Thursday, December 12, 2013

In Da Window: Glasswork by Don Plouffe
Echo

745 N. Salina St. (formerly Craft Chemistry)
Syracuse

A Syracuse native, Don received his BFA from Syracuse University and his MAT from Oswego State. He has worked in artist studios from Venice, CA, to Florence, Italy, and in art classrooms all over CNY. Each experience has had an impact on what he creates from ceramic tiles, to stained glass windows and doors, to sculptures of creatures and beasts of all sorts. He strives to create work worth spending time with and enjoys the process almost as much as the finished piece.

Robert Thurber Photographs
LeMoyne College

Price: Free
Wilson Art Gallery, Noreen Reale Falcone Library
LeMoyne College, Syracuse

Watercolors by Bill Elkins
Onondaga County Central Library

Price: Free
Onondaga County Central Library
The Galleries of Syracuse, 447 S. Salina St., Syracuse

Bill Elkins has been a practicing architect in Syracuse for over 30 years. After a visit to Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine in 1995, he was inspired to try his hand at watercolors. He has been painting and studying the medium ever since.

Drawing on Talent: 5th Annual Members Group Art Exhibit
Baltimore Woods Weeks Art Gallery

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

Group art exhibit featuring work in all media by members of the Baltimore Woods member community.

Holiday Gift Gallery Show
Clayscapes Pottery Gallery

Price: Free
Clayscapes Pottery Studio
1003 W. Fayette St., Suite L1, Syracuse

Gallery Exhibit: OCC Faculty Art & Photography Exhibition
Onondaga Community College

Price: Free
Ann Felton Multicultural Center and Gallery
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

A mixed media show with works from Onondaga's own faculty members.

John James Audubon and the American Landscape
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

Price: Free
Bird Library, 6th Floor
Syracuse University, Syracuse

John James Audubon and the American Landscape showcases Syracuse University's copy of the rare double elephant folio The Birds of America. Printed in London and Edinburgh between 1827 and 1838, the work is a stunning visual catalog, featuring 435 plates depicting American bird life. The enterprise consumed much of Audubon's adult life and took him from the Pennsylvania woods to the Florida Keys and the Labrador coast. To its 19th-century audience, The Birds of America was much more than an ornithological inventory. It brought the exotic American wilderness into the drawing rooms and parlors of its wealthy subscribers. In 1896, former mayor of Syracuse and Syracuse University trustee James J. Welden donated a copy to the University. Today, The Birds of America is known for its extraordinary value, fetching more than ten million dollars at auction.

The exhibition situates The Birds of America in the wider contexts of Audubon's life, 19th-century scientific knowledge, and a rapidly changing landscape that was becoming less exotic each day. Also on display are Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology (1808–14), Audubon's textual companion to The Birds of America (Ornithological Biography, 1831–49), and later volumes that speak to Audubon's legacy, such as first editions of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (1949). Syracuse University's copy of The Birds of America is disbound, which makes it possible for visitors to the exhibition to consider several different prints at once. Some of the engravings on display include the barn owl, Swainson's hawk, and the long-billed curlew, all of which depict American avian life against the backdrop of encroaching civilization.

Metamorphosis Personified: Works by Greg Trombly
Westcott Community Art Gallery

Price: Free
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Behold a metamorphic journey away from the representational through work aimed to capture the essence of the human form and energy through light and dark values.

Water Below, Sky Above
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Diane Menzies: landscape oil paintings
Deeann vonHunke and Robert vonHunke: collaborative pieces with Robert's painting and Dee's metalwork
Wes Weiss: ceramic sculptural forms
Deeann vonHunke: jewelry
Karen Burns: oil on canvas landscape paintings

Tango
Point of Contact Gallery

Price: Free
Point of Contact Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

This inaugural exhibit in Point of Contact's new gallery at The Warehouse will showcase the 20-piece grand folio art book Tango (Iris Editions 1991), a collaborative work by Argentine writer Pedro Cuperman and New York artist Nancy Graves. A significant work in Point of Contact's collection, Tango includes eight intaglio prints by Graves and thirteen pages of text by Cuperman.

Philipe Doddard: The Idea of Modernity in Haitian Contemporary Art
Community Folk Art Center

Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Through bold brush strokes and vibrant color combinations, graphic and visual artist Philippe Dodard critically engages and empowers audiences throughout the world. Dodard, born and raised in Haiti, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Port-au-Prince and the International School of Bordeaux, France, where he explored graphic design. Although paintings are featured in this exhibition, Dodard is a diverse artist whose body of work includes metalwork, large sculptures and jewelry. Dodard's incredible talent has resulted in international recognition and creative collaborations including his most recent with fashion designer Donna Karan. Irrespective of the discipline or media, Dodard's aesthetic reflects his love for Haiti.

Read a review!

28th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

It's that time of year again! The upstairs gallery of the museum has been transformed into a 1800s street scene with over 40 gingerbread creations made by professional and amateur bakers from across the region on display in storefront windows.

Inspired Tidings: Annual Holiday Show
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Neighboring Visions
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

A group show featuring works by three Tully artists: jewelry by gallery director Sarah Panzarella, pottery by Jeremy Randall, and paintings by Grant Dolge.

Willson Cummer: Dawn Light
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

Willson Cummer is a fine-art photographer, curator and teacher who lives in Fayetteville, NY. Images from his projects have been included in national juried exhibitions. His first solo New York City show opened in December 2011 at OK Harris. Willson's work explores humanity's place in the environment. In addition to his own work, he curates and publishes the blog New Landscape Photography. Willson has taught workshops at Light Work/Community Darkrooms, Syracuse University, and Cazenovia College.

Artist's Statement:

In late July of 2012, a five-month depression unexpectedly lifted. For the first time in a long while, I was able to wake up in the morning with energy, eager to explore the day. With my camera I quickly began shooting the early morning light as it fell upon Fayetteville, NY, my hometown. I walked from my front door most times, and occasionally drove a bit further into the village. I wanted to explore the territory closest at hand.

Light is a fundamental ingredient for photography. It has also, for centuries, been used as a metaphor for healing and recovery. As a recovering depressive, I wanted to explore the dawn light on a metaphorical level. As an artist, I wanted to record the gorgeous cross- light of the early morning and the rich yellow hue of the direct light.

I was attracted to humble structures: gas stations, parking lots, aging commercial buildings. The interplay of the natural world and the built environment is a subject which continues to excite me.

Jackie Nickerson: Terrain
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

Jackie Nickerson makes photographs that examine the essential nature of people and their relationship to the natural world, through personal identity and the physical and psychological condition of living and working. With "Terrain," Nickerson revisits eastern and southern Africa, focusing on how the exertions of labor leave psychic and material traces on people and the environment.

Paintings by Marilyn Masters
Maxwell Memorial Library

Price: Free
Maxwell Memorial Library
14 Genesee St., Camillus

If a medium can be used for artistic expression, it's a safe bet that Marilyn Masters has worked with it. The impressionist artist, originally from Huntington, NY, is a graduate of both the Pratt Institute and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She has studied acrylics, pastel, watercolors, pencil drawing, even block printing, furniture art, and textile design. An R.N. with a degree from Upstate Medical Center, Masters has combined her artistic and health careers by creating detailed medical drawings.

Snowy Splendor
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit will feature oil and watercolor paintings, photographs, drawings and prints of contemporary or vintage winter scenes of Onondaga County.

Fashion After Five
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The exhibit, Fashion After Five, curated by Syracuse University's Jeffrey Mayer, associate professor of fashion design and history and curator of the Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection, will explore the history of the cocktail dress with several spectacular garments from the collections of OHA and the Sue Ann Genet Collection. Also represented in the exhibit will be the work of students from the S.U. Department of Fashion Design who will present their own creations, inspired by the vintage dresses selected for the exhibition—a perfect way to combine the past and the present for this exciting new exhibit.

Culture of the Cocktail Hour
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The story of cocktail fashions has several associations with local history. This exhibit will discover some of those people, places and events, including Syracuse's most famous cocktail lounges of days gone by. Cocktails also conjure up the exciting era of the Roaring Twenties, when speakeasies flourished during the decade of Prohibition. Displays will include the story of one of the most famous local speakeasies, located just a few hundred feet from the OH Museum, including a menu of its libations, and the tale of the police raid that shut it down. Also on exhibit, along with other documents and artifacts of the era will be an original federal court ledger listing arrests and convictions across the state for Prohibition violations and a local brewery's recipes for "near beer" and flavored sodas, which helped keep them in business through the infamous "dry" years when America famously tried unsuccessfully to eliminate intoxicating beverages from its culture.

Holiday Show
Gandee Gallery

Gandee Gallery
7846 Main St., Fabius

The Holiday Show features jewelry, ceramics, photography, painting, and fiber art created by regionally and nationally recognized artists. Participating artists include Karin Bremer, Willson Cummer, Jen Gandee, Henry Gernhardt, Michael Hughes, Marie LoParco, Hannah Meredith, Laurel Moranz, Jessica Pilowa, Lily Tsay, Lucie Wellner, and Errol Willett.

The Holiday Group Show emphasizes the important role that handmade objects and fine art plays in domestic life, enriching living spaces and adorning the body. The Gandee Gallery encourages art lovers to celebrate the holidays by giving gifts that embody the creative spirit. Many fine art and craft artists currently have work on display at the gallery shop. New holiday cards, ornaments, and many gift items fill the space.

Art Mart
Syracuse Allied Arts

City Hall Commons Atrium
201 East Washington St., Syracuse

Fine art and crafts handmade by local guild and independent artists. Find unique pottery, stained glass, paintings, jewelry, hand-crafted soaps and candles, and much more.

Paul Strand: The Mexican Portfolio
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

This exhibition presents Paul Strand's famous Mexican Portfolio, which includes photogravure impressions of people, landscapes, architecture, and religious objects that he encountered in Mexico during his travels there in 1932.

International Art from the Permanent Collection
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Highlighting the breadth of the collections' encyclopedic holdings and exploring international artists and themes, these new displays explore the genres of photography, prints, paintings and sculpture. Two of the exhibitions on display in the Print and Photo Study Galleries will highlight the University's vast holdings of historical Japanese photographs and prints. The third exhibition will examine artwork created by international artists who have immigrated to the United States.

America's Calling, presented in the Gallery of American Art, is an exhibition of 16 works of art by 15 foreign-born artists, including Ben Shahn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Josef Albers. The artists included in the exhibition, or their families, were drawn to the United States because it offered opportunities unavailable in their homelands. A variety of media is presented in the display, including painting, ceramics, sculpture and printmaking that are handled using often innovative techniques. Cumulatively, these artists had a profound and permanent effect on the evolution of American art.

The Photo Study Room will present Visions for Sale: Photographs of Nineteenth Century Japan, an exhibition of 22 hand-colored albumen prints from the 19th century exploring the country's people, land and environment that was quickly changing due to modernization. European photographers such as Felice Beato and Baron Raimond Stillfield traveled to Japan to document the nation's exotic landscape and historically idiosyncratic jobs before they were swept away by the tide of modernism.

Ukiyo-e to Shin Hanga: Japanese Woodcuts from the Syracuse University Art Collection will be installed in the Print Study Room and draws from the University's collection of over 300 examples from this important and hugely influential art movement. The prints on view date from the height of color Ukiyo-e printmaking (c1780-1868) through Japan's Meiji period (1868-1912) to 20th century impressions of the Shin Hanga movement (1915-1940s). Masters of this medium are represented, including the work of Utamaro, Kuniyoshi, Hokusai, Hiroshida, Tsuchiya Koitsu and Yoshida Hiroshi. The prints exemplify the soft, painterly style that is synonymous with the Japanese woodcut, and illustrates the wide range of subjects from courtesans to Kabuki theater and the Japanese landscape.

Print Making Revolution: Mexican Prints and the Taller de Grafica Popular
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

An exhibition of over 130 original prints drawn from the SU Art Collection, as well as lenders including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Library of Congress, and the Blanton Museum of Art. The exhibition features important Mexican artists and post-Mexican Revolution artwork, with emphasis on the prints produced at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (The People's Graphic Workshop), or TGP. This influential workshop advanced a variety of revolutionary ideals and causes, including the formation of organized labor, the fight for civil rights, and an active campaign against fascism.

Print Making Revolution is organized into four subjects. The first acts as precursor to the TGP, highlighting the work of artists that helped to define the Mexican print landscape early in the 20th century. These figures include José Gaudalupe Posada, Jean Charlot, and the "Big Three": Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Siqueiros.

