Category Archives: Events

Kate Walter featured in NY Times Dec 11, 2018 interview about living at Westbeth “Finding Her PLace”

Photo Gabriela Herman for NY Times

After Kate Walter, a memoirist and essayist, was accepted onto Westbeth’s wait list in 1987, she tried to put it out of her mind. “You can’t think about it too much,” Ms. Walter said, explaining that, even back then, when Manhattan still had a relative abundance of inexpensive apartments where artists could live and work, spots at Westbeth, a well-known artists’ housing complex in the West Village, were highly coveted.

“It was secure; you knew you wouldn’t have to leave,” Ms. Walter said. But affordable rent wasn’t the only, or even the primary, draw. Moving into Westbeth — which opened in 1970, after a young Richard Meier oversaw the conversion of the former Bell Laboratories into 383 live-work spaces — also meant joining an artistic community.

“It’s a legendary place, living among all these artists. I liked the idea of that,” said Ms. Walter, 69, who was ecstatic when she finally made it to the top of the list after a decade. “I remember calling up all my friends and my parents, screaming.”

Read full article by Kim Velsey at NY Times HERE

Joan Hall’s “Magic Carpet over
Istanbul “ collage is in
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico for “300 Years of European Landscape” Exhibition at Casa Europa opening in January 2019

JOAN HALL

Born in New York City to art professionals, I began training in my teen years with the Martha Graham Dance Studio. Following a course of study at the Juilliard School, a company membership with The American Mime Theater provided the opportunity for me to teach American Mime at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.
With early experience in the dramatic arts as a guide, I designed sets and costumes for the ballet Yequana for The Nederlands Dans Theater, Den Haag.
Out of a diverse background, a lifelong devotion to the genres of collage and assemblage began to take shape with parallel careers in commercial illustration and the fine arts. With an invitation from Milton Glaser to conduct classes in Collage for Illustration, my teaching career at the School of Visual Arts was launched.
International fine art venues have been concurrent with commercial application. The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Museo Rufino Tamayo in Mexico, are among the institutions where my art has been on view. At home in New York, Pavel Zoubok and the South Street Seaport Museum have hosted two of my one-person exhibitions. Publication credits include editions of my collage for Warner Books and Book of the Month Club.
I have also lectured to many organizations on Collage: Past & Present
illustrated by a Power Point presentation. The American Cultural Centers have commissioned these lectures in France, India, Brazil and Mexico. I was honored to receive a CEDADESU Mexican/American Cultural Specialists Grant from the US State Dept. to present my lecture on Collage, Assemblage and the Environment and to conduct 10 workshops to train educators to teach recycling through the art of collage.
Today as previously, world travel is a great inspiration. My itinerary includes numerous locations in Europe, China, Tibet, India, Africa, Cambodia, Brazil, and Central America. Locally, I live and work in my studio at Westbeth in Greenwich Village .

Further info at joanhallcollage.com

Look At Us Now, Mother!
A film by Gayle Kirschenbaum
Friday Dec 21 at 7pm

Emmy award winning filmmaker Gayle Kirschenbaum presents a raw, fearless but bitingly funny portrait of both her childhood, fraught with humiliation, and her adulthood scarred by its fallout.

Woven together from decades of personal home movies, photos and videos, LOOK AT US NOW invites audiences to join her on her quest to love, understand, and forgive her aging mother before it’s too late.

As these two formidable women travel down the bumpy road of discovery, their relationship changes before our eyes, and teaches a universal lesson of family dynamics, empathy and the power of forgiveness.

The film had a small theatrical release and is now on Netflix, Amazon, Itunes, and several other platforms.

Look At Us Now, Mother website for more info

Lily Rivlin’s film HEATHER BOOTH
Tuesday Dec 4 at 10PM on Thirteen

Heather Booth (born December 15, 1945) is an American civil rights activist, feminist, and political strategist who has been frequently cited for her effective activism in progressive causes. During her student years, she was committed to both the civil rights movement and feminist causes. Since then she has devoted her career to feminism, community organization, and progressive politics.

Lily Rivlin’s film Grace Paley: Collected Shorts (2010) was awarded Best Documentary and Audience Award at the Woodstock Film festival as well as at the Starz Denver Film Festival, Washington Jewish Film Festival and others. The film was nominated for the Gotham Film Prize. Most recently she was awarded The Miller Reel Jewish Woman Filmmaker Award 2013). Rivlin is listed in Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975 (2007) and Jewish Women, A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia (2007).

Hugh Seidman publishes new book of poetry, Status of the Mourned

Hugh Seidman was born in Brooklyn, NY. His poetry has won several awards including the 2004 Green Rose Prize from New Issues Press (Western Michigan University) for his sixth poetry collection, SOMEBODY STAND UP AND SING (2005).

Seidman’s other awards include two New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) grants (2003, 1990), a New York State Creative Artists Public Service (CAPS) grant (1971), and three National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) fellowships (1985, 1972, 1970).

His first book, COLLECTING EVIDENCE (Yale University Press), won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize (1970); his fourth book, PEOPLE LIVE, THEY HAVE LIVES (Miami University Press, Oxford, OH), was judged the winner of the Camden Poetry Award (Walt Whitman Center for the Arts) [1990].

Seidman’s SELECTED POEMS: 1965-1995 received a 1995 Critics’ Choice “Best Books” citation and was chosen as one of the “25 Favorite Books of 1995” by The Village Voice. His other books are: THRONE/FALCON/EYE (Random House) [1982] and BLOOD LORD (Doubleday) [1974]. A chapbook, 12 VIEWS OF FREETOWN, 1 VIEW OF BUMBUNA (Half Moon Bay Press), was published in 2003.

