This and That by JL

    Thank you Brian Williams for reminding me (and the MSNBC world at large) about the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on April 12, 1945 at the height of World War II. As a child, I heard this news when it happened from the bigger kids on the street, where I got most of […]

    Not much was working between the city and the community when John Lindsay became mayor of New York in 1965. He wanted the city to be known as “fun city.” Yet, it was a tough lift at the time, even for the popular Lindsay. Working for the Mayor in the early 70s, I […]

Whenever there’s a blizzard, a hurricane or a squall of one kind or another, it sends a shiver down many a spine, including my own. I worry about a tree falling. I fret about a possible power failure. I double-check our stash of batteries and Duralogs. I rehearse a long list of “what ifs.”  At […]

Happily, I celebrated International Women’s Day yesterday.  People were tweeting their favorite artists. So I decided I would, too. I am using this occasion to give a shout out to 101 awesome Westchester artists who have exhibited in our gallery. If I missed anyone, please let me know in the comment section. The extraordinary work […]

This week’s “This and That by JL” is a post by Mary Alice Franklin, ArtsWestchester’s prodigious Communications Manager & ArtsNews Editor, who stayed glued to the TV screen to the bitter end on Oscars night. Seems like Westchester is a county of talent, which Mary Alice has assured us of. Through the blunders and flubs, Westchester […]

It seems that ever since the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was created, it has been under siege. Although it is a tiny agency, less than 0.006% of the $3.54 Trillion federal budget, it has had enormous impact on the quality, abundance and diversity of the arts in America through its 140,000 grants, totaling […]

There is something so very elegant about Henri Matisse. He can take a line and magically turn it into a portrait so recognizable that only a few strokes of his pen are necessary. This French master was known to have said: “If I trust my drawing hand it is because in training it to serve […]

I am a great fan of the musical comedy Once Upon a Mattress. It is a hilarious, somewhat silly romp in which a princess is authenticated by her ability to detect a pea under twelve layers of mattresses. ArtsWestchester’s own somewhat-silly romp began when someone found a mattress hidden out of sight in our building. […]