The exhibition then transitions into the artists of the TGP, with emphasis on the Taller's director Leopoldo Méndez, but also includes Ángel Bracho, Isidoro Ocampo, and Alfredo Zalce, among others.

The third part of the exhibition focuses on the linocut portfolio Estampas de la Revolución Mexicana, a vividly illustrated narration of the Mexican Revolution, published by the workshop in 1947. Shown in its entirety, the portfolio contains 84 original prints by 16 artists.

Finally, the exhibition highlights the gringos—Americans working at the TGP during the early and influential days of the prolific workshop, Angel Bracho, Victoria! Los Artistas de Taller de Grafica Popular, 1945 University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque including John Woodrow Wilson, Mariana Yampolsky and Elizabeth Catlett. The impact of the TGP reached well beyond the conventional boundaries of art making, affecting political and social movements in Mexico and the United States.

Jordan Eagles: Red Giant
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Using blood collected from a slaughterhouse as his primary medium, the artist explores ideas about transformation, death, and rebirth. Jordan Eagles encases the blood in Plexiglas and UV resin panels; mounted on the gallery walls they create a sublime environment that envelops and engages the viewer. The exhibition title, "Red Giant," refers to a luminous giant star in its final phase of stellar evolution—what our Sun will become in five billion years—while also referencing the intense, potent color of blood. The abstract patterns and forms in the works may suggest internal organs as well as cosmological phenomena like solar storms, sunspots, craters, meteorites, and supernova explosions.

Eagles' works are in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Princeton University Art Museum, the Addison Gallery of American Art; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Peabody Essex Museum; and the Everson Museum of Art. Recent solo shows include Causey Contemporary and Krause Gallery, New York; International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; and Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, San Francisco.He has been featured in numerous publications, including Time Magazine, The New York Times, L'Uomo Vogue, Architectural Digest and Wired.

Read a review!

The Art of Video Games
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $10 regular, $8 students/seniors/military, $5 Everson members, $30 family (up to 2 adults & 4 children)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Part of a ten-city national tour, "The Art of Video Games" is one of the first major exhibitions to explore the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking graphics, creative storytelling, and player interactivity. The exhibition features some of the most influential artists and designers across five eras of game development, from early pioneers to contemporary designers. Video games use player participation to tell stories and engage audiences. In the same way as film, animation and performance, video games are a compelling and influential form of narrative art.

"The Art of Video Games" focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for 20 gaming systems ranging from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. The exhibition features 80 video games that demonstrate the evolution of the medium. The games are presented through still images and video footage. In addition, the galleries include video interviews with developers and artists, historic game consoles and large prints of in-game screen shots.

New technologies allow designers to create increasingly interactive and sophisticated game environments while staying grounded in traditional game types. Five featured games, one from each era, are available in the exhibition galleries for visitors to play for a few minutes, to gain some feel for the interactivity. The playable gamesPac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flowershow how players interact with the virtual worlds, highlighting innovative new techniques that set the standard for many subsequent games.

Visitors to the exhibition are greeted by excerpts from selected games projected 12 feet high, accompanied by a chipmusic soundtrack by 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer, including "The Art of Video Games Anthem" recorded by 8 Bit Weapon specifically for the exhibition. These multimedia elements convey the excitement and complexity of the featured video games. An interior gallery includes a series of short videos showing the range of emotional responses players have while interacting with games. Excerpts from interviews with 20 influential figures in the gaming world also are presented in the galleries.

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Festival of Trees
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 regular, children under 10 free (combo ticket including The Art of Video Games $10, children under 10 free)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

This 28th annual Syracuse area tradition features artfully decorated trees, wreaths and unique displays that create a beautiful winter wonderland. All the decorations and display items are for sale, all proceeds benefit the Everson Museum of Art. Enjoy live entertainment from local school and musical groups, and stop into the Musuem Shop to find the perfect gift.

SUtura
XL Projects

Price: Free
XL Projects
307-313 S. Clinton St., Syracuse

An exhibition of works by international graduate students in a variety of media, including ceramics, fibers, film, illustration, jewelry and metalsmithing, painting, sculpture and video. Students exhibiting work include Renqian Yang, Yue Wang, Kejun Zhao, Jaroslava Prihodova, Sichang Yang, Laura Sanz, Ozan Atalan, Yanyu Dong, Neven Lochhead, Weigang Song, Zaoli Zhong, Alessia Cecchet, Tian Guan, Seung Huk Lee, Jila Nikpay, June Kyu Q Park, Danwen Si, and Shi Sun.

For more information, contact Andrew Havenhand at ahavenhand@yahoo.com, or phone 315-442-2542 during gallery hours.

Spoken Threads: Craftivist Fiber Art
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

Spoken Threads is a collection of fiber art that takes its inspiration from the traditional women-made crafts such as quilting, knitting, weaving, sewing, and cross-stitch. It features women artists from across the USA, including Central New York, as well as those from Canada and the UK who use their art to speak wisdom on a variety of social and environmental issues. During the time of year that many consumers reach for something mass-produced off an end-cap display, this exhibition is a celebration of the handmade.

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Holiday Spirit Celebration
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $30 per person, $25 for 2 or more (reservations required)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Join us for a holiday open house. The evening will feature entertainment by Barney Moldrem and Peter Allen and full access to all of the Everson exhibits, including "The Art of Video Games." Enjoy complimentary wine, punch, light hors d'oeuvres and holiday cookies in the stunning holiday setting of the Festival of Trees.

To reserve, visit the website.

Phil Solomon: Still Raining, Still Dreaming
Urban Video Project

Price: Free
Everson Museum of Art Plaza
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

"Still Raining, Still Dreaming" is part of Solomon's acclaimed "In Memorium" series, a body of work shot entirely within the virtual world of the Grand Theft Auto video game, and is shown in conjunction with the Everson's exhibition of the Smithsonian traveling show The Art of Video Games.

"Still Raining, Still Dreaming," with its haunting soundtrack, will also be the debut of UVP's new outdoor sound system and new projector, a milestone for UVP that will significantly expand programming options and provide a truly spectacular experience.

Opening: New Paintings by Jennissa Hart
Gallery 4040

Gallery 4040
4040 New Court Ave (off Midler), Syracuse

Christmas Movie Series: It's a Wonderful Life
Landmark Theatre

Price: $5
Landmark Theatre
362 S. Salina St., Syracuse

The Animal House Tour: Bro Safari, with Torro Torro, Crnkn
Westcott Theater

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

Bad Kitty: A Holiday Whodunnit
Acme Mystery Company

Price: $32.50 (includes meal, show, tax and gratuities)
Spaghetti Warehouse
689 N. Clinton St., Syracuse

Everyone who is anyone in the high-stakes, competitive world of professional cat showing is here tonight for the annual Catalina Cat Club holiday dinner and awards banquet. This once-tiny event has grown from a friendly competition into an international frenzy of flying fur and flashing claws—and that's just the owners (especially Marielle Ann DeVozz). Founder and host, Cy Ameze, invites you to come and raise a glass to this year's winner of the prestigious, jewel-encrusted Kitty Cup. That is, if you're still alive by the end of the evening.

A Shout in Salty Water
Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company
Joseph Trevino, director

Price: Free
CFAC Black Box Theater
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

A one-man play, written and performed by Ryan Johnson-Travis, derived from interviews with 17 Syracuse fathers. A journey of hope and compassion.

A Christmas Carol
Syracuse Stage
Syracuse University Drama Department
Peter Amster, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Charles Dickens' beloved family classic returns to Central New York after a 7-year absence in an all-new adaptation and production from Peter Amster. "He was a tightfisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner." But somewhere deep inside Scrooge there remains the little boy still capable of feeling love and joy. This song-and-dance infused adaptation by Romulus Linney sticks closely to Dickens' classic tale to awaken the heart of that lost little boy.

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Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge
Central New York Playhouse
Greg J. Hipius, director

Price: $15
CNY Playhouse
Shoppingtown Mall, Entrance No. 4 (adjacent to parking garage), Dewitt

In this departure from Dickens, young Scrooge's exclamations of "Bah, humbug!" are an undiagnosed "kind of seasonal Tourette's Syndrome," and The Ghost of Christmas Past is played by a sassy African-American woman with enough attitude to portray all three spirits (which she does). She tries to show Scrooge his past, present and future in order to change him, but her magic keeps malfunctioning in Christopher Durang's satirical version of the beloved holiday classic, and they consistently find themselves transported to the wrong time and place. She tries to take Scrooge back to see his old employers, the Fezziwigs--"always an audience favorite"--but instead she and Scrooge keep appearing in the present at the Cratchit's pathetic home. Mrs. Bob Cratchit, a minor character in the Dickens, takes center stage here. No longer loving and long suffering, Mrs. Bob is in a rage: She's sick of Tiny Tim (the goody-goody crippled child), she hates her 20 other children (most of them confined to the root cellar), including oversized Little Nell, and she wants to get drunk and jump off London Bridge. As the Ghost loses more control, the plot morphs into parodies of Oliver Twist, The Gift of the Magi, and It's a Wonderful Life. And to make matters worse, Scrooge and Mrs. Bob seem to be kindred souls falling in love. With a dénouement that is two parts Touched by an Angel and one part The Queen of Mean, Scrooge's tale of redemption and gentle grace is placed squarely on its head.

Music direction by Dan Williams.

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The Music Man
Redhouse

Price: $30 regular, $20 members
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

An affectionate salute to Smalltown, USA, of a bygone era, the musical The Music Man follows fast-talking traveling salesman Harold Hill as he cons the people of River City, Iowa into buying instruments and uniforms for a boys' band that he vows to organize. Book, music and lyrics by Meredith Wilson, story by Meredith Wilson and Franklin Lacey. Presented in conjunction with ARC, Hillside and Elmcrest Children's Center.

Read a Review!

Friday, December 13, 2013

In Da Window: Glasswork by Don Plouffe
Echo

745 N. Salina St. (formerly Craft Chemistry)
Syracuse

A Syracuse native, Don received his BFA from Syracuse University and his MAT from Oswego State. He has worked in artist studios from Venice, CA, to Florence, Italy, and in art classrooms all over CNY. Each experience has had an impact on what he creates from ceramic tiles, to stained glass windows and doors, to sculptures of creatures and beasts of all sorts. He strives to create work worth spending time with and enjoys the process almost as much as the finished piece.

Robert Thurber Photographs
LeMoyne College

Price: Free
Wilson Art Gallery, Noreen Reale Falcone Library
LeMoyne College, Syracuse

Watercolors by Bill Elkins
Onondaga County Central Library

Price: Free
Onondaga County Central Library
The Galleries of Syracuse, 447 S. Salina St., Syracuse

Bill Elkins has been a practicing architect in Syracuse for over 30 years. After a visit to Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine in 1995, he was inspired to try his hand at watercolors. He has been painting and studying the medium ever since.

Drawing on Talent: 5th Annual Members Group Art Exhibit
Baltimore Woods Weeks Art Gallery

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

Group art exhibit featuring work in all media by members of the Baltimore Woods member community.

Holiday Gift Gallery Show
Clayscapes Pottery Gallery

Price: Free
Clayscapes Pottery Studio
1003 W. Fayette St., Suite L1, Syracuse

Gallery Exhibit: OCC Faculty Art & Photography Exhibition
Onondaga Community College

Price: Free
Ann Felton Multicultural Center and Gallery
Onondaga Community College, Syracuse

A mixed media show with works from Onondaga's own faculty members.

John James Audubon and the American Landscape
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

Price: Free
Bird Library, 6th Floor
Syracuse University, Syracuse

John James Audubon and the American Landscape showcases Syracuse University's copy of the rare double elephant folio The Birds of America. Printed in London and Edinburgh between 1827 and 1838, the work is a stunning visual catalog, featuring 435 plates depicting American bird life. The enterprise consumed much of Audubon's adult life and took him from the Pennsylvania woods to the Florida Keys and the Labrador coast. To its 19th-century audience, The Birds of America was much more than an ornithological inventory. It brought the exotic American wilderness into the drawing rooms and parlors of its wealthy subscribers. In 1896, former mayor of Syracuse and Syracuse University trustee James J. Welden donated a copy to the University. Today, The Birds of America is known for its extraordinary value, fetching more than ten million dollars at auction.

