Historic Hudson River Towns

The Discovery of a Masterpiece
2023-02-15 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | 20 S. Greenbush Rd.
While cataloging the artwork housed inside of the Hartley Dodge Memorial,
art historian and educator Mallory Mortillaro uncovered a masterpiece that
had been lost to the art world since the 1930’s. After a year of research
the piece was authenticated as an official work by Auguste Rodin. Mallory
will share the story of how a simple art cataloging project evolved into a
search for a mysterious piece’s provenance, and became one of the biggest
art finds in recent history.
This is a joint event of the Palisades, Orangeburg, and Tappan Libraries.

The Discovery of a Masterpiece
2023-02-15 19:00 - 20:00 | NY
While cataloging the artwork housed inside of the Hartley Dodge Memorial
Mallory Mortillaro uncovered a masterpiece that had been lost to the art
world since the 1930’s. After a year of research the piece was
authenticated as an official work by Auguste Rodin. Mallory will share the
story of how a simple art cataloging project evolved into a search for a
mysterious piece’s provenance, and became one of the biggest art finds in
recent history.
Mallory Mortillaro is an art historian and educator. She has ten years of
teaching experience, and has worked on various art research projects for
museums and organizations in the New York metropolitan area. She studied at
Drew University. Mallory resides in New Jersey with her husband.
This is a joint event of the Palisades, Orangeburg, and Tappan Libraries.

PERSONAL PROBLEMS, streaming at Rivertown Film
2023-02-17 07:00 - 2023-02-23 23:30 | https://watch.eventive.org/rivertownfilm/play/63cf3fc657fe7a004cb76468
Defying the racially exclusive Hollywood studio system, novelist Ishmael
Reed, Rockland County director Bill Gunn and a renegade group of artists
banded together to make a “meta soap opera” about the struggles of a
working class couple in New York City in 1980. They illuminated Black
reality and soap opera banality through the story of a nurse’s aid and her
husband, leading us through the stresses of their lives. “With a
Fassbinderian flair for color and a neorealist’s eye for composition…
Gunn spins a potent ensemble drama from his modest domestic
milieu.”—Hollywood Reporter. USA, 1980, 165 minutes. Zoom discussion with
cast and crew members Sam Waymon and Marshall Johnson, moderated by Bill
Batson, on 2/21.
Personal Problems was produced on 3/4” videotape in 1980 and was shown once
on PBS. It was rediscovered in 2015 and restored, but the master tapes were
too badly degraded to bring them up to modern video standards.
“George Bernard Shaw said that “If you do not tell your stories others will
tell them for you and they will vulgarize and degrade you.” With few
exceptions, this expression can be applied to Hollywood’s treatment of
Blacks from the creation of the industry to now.” – Personal Problems
writer, Ishmael Reed
“Personal Problems is among those rare, quietly unassuming avant-garde
works that takes the trouble to be genuinely entertaining while pushing
formal and textual boundaries.” —Film Comment

Hudson Valley Art and Thomas Cole (Part 1)
2023-03-07 14:00 - 15:30 | Haverstraw King’s Daughters Public Library,10 West Ramapo Road, Garnerville, NY, USA
Part 1 – Thomas Cole and the Hudson River School
Like any good hike or visit to a favorite park, landscape paintings open up
the vast world of nature. But more than a pretty picture, Thomas Cole’s
paintings are coded with a plea for preserving wilderness while growing a
country that coexists in harmony with the land. Influential today as well
as 200 years ago, this 19th-century American painter became our first
conservationist. He also recognized how important the vast expanses of land
were for shaping American identity. His followers, forming the Hudson River
School of landscape art, built on Cole’s legacy and used their works for
political persuasion. In this interactive talk, we’ll dig beyond the
surface and take a slow look at paintings that tell complex, often coded
stories of national as well as personal choice. You will leave refreshed,
with renewed vigor for our natural world and all its meaning.
Rena’s greatest passion is making art accessible, invigorating, insightful,
and fun. She has taught art history at NYU’s School for Professional
Studies and Southern Connecticut State University. Rena provides talks for
New York Adventure Club and New York Public Library, as well as many
community organizations. She conducts lively, interactive tours of museum
collections, now via Zoom. Just for fun, she has created Artventures!®
Game–a cheeky party game on the adventures of art and art history.

