Feb. 4, 2012 Assemblyman Robert J. Castelli (R, C – Goldens Bridge) today joined his legislative colleagues and ArtsWestchester’s Board of Trustees at ArtsWestchester’s Arts Alive award breakfast to present more than $39,000 in ArtsWestchester’s Arts Alive Grants and $11,100 in Arts Partners Challenge Grants to 39 local arts organizations, artists, and special projects.
The event was held in the Grand Banking Room of ArtsWestchester’s Arts Exchange, in downtown White Plains. The grants were made possible through a decentralization grant to ArtsWestchester from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).
“I am proud be a supporter of the New York State Council on the Arts and its decentralization program, which helps ArtsWestchester benefit all New Yorkers,” Castelli said. “ArtsWestchester, through its Arts Alive grant program, helps sustain programs and groups who keep children and adults interested in learning, music, and the arts. As a strong supporter of ArtsWestchester, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the arts. Here in Westchester, the arts industry generates $120 million in revenue for the local economy, while providing unique, hands-on, learning experiences that enrich the lives of people throughout our community.”
“We are pleased that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed level funding for the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) for FY 2012-13,” said ArtsWestchester CEO Janet T. Langsam. “This ensures support of this important grass roots arts program. The variety of Arts Alive projects that will receive funding this year range from outdoor heritage festivals and concerts in parks, to painting workshops, to community theater productions and fully-staged operas, to a presentation of Gospel Choirs – all of which truly show that the arts are thriving in Westchester County.” Arts Alive Grants are awarded in two categories. Arts Alive Project Grants provide financial and technical support for Westchester-based organizations and artists at the grassroots level. As the name indicates, these grants offer project support rather than general operating funds.
This year, ArtsWestchester awarded Arts Alive Project Grants to 89th Assembly District groups such as the Fort Hill Players of White Plains, to support their ‘Free Summer Theatre in the Parks' series,’ which aims to introduce children to storytelling and creative dramatics. The White Plains-based Organization of Chinese Americans – Westchester & Hudson Valley Chapter, also received a grant, to support the 2012 Asian American Heritage Festival 2012.
“Art, in all of its forms, provides an important outlet of cross-cultural expression for the people of Westchester County, and I am proud to support ArtsWestchester for all that they do to enhance our quality of life and bring our communities together,” Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins said. “This year's Arts Alive and Arts Partners Challenge recipients represent artistic expression from cultures all around the world and through various mediums including dance, film, music and visual arts. They deserve congratulations for all of their hard work and I wish them continued success in their upcoming projects.”
The second category, Arts Alive Artist Grants, are also funded by the Artist Tier of the Decentralization Program of NYSCA, to provide direct support to artists to create original new work that incorporates the community in some way.
Carmen Celentano Captures Moments By Amanda Boyle
June 19, 2011 Photographer Carmen Celentano has been an Armonk resident since 1982--"Town was so different then, there was barely any traffic on Main Street!" she joked--but she says she looks forward every year to her annual big trip. She has just turned photos from her trip to Guatemala into a beautiful photography book titled "The Way of the Maya", View it here: www.blurb.com.
For Celentano's company Captured Moments--the place to turn for family
and senior portraits, and capturing weddings or bat/bar mitzahs--she
primarily uses digital photography, but for her personal use she uses
both film and digital, and "The Way of the Maya" has a mix of both.
Celentano predicts that film will make a comeback, because it has a
"special feeling."
When she arrived in Guatemala she said, "I fell in
love with the country, the people are so warm and inviting."
At the same
time, she described being "dumbfounded by the poverty." She went about
documenting the life there, with breathtaking photographs of mountains
and lakes, and intimate portraits of the people.
Celentano is
already planning a similar book on a recent trip to Cuba, and in fact
one of her photographs from that trip has been chosen to show in an
ongoing show at the Bendheim Gallery in Greenwich, Connecticut. For her
next trip, Celentano is hoping to visit Vietnam. She says she often
likes visiting small towns. She'll travel with a guide, and ask them to
introduce her to a family or a school, to get to know the community
better.
This level of personal attention is what makes
Celentano's photographs so special. She often shoots portraits of young
children, and she says it's best to get down there with them and engage
them, get them joking around and giggling. A mother herself, she
doesn't want to just be shouting "smile!" and get some unnatural
grimace. Celentano's natural artistic abilities are evident in not just
"The Way of the Maya", but her entire portfolio. And we aren't the only
ones who think that: she just won an international competition at Agora
Gallery in Chelsea.