The exhibition situates The Birds of America in the wider contexts of Audubon's life, 19th-century scientific knowledge, and a rapidly changing landscape that was becoming less exotic each day. Also on display are Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology (1808–14), Audubon's textual companion to The Birds of America (Ornithological Biography, 1831–49), and later volumes that speak to Audubon's legacy, such as first editions of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (1949). Syracuse University's copy of The Birds of America is disbound, which makes it possible for visitors to the exhibition to consider several different prints at once. Some of the engravings on display include the barn owl, Swainson's hawk, and the long-billed curlew, all of which depict American avian life against the backdrop of encroaching civilization.

Metamorphosis Personified: Works by Greg Trombly
Westcott Community Art Gallery

Price: Free
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Behold a metamorphic journey away from the representational through work aimed to capture the essence of the human form and energy through light and dark values.

Water Below, Sky Above
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Diane Menzies: landscape oil paintings
Deeann vonHunke and Robert vonHunke: collaborative pieces with Robert's painting and Dee's metalwork
Wes Weiss: ceramic sculptural forms
Deeann vonHunke: jewelry
Karen Burns: oil on canvas landscape paintings

Tango
Point of Contact Gallery

Price: Free
Point of Contact Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

This inaugural exhibit in Point of Contact's new gallery at The Warehouse will showcase the 20-piece grand folio art book Tango (Iris Editions 1991), a collaborative work by Argentine writer Pedro Cuperman and New York artist Nancy Graves. A significant work in Point of Contact's collection, Tango includes eight intaglio prints by Graves and thirteen pages of text by Cuperman.

Philipe Doddard: The Idea of Modernity in Haitian Contemporary Art
Community Folk Art Center

Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Through bold brush strokes and vibrant color combinations, graphic and visual artist Philippe Dodard critically engages and empowers audiences throughout the world. Dodard, born and raised in Haiti, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Port-au-Prince and the International School of Bordeaux, France, where he explored graphic design. Although paintings are featured in this exhibition, Dodard is a diverse artist whose body of work includes metalwork, large sculptures and jewelry. Dodard's incredible talent has resulted in international recognition and creative collaborations including his most recent with fashion designer Donna Karan. Irrespective of the discipline or media, Dodard's aesthetic reflects his love for Haiti.

Read a review!

28th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

It's that time of year again! The upstairs gallery of the museum has been transformed into a 1800s street scene with over 40 gingerbread creations made by professional and amateur bakers from across the region on display in storefront windows.

Inspired Tidings: Annual Holiday Show
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Neighboring Visions
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

A group show featuring works by three Tully artists: jewelry by gallery director Sarah Panzarella, pottery by Jeremy Randall, and paintings by Grant Dolge.

Willson Cummer: Dawn Light
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

Willson Cummer is a fine-art photographer, curator and teacher who lives in Fayetteville, NY. Images from his projects have been included in national juried exhibitions. His first solo New York City show opened in December 2011 at OK Harris. Willson's work explores humanity's place in the environment. In addition to his own work, he curates and publishes the blog New Landscape Photography. Willson has taught workshops at Light Work/Community Darkrooms, Syracuse University, and Cazenovia College.

Artist's Statement:

In late July of 2012, a five-month depression unexpectedly lifted. For the first time in a long while, I was able to wake up in the morning with energy, eager to explore the day. With my camera I quickly began shooting the early morning light as it fell upon Fayetteville, NY, my hometown. I walked from my front door most times, and occasionally drove a bit further into the village. I wanted to explore the territory closest at hand.

Light is a fundamental ingredient for photography. It has also, for centuries, been used as a metaphor for healing and recovery. As a recovering depressive, I wanted to explore the dawn light on a metaphorical level. As an artist, I wanted to record the gorgeous cross- light of the early morning and the rich yellow hue of the direct light.

I was attracted to humble structures: gas stations, parking lots, aging commercial buildings. The interplay of the natural world and the built environment is a subject which continues to excite me.

Jackie Nickerson: Terrain
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

Jackie Nickerson makes photographs that examine the essential nature of people and their relationship to the natural world, through personal identity and the physical and psychological condition of living and working. With "Terrain," Nickerson revisits eastern and southern Africa, focusing on how the exertions of labor leave psychic and material traces on people and the environment.

Paintings by Marilyn Masters
Maxwell Memorial Library

Price: Free
Maxwell Memorial Library
14 Genesee St., Camillus

If a medium can be used for artistic expression, it's a safe bet that Marilyn Masters has worked with it. The impressionist artist, originally from Huntington, NY, is a graduate of both the Pratt Institute and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She has studied acrylics, pastel, watercolors, pencil drawing, even block printing, furniture art, and textile design. An R.N. with a degree from Upstate Medical Center, Masters has combined her artistic and health careers by creating detailed medical drawings.

Snowy Splendor
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit will feature oil and watercolor paintings, photographs, drawings and prints of contemporary or vintage winter scenes of Onondaga County.

Culture of the Cocktail Hour
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The story of cocktail fashions has several associations with local history. This exhibit will discover some of those people, places and events, including Syracuse's most famous cocktail lounges of days gone by. Cocktails also conjure up the exciting era of the Roaring Twenties, when speakeasies flourished during the decade of Prohibition. Displays will include the story of one of the most famous local speakeasies, located just a few hundred feet from the OH Museum, including a menu of its libations, and the tale of the police raid that shut it down. Also on exhibit, along with other documents and artifacts of the era will be an original federal court ledger listing arrests and convictions across the state for Prohibition violations and a local brewery's recipes for "near beer" and flavored sodas, which helped keep them in business through the infamous "dry" years when America famously tried unsuccessfully to eliminate intoxicating beverages from its culture.

Fashion After Five
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The exhibit, Fashion After Five, curated by Syracuse University's Jeffrey Mayer, associate professor of fashion design and history and curator of the Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection, will explore the history of the cocktail dress with several spectacular garments from the collections of OHA and the Sue Ann Genet Collection. Also represented in the exhibit will be the work of students from the S.U. Department of Fashion Design who will present their own creations, inspired by the vintage dresses selected for the exhibition—a perfect way to combine the past and the present for this exciting new exhibit.

Holiday Show
Gandee Gallery

Gandee Gallery
7846 Main St., Fabius

The Holiday Show features jewelry, ceramics, photography, painting, and fiber art created by regionally and nationally recognized artists. Participating artists include Karin Bremer, Willson Cummer, Jen Gandee, Henry Gernhardt, Michael Hughes, Marie LoParco, Hannah Meredith, Laurel Moranz, Jessica Pilowa, Lily Tsay, Lucie Wellner, and Errol Willett.

The Holiday Group Show emphasizes the important role that handmade objects and fine art plays in domestic life, enriching living spaces and adorning the body. The Gandee Gallery encourages art lovers to celebrate the holidays by giving gifts that embody the creative spirit. Many fine art and craft artists currently have work on display at the gallery shop. New holiday cards, ornaments, and many gift items fill the space.

Art Mart
Syracuse Allied Arts

City Hall Commons Atrium
201 East Washington St., Syracuse

Fine art and crafts handmade by local guild and independent artists. Find unique pottery, stained glass, paintings, jewelry, hand-crafted soaps and candles, and much more.

Paul Strand: The Mexican Portfolio
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

This exhibition presents Paul Strand's famous Mexican Portfolio, which includes photogravure impressions of people, landscapes, architecture, and religious objects that he encountered in Mexico during his travels there in 1932.

Print Making Revolution: Mexican Prints and the Taller de Grafica Popular
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

An exhibition of over 130 original prints drawn from the SU Art Collection, as well as lenders including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Library of Congress, and the Blanton Museum of Art. The exhibition features important Mexican artists and post-Mexican Revolution artwork, with emphasis on the prints produced at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (The People's Graphic Workshop), or TGP. This influential workshop advanced a variety of revolutionary ideals and causes, including the formation of organized labor, the fight for civil rights, and an active campaign against fascism.

Print Making Revolution is organized into four subjects. The first acts as precursor to the TGP, highlighting the work of artists that helped to define the Mexican print landscape early in the 20th century. These figures include José Gaudalupe Posada, Jean Charlot, and the "Big Three": Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Siqueiros.

The exhibition then transitions into the artists of the TGP, with emphasis on the Taller's director Leopoldo Méndez, but also includes Ángel Bracho, Isidoro Ocampo, and Alfredo Zalce, among others.

The third part of the exhibition focuses on the linocut portfolio Estampas de la Revolución Mexicana, a vividly illustrated narration of the Mexican Revolution, published by the workshop in 1947. Shown in its entirety, the portfolio contains 84 original prints by 16 artists.

Finally, the exhibition highlights the gringos—Americans working at the TGP during the early and influential days of the prolific workshop, Angel Bracho, Victoria! Los Artistas de Taller de Grafica Popular, 1945 University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque including John Woodrow Wilson, Mariana Yampolsky and Elizabeth Catlett. The impact of the TGP reached well beyond the conventional boundaries of art making, affecting political and social movements in Mexico and the United States.

International Art from the Permanent Collection
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Highlighting the breadth of the collections' encyclopedic holdings and exploring international artists and themes, these new displays explore the genres of photography, prints, paintings and sculpture. Two of the exhibitions on display in the Print and Photo Study Galleries will highlight the University's vast holdings of historical Japanese photographs and prints. The third exhibition will examine artwork created by international artists who have immigrated to the United States.

America's Calling, presented in the Gallery of American Art, is an exhibition of 16 works of art by 15 foreign-born artists, including Ben Shahn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Josef Albers. The artists included in the exhibition, or their families, were drawn to the United States because it offered opportunities unavailable in their homelands. A variety of media is presented in the display, including painting, ceramics, sculpture and printmaking that are handled using often innovative techniques. Cumulatively, these artists had a profound and permanent effect on the evolution of American art.

The Photo Study Room will present Visions for Sale: Photographs of Nineteenth Century Japan, an exhibition of 22 hand-colored albumen prints from the 19th century exploring the country's people, land and environment that was quickly changing due to modernization. European photographers such as Felice Beato and Baron Raimond Stillfield traveled to Japan to document the nation's exotic landscape and historically idiosyncratic jobs before they were swept away by the tide of modernism.

Ukiyo-e to Shin Hanga: Japanese Woodcuts from the Syracuse University Art Collection will be installed in the Print Study Room and draws from the University's collection of over 300 examples from this important and hugely influential art movement. The prints on view date from the height of color Ukiyo-e printmaking (c1780-1868) through Japan's Meiji period (1868-1912) to 20th century impressions of the Shin Hanga movement (1915-1940s). Masters of this medium are represented, including the work of Utamaro, Kuniyoshi, Hokusai, Hiroshida, Tsuchiya Koitsu and Yoshida Hiroshi. The prints exemplify the soft, painterly style that is synonymous with the Japanese woodcut, and illustrates the wide range of subjects from courtesans to Kabuki theater and the Japanese landscape.

Jordan Eagles: Red Giant
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Using blood collected from a slaughterhouse as his primary medium, the artist explores ideas about transformation, death, and rebirth. Jordan Eagles encases the blood in Plexiglas and UV resin panels; mounted on the gallery walls they create a sublime environment that envelops and engages the viewer. The exhibition title, "Red Giant," refers to a luminous giant star in its final phase of stellar evolution—what our Sun will become in five billion years—while also referencing the intense, potent color of blood. The abstract patterns and forms in the works may suggest internal organs as well as cosmological phenomena like solar storms, sunspots, craters, meteorites, and supernova explosions.

Eagles' works are in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Princeton University Art Museum, the Addison Gallery of American Art; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Peabody Essex Museum; and the Everson Museum of Art. Recent solo shows include Causey Contemporary and Krause Gallery, New York; International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; and Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, San Francisco.He has been featured in numerous publications, including Time Magazine, The New York Times, L'Uomo Vogue, Architectural Digest and Wired.

Read a review!

Festival of Trees
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 regular, children under 10 free (combo ticket including The Art of Video Games $10, children under 10 free)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

This 28th annual Syracuse area tradition features artfully decorated trees, wreaths and unique displays that create a beautiful winter wonderland. All the decorations and display items are for sale, all proceeds benefit the Everson Museum of Art. Enjoy live entertainment from local school and musical groups, and stop into the Musuem Shop to find the perfect gift.

The Art of Video Games
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $10 regular, $8 students/seniors/military, $5 Everson members, $30 family (up to 2 adults & 4 children)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Part of a ten-city national tour, "The Art of Video Games" is one of the first major exhibitions to explore the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking graphics, creative storytelling, and player interactivity. The exhibition features some of the most influential artists and designers across five eras of game development, from early pioneers to contemporary designers. Video games use player participation to tell stories and engage audiences. In the same way as film, animation and performance, video games are a compelling and influential form of narrative art.

