“BLOWING BUBBLES”: Annabelle Schu won the top award for Painting at the 11th annual “Youth Art Exhibition,” on view through Sunday, February 18 at Phillips’ Mill in New Hope, Pa.
Winners across five categories were announced at the 11th annual “Youth Art Exhibition” awards ceremony on January 27 at the historic Phillips’ Mill. Over 140 works of art from students attending 23 area high schools fill the walls of the mill through February 18. more
“BOOKWORKS AND BEYOND”: Princeton University Library will feature works by Ulises Carrión in the Ellen and Leonard Milberg Gallery at Firestone Library February 21 through June 13. (Photo by Brandon Johnson)
Princeton University Library (PUL) will present “Ulises Carrión: Bookworks and Beyond,” the spring exhibition in the Ellen and Leonard Milberg Gallery at Firestone Library, February 21 through June 13. It is curated by Sal Hamerman, metadata librarian for Special Collections at PUL, and Javier Rivero Ramos, a recent Ph.D. graduate from the Department of Art and Archaeology, who is now assistant curator at Art Bridges Foundation in Arkansas. more
“SPRAWL”: This work by Judi Tavill of Rumson was selected for the “2024 International Juried Exhibition,” on view through March 17 at The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster. In addition, Tavill was selected for a solo exhibition at the center.
The Center for Contemporary Art’s “2024 International Juried Exhibition” is on view through March 17.
Juror Hunter O’Hanian selected 50 pieces from 902 entries from 312 artists from across the U.S. and Canada, China, Israel, and Italy. New Jersey artists selected for the exhibition are: Hilary Houston Bachelder (Princeton), Pamela Becker (Flemington), Bette Blank (Madison), Maryann Burton (Hasbrouck Heights), Mark Davies (Lebanon), Tracy DiTolla (Oakland), Sandy Furst (Basking Ridge), Wendy Hallstrom (Clinton), Jeffrey Hartman (North Bergen), Patti Jordan (Montclair), Sandra Kosinski (Long Beach Township), Jennifer Malone (Maplewood), Kristen Martin-Aarnio (Bayonne), David Orban (Trenton), Natalie Preston (Jersey City), Donna Ruane Rogers (Frenchtown), Judi Tavill (Rumson), Hui Tian (South Orange), Leah Tomaino (Randolph), and Bonnie Wilkenfeld (Mendham Township). more
COMMUNITY PUPPET SHOW: Arts Council of Princeton (ACP) Artist-in-Residence Kenneth Lewis Sr., right, has led local families in recent puppet-making workshops, which will culminate in a public performance on February 18 at 3 p.m. in the ACP’s Solley Theater.
The Arts Council of Princeton (ACP) will host a Community Puppet Show on Sunday, February 18 at 3 p.m. in their Solley Theater. Led by winter Artist-in-Residence Kenneth Lewis Sr., a local artist who has led puppet-making workshops for many years in our area, this collaborative production is designed, constructed, and scripted by Princeton community members of all ages. more
“WITH JOHN AND FLORENCE BROADWAY”: This acrylic on canvas painting by Onome Olutu is featured in “Transversing Nostalgia,” her dual exhibit with Chenelle René, on view through March 9 in the Arts Council of Princeton’s Taplin Gallery.
The Arts Council of Princeton (ACP) presents “Transversing Nostalgia,” a dual exhibition by painters Onome Olotu and Chanelle René, on view in the ACP’s Taplin Gallery through March 9.
Working with personal and sourced archives, Olotu and René take a drive down memory lane, reminiscing intimate connections that allow the past to speak to the present and future. more
By Stuart Mitchner
People who listen to the Beatles love them — what about that?
—Richard Poirier in The Performing Self (1971)
Remarkable, unspeakable New York!
—Henry James, in The American Scene
My mood at the moment is best expressed in Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, which I was reading when the Beatles landed at JFK on February 7, 1964:
“I enter upon this part of my story in the most pensive and melancholy frame of mind that ever sympathetic breast was touched with…. Every line I write, I feel an abatement of the quickness of my pulse, and of that careless alacrity with it, which every day of my life prompts me to say and write a thousand things I should not.”
