ECHOES OF THE SUN KING | Baroque Chamber Music
TOMORROW: Saturday, June 29 at 3:00PM
From the grandeur of Versailles to the intimate chambers of Köthen, experience how Louis XIV's patronage projected French culture across Europe, shaping the musical landscape for generations to come. Join us for an afternoon of Baroque splendor as we uncover the enduring legacy of the Ancien Régime through the music of François Couperin, Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, J.S. Bach, and others.
David Ross, baroque flute
Arnie Tanimoto, viola da gamba
Tami Morse, harpsichord
Entry to this event is complimentary. There is a recommended donation of $25 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. Your donations support both our programs and the musicians.
THE ROAD AHEAD | Opening Reception
TOMORROW: Saturday, June 29 at 6:00PM
The Road Ahead is an exhilarating group exhibition, celebrating the best works of Gen-Z artists. RIVAA has invited young creators to submit their most compelling pieces, offering a platform for their raw thoughts and feelings. Curated by Elena Jordan, Amazia Thompson, and Tiko El Outa, the exhibition showcases a vibrant collage of diverse works selected by an international panel of jurors. Join us at RIVAA Gallery to experience the bold and innovative visions of tomorrow's artists firsthand!
The exhibition runs from June 27 - July 14, 2024 at RIVAA Gallery, 527 Main Street, Roosevelt Island 10044. All are welcome, and entry is free.
On Wednesday July 6, the plywood wall was removed from the front of the
MTA's East River Ventilation shaft across from the Roosevelt Island F Train
subway station to unveil the Double Take mosaic by artist Diana Cooper....
The story starts in February, 2013 when the RIHS asked RIOC to find a
better design for the wall outside the vent shaft building across from our
subway station.
When at a RIOC Operations Committe meeting I learned of the project and
that a brick wall was the idea planned for the wall. The RIOC Operations
Committee approved the idea and informed New York Transit.
Little did I know this would be a 10 year odyssey.
The first step was for architects to come and examine the site. They
arrived by subway and commented on the ugly site of the vent shaft
building obstructing the Manhattan skyline.
A time later MTA Arts for Transit (now MTA Art & Design) held a
meeting with a committee of professional including curators, artists,
political representatives and staff to select a group of artists to be
asked to submit designs. After reviewing the work of about 25 artists the
group was down to five candidates.
After submissions by three artists (two were not available) Diana Cooper
was chosen. This was just the beginning of the project that suffered from
many delays....
RIVAA Gallery is holding an Affordable Art Sale on December 7,8,9 and 10. This Family Friendly event is a perfect opportunity to start your art collection or find a holiday gift at an affordable price.
This year we are holding a raffle. Tickets are $5.00 each, on sale at RIVAA during the Affordable Art Sale. A few pieces of art by our members will be given away at the 4PM drawing on Sunday, December 10.
The 5 pieces of art below, all by RIVAA artists, will be raffled away.
Purchase a raffle ticket for $5 at the sale. The raffle winners will be
announced this Sunday at 4pm.
Please support RIVAA, the gallery artists and art on Roosevelt Island
and buy a raffle ticket or a piece of art by a RIVAA member.
I spoke with RIVVA Gallery artists Laura Hussey and Tony Vita about the Affordable Art Fair.
On Wednesday July 6, the plywood wall was removed from the front of the MTA's
East River Ventilation shaft across from the Roosevelt Island F Train subway
station to unveil the Double Take mosaic by
artist Diana Cooper.
The story starts in February, 2013 when the RIHS asked RIOC to find a better
design for the wall outside the vent shaft building across from our subway
station.
When at a RIOC Operations Committe meeting I learned of the project and that
a brick wall was the idea planned for the wall. The RIOC Operations
Committee approved the idea and informed New York Transit.
Little did I know this would be a 10 year odyssey.
The first step was for architects to come and examine the site. They arrived
by subway and commented on the ugly site of the vent shaft building
obstructing the Manhattan skyline.
A time later MTA Arts for Transit (now MTA Art & Design) held a meeting
with a committee of professional including curators, artists, political
representatives and staff to select a group of artists to be asked to submit
designs. After reviewing the work of about 25 artists the group was down to
five candidates.