"The Art of Video Games" focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for 20 gaming systems ranging from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. The exhibition features 80 video games that demonstrate the evolution of the medium. The games are presented through still images and video footage. In addition, the galleries include video interviews with developers and artists, historic game consoles and large prints of in-game screen shots.

New technologies allow designers to create increasingly interactive and sophisticated game environments while staying grounded in traditional game types. Five featured games, one from each era, are available in the exhibition galleries for visitors to play for a few minutes, to gain some feel for the interactivity. The playable gamesPac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flowershow how players interact with the virtual worlds, highlighting innovative new techniques that set the standard for many subsequent games.

Visitors to the exhibition are greeted by excerpts from selected games projected 12 feet high, accompanied by a chipmusic soundtrack by 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer, including "The Art of Video Games Anthem" recorded by 8 Bit Weapon specifically for the exhibition. These multimedia elements convey the excitement and complexity of the featured video games. An interior gallery includes a series of short videos showing the range of emotional responses players have while interacting with games. Excerpts from interviews with 20 influential figures in the gaming world also are presented in the galleries.

Read a review!

New Paintings by Jennissa Hart
Gallery 4040

Gallery 4040
4040 New Court Ave (off Midler), Syracuse

SUtura
XL Projects

Price: Free
XL Projects
307-313 S. Clinton St., Syracuse

An exhibition of works by international graduate students in a variety of media, including ceramics, fibers, film, illustration, jewelry and metalsmithing, painting, sculpture and video. Students exhibiting work include Renqian Yang, Yue Wang, Kejun Zhao, Jaroslava Prihodova, Sichang Yang, Laura Sanz, Ozan Atalan, Yanyu Dong, Neven Lochhead, Weigang Song, Zaoli Zhong, Alessia Cecchet, Tian Guan, Seung Huk Lee, Jila Nikpay, June Kyu Q Park, Danwen Si, and Shi Sun.

For more information, contact Andrew Havenhand at ahavenhand@yahoo.com, or phone 315-442-2542 during gallery hours.

Spoken Threads: Craftivist Fiber Art
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

Spoken Threads is a collection of fiber art that takes its inspiration from the traditional women-made crafts such as quilting, knitting, weaving, sewing, and cross-stitch. It features women artists from across the USA, including Central New York, as well as those from Canada and the UK who use their art to speak wisdom on a variety of social and environmental issues. During the time of year that many consumers reach for something mass-produced off an end-cap display, this exhibition is a celebration of the handmade.

Read a review!

Fair Trade Sale
ArtRage Gallery

ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

During this event, ArtRage is transformed into a beautiful, colorful, Fair Trade Shop. Support three local vendors as well as many artisans across the globe.

Phil Solomon: Still Raining, Still Dreaming
Urban Video Project

Price: Free
Everson Museum of Art Plaza
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

"Still Raining, Still Dreaming" is part of Solomon's acclaimed "In Memorium" series, a body of work shot entirely within the virtual world of the Grand Theft Auto video game, and is shown in conjunction with the Everson's exhibition of the Smithsonian traveling show The Art of Video Games.

"Still Raining, Still Dreaming," with its haunting soundtrack, will also be the debut of UVP's new outdoor sound system and new projector, a milestone for UVP that will significantly expand programming options and provide a truly spectacular experience.

The Sound of Christmas
Landmark Theatre
Featuring Elisabeth von Trapp

Price: $20-$35
Landmark Theatre
362 S. Salina St., Syracuse

Come and enjoy the beautiful music of Elisabeth von Trapp, granddaughter of the legendary Maria and Baron von Trapp, whose story inspired The Sound of Music. Her performance will feature classic carols as well as music ranging from Bach and Handel to jazz and Broadway, accompanied by the sensational Carolian Brass.

The highlight of the evening is a set of complete renditions of songs from the beloved The Sound of Music, wherein the guitar solo "Edelweiss" flows into an extraordinary rendition of "Stille Nacht." With a voice that critics have called "hauntingly clear" (New York Times), von Trapp, along with the Carolian Brass, "will send a thrill of pleasure through your nervous system" (Boston Globe).

Tickets can be purchased through the box office at 315-475-7980 or through Ticketmaster.com.

Enjoy a delicious holiday pre-show Dinner Upgrade for an additional $20 dinner ticket.

DWC Member Open Mic Night
Downtown Writer's Center

Price: Free
YMCA
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Join us for this season's student and member open mike night. Bring a story, poem, song, or ... surprise us. Sign-ups will begin at 6:45. Please plan to read for no more than 3 minutes.

Bad Kitty: A Holiday Whodunnit
Acme Mystery Company

Price: $32.50 (includes meal, show, tax and gratuities)
Spaghetti Warehouse
689 N. Clinton St., Syracuse

Everyone who is anyone in the high-stakes, competitive world of professional cat showing is here tonight for the annual Catalina Cat Club holiday dinner and awards banquet. This once-tiny event has grown from a friendly competition into an international frenzy of flying fur and flashing claws—and that's just the owners (especially Marielle Ann DeVozz). Founder and host, Cy Ameze, invites you to come and raise a glass to this year's winner of the prestigious, jewel-encrusted Kitty Cup. That is, if you're still alive by the end of the evening.

All I Want for Christmas Is...!
Covey Theatre Company

Price: $16
BeVard Room, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Covey presents its first family production, authored by the company co-founders, Garrett Heater and Susan Blumer, and published by Drama Source, Inc. Celebrate the holidays with Madeline, Christopher, and Abigail, three youngsters who learn that what you want for Christmas is not always what you need. Filled with colorful characters like Elfis the Elf (Jimmy Wachter), Prancer the Reindeer (Darian Sundberg), and of course Santa Claus (Edward Mastin), this memorable musical is the perfect stocking-stuffer for the Season of Giving.

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Annie
Syracuse Children's Theatre

Price: $17.50 regular, $15 students/seniors, $10 children 12 and under
Carrier Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

A Shout in Salty Water
Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company
Joseph Trevino, director

Price: Free
CFAC Black Box Theater
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

A one-man play, written and performed by Ryan Johnson-Travis, derived from interviews with 17 Syracuse fathers. A journey of hope and compassion.

Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge
Central New York Playhouse
Greg J. Hipius, director

Price: $20
CNY Playhouse
Shoppingtown Mall, Entrance No. 4 (adjacent to parking garage), Dewitt

In this departure from Dickens, young Scrooge's exclamations of "Bah, humbug!" are an undiagnosed "kind of seasonal Tourette's Syndrome," and The Ghost of Christmas Past is played by a sassy African-American woman with enough attitude to portray all three spirits (which she does). She tries to show Scrooge his past, present and future in order to change him, but her magic keeps malfunctioning in Christopher Durang's satirical version of the beloved holiday classic, and they consistently find themselves transported to the wrong time and place. She tries to take Scrooge back to see his old employers, the Fezziwigs--"always an audience favorite"--but instead she and Scrooge keep appearing in the present at the Cratchit's pathetic home. Mrs. Bob Cratchit, a minor character in the Dickens, takes center stage here. No longer loving and long suffering, Mrs. Bob is in a rage: She's sick of Tiny Tim (the goody-goody crippled child), she hates her 20 other children (most of them confined to the root cellar), including oversized Little Nell, and she wants to get drunk and jump off London Bridge. As the Ghost loses more control, the plot morphs into parodies of Oliver Twist, The Gift of the Magi, and It's a Wonderful Life. And to make matters worse, Scrooge and Mrs. Bob seem to be kindred souls falling in love. With a dénouement that is two parts Touched by an Angel and one part The Queen of Mean, Scrooge's tale of redemption and gentle grace is placed squarely on its head.

Music direction by Dan Williams.

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The Music Man
Redhouse

Price: $30 regular, $20 members
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

An affectionate salute to Smalltown, USA, of a bygone era, the musical The Music Man follows fast-talking traveling salesman Harold Hill as he cons the people of River City, Iowa into buying instruments and uniforms for a boys' band that he vows to organize. Book, music and lyrics by Meredith Wilson, story by Meredith Wilson and Franklin Lacey. Presented in conjunction with ARC, Hillside and Elmcrest Children's Center.

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A Christmas Carol
Syracuse Stage
Syracuse University Drama Department
Peter Amster, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Charles Dickens' beloved family classic returns to Central New York after a 7-year absence in an all-new adaptation and production from Peter Amster. "He was a tightfisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner." But somewhere deep inside Scrooge there remains the little boy still capable of feeling love and joy. This song-and-dance infused adaptation by Romulus Linney sticks closely to Dickens' classic tale to awaken the heart of that lost little boy.

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Saturday, December 14, 2013

In Da Window: Glasswork by Don Plouffe
Echo

745 N. Salina St. (formerly Craft Chemistry)
Syracuse

A Syracuse native, Don received his BFA from Syracuse University and his MAT from Oswego State. He has worked in artist studios from Venice, CA, to Florence, Italy, and in art classrooms all over CNY. Each experience has had an impact on what he creates from ceramic tiles, to stained glass windows and doors, to sculptures of creatures and beasts of all sorts. He strives to create work worth spending time with and enjoys the process almost as much as the finished piece.

Holiday Gift Gallery Show
Clayscapes Pottery Gallery

Price: Free
Clayscapes Pottery Studio
1003 W. Fayette St., Suite L1, Syracuse

Watercolors by Bill Elkins
Onondaga County Central Library

Price: Free
Onondaga County Central Library
The Galleries of Syracuse, 447 S. Salina St., Syracuse

Bill Elkins has been a practicing architect in Syracuse for over 30 years. After a visit to Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine in 1995, he was inspired to try his hand at watercolors. He has been painting and studying the medium ever since.

Fair Trade Sale
ArtRage Gallery

ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

During this event, ArtRage is transformed into a beautiful, colorful, Fair Trade Shop. Support three local vendors as well as many artisans across the globe.

Drawing on Talent: 5th Annual Members Group Art Exhibit
Baltimore Woods Weeks Art Gallery

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

Group art exhibit featuring work in all media by members of the Baltimore Woods member community.

Water Below, Sky Above
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Diane Menzies: landscape oil paintings
Deeann vonHunke and Robert vonHunke: collaborative pieces with Robert's painting and Dee's metalwork
Wes Weiss: ceramic sculptural forms
Deeann vonHunke: jewelry
Karen Burns: oil on canvas landscape paintings

28th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

It's that time of year again! The upstairs gallery of the museum has been transformed into a 1800s street scene with over 40 gingerbread creations made by professional and amateur bakers from across the region on display in storefront windows.

Jordan Eagles: Red Giant
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Using blood collected from a slaughterhouse as his primary medium, the artist explores ideas about transformation, death, and rebirth. Jordan Eagles encases the blood in Plexiglas and UV resin panels; mounted on the gallery walls they create a sublime environment that envelops and engages the viewer. The exhibition title, "Red Giant," refers to a luminous giant star in its final phase of stellar evolution—what our Sun will become in five billion years—while also referencing the intense, potent color of blood. The abstract patterns and forms in the works may suggest internal organs as well as cosmological phenomena like solar storms, sunspots, craters, meteorites, and supernova explosions.

Eagles' works are in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Princeton University Art Museum, the Addison Gallery of American Art; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Peabody Essex Museum; and the Everson Museum of Art. Recent solo shows include Causey Contemporary and Krause Gallery, New York; International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; and Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, San Francisco.He has been featured in numerous publications, including Time Magazine, The New York Times, L'Uomo Vogue, Architectural Digest and Wired.

Read a review!

The Art of Video Games
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $10 regular, $8 students/seniors/military, $5 Everson members, $30 family (up to 2 adults & 4 children)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Part of a ten-city national tour, "The Art of Video Games" is one of the first major exhibitions to explore the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking graphics, creative storytelling, and player interactivity. The exhibition features some of the most influential artists and designers across five eras of game development, from early pioneers to contemporary designers. Video games use player participation to tell stories and engage audiences. In the same way as film, animation and performance, video games are a compelling and influential form of narrative art.

"The Art of Video Games" focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for 20 gaming systems ranging from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. The exhibition features 80 video games that demonstrate the evolution of the medium. The games are presented through still images and video footage. In addition, the galleries include video interviews with developers and artists, historic game consoles and large prints of in-game screen shots.

New technologies allow designers to create increasingly interactive and sophisticated game environments while staying grounded in traditional game types. Five featured games, one from each era, are available in the exhibition galleries for visitors to play for a few minutes, to gain some feel for the interactivity. The playable gamesPac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flowershow how players interact with the virtual worlds, highlighting innovative new techniques that set the standard for many subsequent games.

