Diversity

What a marvelously diverse world we inhabit! Living in the North Country, we are fortunate to have many opportunities to enjoy this.


Some time, when you are outside, look down. How many species of plant and fungus do you observe? What types of rock are visible? Can you guess, or do you know, what manner of microscopic life is there? How about insects - or the critters which feed off them?


Of course, when the snow gets deep, such observations are more challenging. But the point remains: so much life, so many forms, await our inspection!


Then, of course, there is human diversity. How many cultures have humans created across the world and over the millenia? How many forms of expression? Who can count them? Not I.


This leads us to the heart of a show opening tomorrow (Saturday 11/14/09) at the Adirondack Park Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC) at Paul Smiths, on Route 30, about 12 miles north of Saranac Lake. Titled "Discovering Diversity", the show is sponsored jointly by the VIC and the Arts Council of the Northern Adirondacks, and features 22 artists working in a wide variety of media. Watercolor, acrylic, and pastel are represented - so is photography, fiber art, glass, etching, and printing. There is even an ice sculpture!



I have not yet seen these works, but many of the artists are familiar to me. Two of them, Sandra Hildreth and Ursula Wyatt Trudeau, have been subjects of previous blog posts here. (Click here and here to see.)



It is exciting to anticipate the experience of new art - both by those whose previous work you know, and by artists not yet discovered. This show hangs through January 4, 2010: I hope all who love diversity will have the chance to see, explore, admire, learn, and enjoy!

"Puck has TB?"

As I said, July is the jewel in our crown.

This jewel is constantly polished, refined, and reformed by creative vision, inspiration, and downright out-of-the-box thinking. Or, how about, out-of-the-theater?

Outdoor theater is not a new idea, by any means; as a student, I was awed by many memorable performances in lush college quads, parks, and an amphitheater; my New York City nephew is a 10-year-old veteran of Central Park performances. Many other cities and college town boast similar opportunities.

But here is a new twist: how about Shakespeare in the Adirondack Park-?!?

While Central Park is a restful haven of nature for Manhattan, and college quads and parklands offer refreshing respite from the numbing grind of academia - well, they're pretty small compared to the 6 million acres encircled by the Blue Line!

No problem.

Stephen Svoboda, the executive director of the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts, is not one to be cowed by fickle mountain weather. His heart does not quake at the logistics of moving a show 12 times in 7 days, over hundreds of miles of twisty mountain roads. A Midsummer Night's Dream is to be performed between July 25th and August 1st at an array of locations to make you reach for a map: Thendara, Tupper Lake, Blue Mountain Lake, Long Lake, Old Forge, Raquette Lake, Minerva, Indian Lake, North Creek, Paul Smiths, Inlet, and Speculator.

This I gotta see!

The nearest performance to my location is July 31st at the Adirondack Park Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC).

Click here to see when and where it will be near you.

And no, Puck does not suffer from tuberculosis! My 15-year-old son (who aspires to comedic greatness) posed the question when he learned this play is being staged outside in the clean mountain air so often prescribed to victims of that disease. But the show promises to cure lots of other, more modern ailments: ennui, indifference, worldliness, apathy . . .

Our North Country summer is the more luscious for its brevity. Make the most of its opportunities, and rejoice in creative invention!