Category Archives: Past Events

Jack Davidson
Westbeth Icon

Jack Davidson has had a rich acting career for the past fifty-five years. He was a member of the famed Circle Repertory Company and also found theatre homes with Lincoln Center Theater and Ensemble Studio Theatre. At the same time, Jack acted in regional theatres across the U.S. playing leading roles in plays by Eugene O’Neill, Edward Albee, and William Shakespeare, among others. In his long career, he has also appeared in film and on TV. At Westbeth, Jack served for many years on the Residents Council as well as the Board.

Westbeth Icons is a project that celebrates the life and work of senior Westbeth artists who continue to work passionately in their artistic field. It is produced by the Westbeth Artists Residents Council.

The Icon evening features a filmed interview produced and directed by Ted Timreck with Terry Stoller, interviewer, as well as tributes by colleagues of the artist and words by the honoree. A special Icon gift is presented to the artist at the close of the evening.

The evening is free, open to the public, and refreshments are served.

When: Thursday Dec 12, 2019

Where: Westbeth Community Room
155 Bank St
in the West Village
enter through courtyard

Westbeth Movie Night
Wrecking Crew

The Wrecking Crew, a 2008 American documentary film directed by Denny Tedesco covers the story of the Los Angeles–based group of session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, famed for having played on numerous hit recordings throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.

The Wrecking Crew documents the work of studio players who recorded the tracks for such hits as “California Dreamin'”, “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'”, “Be My Baby”, “The Beat Goes On”, and “Good Vibrations”. Interviews with producers, engineers, and session musicians reveal the warmth and humor that allowed their collective talents to turn a simple chord chart into an international phenomenon.

Westbeth Movie Night is a free public monthly series of curated films that are significant, brilliant, sometimes forgotten, but always memorable.

When: Friday dec 13, 2019 at 7PM

Where: Westbeth Community Room
155 Bank St
in the West Village
enter through courtyard

WESTBETH FALL CLASSES 2019
Return of our popular classes!


FREE
BALANCE AND STRENGTH TRAINING CLASS
Westbeth Community Room
Mondays 2PM – 3PM
starts Sept 16, 2019

Jennifer Gibson is certified through the reputable Integral Yoga Institute of New York City, which has served the West Village community and surrounding areas for over 50 years.

Jennifer has been a Yoga Instructor for the past 12 years, specializing in yoga for seniors since 2011.
She is thrilled to share the tools of yoga with seniors for balance and building strength. In Jennifer’s current work with seniors, what began as one class quickly grew into three different classes per week, each packed with 20-30 students. Participants range between the ages of early 60s to early 90s and have a wide variety of ability.

Jennifer is passionate about making the practice of yoga accessible to everyone. She loves how appreciative seniors are to learn yoga and how much they look forward to every class, and she is excited to bring the benefits of yoga to the Westbeth community.

Sponsored by Westbeth Artists Residents Council and New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson

FREE
SING TIME SESSIONS

Westbeth Community Room
Fridays 4:30PM – 5:30PM
Starts Sept 13, 2019

Live piano accompaniment, vocal warm-ups, rhythmic body movement, ear training and improvisation. No Experience Necessary!

Eve Zanni, jazz artist and Somatic Voice teacher, has taught voice for over 2 decades, directed choirs for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, and teaches Circle improvisation.

Sponsored by Westbeth Artists Residents Council and New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson

$5 Donation per class
FELDENKRAIS
Westbeth Community Room
Thurdays 4PM – 5PM
Starts Sept 19, 2019

Doron Tadmor is a Feldenkrais Guild certified teacher

Class lasts 1 hour

The Feldenkrais Method consists of verbally directed movement sequences presented primarily to groups. A lesson generally lasts from thirty to sixty minutes. Each lesson is usually organized around a particular function.

Feldenkrais’Awareness Through Movement lessons, people engage in precisely structured movement explorations that involve thinking, sensing, moving, and imagining. Many are based on developmental movements and ordinary functional activities. Some are based on more abstract explorations of joint, muscle, and postural relationships. The lessons consist of comfortable, easy movements that gradually evolve into movements of greater range and complexity.

Feldenkrais’ lessons attempt to make one aware of his/her habitual neuromuscular patterns and rigidities and to expand options for new ways of moving while increasing sensitivity and improving efficiency. There are hundreds of Awareness Through Movement lessons contained in the Feldenkrais Method that vary, for all levels of movement ability, from simple in structure and physical demand, to more difficult lessons.

A major goal of the Feldenkrais Method is to learn how one’s most basic functions are organized and improve. By experiencing the details of how one performs any action, the student has the opportunity to learn and grow.

Contact: Sandra Kingsbury westbethevents
@gmail.com
Sponsored by Westbeth Beautfication Committee

FREE
MEDITATION CLASS
Westbeth Room 1209
Tuesdays 5PM – 6PM
October only

Classic sitting and walking meditations as a simple practice of mindfulness and awareness.

Rm 1209
Westbeth Artists Housing
55 Bethune St
NY NY 10014

Steve Clorfeine has been leading meditation and teaching contemplative practice for 40 years.

Sponsored by Westbeth Beautification Committee

YOU’RE NEVER TOO OLD TO PLAY
Westbeth Community Room
Thursdays 11Am – 2 PM
Sept 12 – dec 19, 2019
CLASS IS FILLED.

Sign up for waiting list.
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.

Ann Hamilton
THAT’S RUBBISH

Westbeth Hallway Gallery

October 1 – December 31, 2019
Open 24/7

“I make dress and textile art from old fabrics and found objects. I am inspired by discarded objects that I come across on a daily basis. I incorporate sewing, embroidery knitting and watercolor into my work.”

Ann Hamilton learned the crafts of sewing and knitting as a girl growing up around the West Coast of Ireland. After coming to New York City in her 20s, she worked in a variety of clothing-related jobs and honed her considerable skills. In the 1990s, Hamilton set up her own business in bridal gowns. Her dressmaking talents extend to her textile art, in which she is able to incorporate objects from nature and also pursue her interest in fashioning garments from discarded items. Hamilton has exhibited her textile art in Ireland, England, and New York City.

Read more about Ann Hamilton HERE

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.