MENANDS — The Mohawk Hudson Humane Society (MHHS) has replaced its traditional gala with a virtual event. The Benson’s Pet Centers “Hope Grows Here” Gala for Animals will be streamed live on the Society’s Facebook page at 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 20. 

The community is invited to participate at no charge. The event will be emceed by MHHS CEO Ashley Jeffrey Bouck and award-winning actor and entertainer Greg Aidala. WTEN’s Steve Caporizzo, host of Pet Connection, will be sharing several of the Society’s most inspiring success stories.

Those who wish to add dining to their virtual gala experience can order handcrafted, curbside pick-up meals for two from catering partner, Nicole’s Restaurant. Two three-course meal packages are available, one vegan, along with a choice of two specialty cocktails. Meals may be picked up on June 20, between 2:30 and 4:30 pm from either Nicole’s at 556 Delaware Avenue in Albany, or the National Museum of Dance at 99 S. Broadway in Saratoga Springs, which was the originally planned site for the gala. Complete details about the event can be found here: mohawkhumane.org/gala-animals-2020.

The Society’s work is essential and throughout the COVID-19 pause it has continued to care for hundreds of animals and placed over 260 pets in new homes.
The Society has also coordinated two large-scale pet food distributions of over 79,000 lbs. to pet owners and other humane organizations. Its Pet Food Pantry is always available for anyone needing assistance.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Casino Hotel announced last week that harness racing will resume on Thursday, June 18, – but no spectators are allowed at the track due to state guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fans can wager remotely on the races through Saratoga Casino Hotel’s online wagering platform, SaratogaBets.com, or on any other New York State approved online waging platform. 

Following the directive outlined by the New York State Gaming Commission and the New York State Department of Health, Saratoga Casino Hotel developed new policies and procedures to reduce the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak and ensure the safety of employees, horsemen, and horses.

Races will run two days a week, every Thursday and Sunday with a noon post time. The casino remains closed and is awaiting further guidance from the state regarding a reopen date for the entire property. 

• The Adirondack Balloon Festival, slated to take flight Sept. 17-20, has been grounded. The group plans to return Sept. 23-26, 2021. 

• The Washington County Fair, which was to take place Aug. 24-30 has been cancelled. Next year’s fair is planned for Aug. 23-29, 2021. 

•The Lake George Arts Project Summer Music Series and Jazz at the Lake have both been cancelled. The Summer Concert Series was scheduled for Wednesday nights in July and August and Jazz at the Lake was scheduled for September 19-20, both in Shepard Park in Lake George. A “Jazz at the Lake Reimagined program” – a series of hybrid events that combine performances and discussion with the artists is being coordinated. An announcement is anticipated regarding dates and times. 

Schuylerville Public Library will be reopening in phases and the Curbside Service Phase will begin on Monday, June 22. 

Library card holders may place requests for books, movies, and any other materials online at pac.sals.edu or by calling the Library at 518-695-6641.  Operating hours and curbside pickup windows will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. and Tuesday and Thursday from 2-7 p.m. 

Library staff will arrange curbside pickup appointments with patrons once their items are ready and make contactless deliveries to vehicles. No members of the public will be allowed in the building. 

The Schuylerville Public Library is a school district library, established in 2013 to serve the towns and villages of Easton, Fort Edward, Greenwich, Northumberland, Saratoga, Schuylerville, Stillwater, Victory and Wilton. Visit www.schuylervillelibrary.sals.edu for more information. 

Saratoga Springs Public Library plans to begin contactless pickup on June 22; the schedule for that service will be 10 a.m. -6 p.m. Monday-Thursday, and 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Friday-Saturday.

Ike Pulver, Library Director:  We anticipate that we will be able to allow staff back into the building by midweek next week to start that process.  At the moment, there are approximately 3,000 items in the library waiting to be checked in and shelved or shipped back to their owning libraries, and about 26,000 items checked out of our library alone. Throughout the SALS and MVLS regions, there are about 271,000 items out. If they all come flooding back in at the same time, we will be overwhelmed, so we ask that you hold on to them for a bit longer. All due dates and overdue fines are still suspended.

When we are able to begin contactless pickup, it will be by appointment only, and it is very unlikely that it will be a same day service, given the complexity of our required safety protocols, the size of our building, and the number of requests. Much more information about how that process will work will be coming soon. When we are ready to begin that service, there will be some new rules in place, including social distancing, a requirement to wear a face covering, and a “no-lingering” rule in order to be able to serve as many people as possible as safely as possible. Staff will be routinely cleaning and disinfecting and will be required to maintain their distance from one another.

