The Moor Unhinged

Jealousy, racism, deception and betrayal. Sounds like a recipe for the latest HBO series…sort of like The Borgias…only steamier. No, it’s not that at all. It’s The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, written perhaps in 1603, and now given a new spin at a 90-minute performance at the new amphitheater at the Hudson River Museum […]

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Ask Any Artist

What I like about Independence Day is that it reminds me of my own independence.  That may sound silly, but with all the hoopla, I can pretend that it’s not just about my country, but about me too, someone who lives here and enjoys all of the freedoms denied to others in other places.  For […]

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Small Business Rocks

Warren Buffet had it right when he committed to giving away more than half his money to charity. “If you’re in the luckiest one percent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 percent.”  And, indeed, 86% of the $316 billion giving reported in 2012, is by […]

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Mixing It Up at the Neuberger

In a new exhibition at the Neuberger Museum of Art, four major contemporary Latin American artists – Enrique Chagoya, Demián Flores, Rubén Ortiz-Torres, and Nadín Ospina – are exploring and redefining their relationship to the pre-Columbian past of their countries of origin. The art of the Aztecs, Incas and Mayans is a formidable cultural heritage.  […]

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Master of the Double Take

Colombian artist Federico Uribe is obsessed with objects… not just some objects, but many… books, sneakers, shoes, shoelaces, cartons, to name a few. His work is currently on view at the Hudson River Museum in an installation called Fantasy River which nearly rivals the museum’s famous Ruckus Manhattan by Red Grooms. There’s a certain irony […]

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Sculpting the Future in Ossining

My guest blogger this week is Jonah Jeng, our talented Communications intern who also happens to be a terrific writer with a knack for analyzing art. He just finished his freshman year at the University of Rochester, where he’s double majoring in brain & cognitive science and film & media studies. I gave Jonah an […]

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Let’s Talk

Like Ed Koch, I frequently ask the question, “How’re we doing?” Mine is not a personal question, not quite a global one, but more or less a national one. My yardstick is more moral than monetary. I tend to fall back on President Kennedy’s standard that, “This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.” […]

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ArtsBash, Then and Now

I remember it well.  Our first ArtsBash in our brand new, old historic building in 1999.  I thought of this today as preparations got underway for this year’s ArtsBash tomorrow night.  We purchased the building at 31 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains in 1998.  It had been empty for five years. Our next door neighbor was […]

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