The National Arts Club Pays Tribute to Women in the Arts

The National Arts Club’s (NAC) three-month Multiple Perspectives: Women in the Arts festival concludes in November 2019. Since September, dozens of programs have explored women creators, leaders, and innovators. November’s offerings include tributes to women artists, animators, authors, and more. All programs are free, unless otherwise noted, and open to non-members. All programs are held at the NAC's historic landmark clubhouse, the former Samuel Tilden mansion, located at 15 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY.

Events:

Non-members are asked to RSVP for all events at nationalartsclub.eventbrite.com.

Kesselring Prize Ceremony Honoring Playwright Inda Craig-Galván*
Monday, November 4, 7:00 PM

The annual Kesselring Prize for playwriting will be awarded to Inda Craig-Galván for her tragicomic play Black Super Hero Magic Mama. A staged reading of the play, about a mother who magically turns into a superhero while mourning the shooting death of her unarmed teenage son by police, will be directed by Michael Parva of the The Directors Company. The award will be presented during a special ceremony following the reading.

New York Debut: Durgesh Gangani, Indian Kathak Dancer
Tuesday, November 5, 7:00 PM

Durgesh Gangani, one of India’s rising stars, performs the rhythmic and dramatic art of Kathak dance. The scion of an illustrious family of Kathak dancers, this performance marks Gangani’s New York debut. Presented in partnership with Battery Dance with sponsorship from The Consulate General of India.

A Book Lover's Guide to New York*
Friday, November 8, 6:00 PM

Cleo Le-Tan visits the Club with her new literary guidebook A Book Lover’s Guide to New York, enchantingly illustrated by the famed artist Pierre Le-Tan. The book provides a keenly etched picture of the city’s literary landscape, including descriptions of exceptional bookstores, interviews with fashionable booklovers such as Marc Jacobs, Graydon Carter, Tina Brown, Hamish Bowles and Tavi Gevinson, and snapshots of New York’s literary history—including The National Arts Club. Ms. Le-Tan will discuss the process of compiling this appealing and essential book.

FashionSpeak Fridays: Ralph Lauren - In His Own Fashion
Friday, November 8, 7:00 PM

Coty Award-winning fashion designer and author Alan Flusser presents Ralph Lauren: In His Own Fashion, a new intimately woven fashion biography showing how a young man of modest means and no formal design training went on to ultimately become a guardian of high-class taste and style. In its behind-the-scenes exploration of the man, his world, and his vision, the book is a primer on the lost art of good taste. Ralph Lauren fashion is highly encouraged.

Animation Nights New York Audience Choice Awards*
Tuesday, November 12, 7:00 PM

Animation Nights New York presents curated screenings of animated short films from around the world. The films were selected by the ANNY audience as their 2018-19 favorites and include the work of women animators.

Tchekhov Forever by Sylvain Beltran-Lamy
Wednesday, November 13, 6:30 PM

Tchekhov Forever is the story of the inner life of one of history’s most important Russian playwrights. The play comes from Sylvain Beltran-Lamy, who has written and appeared in more than thirty works, most notably Le Dernier Voyage de Monsieur Claudel and Churchill. The play is performed in French.

An Evening with Darcey Steinke, Author of Flash Count Diary*
Thursday, November 8:00 PM

Darcey Steinke’s groundbreaking feminist memoir Flash Count Diary has been called “an instant classic.” Drawing from literary criticism, zoological study, and journalism, Steinke brings a fresh and critical look at how our culture views aging women, offering up game-changing political, social, and medical implications.

Art and Activism: The Institutional World of Activist Art
Friday, November 15, 6:00 PM

The second discussion in a three-part series, The Institutional World of Activist Art examines activist art through a conversation with curators, museum directors and attorneys. The discussion also addresses the benefits, challenges, and legal issues involved in presenting often controversial art. Presented in collaboration with the New York State Bar Association EASL Section’s Diversity Committee.

Women and the Silent Film Era*
Friday, November 15, 8:00 PM

During the earliest film era, when Hollywood was mostly orange groves, Fort Lee, NJ was the center of American film production with as many as 17 working studios including Fox, Universal, and Goldwyn. Tom Meyers of the Fort Lee Film Commission joins Jane Gaines, author of Pink-Slipped: What Happened to Women in the Silent Film Industries, and Steve Massa, author of Slapstick Divas, for a discussion on women’s roles during this time.

Precious: Screening and Discussion*
Monday, November 18, 7:00 PM

A screening of the Academy Award-winning film Precious, followed by a discussion with the film’s award-winning writer Geoffrey Fletcher. The film, based on the novel Push by Sapphire, focuses on the life of a Precious, a 16-year-old New Yorker, as she copes with physical, sexual, and mental abuse at the hands of her own parents in 1980s New York. Presented in collaboration with Hollywood Radio and Television Society.