After submissions by three artists (two were not available) Diana Cooper was
chosen.
This was just the beginning of the project that suffered from many
delays....
We are thrilled that when you emerge from the subway your vista will include
this vibrant mosaic mural. It has been a long time coming but definitely
worth the wait.
Next month Diana Cooper will be here to see her mural installed. A
celebration will take place very soon.
In the meantime enjoy the longest artpiece on the island 96 feet long and 8
feet high.
In May 2022 I spoke with Double Take mosaic artist Diana Cooper
and Ms Berdy who describe the 10 year effort to create and install the Double
Take mosaic.
According to this July 11 MTA Press release:
MTA Arts & Design today announced the installation of a new permanent
artwork on Roosevelt Island by Diana Cooper, Double Take. It is located across
from the F train subway stop and is part of the East Side Access project that
brought Long Island Rail Road service to Grand Central Madison.
Cooper was initially inspired by the visual experience of traveling through
the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel and moving from an artificial underground environment
into a world of steel, glass, and stone in Manhattan, with buildings set at
different angles and punctuated by blue skies and waterways and the greens and
browns of New Jersey.
When she visited the MTA site, Cooper was struck by how similar her experience
was to the one subway riders have when they arrive on Roosevelt Island. Riders
leave the reflected light of the subway tunnel to scale long metallic
escalators and emerge into a building with large glass windows and views of
the island greenery and the blue of the East River.
Cooper’s designs consider the geometric forms found in the ventilation
building, the Queensboro Bridge, the MTA subway station, Louis Kahn’s FDR
Memorial, and the Roosevelt Island Tram, set against the grand backdrop of the
East River. The wall designs marry abstract geometric shapes with organic
forms, based on photographs she took of the river, as well as hand drawn
imagery of fluid forms with colors that evoke the Island’s grass and trees.
The gate design refers directly to the building’s louvers but is more
colorful, playful, and permeable. Her hope is that people will feel
transported smoothly and delightfully from the canyons of the MTA to an island
surrounded by a river, with mountains of skyscrapers as backdrop.
“Upon arriving or departing, Roosevelt Islanders and visitors are greeted by
Diana Cooper’s colorful mosaic and metal artwork,” said Sandra Bloodworth,
Director, MTA Arts & Design. “It is quite exciting to see the realization
of Double Take — and it will do just that, stop you in your tracks for a
double take! One that will make you say, wow.”
Diana Cooper explained, “On first visiting the site I was struck by its visual
potential. One emerges from the subway to see sky, a bridge, water, a
ventilation structure, and Manhattan behind it all. That’s quite a mix. I
wanted to pull all these elements together and somehow capture in a single
work the dynamic energy latent in the experience. My aim was to blend the
rigid geometric elements with fluid color to capture the play of light on the
water especially. It was an exciting project that opened up new avenues in my
artistic practice.”
About Diana Cooper
Diana Cooper is a New York-based mixed-media artist whose abstract works are
inspired by patterns found in nature and the artificial human environment,
which she transforms and translates into her own visual language. A former
Rome Prize fellow (2004), Cooper has exhibited at numerous galleries and
institutions, including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary
Art Cleveland, PS 1/MOMA, the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, and
the New Museum of Contemporary Art. She has completed several public
commissions, including at the Jerome Parker Campus, Staten Island,
commissioned by NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Public Art for Public
Schools and at the Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech. She holds a BA from
Harvard and an MFA from Hunter College.
About MTA Arts & Design
MTA Arts & Design encourages the use of public transportation by providing
visual and performing arts in the metropolitan New York area. The Percent for
Art program is one of the largest and most diverse collections of
site-specific public art in the world, with more than 350 commissions by
world-famous, mid-career and emerging artists. Arts & Design produces
Graphic Arts, Digital Art, photographic Lightbox exhibitions, as well as live
musical performances in stations through its Music Under New York (MUSIC)
program, and the Poetry in Motion program in collaboration with the Poetry
Society of America. It serves the millions of people who rely upon MTA subways
and commuter trains and strives to create meaningful connections between
sites, neighborhoods, and people.
