PLAY READING – 2 p.m. Enjoy virtual performance of 2 new one-act plays by the Cooperstown Playwrights. ‘The Glass Eye of Jimmy Cooper’ by Fred Schneider & ‘Dragon Fly’ by Terrance Dwyer. Part of the NEXT! Emerging Playwright series. Presented by The Fenimore Art Museum. 607-547-1400 or visit www.fenimoreartmuseum.org
PLAY READING – 2 p.m. Enjoy virtual performance of new play ‘Co-Op(erative)’ by Garrett Heater. Part of the NEXT! Emerging Playwright series. Presented by The Fenimore Art Museum. 607-547-1400 or visit www.fenimoreartmuseum.org
Artist Mary Nolan at the Railroad Avenue studio she shares with May-Britt Joyce and Maria Tripp. The dominant painting is “River Bend, Low Tide.” (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
Some 25 years ago, when she was Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce executive director, Polly Renckens held a meeting of people with space to spare in their homes.
“We have tourists,” Polly told the gathering. “We need some place to put them. If you have space for a B&B, consider it.”
Mary Nolan, who had been doing art as long as she can remember, received a call from a friend whose mother had a farm in the countryside around Fly Creek. “Would you like to manage a B&B?”
Nolan, who had vacationed in Cooperstown and liked it here, said yes.
In B&Bs, there are busy times and less busy times, and in the less busy times Mary took her paints and easel behind the house and began to paint the nature she saw – plein air, out of doors.
“Around here, it’s beautiful,” she said in an interview after The Fenimore Art Museum announced that “Water As Muse: Paintings by Mary Nolan,” will be this summer’s local exhibition.
Nolan’s works will appear among that of such notables as photographer Ansel Adams and the featured show, “Keith Haring: Radiant Vision,” containing more than 100 works of the celebrated
pop artist.
The Fenimore exhibit will include “Radiant Baby,” Keith Haring’s best-known work.
‘Though he died in 1990, in many ways Keith Haring is still alive. His art is everywhere. There are Haring T-shirts, Haring shoes, Haring chairs. You can buy Haring baseball hats and badges and baby-carriers and playing cards and stickers and keyrings.
“Keith Haring’s work pops up all over the place – his radiant baby, the barking dog, the dancer, the three-eyed smiling face. Simple, cheerful, upbeat, instantly recognisable …
“But Haring did much more than provide cute cartoons … His art faced outwards. He wanted to inform, to start a conversation, to question authority and convention, to represent the oppressed.”
Miranda Sawyer
The Guardian, June 2, 2019, on opening of major Haring exhibit at the Tate Liverpool
The Fenimore’s come a long way, baby, from “Grandma Moses: Grandmother to the Nation,” 15 years ago, to Keith Haring, the highlight of the museum’s 2021 season.
If Grandma Moses harkened back to simpler times, Haring’s concerns – though he died on Feb. 16, 1990 – are center stage in the 21st Century.
“It’s a whole new ballgame,” said Fenimore President/CEO Paul D’Ambrosio. “It’s very different from what you’d expect from The Fenimore.”
The Fenimore’s season begins April 1, but anticipation is centering on “Keith Haring: Radiant Vision,” which will open May 29, Memorial Day Weekend, and run through Sept. 6, Labor Day.
It will include more than 100 pieces, D’Ambrosio said.
ART LECTURE – 2 p.m. Discuss naturalist author Susan Fenimore Cooper and her work ‘Rural Hours’ with leading scholar Rochelle L. Johnson and what her contributions mean in the era of climate change. Free, registration required for Zoom conference. Dontions of $10 or more requested. Presented by Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown. 607-547-1400 or visit www.fenimoreartmuseum.org
WEBINAR SERIES – 7 p.m. Online series ‘Outsmarting the Pandemic’ continues with presentation ‘COVID-19 Vaccines: Worth A Shot’ on the how the vaccines work, how modern vaccines are developed, more. Free, registration required. Presented by A.J. Read Science Discovery Center, SUNY Oneonta. 607-436-2011 or visit www.eventbrite.com/o/science-discovery-center-and-planetarium-14332374215
VOICES OF THE GAME – 2 p.m. Celebrate Women’s History month. Join Jenny Dalton on Zoom to discuss her baseball career, and her experience in the Colorado Silver Bullets as well as her part in the 2010 USA Women’s Baseball team in Venezuela when they brought home the Bronze medal. Free, registration required. Presented by Baseball Hall of Fame. 607-547-7200 or visit baseballhall.org/events/virtual-curator-spotlight-starting-nine-al-west?date=0
CONSERVATION – 7 p.m. Join the museum for discussion with landscape painter Ellen Wong, and Associate Professor Lisa Tessier on the rural and working landscape of Otsego County. Presented by the Hanford Mills Museum, East Meredith. 607-278-5744 or visit www.hanfordmills.org/interactions/
VIRTUAL TOUR – 2 p.m. Zoom meeting featuring walk through of exhibit ‘Cooper, Cole, and the Hudson River School’ with manager of arts education Kevin Gray. Free, registration required. Suggested donation $5. Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown. 607-547-1400 or visit www.fenimoreartmuseum.org
WORD THURSDAY – 7 p.m. Celebrate Black History Month with area poets online. Opens with open mic, followed by presentation by award winning novelist Jeffrey Colvin. Presented by Bright Hill Press & Literary Center. 607-829-5055 or visit www.facebook.com/brighthp/
VOICES OF THE GAME – 10:30 a.m. Continue celebrating Black History Month with discussion with Players’ Alliance President, Curtis Granderson on his career and his role as the president of the Players Alliance to better the game and society. Free, registration required. Presented by The Baseball Hall of Fame. 607-547-7200 or visit baseballhall.org/events/virtual-voices-of-the-game-curtis-granderson?date=0
VIRTUAL TOUR – 2 p.m. Zoom meeting featuring walk through of exhibit ‘Highlights of American Folk Art’ with manager of arts education Kevin Gray. Free, registration required. Suggested donation $5. Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown. 607-547-1400 or visit www.fenimoreartmuseum.org
ICE FISHING – 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Bring the kids out to learn ice fishing from State park staff and NYS DEC ‘I Fish NY.’ Free, registration required due to Covid. Glimmerglass State Park, 1527 Co. Rd. 31, Cooperstown. 607-547-8662 or visit www.facebook.com/GlimmerglassStatePark/
COOPERSTOWN REFLECTS – 7 p.m. Library Anti-Racism series continues with presentation ‘Cooperstown Reflects on Racism and Law Enforcement.’ Will include moderated panel discussion featuring Frank Cavalieri, Cooperstown Police Chief; Richard Devlin, Otsego County Sheriff; Ellen Tillapaugh, Mayor, Village of Cooperstown; more. Free, registration required. Presented by Friends of the Village Library of Cooperstown. 607-547-8344 or visit www.eventbrite.com/o/friends-of-the-village-library-23034666815
COVID-19 TESTING – 8 a.m. Free rapid testing for people with no symptoms of Covid-19. Appointments required. Bassett Prime Care, 1 Atwell Dr., Cooperstown. 607-547-7973 or visit www.bassett.org/covid-19
VIRTUAL TOUR – 2 p.m. Zoom meeting featuring walk through of exhibit ‘Highlights of American Folk Art’ with manager of arts education Kevin Gray. Free, registration required. Suggested donation $5. Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown. 607-547-1400 or visit www.fenimoreartmuseum.org
