Brooklyn Arts Council hosts Alive With Art
A
Party and Auction to Benefit the Arts in
Brooklyn
March 23, 2010
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Brooklyn Arts Council will hold its annual
benefit and auction, Alive With Art, on March 23,
2010 from
6:30-9pm at The Bell House.Alive With Art will
honor Michael A. Armstrong, a lifelong and
ardent supporter
of Brooklyn's cultural community;
Jane Walentas, acclaimed visual artist and restorer
of Jane's Carousel; and Randy Weston, world-renowned
African rhythms pianist, composer and lecturer.
Guests
at Alive With Art will enjoy cocktails, hors
d‘oeuvres by Taste Caterers and entertainment by the
David O'Rourke Quintet with David O'Rourke (guitar),
Jeremy Pelt (trumpet), George Mesterhazy & Fintan O'Neill
(piano/keyboards) and Jonathan Mele (drums), performing
classics from the Great American Songbook and more.
The evening's entertainment also includes the Jazz
Standard Youth Orchestra,
a fiscally
sponsored project of Brooklyn Arts Council featuring young
musicians ranging in age from 11 to 17.
Brooklynites Johannes Smith (trumpet), Nick Green
(saxophone) and Luca Rosenfeld (bass) are among the line-up
of stellar young performers.
The
benefit auction will include original artworks by artists
Audrey Frank Anastasi, A.J. Bocchino, Steve DeFrank,
Julian Jackson, Lisa Kellner, Anders Knutsson, Mike Lash,
Fahamu Pecou, Melodie Provenzano, Susan Rowland,
Danny Simmons, and Heidi Van Wieren, among others; a New
York Water Taxi private charter,
a one-week stay at
a beautiful villa in Calabria, Italy;
fine wines and a host of other tempting items.
TICKETS
Individual tickets are $250, and group and corporate
packages with ad pages in the commemorative journal are also
available. All proceeds will benefit Brooklyn Arts Council’s
programs and services.
Please visit
www.brooklynartscouncil.org or contact
Katy Higgins at 718.625.0080 for more information and to
purchase tickets.
ABOUT THE HONOREES
MICHAEL A. ARMSTRONG
Armstrong has been involved in the civic and cultural
life of Brooklyn since the 1970s, as an award-winning
newspaper editor, an ardent supporter of the arts and an
active participant in the public life of the borough.
Armstrong spent more than two decades publishing community
newspapers, founding The Phoenix Newspaper in
Brooklyn in 1972, which chronicled and supported the
renaissance of the borough’s cultural life. He also
published The Villager, the hometown newspaper of
Greenwich Village.
After his newspaper days, Armstrong became Director of
Public Affairs for Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden,
responsible for research, media, public relations and
special events for the Borough of Brooklyn. Upon the Borough
President’s retirement, Armstrong became the Public
Relations Director of Independence Community Bank its
associated Independence Community Foundation. He is
currently a media and marketing consultant at Armstrong &
Associates.
A Brooklyn resident since the 1960’s, Armstrong has been a
member of Brooklyn Arts Council's Board of Directors since
1980. He is also a member of the board of the Old Stone
House Museum and has previously served as an officer and/or
member of the Board of Directors of the New York State Press
Association, Prospect Park Alliance, Brooklyn Philharmonic
Symphony Orchestra and Atlantic Avenue Local Development
Corp., the parent organization of the Atlantic Antic.
Jane Walentas
Walentas recently
completed a 25 year, total restoration of a magnificent hand
carved, 3-row, 48-horse Carousel. Made in 1922 by the
Philadelphia Toboggan Company, the Carousel, now known as
“Jane’s Carousel,” was the first to have been placed on the
National Register of Historic Places. It will be permanently
installed in Brooklyn Bridge Park, between the Brooklyn and
Manhattan Bridges in an exciting pavilion designed by world
renowned architect Jean Nouvel. Jane’s Carousel is scheduled
to open to the public next spring 2011.
Walentas worked for many years as
an Art Director for Estee Lauder and has had numerous design
positions on other major consumer brands. She came to New
York after working for an Advertising Agency, Testa
Publicita, in Torino, Italy. Originally from Teaneck, N.J.,
Jane graduated from Moore College of Art & Design in
Philadelphia in 1966 with a BFA in Advertising Design and
received an MFA in Printmaking from NYU in 1985. Jane serves
on the Board of Directors of Moore College of Art where she
has recently established a fully endowed 4 year Scholarship
and International Travel Fellowship.
Walentas has participated with
her husband David and their son Jed in the development of
the Dumbo neighborhood. The Walentas’ live and work (and
play) in DUMBO, except on weekends when they play at their
farm Two Trees Stables, a show horse and polo facility in
Bridgehampton, L.I.
Randy Weston
After
contributing six decades of musical direction and genius,
Brooklyn-born Randy Weston remains one of the world's
foremost pianists and composers today, a true innovator and
visionary. Encompassing the vast rhythmic heritage of
Africa, his global creations musically continue to inform
and inspire. "Weston has the biggest sound of any jazz
pianist since Ellington and Monk, as well as the richest
most inventive beat," states jazz critic Stanley Crouch,
"but his art is more than projection and time; it's the
result of a studious and inspired intelligence ... an
intelligence that is creating a fresh synthesis of African
elements with jazz technique.”
Weston’s first recording as a leader came in 1954 on
Riverside Records’ Cole Porter in a Modern Mood. He played
around New York with Cecil Payne and Kenny Dorham throughout
the 1950’s, and it was during this period that he wrote many
of his best loved tunes: "Saucer Eyes," "Pam's Waltz,"
"Little Niles," and "Hi-Fly."
Weston’s music in the 60’s drew in prominent African
elements, showcased in albums such as "Uhuru Africa and
Highlife: Music from the New African Nations." The 1990's
witnessed a string of recordings on Verve Records that
exhibited Weston’s pioneering musical aspirations. In 1991,
he told the story of the roots of the blues on Spirits of
our Ancestors. The Splendid Master Gnawa Musicians of
Morocco was recorded in 1992, followed by Volcano Blues in
1993, Saga in 1996, Earth Birth in 1997, and Khepera in
1998, which drew connections between African and Chinese
music.
Weston has garnered numerous awards, including an honorary
Doctor of Music from Brooklyn College, tributes and
residencies at New York University and Harvard, a Jazz
Masters Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts,
the Arts Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana’s Black
Music Star Award, The French Order Of Arts And Letters, and
a five-night tribute at the Montreal Jazz Festival. He was
named Composer of the Year three times by Down Beat
Magazine, and in 2009, Weston was added to the ASCAP Jazz
Wall of Fame.
ABOUT BAC
Founded
in 1966, Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC) is the leading
nonprofit organization serving Brooklyn artists and cultural
groups in the visual, performing, media and literary arts,
and ensuring Brooklyn residents have access to affordable
arts experiences. We are the go-to service group for
Brooklyn artists, and for finding out about the wide array
of cultural groups and projects in our area. We’re also one
of the main organizations working to preserve the arts in
Brooklyn schools, after school programs and community
centers. Our leadership has helped Brooklyn become home to
more artists than any other borough, and for the arts to
flourish in Brooklyn’s amazing diversity of neighborhoods.
BAC has
been called the best kept secret in the City. New Yorkers
who attend our programs rave that this is where they
discover new artists – from the cutting-edge to
heritage-based.
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