collection of events—May 19 to June 5 cityline to shoreline

Saturday in Bridgehampton
By Peggy Roalf Thursday, May 17, 2007 If you're heading to Long Island's South Fork this weekend, and want to add an international art event to your calendar, consider the second annual installment of The Big Show, at Silas Marder Gallery.

For the season opener, Silas Marder distributed custom-made 8 x 10" blank canvases to more than 50 painters. Half are from the Hamptons, known for its high concentration of star artists, going back to Jackson Pollack and Willem de Kooning in the 1950s. The rest are from all over the United States, Mexico, Europe, Japan, and the Pacific Rim.

Marder opened his gallery three years ago in the family-owned Marder's Bridgehampton Nursery, itself a local landmark. In an interview published in The East Hampton Star, he talked about how his parents had many friends who were artists. He grew up looking at their work and going to art openings at nearby Ashawagh Hall.

After he finished college in Vermont, he commuted back and forth to work at the nursery. When a large barn became available to him, Marder opened the gallery. To launch the season last year, he decided to invite artists from far and wide to participate.

The artists liked the challenge of the invitational and Marder loved the results. "It's fun to see these pieces that had nothing to do with each other -- abstract, figurative, landscape, the whole thing," he said. With three paintings from each artist, all the same size, the show itself becomes a form of installation art.

Last year's edition of The Big Show helped to establish the new gallery's point of view. "It was for big collectors, small collectors, and those who have never collected before," Marder said. The pieces went for as little as $200 or $300 and as much as $1,200. He includes work by established artists, such as Mary Heilmann, and younger, often cutting edge artists, such as his brother Mica. In an email exchange this week, Marc Burkhardt, an artist in Austin, TX said, "The list of people involved here is impressive; the diversity of styles and approaches is one of the things I find most exciting about being in the show."

The opening on Saturday, May 19, goes from 4:00 to 8:00 pm, spilling out of the gallery onto the nursery's grounds, which are intriguingly landscaped with sculpture and large boulders. Please check the gallery website for details and directions.

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Literary Tuesday's at The Perch Cafe
hosted by Pam Laskin
7:30
followed by Open Mic
5.00 cover

May 22-Grace Schulman’s newest poetry collection, The Broken String, is forthcoming Spring 2007, from Houghton Mifflin. Her latest book of poems are Days of Wonder: New and Collected Poems (2002) and The Paintings of Our Lives (2001). Honors for her poetry include a Guggenheim Award and a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. She was awarded New York University’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2003. She is also the winner of the American Scholar’s “Best Poem” Award, and Days of Wonder, a finalist for the Phi Betta Kappa Award, was listed in Library Journal as one of the best books of 2002. She is the editor of The Poems of Marianne Moore (Viking, 2003). Ms. Schulman has served as Director of the Poetry Center of the 92ndStreet Y and as Poetry Editor of the Nation. She is currently a Distinguished Professor at Baruch College.

THE PERCH CAFE
365 5TH AVENUE PARK SLOPE
F/R Train to 4th Avenue/9th Street (btwn 5th and 6th St.)


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I recently featured the very talented woodcarver, Deborah Mills. She will be presenting a two-day woodcarving demonstration for the Preservation Trades Network workshops on June 2 and 3. The Historic New England's Casey Farm in Saunderstown, Rhode Island, hosts the Preservation Trades Network's regional Preservation Trades Workshop in partnership with Heritage Restoration, Inc. and Preserve Rhode Island. The two-day event will bring together preservation tradespeople, architects, preservation organization staff members, historic property stewards, state and local government employees, preservation students, and homeowners. The event's intent will be to promote the preservation trades, educate and create exchanges between preservation professionals through interactive demonstrations, learning sessions, and one on one discussions."

Deborah Mills Woodcarving
67 Metropolitan Avenue
Ground Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11211

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You are cordially invited to attend:

TINY SMOOSHY SUNDAY ON FIRE
(Kids Rock for 826NYC)

An all-ages afternoon rock show featuring:
Smoosh
Care Bears on Fire
Tiny Masters of Today
& an awesome raffle, give-aways, & limited edition t-shirts

Sunday, June 3rd, 2007
1PM doors / 2 PM show
Southpaw, 125 5th Ave., Brooklyn
www.ticketweb.com
$25/$10 (ages 16 & under)
All proceeds go to 826NYC

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PO’JAZZ AND FROM PAGE TO PERFORMANCE –
THE HISTORIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JAZZ AND POETRY PERFORMANCE

Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Panel: 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Performances: 8:00 pm and 9:45 pm

THE BAHA’I CENTER
The Dizzy Gillespie Auditorium
53 E 11th Street
New York, NY 10003
(212) 674-8998
Admission:$15

PO’JAZZ and FROM PAGE TO PERFORMANCE is a Co-Production between Professor/Poet/Performer Golda Solomon founder of Po’Jazz (Poetry in Partnership With Jazz) and Nora McCarthy, Vocal Artist/Composer/Lyricist/Poet. Solomon’s first Panel Conference “Po’People-Po’Jazz, Poetry In Partnership With Jazz: Then and Now” was introduced at this year’s IAJE Conference in January. June 5 marks the second panel presentation in an on-going series moderated by Solomon and is a free event that precedes the performances. Panel members include: journalists Bill Milkowski and Willard Jenkins; poet, EJ Antonio; Erik Lawrence, alto saxophonist of MERGE; and, Mike Canterino, former owner of the Half Note. A panel of poets, jazz historians, journalists and jazz musicians who discuss and demonstrate what happens when words and jazz come together.

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Looking for something new to watch this weekend? Pick up the new DVD release of
SCREEN DOOR JESUS,
featured this month on urbanseashell—a collection


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Going out to the Hamptons with the kids this summer?

If they are between the ages of 8-18
Call STAGES, A Children's Theatre Workshop, Inc.
for their summerstock schedule, now!
Don't miss out!
Call Helene Leonard at 631.329.1420.
(scroll down for details)