Last September, an old canal barge made its way from Rochester 45 miles west to the village of Medina. Community members lugged trees and soil to help the artist Mary Mattingly build a unique garden — a floating one. Mattingly’s project is one of the key pieces of the Medina Triennial, which brings international artists […]
Art
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Muck Duck Studio spreads its wings with a new event space in NOTA
Take a walk with Casey Arthur. Descend the stairs at 100 College Ave. and meet the artist and founder of Muck Duck Studio, who is standing in a feathered hat. Then step into a 7,000 square-foot space where soon, Arthur said, couches will host first dates in which paintbrushes and chamomile tea break the ice. […]
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Using a hot sauce IV and a broken table to process grief
Sports fans often feel like their team’s stakes are life or death. Even the vocabulary of “die-hards” reinforces this, and as any Buffalo Bills fan can affirm, elimination from the playoffs initiates a period of actual grief. It is in this way that sports fandom and personal experiences of loss — through illness and even […]
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Haudenosaunee art show marks America’s 250th with a living vision of peace
What if the most radical way to commemorate a war … was peace? As the United States gears up for its 250th anniversary in July, the usual pageantry is already taking shape: fireworks, reenactments and the familiar theater of patriotic memory. But a few miles east of Rochester, at Ganondagan State Historic Site, the celebration will […]
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An unlikely friendship between a local artist and a family in Gaza
Heather Layton sat cross-legged in a big armchair off her living room. This is where she calls her friend, Baher. “We talk until our batteries run out on our phones,” she said, laughing. Sometimes the call goes unanswered, and Layton worries Baher and his family are dead. On this particular day, he answered. “I didn’t have wi-fi at my place,” he explained. It was […]
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Peer Bode’s video art exhibition at VSW recalls the 1970s and ‘80s
Abstract shapes of shifting colors dance over an otherwise mundane video of a cup of coffee, recorded with a handheld Portapak analog camera and displayed on three projectors. Actually it’s two videos; a lagging copy hovers over itself like a ghost, a polychromatic distortion, following the actions of its original, trailing behind the pouring, the […]
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The MAG’s first-ever curator of contemporary art tells the story of now
For more than a decade, until recently, the Memorial Art Gallery’s main contemporary art space was segmented off by a series of internal walls. These walls divided the exhibits into small groups and dissociated the room from the outside. Visitors sometimes didn’t know whether they were on ground level or below it. One of the […]
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8 visual exhibitions to check out this fall
Life has many of us bouncing between sleepless concern over relentless waves of serious issues and the desire to walk into the woods and never look back. Maybe it’s always been that way. But, good news: this season, the roster of offerings at local and regional art houses has something for both needs (and we […]
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Monroe County announces nearly $900,000 in funding available to mid-sized arts orgs
Applications for 2025 operational grants are due by September 3.
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A spa with sparks
Welder and metal sculptor Stacey Mrva provides empowerment and community at Ironwood Studios.
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Eastman Museum celebrates 75 years; keeps a cautious eye on the future
With federal grants in jeopardy, the center looks to alternate sources of funding for ambitious expansion projects.
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Dance Review | ‘Anastasia: A Ballet Reimagined’
The ballet, co-produced with the Society for Chamber Music, trades tutus and sparkle for a more mature, intimate aesthetic.
