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Never Too Late To Be An Artist

Kathryn Wasserman Davis started painting landscapes when she was 90 years old.  Now 105, she has become a prolific chronicler of the Hudson River.  In a short film about her, Kathryn Davis: Painting of a Life, she is quoted as saying: “I look at the blank canvas and think what in heavens am I going […]

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An Album of Memories

Photographs store memories, and we can’t get enough of those. There’s something so sweet about pouring over family albums, rediscovering the past and sharing stories of “remember when?” That was my feeling wandering the current exhibition, Celebrities: We Remember Them Well, at ArtsWestchester. Seeing Lyndon Baines Johnson on horseback…he appears somewhat regal and audacious. This […]

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“So That’s the Way the World Ends”

Some people go to the theater to be inspired. Others want to be transported to another world. Then there are those who breathe a sigh of relief just to know that they are better off than the characters in the play. August: Osage County, playing October 5th through 14th at the White Plains Performing Arts Center (WPPAC) […]

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Ooh La La in Elmsford

The can-can is a combination of high spirited dancing – sort of a gallop – and a peek at frilly underwear. It’s sexy, cheeky and provocative. At least that’s what I am told. The dancers step and kick, letting their ruffled bloomers all hang out. There are tales about a trick that dancers used to […]

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Passing Along That Thing Called Culture

There’s something about choral music that strikes a chord.  Yes, the TV show “Glee” has made it popular, but beyond that, Broadway actress LaChanze says it teaches kids how to listen.  LaChanze (pictured above) won a Tony Award in 2006 for her lead role in The Color Purple and has appeared in The Wiz, Dessa […]

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A Poet’s Job

Loss is always sad.  It is especially so when the loss is someone who was an inspiration to others.  Brenda Connor-Bey was that kind of someone. Brenda wrote poetry. She taught poetry.  She read poetry, both to herself and aloud to others.  Robert Frost noted that “a poem begins with a lump in the throat.” […]

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Copland House in the Rain

Copland House in the Rain

On a Sunday afternoon, in between intermittent rain, I set out for Merestead Estate in Mount Kisco. It was the culminating event for Cultivate, the Copland House residency program for young composers. For the uninitiated, American composer Aaron Copland lived and wrote music here in Westchester, specifically in Cortland Manor where he spent the last thirty […]

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Let’s Bring the Arts Back to the Olympics

This year’s summer Olympics has raised sports to an art form. Gymnast Gabby Douglas might have been a ballerina for all her grace and flexibility. Swimmer Michael Phelps might have been a sculptor for all his power. Glued as I was to the TV, watching what to me, was performance art at its finest, I […]

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