ARIES (March 21-April 19):

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus author Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) published his first novel at age 30. During the next 37 years, he completed 48 additional novels and 18 works of nonfiction. Critics liked his work well enough, but were suspicious of his prodigious productivity. When they discovered that one of Trollope’s motivations for writing was to make money, they disapproved. Then they found out that Trollope kept a watch nearby as he worked, determined to generate 250 words every 15 minutes. The critics hated that even worse. Creative artists are supposed to court inspiration, not adhere to a schedule—at least according to the critics. But I approve of and recommend Trollope-like behavior for you in the coming weeks, Taurus. Cosmic forces will be on your side if you do.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In accordance with the astrological indicators, I invite you to rise and soar and glide during the coming weeks. I encourage you to expand and enlarge and amplify. Don’t wait around hoping to be asked to explore and experiment and improvise—just do those things. It’s high time for you to enjoy stirring quests and research projects and missions dedicated to discovery. Be a fun-loving pioneer. Sample the joys of being a maverick and outlier.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I love living in the material world. Its crazy-making demands and exhilarating rewards are endlessly entertaining. Despite having been born as a fantasy-prone, overly sensitive Cancerian, I’ve become fairly earthy and well-grounded. I have a good job, a nice house, a smart wife, and an interesting daughter. On the other hand, I also love living in the soul’s realm. I have remembered and recorded an average of three dreams per night for many years. Although I don’t take drugs, I cultivate alternate states of consciousness through meditation, prayer, and ritual. I’ve long been a student of depth psychology, which has trained me to be as focused on my soul as my ego. In accordance with current astrological omens, my fellow Cancerian, I urge you to hang out more than usual in the soul’s realm during the coming weeks.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Can I talk you into being more tender and open-hearted toward the people who care for you? I don’t mean to imply that you are currently too hard and closed. But all of us can benefit from enhancing our receptivity, and the coming weeks will be prime time for you Leos to do just that. I think you’ll find it easier than usual to deepen your listening skills and intensify your sensitivity. You’ll have an acute intuitive grasp of the fact that you can earn yourself huge blessings by expressing love and compassion in very practical ways.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): All of us are in service to someone or something—to certain people or ideas or situations. We provide them with help or energy or mirroring or love. We are dutiful in attending to their needs and wants. For some of us, our service feels like a burden. It’s grating or humbling or inconvenient, or all of the above. For others of us, being of service is fulfilling, even joyful. We find a rich sense of purpose in our devotion to a higher cause or deeper calling beyond our selfish concerns. Among the 12 signs of the zodiac, you Virgos are more likely than most to carry out the latter kind of service. I bring these thoughts to your attention because the coming weeks will be an excellent time to re-evaluate, reconfigure, and reinvigorate your own service.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Author David Markson imagined what it would be like to write a novel that lacked conflicts or confrontations—in other words, a novel unlike any ever created. Libran author Ursula Le Guin also fantasized about stories with plots that weren’t driven by strife and struggle. Since many of us are addicted to entertainment that depends on discord to be interesting, we might find it hard to believe Markson’s and Le Guin’s dream would ever happen. But I’m pleased to inform you, Libra, that your life in the coming weeks may be exactly like that: a fascinating adventure with few hassles and wrangles.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):  According to Scorpio painter Georgia O’Keeffe, success is irrelevant. The most crucial life-long effort that anyone can be devoted to is “making your unknown known.” Did she mean making your unknown known to yourself? Or making your unknown known to other people? Or both? According to my analysis of the astrological omens, the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to do both. So I hope you will tease out your best and biggest mysteries from their hiding places. Give them expression.