Truer words were never not spoken. Did I really care about the Fab Four? I had no choice since my transistor radio was permanently tuned to Top 40 servings on WINS from Murray the K, the DJ who liked to call himself the Fifth Beatle. My idea of musical bliss in those days was a moment in Sonny Rollins Vol. 2 on Blue Note, the change of pianists that occurs in Thelonius Monk’s “Mysterioso,” after Rollins delivers one of his boldest statements and Monk makes way for Horace Silver as J.J. Johnson’s trombone booms overhead. Never did it occur to me that a bunch of funny looking characters from the U.K. could compete with that.
At the time of The Great Arrival, I was living in a small front room of a brownstone at 33 West 87th Street, with a poster of Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles over my bed and one of Joan Miró’s The Farm on another wall above a portable stereo and a box of jazz LPs. My window looked across the street to No. 26, where Billie Holiday had been living at the time of her death in 1959. Lady Day’s “townhouse” sold for almost $14 million in 2022. In 1964 I was paying $120 a month. Most likely Billie had a couple of furnished rooms in 1959. She reportedly died with 70 cents to her name. It’s been four years since I felt like going into New York. The city I love is not the one where Billie Holiday’s townhouse sold for $14 million. more
By Nancy Plum
The Westminster Community Orchestra performed a veritable potpourri of instrumental and vocal music this past weekend. Sunday afternoon’s concert in Richardson Auditorium had something for everyone, from operatic excerpts to a world premiere to traditional Chinese music. Led by conductor Ruth Ochs, the 55-member ensemble showcased several student winners of the Orchestra’s Concerto Competition, as well as one of Rider University’s choruses. Taking a pep rally approach to drawing the audience into the performance, Ochs brought an additionally festive atmosphere to the afternoon.
The Community Orchestra displayed its own capabilities opening with Carl Maria von Weber’s “Overture” to his 1821 opera Der Freischütz. Considered the first German Romantic opera, Weber’s work was revolutionary in its folklore roots and unearthly portrayal of the supernatural. Ochs and the Orchestra began the work with a slow, dark, and mysterious introduction, as a quartet of horns set the Wolf’s Glen scene. The string sound was well balanced, with the second section of the “Overture” fully symphonic and martial. Clarinetists Russell Labe and Pamela Kotula provided graceful lines coloring the music well. more
TRIO: Cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, violinist Isabelle Faust, and pianist Alexander Melnikov will perform at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on February 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Pianist Alexander Melnikov, violinist Isabelle Faust, and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras made their Princeton University Concerts (PUC) debut as a trio in 2020. They will return to PUC together again on Thursday, February 15 at 7:30 p.m. at Richardson Auditorium.
The trio will perform Robert Schumann’s Piano Trio No. 2 in F Major, Op. 80, Elliott Carter’s final composition Epigrams for piano, violin and cello, and Johannes Brahms’ rarely heard Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8. more
Alison Bolshoi
Boheme Opera NJ stages Georges Bizet’s Carmen on March 15 at 8 p.m. and March 17 at 3 p.m. at Kendall Hall Performance Theater on the campus of The College of New Jersey, 2000 Pennington Road in Ewing.
Bizet’s tale of lust and vengeance is consistently in the top five operas performed around the world. Boheme Opera’s version has virtual sets by J. Matthew Root, and the Boheme Opera NJ Orchestra and Chorus under the baton of conductor and artistic director Joseph Pucciatti. Carmen also features members of the Alborada Spanish Dance Theatre and the Princeton Boychoir and Girlchoir. more
MULTI-TALENTED: Reggie Harris sings, writes songs, and tells stories at his Princeton appearance at Christ Congregation Church on February 16.
On Friday, February 16 at 8 p.m., the Princeton Folk Music Society presents singer-songwriter, storyteller, and song leader Reggie Harris at Christ Congregation Church, 50 Walnut Lane.
Harris is a fluid vocalist, arranger, and guitarist. For over 40 years and nine albums, he performed with his then wife in the Kim and Reggie Harris folk duo, singing of the quest for freedom and care for the environment. The duo were known for their scholarly research and knowledge of both the Underground Railroad and the modern civil rights movement. After their divorce in 2016, Harris found that continuing without the duo was a challenge, but “it was time to open myself to what I could do.” more
DOCUMENTARIES AND MORE: A still from “Between Earth and Sky,” a film by Andrew Nadkarni that was also shortlisted for the 2024 Academy Awards, is one of the works to be screened at the 43rd Annual Thomas Edison Film Festival’s in-person premiere at Princeton University on February 16, followed by a virtual discussion with the filmmakers on February 17.(Photo courtesy of Andrew Nadkarni)
The 43rd season of the renowned Thomas Edison Film Festival (TEFF) will premiere on February 16 at Princeton University’s James Stewart Film Theater with a screening, a virtual discussion with filmmakers, and films available to view on demand, presented in collaboration with the Lewis Center for the Arts.
