Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

The St. Bonaventure University Department of Visual and Performing Arts will host the National Players production of Shakespeare’s “Othello” on Monday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m. in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. The production is part of the department’s Martine Performing Arts Series, designed to bring a broader variety of music, theater and dance to the university community and selected by the faculty-artists of SBU’s music and theater programs. “Othello” is the story of a celebrated black general returning home from war and the hatred he encounters because of his race. His most trusted aide, Iago, devises a plot to ruin him. Soon, Othello and his loving wife, Desdemona, are caught in a terrifying trap of lies and murder. In the National Players’ production, directed by the company’s artistic director Jason King Jones, “Othello” is given a contemporary design. Shakespeare’s brilliant words combine with the resonance of identity and racial tension to transform “Othello” in...

The public is invited to view the new exhibitions for fall at The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University. Among the highlights are exhibitions celebrating the wilderness of the United States, Asian art and a Day of the Dead celebration. The exhibition “On Nature’s Terms: Paintings by Thomas Paquette Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act” opens Aug. 28 in the Beltz Gallery and runs through Nov. 22. Fifty years have passed since the Wilderness Act of 1964 was signed into law, protecting the wildest remaining lands in the United States. This exhibition celebrates the places preserved by that law — places that thrive not by dint of industry and scientific progress but by the forces of nature alone, protected from significant human intrusion. Paquette’s paintings in “On Nature’s Terms” were inspired by his journeys to federal wilderness areas all across the country. The great diversity and vitality of environments that comprise the ...

A mayoral citation discovered in the archives of a German opera house earned Ludwig Brunner a trip to New York City last week to speak at the International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy in the USA. Brunner, the executive director of the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University, gave the keynote talk on Friday, the final day of the three-city, five-day symposium titled “U.S. Cultural Diplomacy in Practice: Building Cultural Bridges to Strengthen the Relationships between America and the Global Community.” The first three days of the symposium were held in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. A native of Austria, Brunner was the artistic and organizational consultant for the production of “Porgy and Bess” in Berlin (1988-1994). It was the first time that a European opera house auditioned for singers in Harlem. Ed Koch, then mayor of New York, issued a glowing citation in 1988 to the city of Berlin, calling the venture “a vital part of a truly importan...

What makes a house a home? Throughout American history, people have lived in all sorts of places — from military barracks and two-story colonials to college dormitories and row houses. “House & Home,” a new exhibition at The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University, embarks on a tour of houses both familiar and surprising, through past and present, to explore the varied history and many cultural meanings of the American home. Drawn from the flagship installation at the National Building Museum, “House & Home” explores how our ideal of the perfect house and our experience of what it means to “be at home” have changed over time. Visitors will learn about issues of housing inequality, land distribution and the role of the government from the colonial period through the Homestead Act and the creation of the Federal Housing Administration in the 1930s. Featured films, construction materials, domestic artifacts and photographs immerse viewer...

The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University, in conjunction with The Ink Well in Allegany, is offering a four-day summer art camp for children ages 6 to 11. The camp, Hidden Treasures, will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday, Aug. 6 through 9. Mornings will be spent in and around the Quick Center on campus, with afternoon activities taking place at the Ink Well. Children will walk from campus to the Ink Well each day, stopping on the Allegheny River Valley Trail along the way to enjoy their own bagged lunch. On Thursday, the camp’s last day, they will be treated to a pizza party. Students will explore the hidden wonders of art each morning and create their own marvels at The Ink Well in the afternoon. “Art is everywhere, and each day, students will reveal these hidden wonders, finding treasures in daily adventures on the university campus, surrounding areas, on nature walks, and on our daily picnics,” said Evelyn Sabina, curator of education at ...

The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University will hold its second annual Family Day, filled with activities throughout the galleries, from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25. Activities start at noon with face-painting and balloon art in the Quick Center atrium, a puppet theater performance of “Hansel and Gretel” in the Beltz Gallery, a scavenger hunt in the Dresser Gallery, a poetry writing event in the Kenney Gallery, and CSI (Culture Scene Investigation), another scavenger hunt-type event in the Letro Laine Gallery. Guided tours of the museum galleries will also be available, and all of these activities can be enjoyed by all family members free of charge. At 2 p.m., the Quick Center will host a presentation of the children’s opera “Seasons in the Glen” by Tri-Cities Opera of Binghamton, for which there is a nominal admission charge. Written by Owego native Charles Knauf, this work was inspired by the composer’s childhood experiences growing up in Owego and ...