Iranian artists Sheida Soleimani, Aphrodite Désirée Navab, Z, Icy and Sot,
Shirin Neshat, Mahvash Mostala, Sepideh Mehraban, and Shirin Towfiq, alongside
artists Hank Willis Thomas and JR, activate New York’s FDR Four Freedoms State
Park with a provocative multi-day and multi-media art installation facing the
United Nations entitled Eyes on Iran.
Timed for the U.N. Women’s initiative,
16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, the arresting site-specific installations are focused on the power of
collective sight, with eyes facing the UN and signifying the world’s eyes on
Iran. The large-scale artworks will be unveiled on November 28th. ‘Eyes in the
Sky’ flying billboards featuring artworks by Hank Willis Thomas and Mahvash
will fly on 12/3 in NYC and in Miami on 11/28 and 11/30. In addition, an
interactive installation by artist JR will take place on December 4th at FDR
Four Freedoms State Park. Eyes on Iran aims to amplify the mission of
Woman, Life, Freedom, a campaign demanding that the Islamic Republic of Iran is removed from the
Commission on the Status of Women...
‘’We are calling on the world to take more action, starting at the United
Nations. We must remove Iran from the U.N.’s Commission on the Status of
Women. The fact that Iran is a member is a bitter irony,” says Clinton. “What
we are seeing is a revolution led by young women who are just not willing to
live with the loss of freedom being imposed upon them.” November 28th, which
marks the activation at FDR Four Freedoms State Park, is also the anniversary
of the 1943 Tehran Conference where Allied leaders, Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin met in Tehran to coordinate the Allied
military strategy and also significantly stated a shared desire for the
maintenance of the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of
Iran. Today, Woman, Life, Freedom shares a similar call for human rights for
the women and people of Iran...
“The world’s eyes have been focused on the courage of Iranian citizens in
their quest for freedom, in the face of increasingly grave danger,” states
human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam Mackay. “The Islamic Republic has
censored them and attempted to blind the world to the potential of this
movement. Eyes on Iran is our response to their call for a free Iran. The
world must keep our eyes on the brave citizens of Iran and open to the
possibility of justice. We must keep our eyes on the UN in our call to remove
the Islamic Republic of Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women in the
face of their brutal repression.”
This activation is a partnership between artist collective For Freedoms, a
coalition of Iranian women leaders and Vital Voices Global Partnership, a
non-profit elevating women leaders. As we go into the third month of worldwide
protests launched and led by Iranian women and girls after the tragic death of
22-year-old
Mahsa Jina Amini, more than 300 protesters have reportedly died and nearly 15,000 have been
jailed, while reports of extreme punishments and harsh crackdowns against
protestors by Iranian authorities have flooded international headlines.
“When we say that we must keep our “Eyes on Iran,” we mean that what is
happening deserves not only our attention but our vision. In solidarity with
the courageous Iranians who are risking their lives to express their human
rights, many artists throughout the diaspora and beyond are bringing our
vision to bear to ensure international audiences and institutions remain aware
of what is happening in Iran, in their eyes and in their hearts, and feel
moved to respond.” - Shirin Neshat...
... This effort strives to combine the power of public advocacy and public art as a means of movement building:
Participating artists Icy and Sot add that, “No words can describe the violence people in Iran are going through but the love for freedom has defeated fear. Their courage and resistance is outstanding and inspiring the world. Winning is the only option and it's around the corner.”
Members of the public are invited to see the installation online or in person. Additional artists are featured in an online gallery featuring Emily Elise, Mahdis Nikou, Priscillia Kounkou Hoveydam, Ernesto Yerena
Hourdad, Golnar Adili, and additional Anonymous Artists.
New York State Parks Commissioner Erik Kulleseid said, “Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park reminds us that the human freedoms voiced by President Roosevelt in 1941 remain vital and relevant today. We are proud to host the “Eyes on Iran” public art installation at the park, and help draw attention to the continued struggle for equal rights across the globe.”...
Roosevelt Island resident Lauren Blankstein reports:
I am writing this post to share with my Roosevelt Island neighbors that there
is a hidden gem in our proverbial backyard -- 62nd St. just east of 2nd Ave.
-- which very few Islanders seem to know about. The New York School of the Arts (NYSA) is located in a beautiful renovated warehouse space offering a
variety of painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking and mixed media classes.