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): You Sagittarians have a talent for burning bridges that really do need to be burned. Your intuition often guides you to assess when the time is ripe to withdraw from connections that no longer benefit you. On the other hand, you sometimes burn bridges prematurely. You decide that they are in such disrepair that they’re of no use to you, even though it might serve your ultimate interests to fix them. I offer these thoughts as a preface for my advice: 1. Refurbish rather than burn a certain bridge you’re a bit disenchanted with. 2. Build at least one new bridge that will be valuable in the future.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The shape of the planets’ orbits around the sun is elliptical, not circular. Capricorn astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) was the first person to figure this out. He didn’t like it. He really wanted the orbits to be circular. That would have been more satisfying to his aesthetic and spiritual sensibilities. Explaining the arduous labor he did to arrive at his conclusion, he wrote, “Take pity on me, for I have repeated these calculations seventy times.” In the big picture of our understanding of the universe, of course, his discovery was felicitous. It’s not a problem that the orbits are elliptical, merely the truth. In the coming weeks, Capricorn, I foresee you engaging in a process that’s metaphorically comparable to Kepler’s. Hard work will yield useful, if unexpected results.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Please don’t imitate or repeat yourself in the coming weeks. Refrain from relying on formulas that have worked for you before. Resolve to either ignore or rebel against your past as you dream up fresh gambits and adventures. Treat your whole life like an improvisatory game that has just one purpose: to attract and stir up useful novelty. If you do these things, Aquarius, I can practically guarantee that you will win the game.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Poet Robert Bly believes that each of us has a special genius, and the key to understanding and fully activating that genius is in our core wound. In other words, the part of us that got hurt the worst is potentially the generative source of the best gifts we have to give. Do you know where that is in yourself: the wound that could be the source of your blessing? Now is a great time to investigate this tantalizing mystery.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the months ahead. July: If you choose to play one of life’s trickier games, you must get trickier yourself. August: Shedding irrelevant theories and unlearning old approaches will pave the way for creative breakthroughs. September: Begin working on a new product or project that will last a long time. October: Maybe you don’t need that emotional crutch as much as you thought. November: Explore the intense, perplexing, interesting feelings until you’re cleansed and healed. December: Join forces with a new ally and/or deepen an existing alliance.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the months ahead. JULY: It’s time to take fuller advantage of a resource you’ve been neglecting or underestimating. AUGUST: For a limited time only, two plus two equals five. Capitalize on that fact by temporarily becoming a two-plus-two-equals-five type of person. SEPTEMBER: It’s time and you’re ready to discover new keys to fostering interesting intimacy and robust collaboration. OCTOBER: The boundaries are shifting on the map of the heart. That will ultimately be a good thing. NOVEMBER: If you do what you fear, you’ll gain unprecedented power over the fear. DECEMBER: What’s the one thing you can’t live without? Refine and deepen your relationship to it.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the months ahead. JULY: Acquire a new personal symbol that thrills your mind and mobilizes your soul. AUGUST: Reconfigure the way you deal with money. Get smarter about your finances. SEPTEMBER: It’s time to expedite your learning. But streetwise education is more useful than formal education. Study the Book of Life. OCTOBER: Ask for more help than you normally do. Aggressively build your support. NOVEMBER: Creativity is your superpower. Reinvent any part of your life that needs a bolt of imaginative ingenuity. DECEMBER: Love and care for what you imagine to be your flaws and liabilities.