The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University has opened an exhibition of artwork created by elementary school students from across the Twin Tiers. This annual art contest and exhibition for students in grades K-5 features 74 works of art chosen from among more than 750 entries submitted by students from 19 schools in New York and Pennsylvania. The exhibition is meant to encourage budding artists by exhibiting their work in the same way the renowned art museum would feature any artist accomplished enough to be exhibited in a Quick gallery, said Evelyn Sabina, curator of education at the Quick Center. Each piece was carefully matted and framed, then hung in the museum’s atrium. The proud artists, with moms, dads and other family members in tow, were the center of attention at a Dec. 1 reception opening the month-long exhibition. A panel of jurors composed of four St. Bonaventure students selected the 74 winning entries. In addition to being included in the exhibi...

The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University opens the fall season with a number of new exhibitions and programs that focus on the art and music of the 20th century. Works from various artists and movements of the 20th century are on display in the Quick Art Center’s Paul W. Beltz Gallery in the exhibition “Out of the Soupcan: Art of the Mid-Century and Beyond,” on exhibition now through Dec. 30. Highlighted among these works are Moroccan inspired paintings by Cecile Brunswick. Also included are works by Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring, and Helen Frankenthaler on loan from Bonnie Perryman in memory of her brother, Robert Young, as well as a rotating selection of 150 photos by Andy Warhol recently received by the Quick Center from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts through a nationally competitive grant. Accompanying the exhibition is a guide to the interchange of psychology and art written by St. Bonaventure professor of psychology Dr. Robin Valeri....

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Following a distinguished nine-year term of service, Associate Vice President and Executive Director of the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, Joseph A. LoSchiavo, will step down as the center’s leader effective Dec. 31, 2011, to pursue new professional opportunities. “While we certainly respect Joe’s decision and wish him the very best, we sincerely regret the loss of his leadership for the Quick Center for the Arts. He will leave us having accomplished significant milestones and having generated national and international recognition of our museum, University collection, and our institution’s capacity to present major exhibitions,” said Brenda L. McGee, Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration. University President Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., said that LoSchiavo’s commitment to enriching the artistic and cultural opportunities of citizens throughout the Twin Tiers region will be his legacy. “Joe ran with the university’s vision to establish th...

A piece of communal art created by 17 St. Bonaventure University students will be displayed at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts on campus beginning Friday (April 1). The students have studied painting with Constance Pierce, associate professor of visual arts at St. Bonaventure, whose solo exhibition “Kyrie: World Cry” closes at the Quick Center on Friday. A shared opening/closing reception to meet Pierce and the student artists will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. Friday at the Quick Center. The event is free and open to the public. The students’ work, titled “Earth Song,” is composed of 34 individual canvases. Each artist created two interrelated paintings, called a diptych, so that the individual canvases connect together and wrap around the walls of the Quick Center’s new Raw Space Gallery. “The students’ works were inspired by the beautiful contours of botanical forms, and the total communal piece expresses a positive environmental message, emphasizing the beauty, grace and interde...

There may never be a better opportunity to acquire affordable artwork than at Monday’s silent art auction at St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. The minimum bid for any of the approximately 50 pieces is just $5, and a “buy it now” bid of $25 will secure any artist’s work. But most pieces will go for more than the minimum and some for more than $25 as bidders find themselves moved more by the tug at their hearts than the pull on their wallets. Monday’s Art From The Heart silent auction at the Quick Center, which begins at 6:30 p.m. and is open to the public, continues a collaboration between the arts center and area elementary schools. It’s a partnership that uses arts education as a vehicle for helping fourth-graders make a difference in the lives of others. The auction will feature art created by fourth-graders at Olean’s East View Elementary School, as well as some works of St. Bonaventure students who have been involved in the project. Winning bidders w...

