A GUIDE TO GETTING THROUGH THE DOORS OF OPEN HOUSE NEW YORK

MY TIPS AND TRICKS TO ENTRY

This year's Open House New York unlocked up close to 250 doors in the city that are normally closed to the public. It's a two-day event that happens once a year in Mid-October. This is the second time I've taken advantage of the event and both years I learned a little more about the ins and outs of how the event works. There's a process to how you get through the doors of the places you want to see. Here's what I know.
1. The most sought after venues usually require a reservation. Tickets for these interiors are acquired on an online sale with a first come first serve basis. Several weeks before the actual event tickets are put up for bid. If you aren't set up to hit the buy button for the space you want to see within the first thirty seconds of the sale you can just draw an "X" through being able to visit that space.
2. The first year I attended I tried for tickets several days after they went up for sale. I missed out on all the reservation only sites. This year I hovered over my computer like a duck eyeing a June bug. When the clock on my computer ticked out 11:00am on the first day of the sale I hit the purchase key and off I went to filling out the form for a golden ticket to the National Arts Club. It was one of six must see venues on my list. It took me about forty-five seconds to strike a win and move onto my number two site. It was a no go and it was a no go for the remaining venues on my wish list. Spots on the reserved entry only sites had all been gobbled up within seconds.
3. This left me with a list of about a dozen open entry places I was still interested in seeing. Here's where you need to reevaluate the possible popularity of the places on your list. Even these places can prove challenging. Some of the lines for getting into places like the Cultural Services of the French Embassy/Albertine Books required more than an hour wait and that kind of wait cuts deep into the amount of places you can actually see before time runs out.
4. You should make sure that you've checked out the locations of all the venues you've added to your list. Make a map to make sure that you're not traversing the island or trying to go from borough to borough instead of consolidating your visits to a tight locale. The hours sites are open differ from site to site and this can really screw up your journey if you didn't write down everyone's open hours or the day they're going to be open
5. Next you want to check to see if the place your visiting requires a tour or if they let you roam unsupervised. I prefer to be left alone to see and photograph on my own. When some of the tours take an hour or more this can also put a real crimp on time chart.
6. Here's my plan for next year. I'm going to enlist a bunch of friends for a sign-in party on the day and at the time that tickets become available. Then manned with a list of all the places I want to see I'll have all my guests lined up with their computers in front of them and an assigned venue for them to sign up for on my behalf. How many of you are interested?

THE NATIONAL ARTS CLUB

What I did get to see was this gorgeous building, the National Arts Club. It was my one golden ticket event and even though it did require a half-hour tour it was a terrific event.

It was a very intimate affair, my group of lucky ticket holders was no more than ten and our docent was an incredibly informative employee of the club. Her spiel didn't last the full thirty minutes and the rest of the time she allowed us to roam from room to room on our own.

The private membership club is situated across the street from Gramercy Park. 6029It was the former home of Samuel Tilden: a former New York governor, the second presidential candidate to win the popular vote but not the electoral vote and a lifelong bachelor. There's a lot there to contemplate.

The building was originally built in the 1840's in the Gothic Revival style but when Tilden purchased it he hired Calvert Vaux, one of the designers of Central Park and had the building completely redesigned in the Aesthetic Movement dripping with detail from both the outside and inside.

Although the building is a members only organization it is frequently open to the public for lectures and special events. During the time before our tour was to beginning we allowed to wander through the lower level

The lower level is a warren of meeting rooms, studios and exhibition spaces. A sketch class was in progress as I toured the lower area. Here's where current exhibits happen intermingled with old masters and sculptures.

The main level consists of a series of gathering spaces on a parlor floor with sitting rooms, a bar, and dining rooms.

Each room retains that old world feel of the turn-of-the-century with tufted sofas,

ornate mantels and an eclectic mix of furniture.

The bar is lined with a ledge of busts and intricate woodwork

Under the canopy of an immense vaulted stained glass ceiling

Keeping with the buildings renovated style the use of stained glass is an integral part of the buildings beauty.

Windows and interior walls with backlighting are included everywhere.

Stretching out from the bar is a long banquet hall lite by crystal chandeliers

and lined with Tiffany aqua chairs.

