Clothespins and Paper Pulp

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven presents works by Jennifer Davies and Lisa Keskinen at Gallery 195 at NewAlliance Bank on 195 Church Street, fourth floor. The exhibit takes place July 8 to September 26, with a public artists’ reception on Tuesday, September 9, 5 to 7pm.

In this exhibit, Jennifer Davies showcases new prints and handmade paper works. Davies is known for her innovative paper pulp paintings. Lisa Keskinen’s constructed pieces (example shown here), informed by her career as an architect, draw inspiration from the transformative possibilities of everyday objects.

Jennifer Davies received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She has taught dozens of classes in handmade paper, at the Creative Arts Workshop in Downtown New Haven to the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk. Lisa Keskinen received her BA in psychology at the University of Connecticut and obtained a Master’s degree in architecture at North Carolina State University. She currently works as a project manager at Svigals + Partners, a New Haven firm known for its integration of art and architecture.

Arts & Ideas Festival tours New Haven

The Arts & Ideas Festival has wrapped up its series of public walking and bicycling tours, many of which focused on Downtown New Haven's rich panoply of history and culture. The tours were hosted by the New Haven Preservation Trust, Elm City Cycling and the Broadway Merchants Association. Check these links for media coverage of the New Haven public art and public sculpture bicycle tour, Hillhouse Avenue historic district walking tour, and "free speech" bicycle tour. Other tour sites featuring Downtown New Haven included sacred architecture, waterfront neighborhoods, city planning and art galleries. Upcoming summer bicycle rides, including the Wednesday Night Ice Cream Rides, are posted on the calendar at http://www.elmcitycycling.org/. Group walking tours can be arranged by contacting Design New Haven and other Downtown organizations.

Van Gogh's Starry Night and Cypresses: together for the first time

Original Post, 5/12/08: The Yale University Art Gallery in Downtown New Haven is pleased to exhibit side by side, for the first time ever, two of Vincent van Gogh's most renowned paintings: Cypresses and The Starry Night. Completed in June 1889, during his yearlong confinement at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, in southern France, these two paintings exemplify the work of this modern master at the height of his creativity. On view June 15–September 7, 2008. To ensure an unrushed visiting experience, free timed tickets will be available beginning May 29.

Update, 6/18/08: The Stamford Advocate has published a review of the show: "With a new art installation in "an intimate setting" in New Haven, museum-goers have the opportunity to view three masterpieces by one of the most beloved artists of the modern era."

Arts and Ideas Festival Kicks Off

The internationally-renowned Downtown New Haven event begins this weekend. The Hartford Courant has a nice piece on it today:

"This year the festival is expected to attract an even larger crowd than its typical 100,000-plus numbers. Gasoline-challenged families no doubt are looking to fill the warm-weather weeks with nearby events and the festival has much to choose from....

"And let's not forget the "ideas" portion of the festival, which includes many of the artists at the festival, such as Irish playwright Sebastian Barry. The U.S. premiere of his play about Ireland's emergence as a world player, "The Pride of Parnell Street," which bows here, and who will have a conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon....

"Aleskie says she hopes audiences will check out off-beat, shorter shows like "Siren," "The Japanese Garden" and "Glow." But traditional, classic or just for fun shows abound as well: Roseanne Cash and Mark O'Connor perform a salute to Cash's father Johnny Cash; Maya Beiser performs a commissioned work on cello; New Haven native Ben Allison presents his new jazz group; mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves sings an evening of arias at the Shubert.

For contrast, East Village Opera Company reinvents classical opera with rock in a free concert on the Green. "Think Puccini meets Freddie Mercury," says Aleskie."

One Floor, Two ECA Events

Downtown New Haven's Educational Center for the Arts (ECA) Visual Arts Department will be holding a Benefit Auction (bring your checkbook - artwork available for $10 and up) this Thursday, June 5th, 5-6pm, at 55 Audubon Street at the 5th Floor Observation Lab. There is also a visual arts reception for the End Collective - same day, same building, same floor: 5-7pm. ECA will be holding its senior thesis and faculty exhibitions on Saturday afternoon, as well as a sale of retrofurbished design work.

Green Drinks, Simple Pleasures, Pipas and Model City Blues

A trio of Downtown New Haven events this week (among many others):

1. New Haven’s monthly eco-friendly happy hour, New Haven Green Drinks, will be Wednesday, May 21, 6-8:00pm at Café Nine, at 250 State Street. This month Daniel Schaefer, the founder of the New Haven-based nonprofit Invested Citizens will be speaking on ways to make climate change and clean energy relevant to a wider audience. Remember to walk, bike, bus or carpool to the event.

2. New Haven band The Simple Pleasures - the featured musicians in the groundbreaking Yale School of Drama production of Baal last year - will play this Wednesday night at BAR. They are coming straight from their recent shows at Luna Lounge, Fortune Cookie and The Midway. On Friday night (5/23), check out Min Xiao-Fen's Asian Trio at Firehouse 12: Min Xiao-Fen is among the most renowned pipa masters in the world and has collaborated with Derek Bailey, Björk, Jane Ira Bloom, Tan Dun, Philip Glass, Susie Ibarra, the New York City Opera, Ned Rothenberg, Randy Weston and John Zorn among many others.