I had been making art for many years prior to enrolling in a painting class at
NYSA just before the pandemic.
They saved my sanity when they opened for socially distanced studio-style
classes in the fall of 2020. It wasn’t until then that I tapped into the depth
of my creativity and began exploring what I really wanted to say with my work.
There is a generosity and willingness among faculty to support each student’s
unique practice and help them develop a language and voice. As a result, my work
and practice transformed, and so to go deeper I enrolled in the school’s Arts Intensive Program which gives me dedicated studio space and more access to
faculty and classes. The following quote by David Bowie beautifully sums up what
I have learned and internalized:
“Always remember that the reason you initially started working is that there
was something inside yourself you felt that if you could manifest in some way
you would understand more about yourself and how you coexist with the rest of
society.”
In addition to two expansive floors of spaces for classes (not to mention a
massive library of art books), the school houses two galleries for curated
shows and a floor dedicated to private studio spaces. New York School of the
Arts is celebrating its 5th anniversary with an Open House November 2, 6-9pm.
There will be art demonstrations, refreshments, an exhibition of faculty work
and open studios of resident artists (including mine!). It’s a great
opportunity to get a feel for what the school offers. I feel incredibly
fortunate that this special place is so close to home.
“Are NFTs 'Art'?”: Talk at 3 Oct. IC3 NFT gallery opening by my colleague
Mukti Khaire, an authority on entrepreneurship in creative industries. Check
out her book, Culture and Commerce, or our NFT primer for non-technologists
at https://t.co/C2OxpxZYwo.https://t.co/V03rG4g2iS
NFT Art Gallery Opening @Cornell Tech Monday October 3, 2022 Tata Innovation
Center, 11 East Loop Road, New York, NY 10044
The Initiative for CryptoCurrencies and Contracts (IC3) invites you to an
evening of art, cutting-edge research, and NFTs. Join us for the inaugural
NFT art gallery opening at Cornell Tech in New York City. Light refreshments
will be served.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have created an exciting new area of research at
the intersection of computer science, art, law, and economics. The event
will feature the unveiling of an artist-made glass projection screen
showcasing a gallery of NFTs that represent the latest NFT research from
IC3. It will also feature talks highlighting advances in NFT technology from
faculty and students across a range of disciplines.
Our thanks to Eirik Ulversøy, a.k.a. Kitten Mittens, and to Dapper
Labs for their generous loan of historically important and rare
CryptoKitties for our experiment at the event in the psychology of NFT
viewing.
Event program:
Ari Juels (Cornell) - "Intro: What This Event Is All About"
Mukti Khaire (Cornell) - "Are NFTs 'Art'"
Phil Daian (Cornell) - "A Journey Through Glass and Blockchains"
James Grimmelmann (Cornell) - "Why NFT Licensing Is Hard"
Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg (Harvard) - "The Aura of Ones and
Zeros" (via Zoom)
Yan Ji (Cornell) - "NFT Fair Drops With Decentralized Identities"
Ittay Eyal (Technion) - "Wallet Design"
Deepak Maram (Cornell) - "Reliable NFT storage with GoAT"
Kushal Babel (Cornell) - "The Science behind Atomic NFTs"
PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS AN IN-PERSON EVENT, WITH NO ONLINE COMPONENT.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital objects that reside on blockchains
and are typically associated with unique digital media, such as images or
mu- sic. A recent frenzy of popular interest has given rise seemingly
overnight to a multi-billion NFT market. Individual NFTs can sell for
millions or tens of millions of dollars, while creators ranging from
traditional artists such as Damien Hirst and Grimes to mainstream
consumer-goods companies such as Coca-Cola and Nike are producing their own
NFT collections.
This primer’s focus is on NFTs for art and collectables. Our aim is to give
non-technical readers a basic familiarity with the technology behind NFTs,
the history of their development, the current state of the NFT community and
marketplace, and a notion of how NFTs might evolve in the future. We also
offer a brief overview of the dynamics of traditional art markets and
discuss the similarities, differences, and points of intersection in NFT
markets.