Three women plus 12 instruments equals one good time when the trio Simple Gifts takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 11, in the sixth concert of the Friends of Good Music season at St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. Drawing on an impressive variety of ethnic folk styles, this award-winning trio plays everything from lively Irish jigs and down-home American reels to hard-driving Klezmer frailachs and haunting Gypsy melodies, spicing the mix with the distinctive rhythms of Balkan dance music, the lush sounds of Scandinavian twin fiddling, and original compositions written in a traditional style. Combining tradition with innovation, Simple Gifts creates some of the finest arrangements in folk music today: swing fiddle creeps into a Romanian dance, spoons show up in an Irish reel, and the concertina ventures far beyond styles considered traditional for that instrument. Based in the hills of Pennsylvania, the trio – Linda Littleton, Rachel Hall and Kare...

The U.S. Air Force Band of Liberty’s New England Winds will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, at St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. Presented by the Quick Center and the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at St. Bonaventure, the concert is free and open to the public. The New England Winds have been recognized by audiences throughout the northeastern United States for their passionate and refined performances. Concert goers have been treated to a challenging repertoire with music from the Baroque era to newly commissioned works. Whether performing at small stage recitals or the International Double Reed Convention, the quintet creates an intimate musical setting through its versatility, its compelling and expressive music-making, and its ability to interact with listeners. Every member of the quintet is a dedicated chamber player with years of study on his or her instrument. This outstanding musical group is on tour from Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass. T...

A solo exhibition by Constance Pierce, associate professor of drawing and painting at St. Bonaventure University, has opened at the university’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. The exhibition, titled “Kyrie: World Cry,” is in the Front Gallery of the Quick Center and runs through March. Pierce is drawn toward the archetypal aspects of the Judeo Christian religious experience, but creates a more contemporary expression of these themes. She often works with scriptural images of lamentation, absolution and transcendence, and fleshes out parable to reveal the relevance of these ancient stories to today’s world of dissonance and division. Pierce confronts these images in all of their darkness and light, and embraces them for the revelations they provide the human soul. Several drawings in this exhibition are visual meditations on the haunting and disturbing consequences of war. These and other images prompt questions on issues of faith, tolerance and ethics. Another series, executed in...

The Moscow-based Chamber Orchestra Kremlin will perform at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 6, in the fifth concert of the Friends of Good Music season at St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. Under the leadership of music director Misha Rachlevsky, Chamber Orchestra Kremlin will perform Rossini’s “Sonata for Strings,” Prokofiev’s “Visions Fugitives” (in an arrangement for chamber orchestra by Rudolf Barshai), and Tchaikovsky’s passionate masterpiece “Serenade for Strings, opus 48.” Founded in 1991, the orchestra consists of some of Russia’s finest young string players and has carved a niche for itself under the creative baton of Rachlevsky, its founder and music director. In addition to an active season of presenting concerts and festivals in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Chamber Orchestra Kremlin tours regularly in North and South America, Europe and the Far East. The orchestra has recorded more than 30 CDs, many of which have won international awards. After a recent conc...

Combo Nuvo, one of New York’s leading jazz ensembles, will perform a holiday program at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, in the fourth concert of the Friends of Good Music season at St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. This unique improvisational ensemble is composed of some of New York City’s leading jazz artists, such as Dave Schroeder, artistic director and harmonica specialist, special guest saxophonist and Grammy winner Billy Drewes, and renowned arranger and composer Rich Shemaria. For this performance, Drewes replaces Lenny Pickett, musical director for NBC-TV’s “Saturday Night Live.” Pickett was originally scheduled as one of the guest artists, but is committed to that night’s live airing of SNL. Combo Nuvo will perform some of the original compositions from the CD “Nouveau Sketches” along with their own arrangements of beloved holiday songs. The group is featured on the forthcoming CD “Christmas from the Blue Note,” recorded at New York City’s legendary...

Copies of “The Great Wave off Kanagawa,” a famous woodblock print by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the British Museum in London, and the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University. This summer, those renowned art centers share that distinction with public libraries and institutions in at least 16 communities in southwestern New York and northwestern Pennsylvania, where mosaic reproductions of the famous print are being created one small ceramic square at a time. Each of these mosaics is the work of as many as 90 artists – from elementary school-age youngsters to teens and adults. The project is part of the summer reading program hosted by public libraries nationwide. “The theme for the summer reading program this year is ‘Make a Splash/Make Waves,’” said Evelyn Sabina, curator of education at the Quick Center. “It reminded me of ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa,’ a picture in our Asian collection, so I...