This and That by JL

  Hearing the roar of Niagara Falls for the first time since I was eight years old was chilling. Perhaps it was because I heard it not at the edge of the falls but in a cavernous 19th century ruin. It was at the abandoned pool house on the historic Lyndhurst estate. It was an […]

     I cringed when I heard Russian President Vladimir Putin announce: “There is no such thing as happiness…it’s only a mirage.” Shocked as I was, it seemed to me to be the ultimate denial of three American ideals embodied in our Declaration of Independence – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.      […]

“My guest blogger this week is my assistant Megan Thomson Connor. Megan is a gifted writer and arts administrator who discusses the history of Juneteenth in the blog below. ” – Janet Langsam In 2020, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order recognizing Juneteenth as a holiday for state employees. Westchester County officials decided […]

Americans seem to love symbols. It’s our shorthand or slang for announcing who we are or how we feel. So it’s no wonder that masks have become as popular as T-shirts, baseball hats or decals as a way of announcing an affiliation or a point of view. As a kid growing up in Far Rockaway, […]

Walk…stroll…skip…or crawl—however you ambulate, get yourself to this season’s Westchester Craft Crawl. It’s hard to believe it’s nearly a year ago that I bought a charming ceramic sculpture at “the crawl.” What fun it is when artists organize their own events. Never to be daunted by Covid or anything else. There are ten stops—in Tarrytown, […]

There seems to be a new way of thinking that is surfacing in the arts community. It may be something that’s been evolving quietly over time and just now bubbling up to the surface. Here’s what seems to be emerging. As we try to Restart the Arts, we confront anew that arts and culture are more […]

Just when I thought I knew everything about Abraham Lincoln, I found out something new while watching the fabulous CNN documentary on his life. Now, we all know that history is often tinged with various interpretations of events. No surprise there. But my “a-ha“ moment was truly a revelation, and a source of great pride as […]

Artist Charles Fazzino says he makes art like he makes lasagna—layer upon layer. We caught up with him recently when he made an unsolicited $5,000 gift to ArtsWestchester’s Artist Relief Fund. As an artist himself, he has been concerned about the plight of many fellow creatives who have been unemployed during  Covid. According to a […]