Visitors to the exhibition are greeted by excerpts from selected games projected 12 feet high, accompanied by a chipmusic soundtrack by 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer, including "The Art of Video Games Anthem" recorded by 8 Bit Weapon specifically for the exhibition. These multimedia elements convey the excitement and complexity of the featured video games. An interior gallery includes a series of short videos showing the range of emotional responses players have while interacting with games. Excerpts from interviews with 20 influential figures in the gaming world also are presented in the galleries.

Read a review!

Festival of Trees
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 regular, children under 10 free (combo ticket including The Art of Video Games $10, children under 10 free)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

This 28th annual Syracuse area tradition features artfully decorated trees, wreaths and unique displays that create a beautiful winter wonderland. All the decorations and display items are for sale, all proceeds benefit the Everson Museum of Art. Enjoy live entertainment from local school and musical groups, and stop into the Musuem Shop to find the perfect gift.

Inspired Tidings: Annual Holiday Show
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Neighboring Visions
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

A group show featuring works by three Tully artists: jewelry by gallery director Sarah Panzarella, pottery by Jeremy Randall, and paintings by Grant Dolge.

Paintings by Marilyn Masters
Maxwell Memorial Library

Price: Free
Maxwell Memorial Library
14 Genesee St., Camillus

If a medium can be used for artistic expression, it's a safe bet that Marilyn Masters has worked with it. The impressionist artist, originally from Huntington, NY, is a graduate of both the Pratt Institute and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She has studied acrylics, pastel, watercolors, pencil drawing, even block printing, furniture art, and textile design. An R.N. with a degree from Upstate Medical Center, Masters has combined her artistic and health careers by creating detailed medical drawings.

Pepper Market

499 S. Warren St. (at the corner of E. Onondaga St.)
Syracuse

An urban market showcasing 30 local artists and designers selling their wares for $30 and under. At the market you'll find handmade wares from letterpress stationery to knitted winter accessories, jewelry to ceramics to soap, ... and then some. For a full list of vendors, visit our website.

Philipe Doddard: The Idea of Modernity in Haitian Contemporary Art
Community Folk Art Center

Community Folk Art Center
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Through bold brush strokes and vibrant color combinations, graphic and visual artist Philippe Dodard critically engages and empowers audiences throughout the world. Dodard, born and raised in Haiti, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Port-au-Prince and the International School of Bordeaux, France, where he explored graphic design. Although paintings are featured in this exhibition, Dodard is a diverse artist whose body of work includes metalwork, large sculptures and jewelry. Dodard's incredible talent has resulted in international recognition and creative collaborations including his most recent with fashion designer Donna Karan. Irrespective of the discipline or media, Dodard's aesthetic reflects his love for Haiti.

Read a review!

Holiday Show
Gandee Gallery

Gandee Gallery
7846 Main St., Fabius

The Holiday Show features jewelry, ceramics, photography, painting, and fiber art created by regionally and nationally recognized artists. Participating artists include Karin Bremer, Willson Cummer, Jen Gandee, Henry Gernhardt, Michael Hughes, Marie LoParco, Hannah Meredith, Laurel Moranz, Jessica Pilowa, Lily Tsay, Lucie Wellner, and Errol Willett.

The Holiday Group Show emphasizes the important role that handmade objects and fine art plays in domestic life, enriching living spaces and adorning the body. The Gandee Gallery encourages art lovers to celebrate the holidays by giving gifts that embody the creative spirit. Many fine art and craft artists currently have work on display at the gallery shop. New holiday cards, ornaments, and many gift items fill the space.

Art Mart
Syracuse Allied Arts

City Hall Commons Atrium
201 East Washington St., Syracuse

Fine art and crafts handmade by local guild and independent artists. Find unique pottery, stained glass, paintings, jewelry, hand-crafted soaps and candles, and much more.

Fashion After Five
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The exhibit, Fashion After Five, curated by Syracuse University's Jeffrey Mayer, associate professor of fashion design and history and curator of the Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection, will explore the history of the cocktail dress with several spectacular garments from the collections of OHA and the Sue Ann Genet Collection. Also represented in the exhibit will be the work of students from the S.U. Department of Fashion Design who will present their own creations, inspired by the vintage dresses selected for the exhibition—a perfect way to combine the past and the present for this exciting new exhibit.

Culture of the Cocktail Hour
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The story of cocktail fashions has several associations with local history. This exhibit will discover some of those people, places and events, including Syracuse's most famous cocktail lounges of days gone by. Cocktails also conjure up the exciting era of the Roaring Twenties, when speakeasies flourished during the decade of Prohibition. Displays will include the story of one of the most famous local speakeasies, located just a few hundred feet from the OH Museum, including a menu of its libations, and the tale of the police raid that shut it down. Also on exhibit, along with other documents and artifacts of the era will be an original federal court ledger listing arrests and convictions across the state for Prohibition violations and a local brewery's recipes for "near beer" and flavored sodas, which helped keep them in business through the infamous "dry" years when America famously tried unsuccessfully to eliminate intoxicating beverages from its culture.

Snowy Splendor
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit will feature oil and watercolor paintings, photographs, drawings and prints of contemporary or vintage winter scenes of Onondaga County.

International Art from the Permanent Collection
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Highlighting the breadth of the collections' encyclopedic holdings and exploring international artists and themes, these new displays explore the genres of photography, prints, paintings and sculpture. Two of the exhibitions on display in the Print and Photo Study Galleries will highlight the University's vast holdings of historical Japanese photographs and prints. The third exhibition will examine artwork created by international artists who have immigrated to the United States.

America's Calling, presented in the Gallery of American Art, is an exhibition of 16 works of art by 15 foreign-born artists, including Ben Shahn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Josef Albers. The artists included in the exhibition, or their families, were drawn to the United States because it offered opportunities unavailable in their homelands. A variety of media is presented in the display, including painting, ceramics, sculpture and printmaking that are handled using often innovative techniques. Cumulatively, these artists had a profound and permanent effect on the evolution of American art.

The Photo Study Room will present Visions for Sale: Photographs of Nineteenth Century Japan, an exhibition of 22 hand-colored albumen prints from the 19th century exploring the country's people, land and environment that was quickly changing due to modernization. European photographers such as Felice Beato and Baron Raimond Stillfield traveled to Japan to document the nation's exotic landscape and historically idiosyncratic jobs before they were swept away by the tide of modernism.

Ukiyo-e to Shin Hanga: Japanese Woodcuts from the Syracuse University Art Collection will be installed in the Print Study Room and draws from the University's collection of over 300 examples from this important and hugely influential art movement. The prints on view date from the height of color Ukiyo-e printmaking (c1780-1868) through Japan's Meiji period (1868-1912) to 20th century impressions of the Shin Hanga movement (1915-1940s). Masters of this medium are represented, including the work of Utamaro, Kuniyoshi, Hokusai, Hiroshida, Tsuchiya Koitsu and Yoshida Hiroshi. The prints exemplify the soft, painterly style that is synonymous with the Japanese woodcut, and illustrates the wide range of subjects from courtesans to Kabuki theater and the Japanese landscape.

Print Making Revolution: Mexican Prints and the Taller de Grafica Popular
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

An exhibition of over 130 original prints drawn from the SU Art Collection, as well as lenders including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Library of Congress, and the Blanton Museum of Art. The exhibition features important Mexican artists and post-Mexican Revolution artwork, with emphasis on the prints produced at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (The People's Graphic Workshop), or TGP. This influential workshop advanced a variety of revolutionary ideals and causes, including the formation of organized labor, the fight for civil rights, and an active campaign against fascism.

Print Making Revolution is organized into four subjects. The first acts as precursor to the TGP, highlighting the work of artists that helped to define the Mexican print landscape early in the 20th century. These figures include José Gaudalupe Posada, Jean Charlot, and the "Big Three": Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Siqueiros.

The exhibition then transitions into the artists of the TGP, with emphasis on the Taller's director Leopoldo Méndez, but also includes Ángel Bracho, Isidoro Ocampo, and Alfredo Zalce, among others.

The third part of the exhibition focuses on the linocut portfolio Estampas de la Revolución Mexicana, a vividly illustrated narration of the Mexican Revolution, published by the workshop in 1947. Shown in its entirety, the portfolio contains 84 original prints by 16 artists.

Finally, the exhibition highlights the gringos—Americans working at the TGP during the early and influential days of the prolific workshop, Angel Bracho, Victoria! Los Artistas de Taller de Grafica Popular, 1945 University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque including John Woodrow Wilson, Mariana Yampolsky and Elizabeth Catlett. The impact of the TGP reached well beyond the conventional boundaries of art making, affecting political and social movements in Mexico and the United States.

Paul Strand: The Mexican Portfolio
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

This exhibition presents Paul Strand's famous Mexican Portfolio, which includes photogravure impressions of people, landscapes, architecture, and religious objects that he encountered in Mexico during his travels there in 1932.

Spoken Threads: Craftivist Fiber Art
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

Spoken Threads is a collection of fiber art that takes its inspiration from the traditional women-made crafts such as quilting, knitting, weaving, sewing, and cross-stitch. It features women artists from across the USA, including Central New York, as well as those from Canada and the UK who use their art to speak wisdom on a variety of social and environmental issues. During the time of year that many consumers reach for something mass-produced off an end-cap display, this exhibition is a celebration of the handmade.

Read a review!

New Paintings by Jennissa Hart
Gallery 4040

Gallery 4040
4040 New Court Ave (off Midler), Syracuse

SUtura
XL Projects

Price: Free
XL Projects
307-313 S. Clinton St., Syracuse

An exhibition of works by international graduate students in a variety of media, including ceramics, fibers, film, illustration, jewelry and metalsmithing, painting, sculpture and video. Students exhibiting work include Renqian Yang, Yue Wang, Kejun Zhao, Jaroslava Prihodova, Sichang Yang, Laura Sanz, Ozan Atalan, Yanyu Dong, Neven Lochhead, Weigang Song, Zaoli Zhong, Alessia Cecchet, Tian Guan, Seung Huk Lee, Jila Nikpay, June Kyu Q Park, Danwen Si, and Shi Sun.

For more information, contact Andrew Havenhand at ahavenhand@yahoo.com, or phone 315-442-2542 during gallery hours.

Phil Solomon: Still Raining, Still Dreaming
Urban Video Project

Price: Free
Everson Museum of Art Plaza
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

"Still Raining, Still Dreaming" is part of Solomon's acclaimed "In Memorium" series, a body of work shot entirely within the virtual world of the Grand Theft Auto video game, and is shown in conjunction with the Everson's exhibition of the Smithsonian traveling show The Art of Video Games.

"Still Raining, Still Dreaming," with its haunting soundtrack, will also be the debut of UVP's new outdoor sound system and new projector, a milestone for UVP that will significantly expand programming options and provide a truly spectacular experience.

The Adventures of Rudolph
CNY Arts
Featuring Dance Centre North

Crouse Hinds Concert Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

A holiday tradition in Central New York, The Adventures of Rudolph is a narrated ballet for the whole family, directed by Deborah Boughton and performed by students from Dance Centre North.

Christmas Movie Series: The Grinch
Landmark Theatre

Price: $5
Landmark Theatre
362 S. Salina St., Syracuse

Second Saturday Series: Larry Hoyt and the Good Acoustics
Westcott Community Center

Price: $10
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Larry and the gang offer a diversity of acoustic music&mash;well-known compositions by familiar songwriters, such as Stephen Foster, Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Bob Dylan, plus some Larry Hoyt and Judy Stanton originals. (Judy plays violin and provides backing vocals in the Good Acoustics; Jeff Stanton, stand-up acoustic bass; and Eileen Rose, vocals and mountain dulcimer.) Larry's shows are always family-friendly and full of easy sing-along songs everyone knows, such as "Leaving on a Jet Plane," "Blue Moon," "Dream," "Don't Be Cruel," "Jambalaya," "Hey Good Lookin,'" "Irene Goodnight," and many more. It's a fun way to spend a Saturday night.

Skaneateles Community Band Concert

Price: Free
First Presbyterian Church of Skaneateles
97 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

For more information, phone 315-685-3866.

Winter Solstice Concert: Earth, Fire, Air, and Water
Syracuse Community Choir
Karen Mihalyi and Danan Tsan, conductor

Price: Sliding scale $15-$25 (no one is turned away), children free
St. Paul's Syracuse
220 E. Fayette St., Syracuse

The concert features special guest Daygot Leeyos, a hip-hop artist from the Wolf Clan of the Oneida Nation.