January 26, 2012 The Byram
Hills Winter Art Show last week was for students from sixth through
twelve grade. Students exhibited a variety of works in different
mediums: ceramics, wire sculpture, painting, drawing, graphic design and
photography.
Samantha Hamerman says her first photo class was hard and it took a
while for her to master photography. But once she figured out all the
intricacies of her camera, it became fun. "Now that I'm near the end of
the semester, I have a better eye. My work today is so much better then
when I first began. Given assignments from Ms. Horn, I didn't know what
to take pictures of. Now I see things that go with my assignment
everywhere I look." The assignment for Introduction to Photography was
to take pictures of reflections. "The assignment was not very
descriptive because reflections are seen in everything," says Samantha.
"In reflections of the water you can see a reflection of yourself; my
friend plays guitar and I got a picture of her playing with the light
shining on her guitar.
"During vacation we had a free roll in
which we could shoot whatever we want," Samantha says. Describing
another of her photos, the junior says, "I liked how the island was
standing alone with a little boy standing near it in the water. The boy
had floaties on his arms and a mask and snorkel on his face. He was
jumping in and out of the water and I had to wait until he stood up."
Sophomore Emily Byrne worked for several weeks on an expressive piece
that captured her friend's portrait. In the Drawing and Painting class,
"the assignment was to bring colors to the work, more than just what we
saw with the eye," says Emily. Brown, purple, dark blue and green were
mixed to make the colors. Over three weeks she worked the pastels in
layers, creating colors that suited the skin tone.
Sophomore Kaitlin Riggs is taking Drawing and Painting with Mr. Lopez.
She drew a portrait of a young girl in color pencils. "The challenge of
using hard colored pencils is that they don't blend easily and you can't
erase," says Kaitlin. She drew the face from a photograph. "I like
drawing faces, I liked her eyes and her hair is interesting." The colors
were applied in layers, one on top of the other. Then she used a white
colored pencil to blend in the colors, not an easy task. "I made a
mistake with a green pencil on her skin and Mr. Lopez took an X-acto
knife and scraped it off. That was an extreme measure. We are told to
stay away from black because it is really drastic. We used a lot of blue
and brown to get the dark areas and shadows." The drawing took about
two and a half weeks of class time.
Continued on Column 3
Artist Ken Hamilton 1941 - 2004
Eremitical Dawn by David Parker. Welded Steel, 1970 Byram Hills High School.
Continued from column 2
Noelle Love is in Mr. Chuneys' introductory class of Studio and Art. "We
had to draw an imitation flower and modify the tones, showing the
smaller tones within the major colors," says Noelle. Her drawing is an
interpretation of what she saw. The flower was more grey then rainbow.
"In pencil, we lightly outlined the different sections of the light and
dark. Mr. Chuney made a copy of that, and we practiced bringing out the
different tones of the colors. Then we started over again, replicating
the actual flower instead of copying the prior drawing. We could modify
the drawing as we needed. We had to look deeply into the major colors to
find the smaller tones that people usually don't see. The blues and
greens in the shadow are the reflection of the light. In the background
I tried to work off the actual colors of the flowers. Blues and purple
are combined in the background and there is also a little purple in the
flower. The shadow made it seem more realistic. I can apply the process
to any object."
Sophomore Kamilla Tatka is in Advanced Drawing and Painting, and submitted an assignment of hands and feet for Advanced Placement Art. "We had to draw our hands or feet. I took a picture of my hands holding a volleyball and drew from that picture." She focused on light and shade with a pencil. "I first sketched an outline and over a couple of days drew the picture with lines to make shadows."
Joy Varley has been the Director of Fine Arts for the Byram Hills School District for 25 years. She says there has always been an art show. "Our model for the reception is a professional gallery. If you go to an opening at a big gallery in New York, there is always live music. We have included musicians as part of our opening for eleven years. The first hour of music is from our middle school and the second hour of music is from the high school. It is a good opportunity for the musicians to perform in a different environment then they usually find themselves in. There is a lot of activity going on here. The kids are very talented, but they have to concentrate on their own performance.
"The teachers at Byram Hills middle and high school start planning the show in December. They accumulate all the works from the first semester, decide what to put in the show, and then in one day we transform the Bobcat Hall into an art exhibit. The eight art teachers come together and quickly figure out how everything fits in the lay of the land and then they hang the work. The teachers are incredibly talented. Year after year they help a variety of students to find their voice."
