Author Archives: Christina

westbeth gallery: Holiday group show 2011 – watercolors, paintings and fine art prints

OPENING Saturday Dec 18, from 5 pm – 7 pm

Christina Maile STATION 14 - MAINE from 26 VIEWS OF WESTBETH 2011

Holiday Group show features the work of established and emerging artists including Jon D’Orazio, Tamara Wyndham, William Kennon, Laurence Hoffman, Barnaby Ruhre, Jack Dowling, Francia, Claire Rosenfeld, Stephen Hall, and more.

December 18 2011 – January 1, 2012
Thursday – Sunday 1pm – 6 pm

JAZZ CABARET OPEN MIC Friday Dec 16 in Westbeth Community Room

COME SING AND SHARE YOUR WINTER DREAMS…..at the Jazz Open Mic hosted by Eve Zanni and the elegant piano stylings of Rom Ferri.

Bring your blues, ballads, bossas, boleros, swing songs…whatever warms your winter fancy….

Friday December 16th, 7-11pm

at the Westbeth Community Room

Singers: $10 per person. Come prepared with 2 or more songs. Listeners welcome!

Directions:

Westbeth Artists Community, in the Community Room
55 Bethune Street (corner of Washington)

Rom Ferri romferri@hotmail.com H: 212.989.3187 nJazz Pianist/Accompanist /Private Instruction: Piano, Ear Training, Composition, Analysis

WESTBETH HOME TO THE ARTS FILM SCREENING: Feb 16 at 6:30pm

Join filmmaker George Cominskie at a screening of Westbeth—Home to the Arts, a documentary selected for the 2011 Manhattan Film Festival. The film explores the unique history of the recently landmarked Westbeth Artists Residence in the Far West Village. Westbeth was created in 1970 as affordable housing for artists by the J.M. Kaplan Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. This intimate film shows how Westbeth revitalized the arts in a changing Greenwich Village and demonstrates why every large city around the world should have its own Westbeth.

Thursday, February 16
6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Westbeth Community Room, 155 Bank Street
(between Washington & West Streets)
Free; reservations required.
RSVP to rsvp@gvshp.org or (212) 475-9585 ext. 35

FIRST FRIDAYS Presents 3SPIRIT Live Music Concert on June 1, 2012

WESTBETH COMMUNITY ROOM in Westbeth–ask at desk.
55 BETHUNE STREET at WASHINGTON ST
7-9:30 PM
$10 (suggested donation)

3SPIRIT (Val Hawk, Vicki Doney, and Nancy Reed) can be heard on a diverse array of recordings, from “Tony Caruso’s Final Broadcast,” a modern opera recently released on the Naxos label, to ABC’s “Schoolhouse Rock” with Bob Dorough for whom they sang backup in their first incarnation as “THE BOBETTES.”

This last year, 3SPIRIT was featured on Public Radio’s “Homegrown Music” and most recently appeared at the COTA Jazz Festival. Vicki Doney can be heard Monday nights at “The Garage” with the Howard Williams Orchestra. Nancy Reed is vocalist for “The Ellington Orchestra.” Val Hawk, when not writing or arranging for 3SPIRIT, is working on the completion of her long awaited jazz CD, “DREAM”.

VAL HAWK made her “Schoolhouse Rock” debut in 1994 playing guitar and singing the voice of Becky Sue in Money Rocks “Dollars and Sense.” As a member of jazz vocal group The Ritz she sang, played guitar, and contributed arrangements for “Almost Blue” (Denon). For the Japanese market, she can be heard on “Seventies Reminiscence” (Columbia Japan) and “A Long Vacation” which she also lyricized. Having studied at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and The Actor’s Institute and appearing Off Broadway before abandoning acting, Val has just made her return to the stage in the role of Grace in “Let the Phoenix Rise.”

More First Friday concerts are scheduled and culminate with the 6th ANNUAL WESTBETH MUSIC FESTIVAL September 21, 22, and 23, 2012.
FOR BIOS AND LINKS GO TO www.westbeth.org ARTISTSPERFORMING ARTISTS.
Located in the far West Village of New York City, Westbeth Artists’ Housing provides affordable living and working spaces for artists and their families. Opened in 1970 through funding provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the J.M. Kaplan Foundation, Westbeth continues to offer affordable artists’ housing and an array of cultural activities. Recently Westbeth was land marked under NYC Landmark laws, and it has been nominated to the State Registrar of Historic Places and to the National Registrar of Historic Places.