3. Mandi Isaacs Jackson, author of Model City Blues: Urban Space and Organized Resistance in New Haven, a new book about 1960s urban renewal and political struggle, will hold a discussion this Thursday, May 22nd at 5:30PM at Labyrinth Books New Haven.

Also, if you are an architecture writer, stay on the lookout for another one of Robert A.M. Stern's hard-hat tours of the renovated landmark Rudolph Building. The New Haven Register reports on Gwathmey Siegel's $130+ million Rudolph Building renovation here.

Direct from London to New Haven

According to Variety, two very popular London plays - Happy Now and Scarborough - will have their American premieres in Downtown New Haven this coming season. In other, unrelated New Haven theater news, Yale University received a $3 million grant to establish a center for new theater commissions.

Downtown New Haven Unicycle Mania

Click here for New Haven Independent reporting on the latest Downtown New Haven impromptu circus event, and the city's unicycle craze:

Matt Feiner of the Devil’s Gear Bike Shop said that unicycles have been jumping off the shelves. “It’s crazy, it really is,” he said. “We’ve been selling about four or five a week for the last six weeks.”

Unicycling (well, or monowheeling) has hit New Haven before. At left, the 1869 US Patent 92,528 by Richard C Hemmings of New Haven, Connecticut. Not surprising for a city that was home to the world's first bicycle patent, and was home to a "velocipede craze" as early as 1819.

Postcards of New Haven

Check out these New Haven postcards by Isaac Cates here (original photography). He has a bunch of extra copies and is leaving town soon, so you may be able to get these for a song. While you're there, if you are a poet, do not miss his poetry submission guidelines.

Hollywood East

The New Haven Register reports today about upcoming movie shoots in Downtown New Haven and the surrounding area, including one with Robert DeNiro and Kate Beckinsale scheduled for next week at Union Station.

According to the Register, "Connecticut has become known as “Hollywood East” because of a 30 percent tax credit given to filmmakers who spend money here." Apparently, the enormous tax credit is already having a spillover effect in the regional real estate market.

Last summer, a significant portion of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was filmed in Downtown New Haven, pumping an estimated $10 million into the local economy and attracting thousands of tourists from all over the world hoping to catch a glimpse of Steven Spielberg. According to New York Times coverage at the time, film production in Connecticut had increased from $750,000 to $52 million immediately after the tax credit was introduced, and was expected to top $300 million this year. In other words, don't be surprised if someone even more famous than Harrison Ford hits New Haven this summer.

While we're on the subject of tourism, check out this week's article in The Independent's (UK) Business Travel section that highlights Downtown New Haven. We are guessing that the travel correspondent attended last week's Discover New England summit in New Haven. Tourism to New England from Europe is rapidly increasing, in part due to the decline of the dollar.

Update: The Courant writes about how you can volunteer your house for a movie shoot.
Update 6/3/08: DeNiro films at Yale.

Architects Taking Pictures

Enjoy photography by local architects. A percentage of the proceeds will benefit a local charity. Participating architects include Barry Svigals, Carlos Pena, Cesar Pelli, Dan Dryzgula, Dave Chen, Dave Coon, Dave Harlan, Dave Strong, Enzo Figueres, Eric Epstein, Fernando Pastor, Joe Rufrano, Jose Luis Cabello, Ke-Wei Chang, Manuel Wedeles, Mark Abraham, Mary Pont, Mihaly Turbucz, Peter Newman, Rob Narracci, Roberto Espejo, Sam Gardner, Scott Wood, and Sun Bo.

Details: Atticus Bookstore & Cafe, 1082 Chapel Street, Downtown New Haven, CT. Exhibition runs from May 1-June 15, with an opening reception on May 1 at 6.30 pm.

Visualization Lecture

Eric Mazur, the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University, will give a talk titled "How the Mind Tricks Us: Visualizations and Visual Illusions" at 7 p.m. at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 170 Whitney Ave, today (April 23). Professor Mazur is a well-known and extremely popular lecturer who has given invited talks all over the world. His lecture will illuminate the ways in which recent research in neurobiology and cognitive psychology enables people to understand how the mind processes information, in particular, visual information. The knowledge we can gain from these fields has important implications for the presentation of visual information and student learning. See here for more information about Dr. Mazur's work.

Artspace New Haven Auction

The Artspace Benefit Auction is scheduled for May 3, 2008. This annual Downtown New Haven event draws hundreds of artists, collectors, and civic-minded individuals interested in supporting the programs presented by Artspace, with plenty of food, wine, art and excitement (this year catered by the nearby New York Times "excellent" hotspot 116 Crown). Visit the auction website for details.

Call for Artists: Downtown New Haven Temporary Outdoor Artwork

The City of New Haven Office of Cultural Affairs is requesting submissions of qualifications and basic conceptual ideas from artists for the design of temporary public art in Downtown New Haven. For more information please visit http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/EconomicDevelopment/CulturalAffairs.asp. Submissions are due April 11, 2008.

Another reason to take the bus...

The Arts Council is sponsoring a series of performances to take place on Sunday, April 13 - on the New Haven City buses! Events on four different city buses will include poetry, theater, music and more. Cost: $1.25 for one bus ticket. See http://www.newhavenarts.org/news/upcoming.html for more information.

No Finer Arts Around Than At These College Museums

Boston Globe article picked up here by the Yale Arts Library blog:
http://artslibrary.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/no-finer-arts-around-than-at-these-college-museums/