Thursday, December 26, 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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 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!

Friday, December 27, 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

Carrier Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The one-man fusion of theatre and stand-up starring Peter Story and based on the New York Times best-selling book of the last decade by John Gray.

Moving swiftly through a series of vignettes, the show covers everything from dating and marriage to the bedroom. This hysterical show will have couples elbowing each other all evening as they see themselves on stage. Sexy and fast paced, this show is definitely for adults, but will leave audiences laughing and giggling like little kids!

Bank Show
Syracuse Improv Collective

Price: $5
CNY Playhouse
Shoppingtown Mall, Entrance No. 4 (adjacent to parking garage), Dewitt

The Syracuse Improv Collective brings their monthly "Bank Show" to the CNY Playhouse. The Collective specializes in bringing a show like no other combining long form improv with musical acts and stand up comedy. You never know what the SIC has in store.

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!

Once Upon a Cancer
Central New York Playhouse

Price: $25 regular, $50 patron, $15 student
CNY Playhouse
Shoppingtown Mall, Entrance No. 4 (adjacent to parking garage), Dewitt

A special fundraising event as CNY native and cancer survivor Jesse Pardee puts on a one-woman show. All proceeds from this heartwarming original show will go to Make-A-Wish of Central New York. Jesse is a former Make-A-Wish recipient who benefited from this organization.

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!

Saturday, December 28, 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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

Carrier Theater, Mulroy Civic Center
411 Montgomery St., Syracuse

The one-man fusion of theatre and stand-up starring Peter Story and based on the New York Times best-selling book of the last decade by John Gray.

Moving swiftly through a series of vignettes, the show covers everything from dating and marriage to the bedroom. This hysterical show will have couples elbowing each other all evening as they see themselves on stage. Sexy and fast paced, this show is definitely for adults, but will leave audiences laughing and giggling like little kids!

Enter The Haggis
Westcott Theater

Westcott Theater
524 Westcott St., Syracuse

Snow White
Magic Circle Children's Theatre

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

Interactive retelling of the classic tale.

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!

Once Upon a Cancer
Central New York Playhouse

Price: $25 regular, $50 patron, $15 student
CNY Playhouse
Shoppingtown Mall, Entrance No. 4 (adjacent to parking garage), Dewitt

A special fundraising event as CNY native and cancer survivor Jesse Pardee puts on a one-woman show. All proceeds from this heartwarming original show will go to Make-A-Wish of Central New York. Jesse is a former Make-A-Wish recipient who benefited from this organization.

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 29, 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.

Inspired Tidings: Annual Holiday Show
Gallery 54

Gallery 54
54 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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 30, 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.

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.

Tuesday, December 31, 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.

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.

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.

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!

Jimkata, with The Manhattan Project
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.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

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.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

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.

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.

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.

Petals in Winter: Photography by A.E. Andre
Maxwell Memorial Library

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

The exhibit features black-and-white, color, and colorized photographs of Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua and other nature scenes. "Sonnenberg Gardens is one of the most wonderful places in New York State," says Andre, "and it has definitely inspired my own gardens as well. I want to show these pictures during our cold, snowy season to remind people of the beauty there is in the spring."

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.

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!

Enduring Gift: Chinese Ceramics from the Cloud Wampler Collection
Everson Museum of Art

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

For nine years, beginning in 1960, Cloud Wampler donated some 170 Asian works to the Everson Museum. The collection is dominated by a particularly strong core of Chinese ceramics. Spanning nearly 2,000 years, from the Han Dynasty in 200 BCE to the Ching Dynasty that ended in 1912, this selection offers a survey of forms, styles and glazes that are considered still today to be the pinnacle of aesthetic and technical achievements.

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!

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.

Unmanned: America's Drone Wars
ArtRage Gallery

Price: Free
ArtRage Gallery
505 Hawley Ave., Syracuse

Rusted Root
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.