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the months ahead. JULY: Transform something that’s semi-ugly into something that’s useful and winsome. AUGUST: Go to the top of the world and seek a big vision of who you must become. SEPTEMBER: Your instinct for worthy and constructive adventures is impeccable. Trust it. OCTOBER: Be alert for a new teacher with a capacity to teach you precisely what you need to learn. NOVEMBER: Your mind might not guide you perfectly, but your body and soul will. DECEMBER: Fresh hungers and budding fascinations should alert you to the fact that deep in the genius part of your soul, your master plan is changing.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the months ahead. JULY: I’d love to see you phase out wishy-washy wishes that keep you distracted from your burning, churning desires. AUGUST: A story that began years ago begins again. Be proactive about changing the themes you’d rather not repeat. SEPTEMBER: Get seriously and daringly creative about living in a more expansive world. OCTOBER: Acquire a new tool or skill that will enable you to carry out your mission more effectively. NOVEMBER: Unanticipated plot twists can help heal old dilemmas about intimacy. DECEMBER: Come up with savvy plans to eliminate bad stress and welcome good stress.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the months ahead. JULY: Say this every morning: “The less I have to prove and the fewer people I have to impress, the smarter I’ll be.” AUGUST: Escape an unnecessary limitation. Break an obsolete rule. Override a faded tradition. SEPTEMBER: What kind of “badness” might give your goodness more power? OCTOBER: You’re stronger and freer than you thought you were. Call on your untapped power. NOVEMBER: Narrowing your focus and paring down your options will serve you beautifully. DECEMBER: Replace what’s fake with the Real Thing.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the months ahead. JULY: Stretch yourself. Freelance, moonlight, diversify, and expand. AUGUST: Having power over other people is less important than having power over yourself. Manage your passions like a wizard! SEPTEMBER: Ask the big question. And be ready to act expeditiously when you get the big answer. OCTOBER: I think you can arrange for the surge to arrive in manageable installments. Seriously. NOVEMBER: Dare to break barren customs and habits that are obstructing small miracles and cathartic breakthroughs. DECEMBER: Don’t wait around hoping to be given what you need. Instead, go after it. Create it yourself, if necessary.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the months ahead. JULY: Can you infuse dark places with your intense light without dimming your intense light? Yes! AUGUST: It’s time for an archetypal Sagittarian jaunt, quest, or pilgrimage. SEPTEMBER: The world around you needs your practical idealism. Be a role model who catalyzes good changes. OCTOBER: Seek out new allies and connections that can help you with your future goals. NOVEMBER: Be open to new and unexpected ideas so as to get the emotional healing you long for. DECEMBER: Shed old, worn-out self-images. Reinvent yourself. Get to know your depths better.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the months ahead. JULY: You have an enhanced capacity to feel at peace with your body, to not wish it were different from what it naturally is. AUGUST: You can finally solve a riddle you’ve been trying to solve for a long time. SEPTEMBER: Make your imagination work and play twice as hard. Crack open seemingly closed possibilities. OCTOBER: Move up at least one rung on the ladder of success. NOVEMBER: Make yourself more receptive to blessings and help that you have overlooked or ignored. DECEMBER: You’ll learn most from what you leave behind—so leave behind as much as possible.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the months ahead. JULY: I’ll cry one tear for you, then I’ll cheer. AUGUST: Plant seeds in places that hadn’t previously been on your radar. SEPTEMBER: You may seem to take a wrong turn, but it’ll take you where you need to go. OCTOBER: Open your mind and heart as wide as you can. Be receptive to the unexpected. NOVEMBER: I bet you’ll gain a new power, higher rank, or greater privilege. DECEMBER: Send out feelers to new arrivals who may be potential helpers.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the months ahead. JULY: Your creative powers are at a peak. Use them with flair. AUGUST: Wean yourself from pretend feelings and artificial motivations and inauthentic communications. SEPTEMBER: If you want to have greater impact and more influence, you can. Make it happen! OCTOBER: Love is weird but good. Trust the odd journey it takes you on. NOVEMBER: If you cultivate an appreciation for paradox, your paradoxical goals will succeed. DECEMBER: Set firm deadlines. Have fun disciplining yourself.