Beyond the banquet area is the main dining room that can accommodate a corporate event, a wedding reception or an honors ceremony

The club gives out a Medal of Honor Award on an annual basis and many of the recipients are immortalized in portraits that line the walls of one of the room that overlooks the park.

Recipients have included three former presidents, several former first ladies and many creative luminaries from a broad range of disciplines including Frederic Remington, Chuck Close, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Leonard Bernstein, Whoopi Goldberg and Ang Lee

Of course there's art and sculpture highlighted throughout the Club.






















THE GALLERY

Art from the National Arts Club

PAOLI'S FALL FESTIVAL 2017

SMALL TOWN ARTISTRY

Parked cars stretched for miles around the little hamlet of Paoli, Wisconsin. It was Fall Festival time and much of Madison and the surrounding bedroom communities had come to partake in the art, music and booze on a beautiful fall day in Wisconsin.

Paoli is a small spit of a town that has turned itself into an artisan's enclave due a lot to its beautiful indigenous architecture.

The landscape of the hamlet is pretty impressive as well with the Sugar River running through it making for one inviting bucolic setting.

For such a small town there is more to do than one would expect from a town whose Main Street is a mere two blocks long. Once I walked the almost mile from where I had to park my car I headed to my favorite spot in Paoli, the Cottage Goddess, a shop specializing in vintage finds

There were definitely objects of desire to be found from needlepoint pillows and canopy chairs

to Lori's specialty vintage clothing. It's been our secret go to for gifts for our mangy gypsy daughter and her passion for denim jackets, Hermes scarves and cowboy boots

But vintage wasn't what Lori was pushing for the fall festival. She was pushing booze. I got there too late to try one of the twenty-four dozen liquor infused cupcakes she had baked the previous evening

But I was able to peruse her small batch Scotch Whiskies

and her "Pajama Party" dessert wines perfectly displayed with a pair of mules and a bed jacket to match the occasion

Just outside the Cottage Goddess a huge table was set up with charms and chains where you could sit and make your own bracelet or necklace. It was a way to either quell the enthusiasm of the young or put together an accessory for later that night.

Food was being served throughout the village but my favorite place to catch a bite is the Paoli Bread and Brat Haus. Unfortunately, on Fall Festival Day the line to get in and the time you'd wait to get served was way too long for me. My recommendation is to go back on a normal weekend where the owner is known to give out refills of ice cream in your empty cone if one scoop doesn't do the trick

As many cars as lined the streets of Paoli there were at least four times the amount of bikes parked and stacked throughout the town. Warm weather biking is a major pull on the rolling hills that undulate over the area surrounding Madison, perfect terrain for avid bikers.

That's why it was no surprise to me that a custom bike shop would find a home in Paoli.

I.O.A.K. is a not only an eye opener for bikers but it's a visual treat for anyone who appreciates design

One of the older buildings in Paoli is what started out in 1854 as a one-room schoolhouse and is now a combination restaurant and gift shop.

Like all of the other venues food wasn't going to happen at the Schoolhouse without a wait that would have wasted the better part of the remaining day. What I could do was to touch and coo over everything I saw that I wanted to take home with me from their collection of antiques and home goods.

Across the street from the Paoli Schoolhouse is one of several galleries now open in Paoli, the Abel Contemporary Gallery. The building is a former creamery lined with glazed tile and a refrigeration room, the perfect space for Marlene Miller's exhibit of ceramic busts titled "Blood and Iron".

Wisconsin has always possessed a quirky side so it shouldn't appear too unusual that one of Paoli's biggest shopping attractions is a place called Cluck, a store dedicated to everything concerning chickens.

You can find everything from a chicken shaped casserole dish to a fancy backyard hen house officially approved for suburban use.

Out front of Cluck was a wheelbarrow filled with Osage Oranges. They were the only purchase I made that day but not for want of the many other things that had caught my eye but not my wallet.

I've mixed the oranges with a bunch of yellow and green gourds avoiding the obvious traditional orange color that normally accompanies the season.