Hudson Valley Art and Thomas Cole (Part 2)
2023-03-07 14:00 - 15:30 | Haverstraw King’s Daughters Public Library,10 West Ramapo Road, Garnerville, NY, USA
Thomas Cole and The Voyage of Life
In this session, we take a close look at four paintings and turn our gaze
inward. Becoming a wise elder involves looking through our life
experiences, reflecting on lessons learned, and applying those as we move
forward. Thomas Cole, a 19th-century American artist who inspired the
Hudson River School of landscape art, brought these reflections to the
canvas, with his four-painting series The Voyage of Life.
Now, you have the opportunity to examine your own voyage of life in this
guided personal development session with art historian Rena Tobey. Bring a
journal or some paper and something to write with; be prepared for some
quiet reflection. In this 60-minute session, you will be thinking about
your own life using the framework of Cole’s four paintings. We will build
on the introduction to the artist in part 1 with focus on the specific
symbols and meaning embedded in each painting–all to deepen your own
thinking.
Starting with part 1 will provide more context for your personal work, and
part 2 can also stand alone. Either way, come learn about Cole’s painted
arc of lived experience, and use his model to consider your own journey on
the river of life.
Register for Part 1 of this 2-part series.

A New York Story, directed by Paul Schwartz
2023-03-17 07:00 - 2023-03-26 23:30 | https://rivertownfilm.org/12443-2/
In the tumultuous summer of 2020, four entwined New Yorkers tell stories of
how their lives have been shaped by the protests, the pandemic, and the
unforeseen consequences of both. Directed by Rockland filmmaker Paul
Schwartz, 2021, 49 minutes, with Mike Keller, Ivy Omere, Joan Porter, Ed
Setrakian.
Directors statement: The pandemic, the protests and the sense of a total
political schism in 2020 were all things I needed to address creatively,
and in a way that minimized the risk of infection for all involved. So I
tell A New York Story in four monologues by four different characters, each
with their own agenda and point of view, but the stories they tell are only
fragments the whole. I shot each actor individually, limited the crew to
one person (me), and followed strict Covid protocols so that I could
realize the story while protecting my colleagues.
$7 / $5, and free when you purchase a ticket to Paul Schwartz’s The Seasons
– Four Love Stories, screening at Rivertown Film in the Nyack Center on
March 15.

THE QUIET EPIDEMIC, streaming at Rivertown Film
2023-04-07 - 2023-04-14 | https://watch.eventive.org/rivertownfilm/play/6414e13fc8ac210059cdd751
Directed by Lindsay Keys and Winslow Crane-Murdoch
USA, 2022, 101 minutes.
After years of living with mysterious symptoms, a young girl from Brooklyn
and a Duke University scientist are diagnosed with a disease said to not
exist: Chronic Lyme disease. The Quiet Epidemic follows their search for
answers, which lands them in the middle of a vicious medical debate. What
begins as a patient story evolves into an investigation into the history of
Lyme disease, dating back to its discovery in 1975. A paper trail of
suppressed scientific research and buried documents reveals why ticks – and
the diseases they carry – have been allowed to quietly spread around the
globe.
Lyme disease is a potentially debilitating and sometimes fatal infection
caused by bacteria transmitted through the bite of an infected tick to
people and pets. Nearly half a million (476,000) or more new cases of Lyme
disease are diagnosed each year in all 50 states of the U.S. Due to the
difficulty in diagnosing and treating Lyme disease, more than two million
people suffer from its debilitating later stage symptoms. Researchers have
found that Lyme disease costs the U.S. healthcare system between $712
million and $1.3 billion a year.
“Through its masterful storytelling, The Quiet Epidemic does what any good
investigative doc should do – it informs, infuriates, breaks your heart,
and fills you with hope.”
– Awards Daily

The Beauty & Workings of Nature
2023-06-10 09:00 - 17:00 | Marydell Faith & Life Center,640 North Midland Avenue, Nyack, NY 10960, USA
Come and gain new perspectives on the beauty and workings of nature. Be
inspired in a whole new way.
For teachers, artists, parents, youth leaders, community builders, and all
who are looking to guide others in creative learning experiences.
Thurs. June 8th, 6-9pm, on Zoom
and
Sat. June 10th, 9am-5pm
In-person, at Marydell, Nyack

Stories For Freedom
2024-06-26 19:00 - 21:00
Stories for Freedom has gathered ten storytellers, who have been cultivating practices of liberation within their work and lives, to join a TMI Project true storytelling workshop to craft their stories of love, resistance, and growth; stories that can be used to further their work and serve as a blueprint for radical generations to come.
By crafting radically true stories, Stories for Freedom amplifies the voices of artists, activists, and artivists to inspire identification and belonging in audience members, and challenge all of us to take bold action in the disruption of systemic oppression.
The cohort includes people selected from an international call, hailing from our hometown of Kingston, as well as across the US, and as far off as South Africa.
Stories for Freedom pays specific homage to the practices of liberation that have emerged from Black and Indigenous communities. For centuries, Black and Indigenous communities have created templates for other marginalized groups to take action to resist oppression. This program aims to acknowledge and celebrate these roots.
