director Glenn Lowry and curators Starr Figura and Sarah Hermanson Meister for a discussion on the opening of the exhibition.

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The Barberini tapestries, scenes from the Life of Christ.
Detail from "The Consignment of the Keys to St. Peter." Photo: John Bigelow Taylor

Barberini Tapestries Return to Cathedral of St. John The Divine

By Val Castronovo

Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1597-1679), nephew of Pope Urban VIII, commissioned the works, which were produced at the tapestry workshop he founded in Rome in 1627. The series was woven over a 13-year period from 1643 to 1656. The massive weavings measure roughly 16-feet high and 12-to-19-feet wide and stand testament to the political and cultural power of the Barberini family.

Ten tapestries from the 12-panel Life of Christ series adorn three of the chapels within the Cathedral. At the Chapel of St. James, seven of the wool-and-silk-woven panels are wrapped around the room, providing a panoramic view of scenes in the life of Jesus — namely “The Annunciation,” “The Nativity,” “The Adoration of the Magi,” “The Baptism of Christ,” “The Consignment of the Keys to St. Peter,” “The Agony in the Garden” and “The Crucifixion.”

The adjacent Chapel of St. Ambrose houses the complementary pieces, “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt” and “The Holy Land” (a woven map). Behind the high altar, the Chapel of St. Saviour concludes the exhibit with a single tapestry, “The Transfiguration,” depicting the ecstatic scene, described in the Gospels, after Jesus climbs a mountain and appears to three of his disciples in shining glory. (Two darkened fragments from “The Last Supper” are in a display case nearby.)

If You Go

“The Barberini Tapestries: Woven Monuments of Baroque Rome”

The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine

1047 Amsterdam Ave., at 112th Street

Now through June 25, 2017

ONLINE: www.stjohndivine.org 

Read the full story here…

How Radical Can a Portrait Be?

Vinson Cunningham writes about two new exhibitions, both at the Studio Museum in Harlem.

“One, “Regarding the Figure,” curated by Eric Booker, Connie H. Choi, Hallie Ringle, and Doris Zhao, and drawn largely from the museum’s permanent collection, is a reflection—mercifully free of neurosis or worry—on what faces and bodies have meant to art’s recent and distant past. Here, figures are art itself, no mere phase or moment in time. Henry Ossawa Tanner’s lithograph “The Three Marys” presents the women at Christ’s tomb as a study in developing sorrow: three faces, three stages of grief. The Mary closest to us—she must be the Virgin—is just in the middle of raising her hands.

The other exhibition is Rico Gatson’s Icons

“Icons,” a solo exhibition of recent works on paper by the artist Rico Gatson, curated by Hallie Ringle, takes this ecstasy in personhood and makes it as visible as people themselves. Gatson appropriates old photographic images of famous black Americans—Zora Neale Hurston, Gil Scott-Heron, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye—and surrounds them with bright, colorful lines that shoot outward from the personages to the borders of the page. Each of his titles is a simple, familiar first name. Purple, black, yellow, and red sprout from Zora’s scarved head. Bird’s horn shouts out black and white. Sam—Cooke, that is—has lines shooting out of his shoulders and his toes.

More Information

Regarding The Figure...

Now through August 6, 2017

Rico Gatson: Icons 2007-2017...

Now through August 27, 2017

Studio Museum in Harlem...

Read the full story here…

NYC Arts Round-Up #4: The Met Museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Credit: Benjamin Norman for The New York Times

~ Visit to the Met Could Cost You, if You Don’t Live in New York

An article in the New York Times caught my attention recently. Titled, Visit to the Met Could Cost You, if You Don’t Live in New York, the article, written by Robin Pogrebin reported that this venerable institution is thinking of charging “…a mandatory fee for non-residents.”

New Yorker’s reading this will be aware of course, that the Met currently has a suggested full priced entrance fee of USD$25. International visitors who have already been to the museum and paid the full price may not have been aware that they could have entered for free—if they had the confidence to front up and ask for free entry.

While comments for the article are now closed, there were many ‘for’ and ‘against’ arguments about the proposal among the 462 contributors, one of whom was myself. Here’s what I wrote: 

Interesting article and discussions. As it happens I live in Australia, but will be visiting New York City for almost three months over the coming summer. In preparation for this visit, just two weeks ago I paid for reduced annual membership to both The Met and to MoMA (each cost US$70 or AU$95.40).

