SPECIAL EVENTS
Draw-a-thon
CALLING ALL ARTISTS AND COSPLAY ENTHUSIASTS
Join us for a day of drawing your favorite characters in cosplay.
Bring your pencils, paper and easel to draw the day away. Artists are encouraged (but not required) to dress as a character of their choice.
Fee: $25
REGISTER HERE
LI Vegan pop up
LONG ISLAND VEGAN POP UP IS BACK!
Let’s celebrate fall with this FREE outdoor, family and pet friendly event. The Long Island Vegan Pop Up was inspired by the hip Vegan scene in NYC. Long Island has a large Vegan community, and this is the first event on LI that caters to it. LI Vegan Pop Up's goal is simple: create a welcoming 100% Vegan market space where anyone can learn, shop, eat, drink and have fun.
Art vendors, delicious Vegan food, and a Live DJ are all a part of this exciting event.
CURRENTLY SEEKING VENDORS / Deadline to Apply: Oct 5 / Fee: $45
COMPLETE VENDOR ENTRY FORM HERE
It's JoLee Thayer's 80th Birthday!
Join us to celebrate JoLee Thayer's milestone birthday. She is a former IAC Board Member, teacher, and local vocal instructor to many of our talented youth.
Saturday, Sept 30 / 12:30-4pm
Directors Dinner OCT 2023
IT'S A Princess Tea Party with ballet LI
OCT 9 / 1pm at the IAC Gallery
This party is for the true princess in your life. We encourage guests to dress as their favorite Princess. Young royals will have a fun-filled event.
First you will see a performance on stage with some of your favorite Princesses by Ballet LI. Then guests may take photos with their own little princess and the dancing Princesses. Next, enter the Princess Tea Room (art gallery) and enjoy being served tea, lemonade, cupcakes, and cookies.
Each guest will also receive a cookie kit to decorate their own cookie and a paper tea cup to color. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Fee: $25
GET TICKETS HERE
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FINE ARTS
Open Call for Veteran Artists: The Veterans' Wellness Art Exhibition
ENTRY IS FREE
DEADLINE OCT 30
OPENING RECEPTION Friday, NOV 10 / 5-7pm
EXHIBITION NOV 7 - DEC 2, 2023
The Islip Arts Council is seeking artists who are Veterans to submit up to three pieces of work (all mediums) to be considered for our annual Veterans Art Show. Submission is free for Veterans.
COMPLETE ENTRY FORM HERE
Open Call: VETERAN'S WELLNESS - FRIENDS & FAMILIES 50+ ONLY
ENTRY IS FREE
DEADLINE OCT 30
OPENING RECEPTION Friday, NOV 10 / 5-7pm
EXHIBITION NOV 7 - DEC 2, 2023
This AARP sponsored exhibition will complement IAC's Annual Veteran's Wellness Art Exhibition that focuses on bringing awareness to PTSD and mental health.
CRITERIA: All artwork, which can be any media (painting, photo, mixed, or sculpture) must honor U.S. Veterans, OR the subject must be a US Veteran OR a theme/concept that affects U.S. Veterans.
COMPLETE ENTRY FORM HERE
Open Call for Cancer Survivors - Limitless: Healing Cancer with Art
DEADLINE SEPT 30
EXHIBITION OCT 7 - Nov 1, 2023
This open call offers a chance for cancer survivors to share their voices in any medium and theme they choose, whether it expresses their experience of the disease or simply shares where the process of art making has taken them. All works must not exceed 70" x 70" inches.
COMPLETE ENTRY FORM HERE
Open Call - Synergy: LGBTQ+ Voices
DEADLINE SEPT 29
EXHIBITION OCT 10 - 31, 2023
Reception Oct 11, National Coming Out Day
Islip Arts celebrates the LGBTQ+ community by sharing their voices through art, performance, and poetry. For this open call, we are seeking visual art as well as poems by those who identify as LGBTQ+ to be submitted for consideration. All media and themes considered. Work must not exceed 70" x 70" inches.
The reception will feature poetry readings, story telling, and a live drag performance, "I Am What I Am."
COMPLETE ENTRY FORM HERE
FEATURED ARTIST AT THE GALLERY:
Jessica Rodriguez
ON VIEW Sept 1 - Oct 1
Jessica Rodriguez is a local artist, born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents, and raised on Long Island from the time she was 4. Living on the Island all her life, she spent 20 years working at one of Long Island’s top radio stations as a graphic artist, while also running an online bakery shipping goods throughout the US. All while also being a single mother to three children. After a merger with the company, she decided it was time to do something different. Being a self-trained chef, she decided to open her own restaurant wth her husband, EmpanadaVille, which is currently open.
The artist says that painting portraits is what feels truly gratifying for her. Creating mixed media backgrounds that reflect the person being painted is one aspect she loves about what she does. What started as a hobby has since grown into her passion, and over time, another small business. People commission her to paint special portraits of their loved ones using personalized items in the background that reflect the subject, their life, and their personality. Her preferred medium is acrylic.
ADRC Annual Art Exhibition
OPENING RECEPTION: WORLD ALZHEIMER'S DAY SEPT 21 / 1-3pm
EXHIBITION SEPT 18 - 30
For this exhibition IAC partnered with the Alzheimer's Disease Resource Center in East Islip, NY, to feature work from artists who are experiencing cognitive decline. The art is from a year long program that included more than 100 artists across LI.
SEEING FOR OURSELVES
PARTICIPATORY PHOTOGRAPHY IN NEW YORK CITY 2010 - 2020
SHOW OPEN Sept 6 - Sept 29
FILM SHOWING Sept 9 / 1pm
The exhibit which has been several years in the making, is curated by Denise Bibro of Denise Bibro Fine Art, Manhattan, and produced by master printer and fine art photographer Holly Gordon.
