OneWorld Classrooms welcomes teachers and parents to register their classes or schools to participate in the K-12 International Art Exchange. Participating students share their culture as they learn about cultures around the world —“ by sharing their artwork. Each participating class/school submits 30 pieces of student artwork which, in turn, are sent to a variety of schools around the world. Each participating class/school also receives a package of 30 pieces of student artwork created by students from a variety of schools around the world.
The NYS Alliance for Arts Education (NYSAAE) is pleased offer “Arts For All: Differentiated Instruction and the Arts,” a workshop for teaching artists and educators with speaker Russel Granet. This workshop will focus on the practices and theories of arts education as it applies to working with elementary/secondary students with special needs.
This workshop is provided as required professional development for those participating in the Side by Side – NY Program BUT is also open to all those interested in attending.
Presented at three different locations, this workshop is appropriate for sequential arts and general classroom teachers interested in learning new ways of enhancing their instruction through arts integration.
TIMES:
Monday, January 5, 2009 10am – 4pm: East Greenbush Public Library, East Greenbush N.Y.
Thursday, January 8, 2009 10am – 4pm: ARC of Monroe County, Rochester N.Y.
Thursday, January 16, 2009 10am – 4pm: The Center for Arts Education, NYC
For more information, please contact Sharon Scarlata or call (518) 486-7328.
From the Stratford Bard: A Christmas Craft Fair will be held at St. Joseph’s of Stratford National Catholic Church, 1300 Stratford Road, Stratford, Connecticut from 10am to 3pm on Saturday, Dec. 6th.
Area crafters and home show vendors will be displaying and selling their crafts. There will also be a bake sale, continental breakfast, and meatball grinders and hot dogs for lunch. There is free admission and free parking. Every adult that attends the fair will receive a free entry into the door prize for a grocery gift card.
St. Joseph’s is located at 1300 Stratford Road in the Lordship section of Stratford, Connecticut at the south end of Main Street beside Sikorsky Memorial Airport. For more information please call the parish office at (203) 377-9901 or Patti at (203) 378-0073.
The New York State Alliance for Arts Education, in partnership with Partners for Arts, Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County Education, Southern Tier Arts in Education Roundtable (STARR), and TST BOCES will present a day-long conference in Corning, NY: Bridging the Achievement Gap Using Art with Technology — A day-long conference for teaching artists and educators on Tuesday November 18, 2008 , 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Radisson-Corning, NY.
Addressing the achievement gap continues to be a high priority in our schools. Knowing that students are entering the classroom from varying demographic backgrounds, teachers and other school personnel are adjusting their instruction and the tools they use to try and meet the learning needs of their students. Technology is increasingly becoming part of the creative process both in and out of the classroom.
During this conference you will have the opportunity to choose from a variety of workshops discussing Media art and education. Facilitators include area professional artists, art educators and educators who have had extensive experience working in the Arts In Education field, and will provide a conceptual framework for integrating the arts using technology across the curriculum for all learners!
Discover how using media art in your classroom can be an effective and dynamic tool for teaching and learning in the classroom!
Should you wish to attend a PDF registration form is available for download.
Invite Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest into Your High School’s ELA Classrooms!
Register your school to participate in Poetry Out Loud!
Poetry Out Loud is a national program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition to high schools across the country. Poetry Out Loud uses a pyramid structure. Beginning at the classroom level, winners will advance to the school-wide competition, then to the state capital competition, and ultimately to the National Finals in Washington, DC. More than 100,000 students are expected to take part in Poetry Out Loud this year!
Upon registration, teachers will receive dynamic teaching tools that will invoke students’ excitement about literature and poetry recitation, including sample lesson plans, audio CDs of poets reciting their own famous works, publicity materials for school competitions, and a DVD of winning student performances from the 2007 Poetry Out Loud National Finals.
If you would like to bring Poetry Out Loud to you school, download a registration form.
Registrations must be received by October 31st!
For more information about registration, contact Sharon Scarlata.
From the Film Society of Lincoln Center: Truth or Dare: The Films of Andrzej Wajda October 17 —“ November 13, 2008
—The good Lord gave the director two eyes —” one to look into the camera, the other to be alert to everything that is going on around him.— —” Andrzej Wajda
We’re honored to be able to present what will be far and away the most complete retrospective of Wajda’s work ever mounted in the United States, and we hope to welcome the Academy-honored director to the Walter Reade Theater for the opening weekend of this historic overview.
Wajda was only 13 years old when World War II broke out. His father, a former officer in the Polish Army, was called up to lead a cavalry regiment. A few months later, he was rounded up along with thousands of other Polish soldiers and citizens and murdered by the Soviet Army in the Katyn forest—”an event denied by the Soviets and, even more cruelly, by the Polish Communist government for decades.