FashionSpeak Fridays: Western Revival
Friday, November 22, 7:00 PM

Join fashion experts Nathaniel “Natty” Adams, Dr. Sonya Abrego, and Jerry Lee Atwood in exploring the pop culture revival of western fashion. Musical entertainment by Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Company, provider of Hillbilly-styled ballads, boogies and blues. Western style attire is greatly encouraged.

The Unexpected Synergy Between Anni Albers and Weaving*
Monday, November 25, 8:00 PM

Anni Albers was a German-American weaver, textile designer, and printmaker, who began her career at the storied Bauhaus school in the 1920s. Later in her life, Albers traveled to South America where she would purchase fabric samples in order to deconstruct them in an attempt to unravel the secrets of the ancient Andean weavers. This talk explores the unexpected synergy between the artist’s work, which was on the cutting edge of modernist design, and the ancient medium of weaving, largely unchanged for millenia.

Fine & Mellow: Helen Sung* (Ticketed Event)
Monday, November 25, 9:00 PM

Fine & Mellow, a yearlong concert series in collaboration with The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, curated by Grammy Award winner Christian McBride, continues with pianist/composer Helen Sung. A classical student from a young age who transitioned to jazz in her early 20s, Sung understands the limitless range and potential of the piano in a way that few specialists in either genre can. She has performed at the Newport Jazz Festival, SFJAZZ Center, Carnegie Hall, London Jazz Festival, Taiwan’s Taichung International Jazz Festivals, and elsewhere.

Admission is $25. Tickets available for purchase at nationalartsclub.eventbrite.com.

Peter Herdrich: The Battle for Our Shared Cultural Heritage
Tuesday, November 26, 6:30 PM

Throughout the globe, some of the world’s greatest monuments and evidence of material culture have disappeared, leaving us bereft of their physical beauty and important lessons in shared humanity. The last decade has drawn increased interest in heritage preservation with the Antiquities Coalition, a leader in combating looting and illicit trafficking of artifacts. Its co-founder and Digital Library of the Middle East project director, Peter Herdrich, discusses the Digital Library’s visualization projects involving museums and libraries across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as its trailblazing role working with UN partners to implement international cultural heritage policy.

Exhibitions:

Exhibitions are on view Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Women Out of Doors*
October 28 - January 3

The NAC’s three-month festival “Multiple Perspectives: Women in the Arts” comes to an impressive conclusion with a special exhibition celebrating contemporary women artists and the art of landscape painting. Artists Lois Dodd, Janice Nowinski, Kyle Staver, Joan Thorne, and Jane Wilson all have a highly personal dialogue with the environment, an ardent response to nature, and have found in nature’s creative purpose elements of structure, invention and expression.

The 2019 NAC Drawing Invitational*
October 28 - January 3

The 2019 NAC Drawing Invitational pairs two celebrated New York artists, Barbara Nessim and Tara Geer. Nessim, celebrated for her gifts as a colorist reveals a celebratory world sparked by her joie de vivre. Geer, in contrast, creates large abstracts in black, white, and grey based on the close observation of insignificant details of her everyday surroundings.

Discovery and Restoration: Theodore Conrath
October 28 - January 3

A special exhibition of work by Theodore Conrath, a NAC Member from 1947-1954. Although Conrath is represented in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, his often traumatic life caused him to fall into obscurity. This exhibition features a rare seen cache of Conrath’s work, recently discovered in a Tarrytown thrift shop.

Courtroom Art: Eyewitness for the Public
October 28 - January 3

The NAC is proud to once again collaborate with the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York in showcasing the work of some of the top courtroom artists working today. Dynamic and visually telling, these works provide the public with an immediate view of some of the district’s most famous cases.

*Multiple Perspectives: Women in the Arts program

About The National Arts Club
Founded in 1898, The National Arts Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a mission to stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts. Annually, the Club offers more than 150 free programs to the public, including exhibitions, theatrical and musical performances, lectures and readings, attracting an audience of over 25,000 members and guests. Feature programs focus on all disciplines of the arts. For a full list of events or to learn more, please visit nationalartsclub.org.

About Multiple Perspectives: Women in the Arts
Multiple Perspectives: Women in the Arts is a three-month festival, presented by The National Arts Club, exploring women creators, leaders, and innovators. Taking place from September through November 2019, the festival features over 50 performances, readings, presentations, and exhibitions focused on the arts, past, present, and future. All programs are free with RSVP. A full schedule can be found at nationalartsclub.org.