Botti is the complete package: a dazzling Grammy winning trumpeter at home in everything from jazz to pop to rock, a brilliant bandleader who lets his killer band shine, and a born showman whose joy at being onstage is infectious.

Chris Botti has amassed a spectacular variety of honors, including multiple Gold and Platinum albums, to become the nation’s largest selling instrumental artist.

Chris Botti

Over the past three decades, Botti has recorded and performed with the best in music, including Sting, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, Josh Groban, Yo-Yo Ma, Michael Bublé, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, John Mayer, Andrea Bocelli, Joshua Bell, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and even Frank Sinatra. Hitting the road for as many as 300 days per year, the trumpeter has also performed with many of the finest symphonies and at some of the world’s most prestigious venues from Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl to the Sydney Opera House and the Real Teatro di San Carlo in Italy.

Tickets: $60 -$95, based on location. Members get $5 off.
Members Wednesday, Dec 5 at 11am
General Public Thursday, Dec 6 at 11am

Purchase your tickets in person at the Bardavon Box Office, 35 Market Street, Poughkeepsie, 845.473.2072 or the UPAC Box Office, 601 Broadway Kingston, 845.339.6088

Online at Ticketmaster : 800.745.3000. Please note that Bardavon Member benefits and special discounts are not available through Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster fees will apply.

On February 23rd, the Women’s Studio Workshop will transform the SUNY Ulster dining hall into a vast and colorful landscape of hand-crafted pottery to celebrate over two decades of ceramics and community! This is the second year the event will be hosted in the dining hall at SUNY Ulster, providing us with more space to showcase the increasing number of bowls, attendees and delicious chilis. The dining hall is also just five minutes away from the Workshop!

Every bowl purchased at the Chili Bowl Fiesta comes with a hearty helping of chili. Everyone’s sure to find a bowl and a flavor to satisfy their craving!

Each year, the Chili Bowl Fiesta draws over 700 attendees and has become a staple of Rosendale’s public festival schedule. To prepare for the event, WSW’s ceramic studio has been abuzz with activity. Local artists and volunteers have been hand-building their unique pieces or throwing them on the potter’s wheel, then glazing, decorating, and firing them in the WSW kilns.

Chili Bowl Intern: Mel Doiron

Nearly 1,000 handmade bowls, mugs, and tumblers are created throughout the year by staff, interns, resident artists, students, and volunteers. Because so many hands contribute to this process, each vessel is one-of-a-kind, and widely varied in shape, size, color, decoration, and, of course, price-point. Guests always have a blast looking for the perfect piece.

Not only will Fiesta guests enjoy live entertainment, raffle drawings, and the satisfaction of supporting local arts, but they’ll also put their new wares to use with a complementary serving of delicious, piping hot chili. More than 20 Hudson Valley restaurants and chefs donate 50+ gallons of chili, satisfying meat– lovers, vegans, and vegetarians alike. Guests can also buy a paper bowl, and bottomless bellies can purchase additional servings.

All proceeds from the Chili Bowl Fiesta support artistic programming at WSW.

Women’s Studio Workshop (WSW) is a visual arts organization in Rosendale, New York. Since 1974, WSW has brought over 5,000 artists from across the globe to work in the printmaking, hand papermaking, letterpress printing, photography, book arts, and ceramics studios.

Over 6,500 Ulster County youth have participated in WSW’s Art-in-Education program. WSW’s artists’ book grant program has published more than 200 artists’ books, collected by special collections of major libraries and museums including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Tate Modern, and The Library of Congress, among others.

Find related images here and additional information on our website.
Women’s Studio Workshop — 722 Binnewater Lane , Rosendale, NY 12401 845–658-9133

Artists as Innovators opened on August 30 in the Alice and Horace Chandler and North Galleries. The public opening reception will be held on September 9, from 5-7pm, and the art works will remain on view through November 12. This exhibition showcases the NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship program, which has, over the past 30 years, supported more than 4,000 artists in various fields in the visual arts, performing arts, and literature. Fellows have often addressed controversial issues such as women’s rights, sexual orientation, consumerism, globalization, and many more pressing topics. The long list of noteworthy NYSCA/NYFA Fellows include Barbara Kruger, Doug Aitkin and Shirin Neshat in the visual arts, Tony Kushner and Suzan-Lori Parks in theatre/literary arts, Spike Lee and Mira Nair in film, and Meredith Monk, Julie Taymor and Yvonne Rainer in the performing arts. Examples from this exhibition of what to expect are the work of Tony Oursler whose sculpture combines wood, digital print and video to explore the “Big Brother” world of biometrics in #ISO, 2015, and Ida Applebroog’s disturbing depictions of ordinary people such as the grinning suitor with his bouquet of flowers in Winnie’s Pooh, 1993.