Why? Because I intend to make multiple visits to both institutions during my stay, and paying for membership is the most economical way to enjoy the full range of benefits, along with the events and activities that both museums program across the summer months. Even if I visit each of the museums just once per week over ten weeks, my investment will have more than justified the initial expense. Of course I will miss out on the other nine months of my annual membership, but that’s part of what I call ’the cost of travel’. 

I also paid because I can. I would much rather pay for membership, even though I won’t be able to take full advantage of it over 12 months, if that membership helps those who genuinely can’t afford to visit either of these great museums, to do so for free.

Read the full article here…

A medicine vision by an unrecorded Arapaho artist (detail) ca. 1880 in Oklahoma.

~ In April, my attention was caught by an article by Katherine Brooks writing for the Huffington Post. In her piece; Native American Art Gets Its Rightful Place In The Metropolitan Museum, Brooks writes:

The American Wing of the storied Metropolitan Museum of Art has long held a collection of typically “American” artifacts: portraits of wigged colonial leaders, Tiffany chandeliers, Frank Lloyd Wright chairs, silver owned by Paul Revere Jr., quilts by unknown 19th-century makers.

Together they tell a specific, but noticeably incomplete, history of the United States.
Beginning in the fall of 2018, however, the American Wing will attempt to course correct by including a subgroup of art that has been regrettably missing from the section: Native American art. Thanks to a donation from collectors Charles and Valerie Diker, a batch of 91 works of Native American art will be headed for the American Wing, marking a historic change in the way art is curated at New York’s most famous museum.

While New York City is home to the National Museum of the American Indian (located in the old Customs House opposite Bowling Green), it is surely way past time that Native American culture was better represented at the Met Museum.

Read the full article here…

Making the Most of the Metropolitan Museum

The New York Times also has a very informative feature on how to get the best of any visit to that great institution and its massive collections. Among the highlights, Daniel McDermon includes five ‘Must See’ rooms (Greek and Roman Sculpture Court; the Vermeer Collection; Asian Art; the Impressionists; and the Temple of Dendur). He also writes about the amazing spaces within the museum, intimate treasures, what to see with kids, and much more.

Read the full guide here…

Ellis cartoon courtesy of The New Yorker

If you are looking for even more to do in New York City, the New York Times has several arts sections worth bookmarking and checking on a regular basis:

New York Times Arts…

New York Galleries this Week…

New York Times Arts & Entertainment Guide…

New York City Arts Round-Up #2

I have often wondered, as I wandered around many an art gallery’s modern art wing, how it was that curators of exhibitions could tell which way was the right way to hang paintings that had no obvious clues to their orientation. Should they be hung vertically or horizontally? In the video embedded below, MoMA curator Sarah Meister and master framer Peter Perez analyze several photographs by Brazilian artist Gertrudes Altschul to determine how they should be oriented for the upcoming exhibition Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction.

The exhibition (April 15—August13, 2017), shines a spotlight on the stunning achievements of women artists between the end of World War Two (1945), and the start of the Feminist movement (around 1968). Learn more here.

For MoMA’s latest videos, and invitations to live events Subscribe here…
Explore MoMA’s collection online…
Plan your visit in-person…

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Judith Leiber: Crafting a New York Story

Now through August 6, 2017

Museum of Arts and Design

2 Columbus Circle, Manhattan.

Judith Leiber’s jeweled, embellished and patterned clutches are the subject of this exhibition, which highlights Leiber’s skillfully crafted handbags. These works of art are influenced by both art deco style and techniques Leiber learned in Europe. Her bags are known for their boundary-pushing qualities from Swarovski crystal–covered pieces to those made with fabrics and material from India, Asia and Africa. Read more here…

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The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s

Now through August 20, 2017

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

2 E. 91st St., Manhattan.

In the 1920s American style of dress came to define the jazz era. This is the first major museum exhibition to focus on American taste during the creative explosion of the 1920s. The Jazz Age will be a multi-media experience of more than 400  examples of interior design, industrial design, decorative art, jewelry, fashion, architecture, music, and film. Giving full expression to the decade’s diversity and dynamism, The Jazz Age will define the American spirit of the period. Read more here…

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Storming the Gate (detail). Elizabeth Mateer and Alexander Peters

Dancers Among Us: A Celebration Of Joy In The Everyday

Now through May 5, 2017. Free to attend.
Brookfield Place, Level 2.