SUSAN BERGER accepted to CURATE NYC 2011. Her fiber piece “Configurations” will be seen at Art at Bay Gallery, Staten Island from 3- 18 Dec 2011.

Over 1,500 entries and 150 artists were selected in various visual disciplines.The sponsors are New York City Economic Development Corporation and Full Spectrum Experience,Inc. Curate NYC is a juried exhibition and online platform to heighten exposure and opportunities for New York City visual artists. The project’s intention is to promote” New York City’s image and as vital cultural hub.” The 150 works are made into postcards and these will be displayed at Rush Art Gallery (from December 1-10) at 526 West 26th Street, Suite 311.

Configurations

FIRST FRIDAYS LIVE AT WESTBETH – December 2 at 7 pm



The Westbeth Music Festival present a new series – a monthly offering of music and performance at the Community Room at Westbeth in the coffee house tradition

December 2 at 7 pm: An Evening of Music and Spoken Word.
with Alexandra Leff, Rebecca Keith, Andrea Mazariello, Jessica Safran, and the legendary Barney Miller!

Suggested donation $10

PERFORMERS

Alexandra Leff
Alexandra grew up in New York City playing guitar and listening to Pete Seeger, James Taylor, Cat Stevens and Carole King. She has been writing songs in the folk tradition for many years. Alexandra is also a visual artist and her work has been on exhibit at the Westbeth Gallery, Artbreak Gallery, at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, and later this month her work will be on view at the Arsenal Gallery in Central Park. Her illustrations have been published in The New York Times Book Review, and by Pearson, EAMC, and others. Alexandra is currently the Deputy Director of LEAP, an arts education nonprofit organization and has created a social-action-through-art program for young people, that culminates in an annual historic citywide parks exhibition.

Rebecca Keith
Rebecca’s poems and other writing have appeared in Best New Poets (2009), The Laurel Review, The Rumpus, The Awl, BOMBlog, Dossier, Storyscape, The Millions, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, was a semi-finalist for the 2010 “Discovery”/Boston Review poetry contest and has received honors from the Atlantic Monthly and BOMB magazine. A native of downtown New York, Rebecca is a founder, curator, and host of Mixer Reading and Music series at Cakeshop. She also sings and plays guitar and keyboards in the Roulettes and Butchers & Bakers.

Andrea Mazzariello is a composer, performer, and writer. His creative output is diverse, from concert music to rock songs, memoir to scholarship. Especially interested in the ways that composers and performers negotiate issues of physicality and push their bodies to develop new approaches to music making, he often devises novel instrumental configurations on which he performs or asks others to perform. So Percussion, Newspeak, NOW Ensemble, and the Berkshire Symphony have performed his work, and his sound design has been featured in the New York Fringe Festival. His rock and roll collaborations have taken him from the now-defunct CBGB’s in New York to Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio in Chicago to South by Southwest in Austin. He holds a Ph.D and an M.F.A. in Composition from Princeton University, an M.M. from the University of Michigan in Composition, and a B.A. with Highest Honors in Music from Williams College. Currently, Andrea is on the faculty of the Princeton Writing Program, in which he teaches a freshman seminar on subversive music. For more information, please visit www.andreamazzariello.com.

Jessica Safran
Jessica is a writer recently was a top finalist in New York Press’ memoir writing contest for her short piece, Marry Me. She’s also blogged recently at Smartly NY, an online writer’s collective. Currently, she is VP, Operations for BigVoice Unlimited, a digital marketing consultancy, and recently launched the company’s blog, Voiceterous. Some of her best pieces to date have been text messages to her husband and treasure hunt clues on sticky notes for her seven-year-old daughter.

The Legendary Barney Miller
Barney has opened for The Clash, studied song writing with Rosanne Cash and had a 1970’s TV Show named after him. He was a founding member of the classic Miller Miller Miller & Sloan band, opening for acts like Chaka Kahn, The Tom Tom Club and The Clash. His mid-90’s power pop band Astro Chicken who’s last album, “Almost Anywhere” was recorded by Glee hit maker Robert L. Smith featured guest stars from Ryan Adam’s original group Whiskeytown. Barney is also a film maker, music video director and editor and lives in New York City.