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Art
Beat
LET’S
RUN DOWN THE NUMBERS: For the record, Saratoga Performing
Arts Center marketing director Helen Edelman reported
Monday that paid attendance at the 21 New York City Ballet
performances from July 6-24 totaled 57,945 for an average
of 2,759 per show. This is a 4.4 percent increase over 2003’s
attendance, which was 55,476, for an average of 2,642 per
performance.
SPAC reports it has raised about $455,000 (including $300,000
in pledges from its board of directors) toward the $600,000
needed to claim a one-time state grant of $300,000. The total
of $900,000 is expected to cover the gap between ticket sales
and the cost of presenting the ballet at SPAC. The deadline
for raising the needed $600,000 is July 31, 2005.
The SPAC board has guaranteed that NYCB will return in July
2005, but has made no decision about a long-term commitment
to the ballet. SPAC’s finances and management practices are
now being audited by the Bonadio Company of western New York.
They are expected to release their findings by the end of
September, according to a July 24 report in the Albany Times
Union.
Meanwhile, Save the Ballet, a grassroots nonprofit organization
that sprung up in response to SPAC’s decision last February
to evict the ballet after the 2004 season, announced Monday
that it has raised $40,000 in donations. The money is being
held in a dedicated account that is expected to count toward
the state’s two-for-one grant. Thinking ahead, Save the Ballet
also would like to establish an endowment specifically to
support NYCB’s long-term residency at SPAC, according to Dee
Sarno, director of the Saratoga County Arts Council and treasurer
of Save the Ballet.
—Mae
G. Banner
PAVE
PARADISE, PUT UP A PARKING LOT: “When we destroy our historic
buildings,” writes photographer Paula Symanski in the
artist’s statement for her upcoming show, “we create a legacy
that has no reverence for the spirit of our past.” Specifically,
Symanski’s photo exhibit focuses on a lost building very close
to her heart—Cohoes’ Kevney Memorial Academy, a long-closed
Catholic high school that was demolished over a two-week period
in November 2003. Historic buildings, she adds, “do more for
a community’s soul than the ubiquitous replacement architecture
that surrounds us.” The 30 black-and-white images are being
presented by the Spindle City Historic Society, and
will be on display at the Cohoes Visitor’s Center (58
Remsen St., Cohoes) beginning Aug. 14. Also on Aug. 14, there
will be an opening reception from 7-9 PM.
BABY,
I’M BACK: Les Bohèmes Curious Art Collective, which
debuted with a big splash a year and a half ago on Troy’s
River Street, and, sadly, quietly folded months later, is
back. And, with the kind of irony an artist can truly appreciate,
it is in the same building complex where it was previously
located: 174 River St., the former Thomasville store which
now houses the Bournebrook Antique Center. Les Bohèmes founder
Lynne Allard, now partnered with fellow artist Jesse
Matulis, has scaled back the space while expanding its
reach. Les Bohèmes now includes furnishings (Curious Provisions)
and design consultations (Curious Interiors). Allard and Matulis
will celebrate the grand opening on Wednesday (Aug. 4) from
5-8 PM. For more information, call 229-2173 or visit www.lesbohemes.com.
—Shawn
Stone
| Let
Us Slaughter Each Other Not, My Children |
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Photo
by: John Whipple
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Ever
wonder who the Nott Memorial is named after? Well,
in point of fact it was Eliphalet Nott, onetime
pastor of Albany’s First Presbyterian Church and
longtime—62 years long, for heaven’s sake—president
of Schenectady’s Union College. Nott first came
to national prominence with an anti-dueling sermon
he preached after Aaron Burr fatally shot Alexander
Hamilton 200 years ago. Albany’s First Presbyterian
Church hosted an unusual commemoration of this
last Sunday (July 25), when Union professor David
Cotter (pictured) dressed in period garb and read
Nott’s words. According to the good folks at Union,
Eliphalet Nott came to be known as an advocate
for “temperance, abolition and universal education.”
(Hear that, Union students? Temperance.)
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