230 Vesey Street, Manhattan.

Jordan Matter’s Dancers Among Us presents one thrilling photograph after another of dancers leaping, spinning, lifting, kicking—but in the midst of daily life: on the beach, at a construction site, in a library, a restaurant, a park. With each image the viewer feels buoyed up, eager to see the next bit of magic. Organized around themes of work, play, love, exploration, dreaming, and more, Dancers Among Us celebrates life in a way that’s fresh, surprising, original, universal. There’s no photoshopping here, no trampolines, no gimmicks, no tricks. Just a photographer, his vision, and the serendipity of what happens when the shutter clicks. The exhibition at Brookfield Place (230 Vesey Shops, 2nd level) features twenty large-scale aluminum and vinyl prints, and an incredible video compilation of behind-the-scenes film.

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Not Only — But Also…

Best April Events in New York City From NYCGO

Along with the first real taste of spring, April in New York City means the return of Mets and Yankees baseball, the Tribeca Film Festival and premieres courtesy of Dance Theatre of Harlem, Ballet Hispanico and the New York City Ballet. New art exhibitions celebrate the photography of Irving Penn and Henri Cartier-Bresson and the colorful blown-glass creations of Dale Chihuly. For details on these happenings and many more, read on…

More April Events From the Village Voice

Since it is impossible for one website to list every conceivable event in New York City, here are more listings from the Village Voice… 

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, America

~ The Memorial Day Weekend is considered the official start of summer in America, and I wish I was there to see the summer in. Since I’m not, I thought I might at least point lucky visitors and locals to a few of my favorite New York-centric websites and events.

Shakespeare In The Park

Over the past 50 years, more than five million people have enjoyed free productions of plays by William Shakespeare at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. This year The Comedy of Errors is the Public Theater’s choice for their free annual Shakespeare In The Park production. The play kicks off Tuesday, May 28 and runs through until Sunday, June 30, 2013. All shows begin at 8:30 PM.​​​, and there is no intermission during the 90 minute performance.

Among the actors featuring in this year’s production will be Jesse Tyler Ferguson, one of the stars of Modern Family, Hamish Linklater, and Becky Ann Baker.

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If you want to join the audience, you are advised to line up early on the day of performance.

​Free tickets are distributed on each performance day from 12:00 PM (midday) via the free lines at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Tickets are for the daily performance only. You can not line up to get tickets for the following day, or for an upcoming performance.

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Once The Comedy of Errors finishes its run it will be followed by Love's Labour's Lost, A New Musical​, which is of course, a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Love's Labour's Lost. This production will run from July 23 - August 18​, 2013.

More information: Shakespeare In The Park…

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Goldstar.Com

I have written about this website before here… This is my ‘go to’ site for cheap tickets to a whole range of events in New York City and beyond. Via Goldstar you can find tickets (many at half their box office price) to numerous theatre productions and major sporting events, as well as walking tours, harbor cruises and much more. The great thing about Goldstar is that discount tickets are available for similar events in more than 30 other cities across the United States.

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SummerStage 2013

SummerStage is another annual arts and music program of New York’s, City Parks Foundation. It schedules a host of free events throughout the summer months, and 2013 will be no exception. As in previous years, the artists chosen for the 2013 program represent a wide range of genres and cultures, and perform in outdoor settings accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds. I was lucky to see one of my favourite performers, the late Gil Scott-Heron performing as part of the 2010 SummerStage concert series, and I am very grateful to the City Parks Foundation for giving me that opportunity.

SummerStage strives to develop a deep appreciation for contemporary, traditional, and emerging artists as well as the communities in which these artists originate. All SummerStage shows go on ‘rain or shine’, and are only cancelled if extreme weather events are forecasted.

You can follow SummerStage on Twitter and Like them on Facebook to keep up to date with the latest SummerStage fan content and contest opportunities.

More Information: Summerstage...