95X Nightmare Before Xmas: All That Remains, with Soil, Era, Cry To The Blind
Westcott Theater

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

A Family Christmas Pie
Syracuse Vocal Ensemble
Robert Cowles, conductor

Price: $20 regular, $18 seniors, $5 students
Holy Cross Church
4112 E. Genesee St., Dewitt

Music for the young and young at heart, with a performance by the Dance Theater of Syracuse. Celebrate the holiday season with family and friends by joining us for luscious music, a sumptuous pie reception, and a family photo booth!

Future Rock
Westcott Theater

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

Grandfather Frost's Stories of Russia
Open Hand Theater

Price: $8
International Mask and Puppet Museum
518 Prospect Ave., Syracuse

More mesmerizing puppets by our own Open Hand artists send Baba Yaga and her mischievous cat out into the winter woods. Grandfather Frost and a lost girl play in this wonderful winter adventure into the world of Russian folk tales. One of Open Hand Theater's best loved touring performances, "Grandfather Frost's Stories of Russia" features international artist-in-residence Vladimir Vasyagin, with musician Leslie Archer. This duet of music and puppetry brings to life a whole storybook of characters, adventures and culture.

20th Annual Dickens' Christmas

Price: Free
Village of Skaneateles
Skaneateles

More than 70 actors in Victorian-era apparel entertain visitors with scenes from Dickens' A Christmas Carol, along with sing-alongs, horse-drawn carriage rides, and more.

For more information, phone 315-685-0552, visit the Facebook page, or follow them on Twitter.

Snow White
Magic Circle Children's Theatre

Price: $5
Spaghetti Warehouse
689 N. Clinton St., Syracuse

Interactive retelling of the classic tale.

*SOLD OUT* The Music Man
Redhouse

Price: $30 regular, $20 members
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

An affectionate salute to Smalltown, USA, of a bygone era, the musical The Music Man follows fast-talking traveling salesman Harold Hill as he cons the people of River City, Iowa into buying instruments and uniforms for a boys' band that he vows to organize. Book, music and lyrics by Meredith Wilson, story by Meredith Wilson and Franklin Lacey. Presented in conjunction with ARC, Hillside and Elmcrest Children's Center.

Read a Review!

Annie
Syracuse Children's Theatre

Price: $17.50 regular, $15 students/seniors, $10 children 12 and under
Carrier Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

A Christmas Carol
Syracuse Stage
Syracuse University Drama Department
Peter Amster, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Charles Dickens' beloved family classic returns to Central New York after a 7-year absence in an all-new adaptation and production from Peter Amster. "He was a tightfisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner." But somewhere deep inside Scrooge there remains the little boy still capable of feeling love and joy. This song-and-dance infused adaptation by Romulus Linney sticks closely to Dickens' classic tale to awaken the heart of that lost little boy.

Read a Review!

All I Want for Christmas Is...!
Covey Theatre Company

Price: $16
BeVard Room, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Covey presents its first family production, authored by the company co-founders, Garrett Heater and Susan Blumer, and published by Drama Source, Inc. Celebrate the holidays with Madeline, Christopher, and Abigail, three youngsters who learn that what you want for Christmas is not always what you need. Filled with colorful characters like Elfis the Elf (Jimmy Wachter), Prancer the Reindeer (Darian Sundberg), and of course Santa Claus (Edward Mastin), this memorable musical is the perfect stocking-stuffer for the Season of Giving.

Read a Review!

Annie
Syracuse Children's Theatre

Price: $17.50 regular, $15 students/seniors, $10 children 12 and under
Carrier Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

A Shout in Salty Water
Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company
Joseph Trevino, director

Price: Free
CFAC Black Box Theater
805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

A one-man play, written and performed by Ryan Johnson-Travis, derived from interviews with 17 Syracuse fathers. A journey of hope and compassion.

Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge
Central New York Playhouse
Greg J. Hipius, director

Price: $34.95 dinner and show, $20 show only
CNY Playhouse
Shoppingtown Mall, Entrance No. 4 (adjacent to parking garage), Dewitt

Tonight's performance will be preceded by dinner at 6:30 pm.

In this departure from Dickens, young Scrooge's exclamations of "Bah, humbug!" are an undiagnosed "kind of seasonal Tourette's Syndrome," and The Ghost of Christmas Past is played by a sassy African-American woman with enough attitude to portray all three spirits (which she does). She tries to show Scrooge his past, present and future in order to change him, but her magic keeps malfunctioning in Christopher Durang's satirical version of the beloved holiday classic, and they consistently find themselves transported to the wrong time and place. She tries to take Scrooge back to see his old employers, the Fezziwigs--"always an audience favorite"--but instead she and Scrooge keep appearing in the present at the Cratchit's pathetic home. Mrs. Bob Cratchit, a minor character in the Dickens, takes center stage here. No longer loving and long suffering, Mrs. Bob is in a rage: She's sick of Tiny Tim (the goody-goody crippled child), she hates her 20 other children (most of them confined to the root cellar), including oversized Little Nell, and she wants to get drunk and jump off London Bridge. As the Ghost loses more control, the plot morphs into parodies of Oliver Twist, The Gift of the Magi, and It's a Wonderful Life. And to make matters worse, Scrooge and Mrs. Bob seem to be kindred souls falling in love. With a dénouement that is two parts Touched by an Angel and one part The Queen of Mean, Scrooge's tale of redemption and gentle grace is placed squarely on its head.

Music direction by Dan Williams.

Read a review!

The Music Man
Redhouse

Price: $30 regular, $20 members
Former Redhouse Theater
219 S. West St., Syracuse

An affectionate salute to Smalltown, USA, of a bygone era, the musical The Music Man follows fast-talking traveling salesman Harold Hill as he cons the people of River City, Iowa into buying instruments and uniforms for a boys' band that he vows to organize. Book, music and lyrics by Meredith Wilson, story by Meredith Wilson and Franklin Lacey. Presented in conjunction with ARC, Hillside and Elmcrest Children's Center.

Read a Review!

A Christmas Carol
Syracuse Stage
Syracuse University Drama Department
Peter Amster, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Charles Dickens' beloved family classic returns to Central New York after a 7-year absence in an all-new adaptation and production from Peter Amster. "He was a tightfisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner." But somewhere deep inside Scrooge there remains the little boy still capable of feeling love and joy. This song-and-dance infused adaptation by Romulus Linney sticks closely to Dickens' classic tale to awaken the heart of that lost little boy.

Read a Review!

Sunday, December 15, 2013

In Da Window: Glasswork by Don Plouffe
Echo

745 N. Salina St. (formerly Craft Chemistry)
Syracuse

A Syracuse native, Don received his BFA from Syracuse University and his MAT from Oswego State. He has worked in artist studios from Venice, CA, to Florence, Italy, and in art classrooms all over CNY. Each experience has had an impact on what he creates from ceramic tiles, to stained glass windows and doors, to sculptures of creatures and beasts of all sorts. He strives to create work worth spending time with and enjoys the process almost as much as the finished piece.

28th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

It's that time of year again! The upstairs gallery of the museum has been transformed into a 1800s street scene with over 40 gingerbread creations made by professional and amateur bakers from across the region on display in storefront windows.

Willson Cummer: Dawn Light
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

Willson Cummer is a fine-art photographer, curator and teacher who lives in Fayetteville, NY. Images from his projects have been included in national juried exhibitions. His first solo New York City show opened in December 2011 at OK Harris. Willson's work explores humanity's place in the environment. In addition to his own work, he curates and publishes the blog New Landscape Photography. Willson has taught workshops at Light Work/Community Darkrooms, Syracuse University, and Cazenovia College.

Artist's Statement:

In late July of 2012, a five-month depression unexpectedly lifted. For the first time in a long while, I was able to wake up in the morning with energy, eager to explore the day. With my camera I quickly began shooting the early morning light as it fell upon Fayetteville, NY, my hometown. I walked from my front door most times, and occasionally drove a bit further into the village. I wanted to explore the territory closest at hand.

Light is a fundamental ingredient for photography. It has also, for centuries, been used as a metaphor for healing and recovery. As a recovering depressive, I wanted to explore the dawn light on a metaphorical level. As an artist, I wanted to record the gorgeous cross- light of the early morning and the rich yellow hue of the direct light.

I was attracted to humble structures: gas stations, parking lots, aging commercial buildings. The interplay of the natural world and the built environment is a subject which continues to excite me.

Jackie Nickerson: Terrain
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

Jackie Nickerson makes photographs that examine the essential nature of people and their relationship to the natural world, through personal identity and the physical and psychological condition of living and working. With "Terrain," Nickerson revisits eastern and southern Africa, focusing on how the exertions of labor leave psychic and material traces on people and the environment.

Inspired Tidings: Annual Holiday Show
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Holiday Show
Gandee Gallery

Gandee Gallery
7846 Main St., Fabius

There will be an afternoon of music with Harmonia and Leo Crandall today 2:00-5:00 pm.

The Holiday Show features jewelry, ceramics, photography, painting, and fiber art created by regionally and nationally recognized artists. Participating artists include Karin Bremer, Willson Cummer, Jen Gandee, Henry Gernhardt, Michael Hughes, Marie LoParco, Hannah Meredith, Laurel Moranz, Jessica Pilowa, Lily Tsay, Lucie Wellner, and Errol Willett.

The Holiday Group Show emphasizes the important role that handmade objects and fine art plays in domestic life, enriching living spaces and adorning the body. The Gandee Gallery encourages art lovers to celebrate the holidays by giving gifts that embody the creative spirit. Many fine art and craft artists currently have work on display at the gallery shop. New holiday cards, ornaments, and many gift items fill the space.

Neighboring Visions
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

A group show featuring works by three Tully artists: jewelry by gallery director Sarah Panzarella, pottery by Jeremy Randall, and paintings by Grant Dolge.

Snowy Splendor
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

This exhibit will feature oil and watercolor paintings, photographs, drawings and prints of contemporary or vintage winter scenes of Onondaga County.

Culture of the Cocktail Hour
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The story of cocktail fashions has several associations with local history. This exhibit will discover some of those people, places and events, including Syracuse's most famous cocktail lounges of days gone by. Cocktails also conjure up the exciting era of the Roaring Twenties, when speakeasies flourished during the decade of Prohibition. Displays will include the story of one of the most famous local speakeasies, located just a few hundred feet from the OH Museum, including a menu of its libations, and the tale of the police raid that shut it down. Also on exhibit, along with other documents and artifacts of the era will be an original federal court ledger listing arrests and convictions across the state for Prohibition violations and a local brewery's recipes for "near beer" and flavored sodas, which helped keep them in business through the infamous "dry" years when America famously tried unsuccessfully to eliminate intoxicating beverages from its culture.

Fashion After Five
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The exhibit, Fashion After Five, curated by Syracuse University's Jeffrey Mayer, associate professor of fashion design and history and curator of the Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection, will explore the history of the cocktail dress with several spectacular garments from the collections of OHA and the Sue Ann Genet Collection. Also represented in the exhibit will be the work of students from the S.U. Department of Fashion Design who will present their own creations, inspired by the vintage dresses selected for the exhibition—a perfect way to combine the past and the present for this exciting new exhibit.

Paul Strand: The Mexican Portfolio
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

This exhibition presents Paul Strand's famous Mexican Portfolio, which includes photogravure impressions of people, landscapes, architecture, and religious objects that he encountered in Mexico during his travels there in 1932.

Print Making Revolution: Mexican Prints and the Taller de Grafica Popular
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

An exhibition of over 130 original prints drawn from the SU Art Collection, as well as lenders including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Library of Congress, and the Blanton Museum of Art. The exhibition features important Mexican artists and post-Mexican Revolution artwork, with emphasis on the prints produced at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (The People's Graphic Workshop), or TGP. This influential workshop advanced a variety of revolutionary ideals and causes, including the formation of organized labor, the fight for civil rights, and an active campaign against fascism.

Print Making Revolution is organized into four subjects. The first acts as precursor to the TGP, highlighting the work of artists that helped to define the Mexican print landscape early in the 20th century. These figures include José Gaudalupe Posada, Jean Charlot, and the "Big Three": Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Siqueiros.

The exhibition then transitions into the artists of the TGP, with emphasis on the Taller's director Leopoldo Méndez, but also includes Ángel Bracho, Isidoro Ocampo, and Alfredo Zalce, among others.

The third part of the exhibition focuses on the linocut portfolio Estampas de la Revolución Mexicana, a vividly illustrated narration of the Mexican Revolution, published by the workshop in 1947. Shown in its entirety, the portfolio contains 84 original prints by 16 artists.