Growing up with the knowledge that his father had been murdered yet forbidden from speaking openly about the circumstances had a profound impact on Wajda, and after attending the newly-founded Lodz Film and Theater School, he developed a filmography that constitutes, quite simply, one of the great legacies of world cinema. No single visual style or strategy characterizes his films: His early work often employed intricately illuminated deep spaces, while his work in the ’70s featured a looser, more documentary feel. When Socialist Realism, the Stalinist aesthetic of exemplary working class heroes and didactic narratives, was the order of the day, Wajda’s films served as alternative or counter-histories to the officially sanctioned versions of events.
As we move away from the fog of the Cold War, his films seem less dependent on the specifics of the political or historical issues they address, becoming meditations on concepts such as the price of individualism, one’s duty towards others, and the meaning of freedom. Close artistic collaborators, especially actors Zbigniew Cybulski, Daniel Olbrychski, Andrzej Seweryn, Wojciech Pszoniak and Krystyna Janda, and screenwriters Jerzy Andrzejewski, Aleksander Scibor-Rylski and Agnieszka Holland often did their finest work under his direction. And several of his films, including the marvelous Ashes and Diamonds, which established him as a major international artist after only three features, are among cinema’s unquestionable masterpieces.
The Program Overview contains a listing of films in the series.
From the Reading Eagle: Craft sales kick off the holiday season:
In Berks County, PA (the Reading, PA area) including Friday, Nov. 7th, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., at St. Stephen’s Polish National Catholic Church, 20 St. Stephen’s Church Lane, Cumru Township, PA
For more information call (610) 775-4559. Stop by and say hello to Fr. Senior Edward Ratajack.
A Rummage Sale at my parish, Holy Name of Jesus National Catholic Church, PNCC, 1040 Pearl Street, Schenectady, NY on Saturday, October 18 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
We are also having a Pennsylvania Dutch Dinner on Saturday, November 8 from 4 till 7 p.m. Stop by and join us.
Kosciuszko Foundation Marching In 71st Annual Pulaski Day Parade
The Kosciuszko Foundation will be joining the New York Polish-American community in the 71st Annual Pułaski Day Parade, and we invite members, their families, and friends, to join us. It gives us a chance to join thousands of Poles and Polish Americans in celebrating our heritage. Since this year is also the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Poles in America, in Jamestown, it is especially significant.
The Parade is Sunday, October 5, beginning at 12:30 PM.
New York’s Pułaski parade is a huge event for Poles and Polish-Americans. Check it out if you are in the New York Metropolitan area.
Rafał Olbinski Art Show opening Thursday, October 9th
Rafal Olbinski, the renowned Polish artist, will have a show of his works at the Rotunda Gallery of the Kosciuszko Foundation in October. The exhibition will open with a presentation by Olbinski on Thursday, October 9, at 7 PM, and continue through Sunday, October 26. The Foundation is located at 15 East 65th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues. Visitors can see the show during office hours Monday-Friday, 9-5 PM, and on Saturdays, October 11, 18, and 25, from 3 —“ 7 PM. Since other events take place at the Foundation, it is best to call ahead of time. Office phone is (212) 734-2130.
Olbinski is an architect by professional training, as well as painter, poster artist, graphic designer, and illustrator, and has lived in New York since 1981. His illustrations regularly appear in the press, including Time, Newsweek, Der Spiegel, Business Week, and other newspapers and magazines. For many years he has been creating opera posters, including commissions for the New York Metropolitan Opera and City Opera. In 2002 Olbinski designed stage settings for the Philadelphia Opera Company’s production of ”Don Giovanni” He also created a famous poster after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Since 1995, he has taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
Rafal Olbinski’s posters are a synthesis of surrealistic mood and, from the other side, symbolism, characteristic of the Polish school of poster design. He has received more than 100 awards for his work, including Gold and Silver Medals from the Society of Illustrators and Art Directors Club of New York. In 1994 he was awarded the International Oscar for the World’s Most Memorable Poster, “Prix Savignac 1994” in Paris. In 1995 his poster was chosen as the official New York City “Capital of the World” Poster in an invitational competition, by a jury led by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. In the following year he won the award for the best painting in the annual exhibition of the Society of Illustrators.
Olbinski was born in city of Kielce, Poland, and graduated from the Architectural Department of Warsaw Polytechnic School. In 1981 he emigrated to the US, where he soon established himself as a prominent painter, illustrator and designer.