Tony Oursler, “#ISO,” 2015, image courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong. (Photograph by Elizabeth Bernstein)

Artists as Innovators looks back over the years through the lens of over 20 Fellows, all of whom went on to enjoy significant achievements in their artistic careers. Participating artists include Elia Alba, Ida Applebroog, Dawoud Bey, Sanford Biggers, Ross Bleckner, Wendell Castle, Tara Donovan, Chitra Ganesh, The Guerrilla Girls, Christian Marclay, Marilyn Minter, Lori Nix, Tony Oursler, Faith Ringgold, Martha Rosler, Dread Scott, Andres Serrano, Shinique Smith, Carmelita Tropicana, and Fred Wilson.

As part of the exhibition tour, SUNY partners will host complementary exhibitions and programs. After the opening on Saturday, September 9, the next event will be a reading by NYSCA/NYFA Literary Fellows on Saturday, September 16 at 2pm. Join Fellows Saïd Sayrafiezadeh (Playwriting/Screenwriting ’96, ’06, Fiction ’10), Edwin Sanchez (Playwriting/Screenwriting ’89, ’00, ’06), Luc Sante (Nonfiction Literature ’14), and Akiko Busch (Nonfiction ’11) for an afternoon of readings. The following Saturday, September 23, a panel discussion on the history of the NYFA Fellowship Program will be held at 2pm, featuring Artists as Innovators curators Judith K. Brodsky and David C. Terry, catalog essayist Paddy Johnson, and exhibiting artist Lori Nix (Photography ’04, ’10).

On September 30 at 2pm, exhibiting artist Carmelita Tropicana (Playwriting/Screenwriting ’91) will be performing. Known for her irreverent humor, subversive fantasy and bilingual puns, she has been straddling the worlds of performance art and theatre in the New York art scene since the 1980s. Then, on Wednesday, October 4 from 12-3pm, Fellow Linda Montano (Conceptual/Performance Art ’86) will perform as Bob Dylan in SUNY New Paltz’s Student Union Building from 12-1pm, Sojourner Truth Library from 1-2pm, and Fine Arts Building Rotunda from 2-3pm.

Ida Applebroog, “Winnie’s Pooh,” 1993, image courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

Next, on Sunday, October 8 at 2pm, watch Lives of Performers, a film by Fellow and experimental choreographer Yvonne Rainer (Film ’90, ’95) at the Rosendale Theatre (408 Main Street, Rosendale), in conjunction with the theatre’s “Dance Film Sundays.” On Sunday, October 14 at 2pm, there will be a “Slide Slam”-style presentation by SUNY New Paltz faculty who have received NYSCA/NYFA Fellowships in Visual Art: Jamie Bennett (Crafts ’90, ’99, ’11), Amy Cheng (Painting ’90, ’96), Kathy Goodell (Sculpture ’93,’97), Carmen Lizardo (Photography ’04), Emily Puthoff (Digital/Electronic Arts ’11), and Nadia Sablin (Photography ’13).

The next event falls on Saturday, October 21 at 2pm, when there will be a gallery talk, ‘Embracing Upheaval,’ with exhibiting artist Wendell Castle (Crafts ’86). Castle will share anecdotes from his career and discuss the ways in which art, creativity, and critical thinking combine to influence an artist’s approach to their work. Lastly an event that will be of particular interest to art practicioners, on Monday, October 23, from 5:30 to 7pm, attend an information session on the NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship application process, led by NYFA staff. The application for the 2017–2018 award cycle opens in Fall 2017 in the categories of Fiction, Folk/Tradition Arts, Interdisciplinary Arts, Painting, and Video/Film. The winners receive $7,000 cash awards with which to fund their vision or voice. More information about the Fellowship is available at https://www.nyfa.org.