TEFF’s in-person premiere opens with a reception, screening of seven films, and a Q&A with festival artists including filmmaker James Hollenbaugh, poet and performer Bimpé Fageyinbo, lighting director Gabriel Kurzlop, filmmaker Chehade Boulos, and producer Julia Anderson. On February 17 a livestreamed discussion with the filmmakers will be hosted by Festival Director Jane Steuerwald, Festival Associate and Juror Henry Baker, and Margaret Parsons, curator, emerita, of the National Gallery of Art. more
Boris Petrushansky
On March 3 at 4 p.m., Altamura Legacy Concerts (ALC) at Princeton United Methodist Church presents Russian pianist and Tchaikovsky Competition jury member Boris Petrushansky performing Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, paired with Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6.
This concert marks the septuagenarian’s historic return to the U.S. in over two decades. Admission is $40, $10 for students, cash at the door or reserved seating. The church is located on Nassau Street at Vandeventer Avenue. The concert series opens its doors at 3:30 p.m. with a welcoming Coffee/Tea Bar in the venue organized by Illy At Earth’s End. Visit legacyartsinternationa.org for ticket information. more
LOCAL INSPIRATION: Ryan Stark Lilienthal, a short-term artist-in-residence for the Arts Council of Princeton, will lead a community ceramic project working with clay sourced from the site of the Paul Robeson House of Princeton.
The Arts Council of Princeton (ACP) welcomes Ryan Stark Lilienthal as their latest Anne Reeves Artist-in-Residence. During this short-term residency, running through April. Lilienthal will work closely with Executive Director Adam Welch to dig clay directly from the site of the Paul Robeson House of Princeton, located next door to the Arts Council. more
To truly break the cycle of poverty, especially for those in the throes of homelessness, an abundance of training and emotional support is required. In conjunction with emergency food and shelter, HomeFront’s 25-plus wraparound services, including ArtSpace and SewingSpace, serve this purpose. These visual therapies can be as vital to one’s recovery as verbal therapy. In fact, HomeFront notes that many clients find it easier to express their feelings by creating with their hands — rather than trying to craft just the right words. more
Trinity Church, 33 Mercer Street, now presents works by Betsy Ashton in “Portraits of Immigrants: Unknown Faces, Untold Stories,” on view through Easter, March 31.
Ashton, a former correspondent for CBS, supported a studio by painting commissioned oil portraits for the rich and accomplished for over 15 years. But she said that the maligning of immigrants and refugees that took place during and since the 2016 election compelled her instead to seek out, paint, and tell the stories of the immigrants that she saw who were not a threat to America, but an asset.
This painting by Debbie Pisacreta is featured in “Local Beauty,” her joint exhibition with Bill Jersey, on view through February 29 in the Bell’s Tavern Dining Room, 183 North Union Street, Lambertville. Pisacreta and Jersey are member artists at Artists’ Gallery, 18 Bridge Street, Lambertville.
The Delaware Valley Bead Society (DVBS) will host The Artful Beadweaver Trunk Show with Jessica Giovacchini on Tuesday, February 20 at 7 p.m. in the Café of the Hunterdon County Senior Center, 4 Gauntt Place, Building No.1, Flemington. The program is free and open to the public, but non-members must pre-register.
Join the DVBS members and peruse the various types of beads being presented by Giovacchini. Participants will find an array of bead treasures including Delica beads for precision work in a wide range of colors and finishes; point-back crystals for added sparkle; Czech beads including melon drops and rounds, Czech birds, and dahlias; 4mm glass rondelle strands for a touch of elegance; and essential findings to complement their creations.
The Artful Beadweaver Trunk Show will occur during the two-hour DVBS meeting. To register to attend, email your name, address, and phone number to odyssey5@ptd.net or call (908) 246-1231. To learn more about the Delaware Valley Bead Society, visit delawarevalleybeadsociety.org.
By Anne Levin
It has been nearly a century since the first observance of Black History Month in America. Each of those years, the month-long celebration in February has had a theme.
This year’s focus is on the contributions of Black painters, dancers, musicians, and other cultural figures. A four-minute video on the website of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (nmaahc.si.edu) serves as a fitting introduction to the breadth and scope of these artists, who are being celebrated at the museum in Washington, D.C.