With my bag of Osage Oranges in hand I waited for Paoli's idea of taxi service, a horse drawn wagon, to pass by and let me cross the street for my mile long journey back to my car and back to the twenty-first century and home. As crowded as the town was it was still worth the time spent.
THE GALLERY

Textiles, 2010
Christopher Payne, photographer
Represented by Benrubi Gallery

GALLERY NIGHT, A TOUR OF AREA ARTISTS IN MADISON, WISCONSIN

RAIN COULDN'T KEEP US AWAY

The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, MMoCA (pronounced Ma-Mo.Ka an anagram sounding like something you could order at Starbucks) holds an event twice a year where artists and artisan venues open their doors to the public. It happens once in the spring and then again in the fall. Last Friday night under the threat of rain my best friend and I armed with umbrellas headed out to see what this year's fall event had to offer.  Past forays into the Madison art scene had been packed events where you squeezed through crowds and then attempted to view the art over the shoulder of guys with ponytails and girls covered in tattoos. This year, maybe because of the rain the crowds were thin but this played to our advantage.

We had started out around six with the intent of covering the eastside area around Schenk's Corners. Growing up on the eastside this was our social hub. My parents banked at what was then Security State Bank, I had an aunt with a beauty parlor a couple of blocks below the Eastwood Theater and another aunt and uncle ran a bar kitty-corner from the bank on Winnebago Street. This was my parents date night destination they'd go to once every other month. We'd stay home waiting with the hopes they'd return with a bag of hamburgers smothered in fried onions from the Nibble Nock, a greasy spoon where the short-order cook flipped his burgers in the window of what is now a part of Texas Tubbs.

Jim and I grabbed dinner at Alchemy before heading out umbrellas still in hand.

Our first stop was right next-door at Nomadic Grill + Home, a shop specializing in Indian vintage signage and cooking paraphernalia. It's surprising what you don't see passing by year after year without looking. This shop was amazing. Huge graphic signs lined the walls while a gorgeous bicycle powered rickshaw was planted center stage.

The windows were laden with cast iron braziers, huge pulleys and a beautiful set of painted doors.

From there it was two blocks down Winnebago to the Winnebago Studios, a collective artist's studio in the waiting room of destruction as it held fast to hear its fate on being torn down to make way for a more profitable residential replacement.

One of my favorite spots in the Madison art scene is housed inside the Studios. The Atwood Atelier is evocative of another world where models lounged in colorful Japanese kimonos on worn chaises covered in faded chenille.

The walls of the Atelier are covered in the portraiture work of artists transporting one to the dingy lofts of Montmartre.

You expect to see Matisse and Picasso in heavy conversation while the smell of oil paint and linseed oil mingle with the circling smoke from ashtrays laden with cigarette stubs.

There are hidden treasures behind every open door in the Winnebago Studios, from printmakers

to political satirists.

Across the street is Studio Paran mostly known for its glasswork.

The glass blowers were at work set in front of the glowing kilns sweating as they demonstrated the artistry of making vases from molten sand.

We put our umbrellas up and headed down Atwood where our upholsterer had an opening to debut his new line of furniture. There were so many pieces to love in his new line and too many to try to showcase here. Matthew Nafranowicz, of the Straight Thread, is a French taught upholstery genius.

His new line combines woodwork, leather and the underbelly of furniture construction in his line of chairs and ottomans. He exposes the webbing and tacking that is usually hidden underneath in a way that makes these elements elegant and unexpected.

Two of my favorite pieces where this wing chair with its walnut embracing side panels and exposed crisscrossed webbed arms

and this perfectly executed stool with its leather top and baseball stitching. We're looking for the right client to persuade that they shouldn't live without them.

We were just about ready to pack it in but the rain was subsiding and there was an area of the Madison art scene we'd never explored. We had to drive to get to this one located further east and in a small industrial pocket I'd never ventured into.

Hidden in a low one-story building was the Baraboo Woodworks. They specialize in live edge wood slabs in different species of wood culled from the Wisconsin area. The wood is absolutely gorgeous and so were their finished products.

I'm guessing the organizers of the event would have hoped for better weather but for us the opportunity to actually see the art and talk to the artists was selfishly much more enjoyable


THE GALLERY

Georgia O'Keeffe, 1956
Yousuf Karsh, photographer
Represented by Robert Klein Gallery, Boston