We hope that readers will come away from this primer with a basic under-
standing of how blockchains, smart contracts, and cryptographic keys work,
an appreciation of some of the novel ways in which NFTs are empowering
artists, a picture of the variety of dynamism of NFTs projects and
communities, and possibly a hankering to own at least a fractional Bored
Ape....
Learn more about NFT art from these video reports.
What’s an Atomic NFT? A new type that resists fractionalization—even by
means of keys shared off-chain. Sounds impossible? (It should at first.)
Kushal Babel
@KushalBabel
will introduce in a short talk. (At IC3 NFT gallery opening on 3 Oct.) Paper
to come. pic.twitter.com/2l4gWDIe0x
The lights of NYC are about to grow a bit brighter. Phil Daian
@phildaian
to give a talk on co-designing a ten-foot-high NFT display panel
commissioned from glassblower Jason Mack. (At IC3 NFT gallery opening on 3
Oct.
@initc3org)
pic.twitter.com/a5DHBVV7kv
Roosevelt Island resident and
iDig2Learn founder
Christina Delfico reports:
As iDig2Learn
celebrates 10 years and continues to engage the public with all things land,
air and water we are thrilled to team up with artists like
Sarah Cameron Sunde. In her
36.5 Project she will
stand in the
New York Estuary
for 12 hour and 39 minutes inviting us to explore our vulnerabilities
connected to the water.
Please join us on 9/14 from 7:27am to 10:30am at Roosevelt Island's
Lighthouse Park to peer through the telescope across the East River for a
view of Sarah in the water and learn more about her work. Meet us at the
Monarch Butterfly pollinator plantings near the Willow tree on the Queens
facing entrance of Lighthouse Park.
Others will be on hand later with the telescope as iDig2Learn joins Sarah in
the water.
36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea
(2013-present), a series of nine site-specific participatory performances
and video artworks by interdisciplinary artist
Sarah Cameron Sunde, will present its final work, 36.5 / New York Estuary, on Wednesday,
September 14 in New York City. Initially created in response to Hurricane
Sandy’s impact on New York City, this environmental artwork features Sunde
standing in ocean water for a full tidal cycle, generally 12–13 hours, as
water slowly engulfs her body and then recedes. 36.5 engages the public, who
participate in all aspects of making the live work, in personal, local, and
global conversations around sea-level rise and deep time. Spanning nine
years and six continents, 36.5, which is filmed in real-time from multiple
perspectives and livestreamed, is a radical call to reconsider our
relationship to water as individuals, as communities, and as a species.
The ninth and final artwork, 36.5 / New York Estuary, will take place on
September 14, 2022, at so- called Hallet’s Cove, located at 31-10 Vernon
Blvd, where Astoria meets Long Island City on the East River, in Queens. It
will begin at 7:27 AM and conclude at 8:06 PM. Everyone is welcome to join
Sunde standing in the water at the Cove or mark the passing hours from the
shore. Viewing stations will also be set up on the northern tip of Roosevelt
Island and the Upper East Side.
Sunde, who is based in Harlem, sees the 36.5 / New York Estuary as a
homecoming. As part of building the final artwork, she co-founded
Kin to the Cove,
a site-specific community-powered environmental public art process that
connects local residents to the cove and the water that surrounds New York
City. The group meets regularly at the performance site, building kinship
with the water and wildlife, imagining a healthier future, and committing to
future stewardship of this site.
In addition to her hyper-local socially engaged process in New York, Sunde
has assembled a large group of international partners over the project’s
nine years. On September 14, as the final performance takes place in New
York, collaborators from Bangladesh, Brazil, Kenya, the Netherlands, and
Aotearoa-New Zealand will join Sunde remotely in performances in their local
communities. These international performances will be integrated into the
livestream, which is produced by Theater Mitu and available online at
www.36pt5.org.
...
Roosevelt Island is a mixed income, racially diverse waterfront community situated in the East River of New York City between Manhattan and Queens and is jurisdictionally part of Manhattan. The Roosevelt Island Tramway, which connects Roosevelt Island to the rest of Manhattan, has become the iconic symbol of Roosevelt Island to its residents.
The Purpose of this Blog is to provide accurate and timely information about Roosevelt Island as well as a forum for residents to express opinions and engage in a dialogue to improve our community.
