This and That by JL

Much of government funding for the arts over the past 50 years has been built on the premise that “matching funds” were the mark of a successful project. If an organization could come up with a match, it seemed to assure funders that the project would be viable.  For agencies like the National Endowment for […]

There’s something magical about a work of art that sends me an inaudible message from the artist. Usually, it’s a clue that allows me to perceive the work in a totally unexpected way. That is how I felt about the eight artists who won ten coveted commissions for artworks on the new Governor Mario M. Cuomo […]

It’s a little early to be thinking about pumpkins. The roses are hardly in bloom. But ever since COVID-19 became a crisis, Waddell Stillman has been obsessed with those orange creatures of fall. Stillman is not a farmer, but the President and CEO of Historic Hudson Valley (HHV), the organization that, in 2005 dreamed up […]

In the northern part of Westchester, where I live, spring is announced by the high tones of the chipmunks and the baritones of the bullfrogs. I watch the little creatures scurrying about all day and at night. I listen to the groans of the bullfrogs. For me, these signs of re-emerging life are a metaphor for […]

Elliot Fox strides into his empty theater on a recent coronavirus day. He’s never seen it so forlorn. No sounds of clapping. It’s empty for the fourth week in a row. During those four weeks, he has incredulously cancelled or postponed 72 performances between March and May. Now that Governor Cuomo has hit the New […]

    Jeff Haydon is in a contemplative sort of mood. As CEO of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, he is pondering a momentous decision. Every summer since 1945, there has been a music festival at its 90-acre property in Katonah, NY, 50 miles north of New York City. Caramoor’s renowned music […]

                                                                                                    We at ArtsWestchester are launching […]

    In times like these, what do we need? A touch… a voice…perhaps, a hand…a place to sigh, or cry… maybe we need a space to think of things to come, of ways to cope. In these uncertain times, we need a song to sing… a path to follow… a phrase to give us hope. Some words may help us believe again. We need a way, a means, to help us fathom […]