Arts. Just imagine Westchester without them. It would be like a box of all gray crayons. “A” is also for artswestchester.org, the comprehensive online guide where savvy people go to plan their weekends.
|
- Advertisement -
Janet Langsam |
Boston Center for the Arts, which was my gig before coming to Westchester.
Creativity. We all need it in our schools and in our lives because it begets innovation. One day, it will lead us to a cure for cancer or a Delta express to Mars.
Diets, which I am always on, and desserts, which don’t, as a rule, tempt me, but I do succumb to the soufflés at Eastchester Fish Gourmet in Scarsdale and La Crémaillère in Bedford.
Emily and Eugene Grant, the quintessential arts couple, whose support of ArtsWestchester is indeed an honor.
Film at both The Picture House in Pelham and the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville. I fill up on foreign, independent, and newly released films at the Burns and watch Janet Maslin and Jonathan Demme interview actors, directors, and producers.
 |
Gis for my grandchildren, Astrid and Nadia, the smartest, the prettiest, the most talented.
H is for everything Hudson: the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center, Historic Hudson Valley, the Hudson River Museum, and the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art. Our culture comes from the river.
I Love New York and also the Westchester County Tourism office that tells the world to “Meet Me in Westchester.”
J is for my kids, Julie, Jackie, and Jonathan. (It’s also for Janet and my partner, Joe.)
Kid from the Rockaways, that’s me, growing up without great cultural places like the Katonah Museum of Art and Caramoor, just miles of beautiful sand, ocean, and boardwalk.
Libraries are the fountains of knowledge in all of our Westchester towns and villages.
Music: classical, folk, chamber, jazz, bluegrass, rock, country. We have it all, thanks to the Tarrytown Music Hall, Emelin Theatre, The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College, Westchester Philharmonic, and Jazz Forum Arts.
Neuberger Museum Museum of Art. There’s always something going on there and this year they reinstalled the massive and hauntingly beautiful Threnody by Cleve Gray. It’s pure poetry in vivid color.
O is for OMG. I just love the new English language and, BTW, I try to keep up.
P is for Puli, my Hungarian dog, of which I’ve had a litter or two.
Queens Museum, of which I am a founder. It is a great reason to cross the Whitestone Bridge.
R is for a good read, no Nook or iPad, just a book with real pages and acover.
Sex. I think it’s here to stay, but sexism should go away.
Theater Way Off Broadway (WOB). The Axial in Pleasantville, the Hudson Stage Company in Briarcliff, The Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls, and the White Plains Performing Arts Center—new plays, revivals, all close to home.
 |
Unique places to learn to make art like Clay Art Center in Port Chester, Bullseye Glass Co. in Mamaroneck, Pelham Art Center, The Rye Arts Center, and the Arts Exchange in White Plains.
Village Squares Quilters, a group of White Plains women who make their artwork out of brilliantly colored cloth.
Wish List: Commissions for 50 artists in celebration of ArtsWestchester’s 50th anniversary in 2015.
X is the missing link in the crossword puzzle, the missing word in the senior moment, the missing ingredient in the chicken soup, and the missing person at the dinner table.
Young at heart and at art, I hope to always be.
Z is for Mark Zuckerberg, a famous former resident. Wish he would come back home and endow the arts so every kid in Westchester could be like him.