Closer to home, the list of events marking “African Americans in the Arts” includes a wide range of subjects — artistic and otherwise. Lectures, concerts, a birthday party for Frederick Douglass, plays, film screenings, even a special African and Afro-Caribbean board game night are among the tributes taking place this month. more
THE SHOW MUST GO ON: Thanks to a collaborative, behind-the-scenes effort by McCarter Theatre Center and Princeton University, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine has overcome a funding shortage that would have prevented their appearance on February 11.
By Anne Levin
The February 11 appearance by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine was booked for McCarter Theatre Center nearly a year ago. But when war broke out in the Middle East last October, adding to the already existing conflict in Ukraine, it became increasingly unlikely that the orchestra would be able to embark on its tour of U.S. locations — most on or affiliated with college campuses.
A representative of the orchestra called McCarter just before the winter holidays. All of the orchestra’s funding for travel and cargo had dwindled, and they were told by the Ukrainian business community that they weren’t going to get the same subsidy. Navigating in and out of a war zone added to the problem. more
By Stuart Mitchner
Today, January 31, is Franz Schubert’s birthday. Born in 1797, he died on November 19, 1828, age 31. Toward the end of that year he was composing his last three piano sonatas and vicariously exploring the backwoods America of James Fenimore Cooper. I’ve been intrigued by this deathbed connection ever since I read Schubert’s last letter, in which he tells a friend, “I am ill. I have eaten nothing for eleven days and drunk nothing, and I totter feebly and shakily from my chair to bed and back again…. Be so kind, then, to assist me in this desperate situation by means of literature. Of Cooper’s I have read The Last of the Mohicans, The Spy, The Pilot, and The Pioneers. If by chance you have anything else of his, I implore you to deposit it with Frau von Bogner at the coffee house….”
For the past week I’ve been reading The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 (1826) and listening to Schubert’s penultimate piano sonata, No. 20 in A-major completed on September 26, 1828. The sonata’s haunting second movement, the Andantino employed so powerfully in Robert Bresson’s 1966 film, Au Hasard Balthazar, has been following me around ever since last Wednesday’s mist-making Schubertian snowfall. more
ALL BEETHOVEN: The Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra brings works of the master composer to State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick on February 17. (Photo by Vasilka Balevska)
State Theatre New Jersey presents the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra led by Principal Conductor Derek Gleeson on Saturday, February 17 at 7 p.m. The all-Beethoven program includes the Coriolanus Overture, Piano Concerto No. 5, and Beethoven Symphony No. 7 with pianist Ivaylo Vassilev.
In 1945 the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra became the national orchestra of Bulgaria and represents the overall contemporary musical culture of the country. The repertoire ranges from classical to contemporary, including premiere performances of numerous works by Bulgarian composers. more
“RESPECT”: Capathia Jenkins stars as Aretha Franklin in a tribute concert on February 18 at State Theatre New Jersey.
State Theatre New Jersey presents “RESPECT: A Tribute to Aretha Franklin,” featuring Capathia Jenkins and Ryan Shaw, on Sunday, February 18 at 3 p.m.
A tribute to the Queen of Soul, this program features such hits as “Respect,” “Think,” “A Natural Woman,” “Chain of Fools,” “Amazing Grace,” and several others. more
TRASH TO TREASURE: Previous winners of the Mercer County Library System’s TrashedArt Contest are displayed at one of its branches. Submissions for this year’s contest, which celebrates Earth Day, will be accepted February 28 through March 6.
The Mercer County Library System has announced the dates for its 15th Annual TrashedArt Contest. The contest celebrates Earth Day by encouraging patrons to turn ordinary trash into extraordinary art. The library will accept artwork starting Wednesday, February 28, through Wednesday, March 6. Accepted artwork will be on display at Mercer County Library System branches throughout the months of March and April. Adults and teens (ages 14 and up) who live, work, or go to school in Mercer County are eligible to participate. Contest entry forms and information are available online at mcl.org/events/trashedart. more
SPECIAL PROJECT: The Arts Council of Princeton recently received a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support a totem pole project with Tlingit artist Nathan Jackson.
The Arts Council of Princeton (ACP) has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Grants for Arts Projects award of $25,000. This grant will support a project titled “Monumental Sculptures: Understanding the Totem Poles of the Northwest Coast,” a program honoring and celebrating the artwork of the Tlingit peoples of the Northwest Coast. more