The Mariacki Altarpiece, Its theft by Nazi Germany, and its complicated post-war return
Agata Wolska, archivist of the Mariacki Cathedral, the oldest and richest archive in Poland, will give an illustrated talk on the Cathedral’s magnificent altarpiece, stolen during World War Two and only returned more than a decade after the war ended. The talk is on THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, at 7 PM. The talk is open to the public and no ticket is required; donations are welcome.
Krakow, Poland’s ancient capital is blessed with world-class art and architecture. Wit Stwosz (German Viet Stoss, ca. 1440-1533) one of the greatest Gothic sculptors lived and worked there for 19 years. For twelve years he worked on his masterpiece; the 3-story-high altarpiece in the Mariacki (Basilica of the Virgin Mary) on the city’s central Rynek Glowny (Grand Square). The altarpiece is the largest Gothic sculpture in the world, 42 feet high and 36 foot-wide. It consists of some 200 fine limewood sculptures treated with color and gold foil.
It is a Flugelaltar (German style “wing altar”) with two wings framing the center. The central part, with huge lifelike statues of the saints, depicts dramatically the Virgin Mary’s Dormition, surrounded by the Apostles. Looking upwards one sees the Ascension of Our Lady and Lord. At the top there is the Madonna’s Heavenly Coronation by the Trinity. The wings are covered with relief scenes from the life of the Holy Family. The huge structure is ceremonially opened at noon each day, and closed at night.
During the Nazi occupation of Poland, the altar was dismantled and taken to Germany. Its rescue and return by the Americans is a thrilling story.
Agata Wolska studied art history at Krakow’s ancient Jagiellonian University, and received further training in archival maintenance and computerization. She has received a grant from the Kosciuszko Foundation to do research in the Library of Congress and U.S. National Archives in connection with the altar’s return. Ms. Wolska is in charge of the Mariacki archives, and is preparing a book on the altar’s troubled wartime history.
Dorian Wind Quintet featurning Grazyna Bacewicz will open Chamber Music Season
The Dorian Wind Quintet, recognized worldwide for its uniquely polished and passionate performances, returns to inaugurate the 2008-2009 Chamber Music Series on Sunday, October 26, at 3 PM, at the Kosciuszko Foundation. The program includes works of Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz (1909 – 1969) as well as Darius Milhaud, Anton Reicha, and Lalo Schifrin. Tickets are $40 ($30 KF members), including a reception with the musicians, and can be reserved by calling the Foundation Office at (212) 734-2130.
Since its formation at Tanglewood in 1961, the Dorian Wind Quintet has performed repertoire ranging from the Baroque to Pulitzer Prize winning commissions, in the world’s most renowned concert halls. The Quintet has literally been around the world, concertizing in 49 of the 50 states and Canada, touring Europe eighteen times, and playing throughout the Middle East, India, Africa and Asia. The Dorian made history as the first wind quintet to appear at Carnegie Hall in1981.
The Dorian Wind Quintet collaborates often with well-known artists, and has appeared at numerous festivals including the American and international festivals. It has served as the resident ensemble for many institutions including the Mannes College of Music, Brooklyn College and the State University of New York System,and for over 10 years, at the Festival Institute at Round Top, Texas. Dorian currently serves as Ensemble-in- Residence at Hunter College in New York City. It has recorded on the Vox, CRI, Serenus, New World, and Summit Records labels.
Every member of the Dorian is a virtuoso in his or her own right, as well as a dedicated chamber player. Each has been associated with the most prominent performing ensembles, venues and musical institutions in the world and has joined the Dorian Wind Quintet out of passion for the repertoire and the joy of its performance.
The current members of Dorian are Gretchen Pusch, flute; Gerard Reuter, oboe; Jerry Kirkbride, clarinet; John Hunt, bassoon; and Karl Kramer-Johansen, horn.
Experience a bit of Lake George’s Golden Age at the former teaching studio of Metropolitan Opera Diva Marcella Sembrich. Mme. Sembrich was a pianist, violinist, teacher, Polish patriot and benefactor. Mme. Sembrich’s studio is one of the few buildings open to the public from northern New York State’s “Great and Gracious” period.
Mme. Sembrich’s teaching studio was the focal point of the summers she spent at her lakeside mansion, named Bay View. Juilliard and Curtis Institute vocal students sought instruction by the acclaimed Mme. Sembrich in that studio, now a Memorial Museum.
Daily hours from 10am through 12:30pm and 2pm through 5:30pm.
The Marcella Sembrich Opera Museum
Marcella Sembrich Memorial Association, Inc.
4800 Lake Shore Drive
Bolton Landing, NY 12814-0417
Telephone: 518-644-2431 or 518-644-9839