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Good things are said to come in three’s, and the above three sections point to three of the best in my experience. If you are visiting New York City for the first time, you are in for a treat, and I can only wish I was there with you. All things being equal, I plan on visiting America and New York City again next year, so you can be sure the next twelve months will be filled with much anticipation, and forward planning. I can hardly wait.

TED on Tuesday: Ken Robinson: Schools Kill Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson

In my family and extended family, I count at least nine members who are involved in various fields of education, either as teachers, instructors, or some other capacity. Across the same family there are members who sing, play musical instruments, paint, write poetry, and dance. One is a screenwriter, and another is currently undertaking a film making course.

I myself, am a singer-songwriter with a couple of albums to my name, and I guess I can add video maker to my credits if I include the numerous short videos I have put together documenting my various travels. It goes without saying then, that questions examining the nexus between education and creativity are of great interest to myself, and other members of the family.

Today’s TED on Tuesday features a talk by Sir Ken Robinson, who makes an entertaining and forceful case for creating a modern education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

“I believe this passionately: that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it.” ~ Sir Ken Robinson

Posing the question: Why don't we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it's because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Further, he argues that students with restless minds and bodies―far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity―are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. Or worse―diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder), and  medicated into submission.

Sir Ken led the British government's 1998 advisory committee on creative and cultural education, a massive inquiry into the significance of creativity in the educational system and the economy, and was knighted in 2003 for his achievements. His latest book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative was published in January 2009. He is also the author of the best selling The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything.

Take a look as Sir Ken Robinson delivers one of the most popular TED talks on education and creativity:

A Living Tradition: Greek Island Dance Festival

~ On Saturday, June 14, 2008, a Festival of Greek Dance was held in the village of Rahes, on the Aegean island of Ikaria, and this film, one of several I have put together, shows the final dance of the night. The tune is known as the Ikariotiko (or The Ikarian), and is the island’s traditional tune and dance.

The festival took place on the village basketball court, under lights that attracted hundreds of moths and other airborne insects which fell constantly onto the heads of the audience below. This probably explains why only half the lights were turned on during the performances. Unfortunately, this also made it extremely difficult to get good, well lit footage of the dances.

Audience chatter and the constant movement of children and adults across the 'stage' seems to be part and parcel of any event of this type, given the location, and the hot summer night. In the end, it all goes towards creating yet another unforgettable and unique Greek island experience.

The wonderful thing about this festival is the way the community totally involves itself in the event. Rather than assume the constant chatter and movement as being disrespectful to the musicians and dancers, it is instead a sign of the audiences involvement and connection with the music and dancing.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised the adults didn't get up and dance during the three hour show themselves. Greeks find it very difficult to sit and watch something like this, when their natural inclination is to get up and join in.

 

Throughout the night, local children stood at the edges of the performance space intently watching the feet of the dancers, while they tried to follow the steps of each dance. As everyone (dance troupes and visitors alike), got ready to join the final dance.

This was the signal for children of all ages to join the long lines―generally at the end of each line, as tradition dictates―to learn, and carry on the island traditions. It would of course be unthinkable to tell the children to keep out of the way while the adults did 'their thing'. The children are literally learning at the feet of the adult dancers.

The music is performed here on a Tsampouna, an instrument made out of goat skin, which has obvious links to the Scottish bagpipe and the gaida. I should also add, the Ikariotiko is played constantly at festivals, weddings, parties, in deed at celebrations and occasions of all types. And not just once per night, but many times. Each musician has his or her own variation of the tune, and some musicians are still remembered and spoken about today, long after their passing, because of the way they played the dance. I love how the musician actually spends a full minute and 20 seconds (1:20), playing an extended introduction to the main tune. This gives audience and performers alike plenty of time to make their way onto the basketball court and join lines in readiness for the dance to begin.

To my great regret, I did not get the name of the female playing the Tsampouna, nor did I take any footage of her during the dance, which finished off the evening's entertainment. However, as chance would have it, she happened to walk past my camera just before I turned it off at the end of the dance. I have captured a frame from the video and added it as a still image just before the final credits appear as a way to acknowledge her performance.

A comment added to one of my other videos suggests the musician is Eva Kratsa. Another source thought she lived on the island of Mykonos.

I hope you enjoy the music and the occasion.

More Videos

You can see many more of my travel videos on my YouTubepage…