Tompkins County Public Library

Saturday, January 21, 2012

A Year of Art at TCPL - 2012


The Art and Science of Quilting an exhibit of quilts curated by Marcy Rosenkrantz and featuring the work of twenty local fiber artists will be on display throughout the library during January and February.

The quilts demonstrate the intersection between art and science with artists interpreting different themes including geology, astronomy, botany, archeology and astronomy.
An opening reception will be held on Thursday, January 19 from 5 to 7 PM with a talk on Fabric Dyes and Dyeing by Tracy McLellan at 6 PM.

A Small Quilt Silent Auction to support the Library will be held in conjunction with the exhibit leading to a live auction at 6 PM on Tuesday, February 28. Bids may be entered at any time during the exhibit.




 

Perspectives on Homelessness and the Indigent: Visual Art and Poetry curated by Benn Tedrus Feshback Nadelman will be on display March 9 through May 24.  An opening reception will be held on Thursday, April 5 from 5 to 8 PM and include a tour of the exhibit, poetry readings and a panel discussion.  The exhibit will also be featured at Gallery Night on April 6.

The exhibit is intended to address the timely, important subject of homelessness through the eyes of visual artists and poets.  The participants will include a broad range of creative professionals, those administering to the indigent, the general “non-professional” public and those who are part of the indigent community.

Benn Tedrus Feshbach Nadelman has taught studio arts, art marketing and arts-in-education courses since 1988 in venues including Ithaca’s Community School of Music and Art, the Southern Tier Institute for Arts in Education and Santa Fe, New Mexico’s public school system. His visual art is represented in public and private collections throughout the Americas, Europe and Japan.

Visual Culture at Ithaca High School an exhibit of art in all media created by High School students during the 2011-2012 academic year curated by Carol Spence and other art faculty will be on display during June. The exhibit will be on display June 11 through July 6.

Drawing on Democracy curated by Terry Plater will be on display July, August and September with an opening reception at Gallery Night on Friday, August 3.

An elaboration of the curator’s ongoing preoccupation with questions of aesthetics and equity, and fortuitously timed to coincide with the run up to the nation’s 2012 presidential election, this exhibit ask one simple question of the audience:  What does democracy look like?  Guest artists – including some the curator has known as friends or teachers for many years – are asked to respond to that question in drawings or other media.  The result promises to be an informative and thought provoking visual answer to this important question, and the beginning of an extended conversation.

IthaCasts:  Greece and Rome in Cornell’s Plaster Cast Collection an exhibit curated by Verity Platt and Annetta Alexandridis will be on display throughout out the library including three-dimensional sculpture in the exhibit cases and the Ezra Cornell Reading Room during October, November and December.  An opening reception will be held during Gallery Night on Friday, October 5.

Cornell University owns a plaster cast collection of statues, reliefs and inscriptions from the ancient Near East, ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome, the European Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the 19th century.  Originally envisioned by the university’s co-founder Andrew Dickson White, the collection was assembled in the early 1890’s and paid for by trustee Henry Sage.  It comprised about 500 pieces.  At the time considered as an excellent resource for teaching and research, casts subsequently fell out o favor.  Similar to their counterparts in Europe, they were discarded if not actively destroyed.  A recent project at Cornell attempts to rescue, study and re-evaluate these precious objects.

The exhibition aims to present some of the casts and the rescue project to a broader public.  The curators’ goal is to display and rehabilitate an important part of Cornell history and that means also history of Ithaca.  In addition, the exhibition will offer a representative selection of fundamental aspects of Greco-Roman antiquity via the medium of plaster casts such as Greek and Roman celebrities (portraits of politicians, philosophers, emperors) or religion and myth (gods and heroes on gemstones).  In relation to the Olympic Games 2012, one section will be devoted to the ancient site of Olympia and ancient sports.

All opening receptions will take place in the BorgWarner Community Room. Entry to Gallery Opening Night is through the BorgWarner door which is adjacent to Gimme! Coffee and behind the bus shelter on Green Street

These exhibits are made possible in part by grant support from the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County.