Finally, the exhibition highlights the gringos—Americans working at the TGP during the early and influential days of the prolific workshop, Angel Bracho, Victoria! Los Artistas de Taller de Grafica Popular, 1945 University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque including John Woodrow Wilson, Mariana Yampolsky and Elizabeth Catlett. The impact of the TGP reached well beyond the conventional boundaries of art making, affecting political and social movements in Mexico and the United States.

International Art from the Permanent Collection
Syracuse University Art Museum

Price: Free
Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Highlighting the breadth of the collections' encyclopedic holdings and exploring international artists and themes, these new displays explore the genres of photography, prints, paintings and sculpture. Two of the exhibitions on display in the Print and Photo Study Galleries will highlight the University's vast holdings of historical Japanese photographs and prints. The third exhibition will examine artwork created by international artists who have immigrated to the United States.

America's Calling, presented in the Gallery of American Art, is an exhibition of 16 works of art by 15 foreign-born artists, including Ben Shahn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Josef Albers. The artists included in the exhibition, or their families, were drawn to the United States because it offered opportunities unavailable in their homelands. A variety of media is presented in the display, including painting, ceramics, sculpture and printmaking that are handled using often innovative techniques. Cumulatively, these artists had a profound and permanent effect on the evolution of American art.

The Photo Study Room will present Visions for Sale: Photographs of Nineteenth Century Japan, an exhibition of 22 hand-colored albumen prints from the 19th century exploring the country's people, land and environment that was quickly changing due to modernization. European photographers such as Felice Beato and Baron Raimond Stillfield traveled to Japan to document the nation's exotic landscape and historically idiosyncratic jobs before they were swept away by the tide of modernism.

Ukiyo-e to Shin Hanga: Japanese Woodcuts from the Syracuse University Art Collection will be installed in the Print Study Room and draws from the University's collection of over 300 examples from this important and hugely influential art movement. The prints on view date from the height of color Ukiyo-e printmaking (c1780-1868) through Japan's Meiji period (1868-1912) to 20th century impressions of the Shin Hanga movement (1915-1940s). Masters of this medium are represented, including the work of Utamaro, Kuniyoshi, Hokusai, Hiroshida, Tsuchiya Koitsu and Yoshida Hiroshi. The prints exemplify the soft, painterly style that is synonymous with the Japanese woodcut, and illustrates the wide range of subjects from courtesans to Kabuki theater and the Japanese landscape.

Spoken Threads: Craftivist Fiber Art
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

Spoken Threads is a collection of fiber art that takes its inspiration from the traditional women-made crafts such as quilting, knitting, weaving, sewing, and cross-stitch. It features women artists from across the USA, including Central New York, as well as those from Canada and the UK who use their art to speak wisdom on a variety of social and environmental issues. During the time of year that many consumers reach for something mass-produced off an end-cap display, this exhibition is a celebration of the handmade.

Read a review!

Jordan Eagles: Red Giant
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 suggested donation
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Using blood collected from a slaughterhouse as his primary medium, the artist explores ideas about transformation, death, and rebirth. Jordan Eagles encases the blood in Plexiglas and UV resin panels; mounted on the gallery walls they create a sublime environment that envelops and engages the viewer. The exhibition title, "Red Giant," refers to a luminous giant star in its final phase of stellar evolution—what our Sun will become in five billion years—while also referencing the intense, potent color of blood. The abstract patterns and forms in the works may suggest internal organs as well as cosmological phenomena like solar storms, sunspots, craters, meteorites, and supernova explosions.

Eagles' works are in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Princeton University Art Museum, the Addison Gallery of American Art; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Peabody Essex Museum; and the Everson Museum of Art. Recent solo shows include Causey Contemporary and Krause Gallery, New York; International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; and Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, San Francisco.He has been featured in numerous publications, including Time Magazine, The New York Times, L'Uomo Vogue, Architectural Digest and Wired.

Read a review!

Festival of Trees
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $5 regular, children under 10 free (combo ticket including The Art of Video Games $10, children under 10 free)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

This 28th annual Syracuse area tradition features artfully decorated trees, wreaths and unique displays that create a beautiful winter wonderland. All the decorations and display items are for sale, all proceeds benefit the Everson Museum of Art. Enjoy live entertainment from local school and musical groups, and stop into the Musuem Shop to find the perfect gift.

The Art of Video Games
Everson Museum of Art

Price: $10 regular, $8 students/seniors/military, $5 Everson members, $30 family (up to 2 adults & 4 children)
Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Part of a ten-city national tour, "The Art of Video Games" is one of the first major exhibitions to explore the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking graphics, creative storytelling, and player interactivity. The exhibition features some of the most influential artists and designers across five eras of game development, from early pioneers to contemporary designers. Video games use player participation to tell stories and engage audiences. In the same way as film, animation and performance, video games are a compelling and influential form of narrative art.

"The Art of Video Games" focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for 20 gaming systems ranging from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. The exhibition features 80 video games that demonstrate the evolution of the medium. The games are presented through still images and video footage. In addition, the galleries include video interviews with developers and artists, historic game consoles and large prints of in-game screen shots.

New technologies allow designers to create increasingly interactive and sophisticated game environments while staying grounded in traditional game types. Five featured games, one from each era, are available in the exhibition galleries for visitors to play for a few minutes, to gain some feel for the interactivity. The playable gamesPac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flowershow how players interact with the virtual worlds, highlighting innovative new techniques that set the standard for many subsequent games.

Visitors to the exhibition are greeted by excerpts from selected games projected 12 feet high, accompanied by a chipmusic soundtrack by 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer, including "The Art of Video Games Anthem" recorded by 8 Bit Weapon specifically for the exhibition. These multimedia elements convey the excitement and complexity of the featured video games. An interior gallery includes a series of short videos showing the range of emotional responses players have while interacting with games. Excerpts from interviews with 20 influential figures in the gaming world also are presented in the galleries.

Read a review!

New Paintings by Jennissa Hart
Gallery 4040

Gallery 4040
4040 New Court Ave (off Midler), Syracuse

SUtura
XL Projects

Price: Free
XL Projects
307-313 S. Clinton St., Syracuse

An exhibition of works by international graduate students in a variety of media, including ceramics, fibers, film, illustration, jewelry and metalsmithing, painting, sculpture and video. Students exhibiting work include Renqian Yang, Yue Wang, Kejun Zhao, Jaroslava Prihodova, Sichang Yang, Laura Sanz, Ozan Atalan, Yanyu Dong, Neven Lochhead, Weigang Song, Zaoli Zhong, Alessia Cecchet, Tian Guan, Seung Huk Lee, Jila Nikpay, June Kyu Q Park, Danwen Si, and Shi Sun.

For more information, contact Andrew Havenhand at ahavenhand@yahoo.com, or phone 315-442-2542 during gallery hours.

Christmas Movie Series: The Grinch
Landmark Theatre

Price: $5
Landmark Theatre
362 S. Salina St., Syracuse

Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco
Arc of Onondaga

Price: $20
Hendricks Chapel
Syracuse University, Syracuse

Richard Blanco, the fifth inaugural poet in history, is the first Latino immigrant poet chosen to read at an inauguration and also the youngest. Just a couple of months before his birth, Richard's mother exiled from Cuba to Spain. Shortly after his birth, Richard and his family arrived in the United States. Richard received a degree in Civil Engineering and a Masters Degree in Fine Arts in Creative Writing.

Proceeds will benefit the Building Futures Foundation and the Arc of Onondaga Foundation. Both foundations help to support programs and services for people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities in Madison, Cortland, and Onondaga counties.

General admission tickets may be purchased at arcfoundation.brownpapertickets.com. Patron tickets to attend a Meet and Greet reception at noon prior to the performance as well as priority seating at the reading are $75.

For more information and to purchase patron tickets contact Arc of Onondaga Foundation at 315-476-7441 x1103 or Building Futures Foundation at 315-363-3389 x1005.

Skaneateles High School Holiday Choral Concert

Skaneateles High School
49 E. Elizabeth St., Skaneateles

For more information, phone 315-685-8361.

A Christmas Concert
Syracuse Wurlitzer
Featuring Tim Schramm

Price: $15 adults, $2 children
Empire Theater
New York State Fairgrounds, Geddes

A Berwald Christmas
Berwald Singers
Ian Kirkpatrick, conductor

Price: $5 regular, children 10 and under free
Trinity Lutheran Church
140 Swansea Dr., Syracuse

Christmas choral concert will include a sing-a-long and desserts.

Christmas Pops Concert
Onondaga Civic Symphony Orchestra
Spirit of Syracuse Chorus
Erik Kibelsbeck, conductor

Price: Free
Drivers Village (formerly Penn Can Mall)
5885 E. Circle Dr., Cicero

Brass and Bells
Syracuse University Brass Ensemble
James T. Spencer, conductor

Price: Free
United Church of Fayetteville
310 E. Genesee St., Fayetteville

A Family Christmas Pie
Syracuse Vocal Ensemble
Robert Cowles, conductor

Price: $20 regular, $18 seniors, $5 students
Liverpool First United Methodist Church
604 Oswego St., Liverpool

Music for the young and young at heart, with a performance by the Dance Theater of Syracuse. Celebrate the holiday season with family and friends by joining us for luscious music, a sumptuous pie reception, and a family photo booth!

Magnificent Magnificats
Syracuse Chorale
Warren Ottey, conductor

St. Paul's Syracuse
220 E. Fayette St., Syracuse

The Syracuse Chorale, rounding off its celebration of its 60th year of choral performing, will be performing Magnificats written by five different composers. The first half of the program will be comprised of Magnificats by Giovanni Pergolesi, Antonio Vivaldi, Herbert Howells, and Mark Hayes. The second half of the program will start off with seasonal music and audience-participation carols, then wrap up with Felix Mendelssohn's Magnificat.

Christmas at the Palace
Featuring DeSantis Orchestra and Special Guests

Price: $25
Palace Theater
2384 James St., Syracuse

Special guests include Nick Blaney, baritone; Keith Condon; Maria DeSantis; Ronnie Leigh; Joe Whiting; The Classic Duo; Gail Lyons, harp; and Selma Moore, flute. Reception to follow.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit Father Champlin's Guardian Angel Society.

Tickets available at www.desantisorchestra.com or 315-488-7611.

Sub Rosa Sessions: Donna Colton and Claudine Langille

SubCat Studios
219 S. West St., Syracuse

Sub Rosa Sessions host Amanda Rogers hand-picks artists to showcase original, eclectic, "under-the-radar", and world-class performers who deserve attention and appreciation for their craft. There is limited seating (30 capacity) so you will be part of a unique listening experience while the concert is recorded, and then you'll get a copy of the recording immediately following the show, with a Meet & Greet, and complimentary refreshments!

Reserve tickets by following the ticket link on the Facebook page page, or email amanda@subcat.net.

20th Annual Dickens' Christmas

Price: Free
Village of Skaneateles
Skaneateles

More than 70 actors in Victorian-era apparel entertain visitors with scenes from Dickens' A Christmas Carol, along with sing-alongs, horse-drawn carriage rides, and more.

For more information, phone 315-685-0552, visit the Facebook page, or follow them on Twitter.

Annual New Holiday Play Reading
Armory Square Playwrights

Price: Donation to Friends of Dorothy
Jazz Central
441 E. Washington St., Syracuse

It's a holiday stocking full of treats to support Friends of Dorothy.

The Plays:
E-Christmas by Ed Mastin
Din-Din by Peter Moller
Tom's Mom & Mol's Mom Take Down Their Trees by Kathy Kramer
Santa's Revenge by Richard Harris
Christmas Spirit by Janice Scully
Black Friday by Rachel May
Last Christmas by Joel Potash
Road Trip to See the Baby: Bethlehem, Pa. by Donna Stuccio

There will be cookies and spicy cider.

Ticket sales go to support this Syracuse treasure. Friends of Dorothy is an initiative to support people with AIDS. Since October of 1992, FOD has offered home-based care to people with AIDS in a variety of ways, including recuperative or hospice care, supportive housing, and emergency assistance. The primary focus has been on hospice care. FOD has an informal relationship with Hospice of CNY. Their guests become their clients, with Hospice providing medical care and nurse visits. FOD are primary care givers, much like extended family members.

Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge
Central New York Playhouse
Greg J. Hipius, director

Price: $15
CNY Playhouse
Shoppingtown Mall, Entrance No. 4 (adjacent to parking garage), Dewitt

In this departure from Dickens, young Scrooge's exclamations of "Bah, humbug!" are an undiagnosed "kind of seasonal Tourette's Syndrome," and The Ghost of Christmas Past is played by a sassy African-American woman with enough attitude to portray all three spirits (which she does). She tries to show Scrooge his past, present and future in order to change him, but her magic keeps malfunctioning in Christopher Durang's satirical version of the beloved holiday classic, and they consistently find themselves transported to the wrong time and place. She tries to take Scrooge back to see his old employers, the Fezziwigs--"always an audience favorite"--but instead she and Scrooge keep appearing in the present at the Cratchit's pathetic home. Mrs. Bob Cratchit, a minor character in the Dickens, takes center stage here. No longer loving and long suffering, Mrs. Bob is in a rage: She's sick of Tiny Tim (the goody-goody crippled child), she hates her 20 other children (most of them confined to the root cellar), including oversized Little Nell, and she wants to get drunk and jump off London Bridge. As the Ghost loses more control, the plot morphs into parodies of Oliver Twist, The Gift of the Magi, and It's a Wonderful Life. And to make matters worse, Scrooge and Mrs. Bob seem to be kindred souls falling in love. With a dénouement that is two parts Touched by an Angel and one part The Queen of Mean, Scrooge's tale of redemption and gentle grace is placed squarely on its head.

Music direction by Dan Williams.

Read a review!

All I Want for Christmas Is...!
Covey Theatre Company

Price: $16
BeVard Room, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Covey presents its first family production, authored by the company co-founders, Garrett Heater and Susan Blumer, and published by Drama Source, Inc. Celebrate the holidays with Madeline, Christopher, and Abigail, three youngsters who learn that what you want for Christmas is not always what you need. Filled with colorful characters like Elfis the Elf (Jimmy Wachter), Prancer the Reindeer (Darian Sundberg), and of course Santa Claus (Edward Mastin), this memorable musical is the perfect stocking-stuffer for the Season of Giving.

Read a Review!

Annie
Syracuse Children's Theatre

Price: $17.50 regular, $15 students/seniors, $10 children 12 and under
Carrier Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

A Christmas Carol
Syracuse Stage
Syracuse University Drama Department
Peter Amster, director

Archbold Theater, Syracuse Stage
820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse

Charles Dickens' beloved family classic returns to Central New York after a 7-year absence in an all-new adaptation and production from Peter Amster. "He was a tightfisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner." But somewhere deep inside Scrooge there remains the little boy still capable of feeling love and joy. This song-and-dance infused adaptation by Romulus Linney sticks closely to Dickens' classic tale to awaken the heart of that lost little boy.

Read a Review!

Monday, December 16, 2013

In Da Window: Glasswork by Don Plouffe
Echo

745 N. Salina St. (formerly Craft Chemistry)
Syracuse

A Syracuse native, Don received his BFA from Syracuse University and his MAT from Oswego State. He has worked in artist studios from Venice, CA, to Florence, Italy, and in art classrooms all over CNY. Each experience has had an impact on what he creates from ceramic tiles, to stained glass windows and doors, to sculptures of creatures and beasts of all sorts. He strives to create work worth spending time with and enjoys the process almost as much as the finished piece.

Watercolors by Bill Elkins
Onondaga County Central Library

Price: Free
Onondaga County Central Library
The Galleries of Syracuse, 447 S. Salina St., Syracuse

Bill Elkins has been a practicing architect in Syracuse for over 30 years. After a visit to Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine in 1995, he was inspired to try his hand at watercolors. He has been painting and studying the medium ever since.

Drawing on Talent: 5th Annual Members Group Art Exhibit
Baltimore Woods Weeks Art Gallery

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

Group art exhibit featuring work in all media by members of the Baltimore Woods member community.

John James Audubon and the American Landscape
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

Price: Free
Bird Library, 6th Floor
Syracuse University, Syracuse

John James Audubon and the American Landscape showcases Syracuse University's copy of the rare double elephant folio The Birds of America. Printed in London and Edinburgh between 1827 and 1838, the work is a stunning visual catalog, featuring 435 plates depicting American bird life. The enterprise consumed much of Audubon's adult life and took him from the Pennsylvania woods to the Florida Keys and the Labrador coast. To its 19th-century audience, The Birds of America was much more than an ornithological inventory. It brought the exotic American wilderness into the drawing rooms and parlors of its wealthy subscribers. In 1896, former mayor of Syracuse and Syracuse University trustee James J. Welden donated a copy to the University. Today, The Birds of America is known for its extraordinary value, fetching more than ten million dollars at auction.

The exhibition situates The Birds of America in the wider contexts of Audubon's life, 19th-century scientific knowledge, and a rapidly changing landscape that was becoming less exotic each day. Also on display are Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology (1808–14), Audubon's textual companion to The Birds of America (Ornithological Biography, 1831–49), and later volumes that speak to Audubon's legacy, such as first editions of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (1949). Syracuse University's copy of The Birds of America is disbound, which makes it possible for visitors to the exhibition to consider several different prints at once. Some of the engravings on display include the barn owl, Swainson's hawk, and the long-billed curlew, all of which depict American avian life against the backdrop of encroaching civilization.

Metamorphosis Personified: Works by Greg Trombly
Westcott Community Art Gallery

Price: Free
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Behold a metamorphic journey away from the representational through work aimed to capture the essence of the human form and energy through light and dark values.

Tango
Point of Contact Gallery

Price: Free
Point of Contact Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

This inaugural exhibit in Point of Contact's new gallery at The Warehouse will showcase the 20-piece grand folio art book Tango (Iris Editions 1991), a collaborative work by Argentine writer Pedro Cuperman and New York artist Nancy Graves. A significant work in Point of Contact's collection, Tango includes eight intaglio prints by Graves and thirteen pages of text by Cuperman.

28th Annual Gingerbread Gallery
Erie Canal Museum

Price: $5 regular, $4 seniors, $2 children
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse

It's that time of year again! The upstairs gallery of the museum has been transformed into a 1800s street scene with over 40 gingerbread creations made by professional and amateur bakers from across the region on display in storefront windows.

Inspired Tidings: Annual Holiday Show
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

Neighboring Visions
Imagine

Imagine
38 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

A group show featuring works by three Tully artists: jewelry by gallery director Sarah Panzarella, pottery by Jeremy Randall, and paintings by Grant Dolge.

Willson Cummer: Dawn Light
Light Work Gallery

Price: Free
Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

Willson Cummer is a fine-art photographer, curator and teacher who lives in Fayetteville, NY. Images from his projects have been included in national juried exhibitions. His first solo New York City show opened in December 2011 at OK Harris. Willson's work explores humanity's place in the environment. In addition to his own work, he curates and publishes the blog New Landscape Photography. Willson has taught workshops at Light Work/Community Darkrooms, Syracuse University, and Cazenovia College.

Artist's Statement:

In late July of 2012, a five-month depression unexpectedly lifted. For the first time in a long while, I was able to wake up in the morning with energy, eager to explore the day. With my camera I quickly began shooting the early morning light as it fell upon Fayetteville, NY, my hometown. I walked from my front door most times, and occasionally drove a bit further into the village. I wanted to explore the territory closest at hand.

Light is a fundamental ingredient for photography. It has also, for centuries, been used as a metaphor for healing and recovery. As a recovering depressive, I wanted to explore the dawn light on a metaphorical level. As an artist, I wanted to record the gorgeous cross- light of the early morning and the rich yellow hue of the direct light.

I was attracted to humble structures: gas stations, parking lots, aging commercial buildings. The interplay of the natural world and the built environment is a subject which continues to excite me.

Jackie Nickerson: Terrain
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

Jackie Nickerson makes photographs that examine the essential nature of people and their relationship to the natural world, through personal identity and the physical and psychological condition of living and working. With "Terrain," Nickerson revisits eastern and southern Africa, focusing on how the exertions of labor leave psychic and material traces on people and the environment.

Paintings by Marilyn Masters
Maxwell Memorial Library

Price: Free
Maxwell Memorial Library
14 Genesee St., Camillus

If a medium can be used for artistic expression, it's a safe bet that Marilyn Masters has worked with it. The impressionist artist, originally from Huntington, NY, is a graduate of both the Pratt Institute and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She has studied acrylics, pastel, watercolors, pencil drawing, even block printing, furniture art, and textile design. An R.N. with a degree from Upstate Medical Center, Masters has combined her artistic and health careers by creating detailed medical drawings.

Art Mart
Syracuse Allied Arts

City Hall Commons Atrium
201 East Washington St., Syracuse

Fine art and crafts handmade by local guild and independent artists. Find unique pottery, stained glass, paintings, jewelry, hand-crafted soaps and candles, and much more.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

In Da Window: Glasswork by Don Plouffe
Echo

745 N. Salina St. (formerly Craft Chemistry)
Syracuse

A Syracuse native, Don received his BFA from Syracuse University and his MAT from Oswego State. He has worked in artist studios from Venice, CA, to Florence, Italy, and in art classrooms all over CNY. Each experience has had an impact on what he creates from ceramic tiles, to stained glass windows and doors, to sculptures of creatures and beasts of all sorts. He strives to create work worth spending time with and enjoys the process almost as much as the finished piece.

Watercolors by Bill Elkins
Onondaga County Central Library

Price: Free
Onondaga County Central Library
The Galleries of Syracuse, 447 S. Salina St., Syracuse

Bill Elkins has been a practicing architect in Syracuse for over 30 years. After a visit to Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine in 1995, he was inspired to try his hand at watercolors. He has been painting and studying the medium ever since.

Drawing on Talent: 5th Annual Members Group Art Exhibit
Baltimore Woods Weeks Art Gallery

Price: Free
Baltimore Woods Nature Center
4007 Bishop Hill Rd., Marcellus

Group art exhibit featuring work in all media by members of the Baltimore Woods member community.

Holiday Gift Gallery Show
Clayscapes Pottery Gallery

Price: Free
Clayscapes Pottery Studio
1003 W. Fayette St., Suite L1, Syracuse

John James Audubon and the American Landscape
Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center

Price: Free
Bird Library, 6th Floor
Syracuse University, Syracuse

John James Audubon and the American Landscape showcases Syracuse University's copy of the rare double elephant folio The Birds of America. Printed in London and Edinburgh between 1827 and 1838, the work is a stunning visual catalog, featuring 435 plates depicting American bird life. The enterprise consumed much of Audubon's adult life and took him from the Pennsylvania woods to the Florida Keys and the Labrador coast. To its 19th-century audience, The Birds of America was much more than an ornithological inventory. It brought the exotic American wilderness into the drawing rooms and parlors of its wealthy subscribers. In 1896, former mayor of Syracuse and Syracuse University trustee James J. Welden donated a copy to the University. Today, The Birds of America is known for its extraordinary value, fetching more than ten million dollars at auction.

The exhibition situates The Birds of America in the wider contexts of Audubon's life, 19th-century scientific knowledge, and a rapidly changing landscape that was becoming less exotic each day. Also on display are Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology (1808–14), Audubon's textual companion to The Birds of America (Ornithological Biography, 1831–49), and later volumes that speak to Audubon's legacy, such as first editions of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (1949). Syracuse University's copy of The Birds of America is disbound, which makes it possible for visitors to the exhibition to consider several different prints at once. Some of the engravings on display include the barn owl, Swainson's hawk, and the long-billed curlew, all of which depict American avian life against the backdrop of encroaching civilization.

Metamorphosis Personified: Works by Greg Trombly
Westcott Community Art Gallery

Price: Free
Westcott Community Center
Corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St., Syracuse

Behold a metamorphic journey away from the representational through work aimed to capture the essence of the human form and energy through light and dark values.

Water Below, Sky Above
Edgewood Gallery

Edgewood Gallery
216 Tecumseh Rd., Syracuse

Diane Menzies: landscape oil paintings
Deeann vonHunke and Robert vonHunke: collaborative pieces with Robert's painting and Dee's metalwork
Wes Weiss: ceramic sculptural forms
Deeann vonHunke: jewelry
Karen Burns: oil on canvas landscape paintings

Tango
Point of Contact Gallery

Price: Free
Point of Contact Gallery
350 W. Fayette St., Syracuse

This inaugural exhibit in Point of Contact's new gallery at The Warehouse will showcase the 20-piece grand folio art book Tango (Iris Editions 1991), a collaborative work by Argentine writer Pedro Cuperman and New York artist Nancy Graves. A significant work in Point of Contact's collection, Tango includes eight intaglio prints by Graves and thirteen pages of text by Cuperman.