Seidman has taught writing at the University of Wisconsin, Yale University, Columbia University, the College of William and Mary, the New School University, and several other institution

STATUS OF THE MOURNED is available at:

Amazon:

and Spuyten Duyvil

A Winter Gathering
Westbeth visual artists

A Winter Gathering: Westbeth Visual Artists

Saturday, December 1, 2018 – Saturday, December 29, 2018

Opening Reception, Saturday December 1, 5PM – 8PM

This year’s exhibition, A Winter Gathering, organized and installed by a volunteer team of exhibitors, provides a peek into the varied practices of Westbeth’s visual artists. Visitors will find multiple genres of art including abstract work, various forms of representation, collage, assemblage, photography, graphics, mixed media, sculpture, and installation, reflecting diverse perspectives on art making today. A Winter Gathering promises an eclectic mix of styles, themes and approaches in contemporary art.

Located in Manhattan’s historic West Village, Westbeth is the largest artists’ residential community in the USA. It provides 384 live/work units, separate artist’s studios for painting, printmaking and ceramics, a gallery, and community room, which hosts programs sponsored by Westbeth Artists Residents Council (WARC). The New School Drama Program and Martha Graham Dance Studio are among commercial tenants of note. This landmarked architectural complex, the former Bell Labs, faces the Hudson River and is close to the Highline and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Westbeth is a veritable beehive of activities where painters, sculptors, photographers, graphic and mixed media artists work in a broad range of styles and media.

Westbeth Gallery, 55 Bethune Street, Inner Courtyard, NY, NY 10014

Gallery hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 1-6 PM

For further information: Ellen Rosen, 212 691-0439

Celebrate the life of
Madeleine Yayodele Nelson

Madeleine Yayodele Nelson was the founder and guiding light of Women of the Calabash, a company of percussionist/singers that celebrated the music of Africa and the African diaspora. The company performed in concerts and festivals in the U.S. and overseas. Nelson played a variety of percussion instruments, specializing in the shekere, a dried gourd covered with beads, which she handcrafted, played and taught. As a solo artist, Nelson recorded with Paul Simon, Edie Brickell, and Billy Harper. She was also involved with a number of groups in addition to her own, notably mbiraNYC, Kalunga, and Alakande!

Sunday Jan 6, 2018
Westbeth Community Room
3PM – 6PM
Come and Celebrate her life as expressed by the Westbeth musicians who worked with her and loved her.

Pot luck dishes are welcome! Let us know what you are bringing so we can have a healthy balance of savory and sweet. Email us: westbethmusicworks@gmail.com or phone 212.228.1141
!

FOUR PAINTERS Group Show

“Four Painters”
Show Dates: January 13 – January 26, 2019
Opening reception Sunday January 13th 2019, from 4pm to 7pm.

Westbeth Gallery
Gallery hours are Wednesday – Sunday 1 pm – 6 pm and by appointment.

“Four Painters” is an exhibition of four artists and their approach to abstraction and its century long history.The exhibit will focus on abstraction through narrative, color and process.
The four artists, Jeff Elliott, Philip Heubeck, Sarah Huffard and Pavol Roskovensky each have unique styles. Their distinct aesthetic choices will work together in an exhibition setting, encouraging unexpected connections and visual dialogues.

Elliott’s work, gives us surreal examinations of the subconscious human psyche, by emphasising narrative and language, encouraging an ephemeral sense of disorientation and abstraction by dislocating the visual world and its narrative from the logic of our own experience.
Heubeck’s work harnesses the energy of abstraction much like the abstract expressionists and land art movement. His excavations of material on a surface provide a foundation for our understanding of abstract painting in the 21st century.
Huffard’s work is light and airy, like the works of the minimalists and color field painters; she explores abstraction through color juxtaposition and presence. There is a grand scale; even in her smallest works, creating a meditative state.
Roskovensky’s work challenges the viewers notions, not just of painting but of abstraction as well. He takes on the tradition of Dada, neo-Dada and conceptualism; to create visual experiences that feel familiar yet still very unrecognizable.

On the surface these four artists have little in common when it comes to aesthetic choices, but when exhibited together something greater is revealed; the scope of painting and abstraction in the 21st century comes into focus. Individually and collectively these four painters have something meaningful to say.

For questions please email the curator, Pavol Roskovensky
PavolRoskovensky@gmail.comFOUR PAINTERS presents the work of four contemporary artists.

Digital Transfer Workshop 2019

XFR Collective DIGITAL TRANSFER WORKSHOP 2019 : learn what you can do to preserve you audiovisual work. In this workshop we’ll discuss care and identification of analog media, converting analog media to digital, and what to do after your recording has been digitized.

Wednesday Jan 23, 2018 at 7PM – 9PM
Westbeth Community Room
155 Bank Street (enter through courtyard)
NY NY

FREE
XFR Collective is a non-profit organization that partners with artists, activists, individuals, and groups to lower the barriers to preserving at-risk audiovisual media – especially unseen, unheard, or marginalized works – by providing low-cost digitization services and fostering a community of support for archiving and access through education, research, and cultural engagement.

We have the capacity to transfer the following formats:

VHS, VHS-C, S-VHS
Betacam, BetcamSP, DigiBeta
MiniDV, DVCam, HDV
DVCPro 50
Hi-8, Digital8, Video8
3/4″ U-matic
Audiocassette

XFR Collectiver partners with grassroots organizations, artists, and others who wish to learn how to use audiovisual archival principles to support their work. For example, we recently conducted a cataloging and file management workshop with members of the Asian American Oral History Collective.

More info at: XFR Collective