Author Archives: Christina

Westbeth Movie Night
I Am Cuba

I Am Cuba is a 1964 film directed by Mikhail Kalatozov.

An international co-production between the Soviet Union and Cuba, it was not received well by either the Russian or Cuban public, and was almost completely forgotten until it was re-discovered by filmmakers Martin Scorcese and Francis Ford Coppola who after seeing its acrobatic tracking shots and idiosyncratic mise en scene prompted their 1990s campaign to restore the film.

The movie consists of four distinct short stories about the suffering of the Cuban people and their reactions, varying from passive amazement in the first, to a guerrilla march in the last. Between the stories, a female narrator (credited “The Voice of Cuba”) says such things as, “I am Cuba, the Cuba of the casinos, but also of the people.”

Westbeth Movie Night is a free public event sponsored by the Westbeth Artists Residents Council. It is a series of films curated by filmmaker Ethan Maas that are significant, brilliant, sometimes forgotten, but always memorable.

West Village Wellness:
THE FLU AND YOU

When: Sunday Sept 8, 2019 2-3:30PM
Where: Westbeth Community Room
TopicL Preparing for Flu Season and Updates on Vaccinations

West Village Wellness is a free public monthly event sponsored by Grove Drugs and Westbeth to provide information to the community on ways to sustain a healthy life.

Presented by Ilana Aminov RPH of Grove Drugs, your neighborhood pharmacy.
Hosted by: Michael Drew Embrey
Catering: by Michael Stewart of Tavern on Jane

Discover how to prepare for the upcoming flu season. Are flu shots worth waiting in line for? If I get the flu, do I still need a flu shot? Can I just eat healthy, stream movies and avoid people?

Ilana Aminov has the answers to all your questions.

Barbara Slitkin
Blooming in the Dark of a Full Flower Moon

Black fields of white lineal flowers. Mental flora had the artist’s brush singing “Paint it Black”. A yin/yang pattern of the Cosmos and the Spirit. Bearing a bouquet to blossom in the Dark.

Barbara Slitkin became a proud Westbeth resident in 2007, as a career artist exhibiting in NYC from 1980’s on, with many Solo exhibitions as Artist in Residence in New York Public Library. With two popular shows here at Westbeth, since 2009.

Now teaching a private group on the L.E.S.

Last summer was celebrated for a long art teaching career with the historical Educational Alliance on East Broadway.
Slitkin’s work is currently in private and museum collections worldwide.

Robert Bunkin
Recent Paintings

Show Dates: October 5 – December 29, 2019

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 5 from 4PM – 7PM

Robert Bunkin
Figurative painter, art historian and curator, Bunkin is a native New Yorker. He studied at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, undergraduate degree from the CUNY BA/BS Program, MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. Bunkin lived and studied in Florence, Italy between 1986-88. He returned to Italy in 2000 to perfect his fresco technique at the Tintori Laboratory for True Fresco in Vainella (near Prato) on a Parsons School of Design Faculty Leave Grant. He has also spent some time studying and teaching in Beijing.

Bunkin’s work has been seen in solo and group exhibitions locally, nationally, in Italy and China.
He has taught studio art and art history at Wagner College, Parsons School of Design, NYU Continuing Education, the New School, and Borough of Manhattan Community College, the Art Students League, Grand Central Atelier, LIC and Florence Academy, at MANA in Jersey City. From 2011-2017 he was Art Curator at the Staten Island Museum, overseeing its inaugural art exhibitions when it opened at Snug Harbor. He has also curated major exhibitions at the Newhouse Center and at other venues throughout the City.

Bunkin lived in Staten Island, for 25 years, moving to Westbeth in 2014. Since then he has been very active in the visual arts culture of Westbeth, having curated or worked on several exhibitions in the Gallery, most recently Parent Portraits in May-June 2019.

BREAKING GROUND: Twenty Years of the New York Chinese Scholars Garden

Robert Bunkin will be showing a portion of Under Construction, a fresco installation depicting the Chinese Artisans who built the New York Chinese Scholars Garden.

Show Dates: Oct 19 – December 29, 2019

Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art (Buildings C and G)
$5 Gallery Admission

See attached flier.

You’re Never Too Old to Play
Acting Workshop for Seniors
with Nancy Gabor

The 12 week workshop meets every Thursday from September 19 to December 12 from 11am – 2pm.

Space is limited, so sign up NOW.
Email: gaborworks@gmail.com
You must be 55 years old and up.

Nancy Gabor, director and acting teacher leads a 12 week continuous workshop concentrating on movement, improvisation, and storytelling. No experience necessary. Learn and grow in a safe, supportive environment.

Sponsored by the Westbeth Artists Residents Council, the creative Aging Workshop is a partnership between the Westbeth Artists Residents Council and Pier 55. Open to the public year round, Pier 55 will revitalize a part of Hudson River Park with almost 3 acres of new public park space featuring lush greenery and a diverse array of accessible arts, educational and community programming to people of all ages. It will be an iconic and welcoming open space for all New Yorkers. Opening in Hudson River Park near 13th St in Spring 2021.

Kate Walter and Bob Gruen interviewed by WFUV in celebration of Woodstock’s 50th anniversary.

Hundreds of rock music fans jam highway leading from Bethel, New York, Aug. 16, 1969 as they try to leave the Woodstock Music and Art Festival. Two hundred thousand persons spent a rainy night at the festival. (AP Photo)

Hear interview and see the pix:
WFUV – Back to the Garden

Read Kate Walter’s “Woodstock – My Queer Love Story” HERE

Beverly Brodsky just received the Marquis Life Time Achievement Award: Who’s Who In America. Her work is currently on exhibit at Quogue Gallery 2019-2020.

Quogue Gallery’s mission is to present a program of artistic excellence by showcasing the work of prominent, mid-career and emerging artists in the modernist tradition. Its core focus is on discovering and exhibiting figurative and abstract expressionist painters who are recognized historically as well as those of great promise who have fallen through cracks of history.
Since its founding in 2014, the Gallery’s growing presence in the modern and contemporary art world has been acknowledged by the press. The gallery has been featured in many publications, including the New York Times, Dan’s Paper, Beach Magazine, Hamptons Art Hub, Artnet News, Southampton Press, and others. The gallery also has been recognized for the quality of its exhibitions by Hamptons Art Hub, Artnet News and other outlets.

Beverly Brodsky’s work at Quoque Gallery