The exhibit showcases the work of the Bay Shore nonprofit SFO, which has been punching considerably above its weight since its 2010 founding with the mission of empowering the marginalized to take control of their own public narrative by documenting their lives photographically.
SFO’s first effort, on behalf of NYC public housing residents (2010-2013), led to the publication of Project Lives: New York Public Housing Residents Photograph Their World (powerhouse, 2015). The global acclaim greeting the work, reinforced by gallery exhibits of the work around the city, encouraged the city and state to restart public housing support and led the city to ask the nonprofit to conduct a similar program for New Yorkers on probation—another marginalized population. Thanks to the advocacy of New York’s Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) helped fund this effort.
In a Whole New Way, the half-hour film documenting the new initiative (2018-2021), continues to receive acclaim on the film festival circuit—honored by 200 festivals around the world in 2021-23. The work has won over 60 awards, including Best Documentary, Best Human Rights Film, Best Black Lives Matter Film, Best Social Justice Film, Most Original Idea, and Most Inspirational Film. (The Love Wins International Film Festival in Patchogue was a local win.) Viewing the documentary as a unique cultural asset, the national probation industry will be utilizing the film to help reform America’s criminal justice system. Here is the film’s trailer. Gallery exhibits around the city punctuated this initiative as well. The eponymous companion book was published in June (Prospecta Press).
Meanwhile, the nonprofit has embarked upon its third effort, “My Climate Future: High-Schoolers Picture Their World to Come.” A proof-of-concept was successfully conducted in Cape Elizabeth, Maine this past spring. SFO has applied for NEA funding of a combined effort in Maine and Suffolk County, New York beginning the 2024-25 school year. The IAC Gallery exhibit will include photography from all three programs. The books Project Lives and In a Whole New Way will be offered for sale.
Lynda Moran, Executive Director of IAC, had this to say: “The IAC is proud to host this exhibit showing how this unusual style of photography can help so many. We believe that all those interested in the arts and/or social justice will find this peek into unknown worlds fascinating.”
George Carrano, Bay Shore resident and Executive Director of SFO, said the following: “We are thrilled to be partnering on this exhibit with IAC, which has built a reputation for innovative programming on the South Shore. The support shown by this arts organization in our backyard will be very helpful in broadening the audience for participatory photography, and the cause of helping those whose voices have not been heard.”
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PERFORMANCE
FREE SUMMER CONCERT SERIES AT LONG ISLAND MARITIME MUSEUM
Shows Begin at 6pm
SEPT 7 - Soundswell / Original jam based music
SEPT 14 - Easy Street / Eclectic variety of rock, blues, funk, soul and country
SEPT 21 - Mary Lamont Band / Country, alt-country and classic rock music
SEPT 28 - Three's Accompany / Acoustic folk rock, alternative, pop and classic rock
*Schedule subject to change
FREE PIANO CONCERT AT ISLIP METHODIST CHURCH
Show Begins at 2pm
OCT 1 - Four Hands Over Paumanok / Piano by Elinor Zayas and Laura Mara
Elinor Abrams Zayas is a favorite of Long Islanders as a piano soloist,
chamber musician, and collaborative artist. A native of Brightwaters, her
early teachers were Ruth Koch, Claude Gonvierre, and, at The Juilliard
Pre-College, Howard Aibel and Leonard Eisner.
Elinor has performed widely on Long Island, as well as given solo and ensemble performances at such venues as Trinity Church in NYC, Carnegie Hall, the Tilles and Staller Centers,
Molloy, Hofstra, and Adelphi Universities on Long Island, and in Lenox and Cape Cod, MA.
Laura Mara earned her bachelor of music in piano performance
from Belmont University in Nashville, TN, studying under
Robert Marler of the Nashville Symphony. She earned her
master of music in music education from the Crane School of
Music at SUNY Potsdam.
Laura currently serves as the elementary general music and chorus
teacher at Thomas J. Lahey Elementary School in the Harborfields
Central School district on LI, and serves as the organist and music
director at St. James Episcopal church.
*Schedule subject to change
FREE OPERA AT ST. PATRICK'S CHURCH
Show Begins at 2:30pm
OCT 29 - DIVALICIOUS!
Divalicious! is the vocal ensemble of Gina Haver, Ruthann Turekian and Leslie Valentine with Daniel Ragone as Music Director/Pianist. They have brought programs to the public that showcases their versatility in presenting selections from the operatic realm as well as from Broadway and the Great American Songbook. Whether it's Mozart, Andrew Lloyd Webber or anything in between, they deliver performances that thrill and entertain audiences.
Divalicious! has appeared at many LI libraries including Sachem, Northport, Northshore and Huntington as well as concert series at Old South Haven Presbyterian Church and the Music on the Sound series at the First Presbyterian Church of Port Jefferson. In addition, they were featured at the Italian Heritage and Cultural Festival sponsored by the Sons of Italy at the Smithtown Historical Society Fairgrounds. Visit Divalicious! on FB at Vocal Ensemble LI and at www.DanielRagone.com.
This year, Divalicious! welcomes a special guest performer - Bass Baritone Ron Meixsell. His most noted performances were leading baritone roles with The New York Grand Opera, five German Lieder recitals at The Bruno Walter Auditorium, a performance of Leoncavallo's La Boheme at Alice Tully Hall, and a performance as soloist in Carmina Burana with The Great Falls Symphony in Montana. Ron sang on WQXR Radio in remembrances of Arturo Toscanini.
*Schedule subject to change
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LITERARY ARTS