The Dorsky is one of six museums on State University of New York campuses that are partnering with NYFA to present Artists as Innovators, which will travel throughout New York State until Spring 2020. The other museums are SUNY Cortland, Alfred University, SUNY Fredonia, SUNY Plattsburgh, Stony Brook University, and Westchester Community College – the precise schedule is on the Dorksy website.

Featured Image: Ross Bleckner,“Dome,” 2015, image courtesy the artist. Photograph by Jeffrey Sturges

All images reproduced here are courtesy of the artists or the artists’ representatives. Please visit the museum website for further information, gallery hours and directions.*Galleries are closed October 7th through 10th for SUNY Fall Break

Chiara Harrison Lambe was born in Ireland, raised in the Hudson Valley, and currently divides her time between Brooklyn, NY. and Berlin, Germany. She holds a degree in Art History from Bard College.

They don’t come any better than Us & Them, the new series of documentary programs —“stories from the fault lines that separate Americans” —by multiple award-winning documentarian Trey Kay.

Kay is a local boy — these days: a Hudson Valley resident, in Red Hook. Originally Trey hails from West Virginia (it’s West Virginia Public Radio that hosts the Us & Them podcasts), and he has a ton of countrywide experience as a radio interviewer and program-maker. His radio broadcasts have been heard on all the leading public radio programs including This American Life. The breadth of his knowledge of America, plus a singular talent for listening, and for bringing out the best in divergent viewpoints, are the two consistent aspects of how Trey Kay has helped us to hear America at this time of so many acute and painful divisions. You want to hear both sides of the story? This is the podcast for you.

Us & Them addresses some of the most intriguing and thorny issues that divide Americans: class; race; education; sexuality—and sex education; religion and the American soul. Kay’s programs are broadcasting at its best: never lecturing, never partisan, open to hear the passion in all points of view, no matter how they might relate to his own upbringing in the South, or to his views as an adoptive Northeasterner.

A former Spencer Fellow at the prestigious Columbia Graduate School for Journalism, Trey Kay’s most celebrated program is The Great Textbook War, a 2009 investigation of the battle over school textbooks in his native state of West Virginia. It opened the ears of listeners at large and of the radio journalism profession to Kay’s exceptional skills as an even-handed reporter, and the program was honored with an exceptional trifecta: the George Foster Peabody Award, a national Edward R. Murrow Award, and a duPont-Columbia Silver Baton.

In Us & Them, Trey Kay’s new project, he deliberately sets out to expose the most painful conflicts that beset our embattled society, and enable us to hear a true dialog between different sides. In the best tradition of fair-minded journalism, Kay’s life mission is to address the world of ‘echo chambers’ in which we speak to, and hear from, only our own point of view. Happily for us, Trey not only knows America, but has an uncanny ability to enable his interviewees to feel safe and speak out; they sense Kay’s own natural openness, and know that they are not being ambushed but, on the contrary, allowed the full freedom of the microphone. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear a master journalist at work and, through his interviews, consider what may, almost certainly, be points of view contrary to your own, as well as points of view that match your own. America is a more rich and complex set of inter-connected worlds than most of realize. Meet them on Us & Them!

To hear Us & Them podcasts go here 

Roll On The Radio: October 11, 2014
World renown guitar virtuoso Fred Hand, principal guitarist for the Metropolitan Opera, joins Carey for an in-depth interview and some fine live playing as well.

Roll On The Radio: September 13, 2014
Sara Pasti:  Director of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz.

Roll On The Radio:  March 29, 2014
Laurie Giardino, Ann Citron, Fre Atlast and Nicole Quinn of the Rosendale Theatre Collective.

Roll On The Radio: May 3, 2014
Dr. John Froude — Immunologist, world traveller and raconteur.