The National Arts Club Welcomes 2020 with Free Programs

The National Arts Club (NAC) kicks off 2020 with a wide-array of free arts programming in January. Highlights of the month include author appearances, theatre and music performances, multiple film screenings, two visual arts exhibitions, and much 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.

Oscar & Walt
Performed in Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Walt Whitman
Monday, January 6, 8:00 PM

Cultures clash, egos flare, words fly, and secrets emerge as Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde, two of the greatest writers of the 19th century—one nearing the end of his career, the other just beginning—come face-to-face in Donald Steven Olson’s new play re-creating an actual encounter that took place in 1882 between 62-year-old Whitman and 28-year-old Wilde.

The Iconic Flatiron Building
Wednesday, January 8, 8:00 PM

When the Flatiron Building was erected in 1902, critics savaged it. But this oddly-shaped building at the intersection of 23rd Street, Broadway and Fifth Avenue immediately won New Yorkers’ hearts. In later years, as the surrounding neighborhood turned shabby, the Flatiron remained a beloved symbol of New York. Journalist Alice Sparberg Alexiou, author of The Flatiron: The New York Landmark and the Extraordinary City That Arose With It, talks about what this iconic structure means to the city, the world, and to her.

FashionSpeak Fridays: Dangerous Beauty: Death and the Maiden
Friday, January 10, 7:00 PM

Join filmmaker, multimedia artist, and professor Alexis Palmer Karl for an evening exploring the theme of “Death and The Maiden” through the lens of fashion, throughout various cultures and eras, and its great influence on creating archetypal characters of the vampire and reanimated women in the Victorian era and beyond. The romanticism of dark and finite ephemeral beauty will be examined. Dangerous and deadly fashion is highly encouraged.

Her/Music: Her/Story
Presented with WQXR-FM
Monday, January 13, 7:30 PM

Her/Music: Her/Story shines a light on the music and stories of great women composers, past and present. Co-created and performed by celebrated pianist Donna Weng Friedman and acclaimed soprano Allison Charney, with guest violinist Erika Sato, concertmaster of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and Orpheus, the repertoire includes rediscovered masterpieces by women composers of the past, as well as dynamic new works.

Screening of Tin Soldiers
Tuesday, January 14, 7:30 PM

Tin Soldiers, a documentary film directed by South African filmmaker, Odette Schwegler, brings global attention to a critical children’s health issue—fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva—and those who fight for a cure. The disease robs children of movement, but not of their uncommon resilience and courage to prevail. The film shines a light on this rare condition that often goes undiagnosed, educates the world to the immediacy of the problem, and inspires hope for a cure.

André Aciman, Author of Call Me By Your Name and Find Me
Thursday, January 16, 7:00 PM

Elio and Oliver are two of contemporary literature’s favorite characters—made famous by novelist André Aciman in Call Me by Your Name, which became both a bestselling book and an Academy Award-winning 2017 movie. Now he reintroduces this beloved pair in the much-anticipated sequel, the bestselling Find Me. Aciman reads from his “deeply romantic” new book and talks about why he brought Elio and Oliver back, the nature of their love now, and what happens when people once in love meet again after years apart. Book signing to follow.

Savvy Sirens of the French New Wave, 1956 – 1965
Tuesday, January 21, 7:30 PM

French New Wave was the original Indie Cinema where young directors dispensing with the old format of filmmaking, used whatever technical resources were available to rewrite the protocols of 20th century cinema. The evening features screenings of four rarely-seen short films from the era and an overview of this influential period.

An Evening with Jacob Pabst, CEO of artnet
Wednesday, January 22, 7:00 PM

Join for a discussion with Jacob Pabst, CEO of artnet, the art world’s leading business-to-business platform, comprising its gold standard price database and top news gathering division artnet news, as well as proprietary research, digital art auctions and a gallery portal. By bringing transparency to this rarified sphere, artnet under Pabst’s leadership continues to spur investment in the art market while also democratizing access to the buying, selling and appreciation of art.

David Dunlop: Painting Techniques
Thursday, January 23, 6:00 PM

David Dunlop, Emmy-winning host of PBS’s Landscapes Through Time with David Dunlop, is a modern-day old master painter, whose landscapes draw from Renaissance techniques and contemporary science. His paintings have been shown internationally and are held in private and corporate collections. Dunlop demonstrates his painting techniques by painting in person, while he speaks on the topic of how art has evolved in the past 500 years, from the Renaissance up to the present day. This program is presented in collaboration with the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club.

An Evening with Acclaimed Actor Jim Dale
Friday, January 24, 6:00 PM

A multi-talented performer who garnered an Oscar nomination as composer of the theme song for Georgy Girl, an actor who earned acclaim with Sir Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company and later won a Tony Award for his title role in Barnum, and a narrator who holds multiple Grammy Awards for his recordings of Harry Potter, Jim Dale is one of the most engaging personalities in show business. He visits the Club to delight guests with highlights from his extraordinary career and respond to audience questions during what promises to be an engaging conversation.

Boom: An Art-World Evening with Michael Shnayerson
Friday, January 24, 8:00 PM

The contemporary art market is an international juggernaut, throwing off multimillion-dollar deals as wealthy buyers move from fair to fair, auction to auction, party to glittering party. But none of it would happen without the dealers and mega dealers: tastemakers who back emerging artists and then steer them to success. Longtime Vanity Fair contributing editor Michael Shnayerson has interviewed all of today’s mega dealers, Larry Gagosian, David Zwirner, Arne and Marc Glimcher, and Iwan Wirth, as well as many other global art-world movers and shakers. His gripping new book Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art is the first definitive history of art dealing in our time.

New Evidence from Ancient Methone
Monday, January 27, 6:30 PM

Famed cities in Hellas, such as Methone, often pass into oblivion until rediscovered through archaeology. Destroyed in 354 BCE by Philip II, father of the great Alexander, its treasured finds have been excavated by the Greek Archaeological Service, collaborating since 2014 with the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. Professor Papadopoulos of UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology discusses its thriving settlement, industrial center, and harbor which served as a cultural conduit.

Fine & Mellow: The George Cables Trio (TICKETED EVENT)
Presented with The National Jazz Museum in Harlem
Monday, January 27, 9:00 PM

Legendary pianist George Cables performs as part of Fine & Mellow, a yearlong concert series in collaboration with The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, curated by Grammy Award winner Christian McBride. Cables has performed and recorded with some of the greatest jazz musicians of our time, including Joe Henderson, Roy Haynes, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Sarah Vaughn, Tony Williams, Bobby Hutcherson, Art Pepper, and Dizzy Gillespie. Cables has emerged as a major voice in modern jazz. Tickets ($25) available at nationalartsclub.eventbrite.com.

Exhibitions:

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

Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club: Annual Open Juried Exhibition
January 6 - 31

Catharine Lorillard Wolfe (1828-1887) was a prominent New York philanthropist and art collector, and the only woman among the 106 founders of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In addition to bequeathing her painting collection to the museum, Ms. Wolfe left an endowment to Grace Church in Manhattan to promote “women’s work.” For over 60 years, the Club has been welcomed by NAC in furthering that goal and hosting the Annual Open Juried Exhibition.

Charles Johnstone
January 6 - 31

Charles Johnstone is a New York City-based artist. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Berlin. Johnstone’s books and photographs are included in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMa, The Museum of the City of New York, and the International Center of Photography. This exhibition centers on the seven books that are devoted to his work made with Polaroid film from 2014 to 2019. The work is divided into two series: the “Walkup Trilogy” and the “Muse” which portrays famous actresses photographed from his TV set.

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.