For more information on Saratoga Springs Public Library curbside services please visit www.loc8nearme.com/new-york/saratoga-springs/saratoga-springs-public-library/5614245.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Performing Arts Center and Absolutely Live Entertainment, in partnership with Caffè Lena announce “Freihofer’s Jazz Fest Stay Home Sessions,” presented in lieu of the 2020 Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival, previously cancelled by SPAC due to health and safety concerns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Headlined by national artists Jon Batiste, Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn, and Pedrito Martinez, Jazz Fest Stay Home Sessions will also feature acclaimed local musicians Chuck Lamb & Jorge Gomez, Garland Nelson’s “Reflections: A Motown Tribute Ensemble” and the Skidmore Jazz Institute Alumni Trio. 

The series of streamed concerts – which start at 8 p.m. on June 26, 27 and 28, will feature produced videos from the national artists alongside performances from Lena’s stage from local ensembles. The festival will be free to experience and hosted through Caffè Lena’s “Stay Home Sessions” YouTube platform. 

For safety and social distancing purposes, Caffè Lena will remain closed to everyone except essential personnel and musicians. Content will be pre-recorded adhering to CDC guidelines. 

Freihofer’s Jazz Fest
Stay Home Sessions Line-Up:

Friday, June 26: 
Pedrito Martinez; Chuck Lamb & Jorge Gomez 

Saturday, June 27: 
Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn; Skidmore Jazz Institute Alumni Trio

Sunday, June 28: 
Jon Batiste; Garland Nelson’s “Reflections: A Motown Tribute Ensemble”

For more information about the festival, visit SPAC.org

SARATOGA SPRINGS — In response to the ongoing restrictions on performances and public gatherings due to COVID-19, Opera Saratoga this week launched a new, integrated series of online programs. The combination of free and paid activities provides a wide variety of opportunities for local opera lovers of all ages.

Opera Saratoga: Connect! Daily features performances by Festival Artists, premiering at 9 a.m. every morning on Opera Saratoga’s Facebook page as well as on Opera Saratoga’s website. Each month is dedicated to a different theme, drawn from some of the programming that had to be cancelled as part of the originally planned 2020 Summer Festival.

June will feature arias and ensembles from the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, including excerpts from The Pirates of Penzance, which had been scheduled to open the 2020 Festival. July will feature Beethoven – including many of Beethoven’s beloved settings of folk melodies from around the world – and scenes from his only opera, Fidelio. August will feature songs and ensembles from musicals by Stephen Sondheim. 

Complete details about each of the six programs as part of OPERA SARATOGA: CONNECT! (Connect! Mentorship; Connect! Daily; Connect! Trivia; Connect! Kids; Connect! Classes; and Connect! Symposia) may be found online at www.operasaratoga.org/connect

SCHENECTADY — The Upstate Theater Coalition for a Fairgame has awarded Fairgame Arts Grants to 44 non-profit arts and cultural organizations in the three New York state casino regions: Capital, Catskills and Southern Tier/Finger Lakes.   

Awardees in Saratoga County are: Lake George Opera Festival Association, Inc., dba Opera Saratoga, $5,000; Saratoga Chamber Players, Inc., $1,700, and The Creative Place International, $4,425. 

In February, groups in 27 counties were invited to submit for grants ranging from $1,000–$5,000, subsidized by gaming revenues from Rivers Casino & Resort Schenectady, Resorts World Catskills, del Lago Resort & Casino and Tioga Downs Casino Resort.   

A total of 85 applications were received statewide, with 44 being awarded in 17 counties, amounting to $138,800. Distribution regionally: Capital Region, $45,300; Catskill Region, $64,875; and Southern Tier / Finger Lakes Region, $28,625.   

The coalition, a group of a dozen performing arts centers, was created in partnership with the casinos specifically to foster economic cooperation amongst the entities. Through its community commitment, the coalition created Fairgame Arts Grants, to fund programs to support organizations in the associated regions. The Upstate Theater Coalition for a Fairgame includes Bardavon (Poughkeepsie), Bethel Woods Center for the Arts (Bethel), Clemens Center (Elmira), Forum Theatre (Binghamton), Palace Performing Arts Center (Albany), Proctors (Schenectady), Rochester Broadway Theatre League’s Auditorium Theatre (Rochester), Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs City Center, State Theatre of Ithaca, Times Union Center (Albany) and Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. 

SCHYLERVIILE ­­— The popular annual two-day Turning Point Festival will not be staged this year in light of the spread of COVID-19, based upon recommendations of state and local health authorities as they pertain to large event gatherings, festival organizers announced this week. 

The parade and festival – which celebrates the battles of Saratoga as the “turning point” of the American Revolution, was slated to take place Aug. 1-2. 

Festival organizers said they plan to hold the parade and Fort Hardy Park festival in 2021. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College announces the opening of Lover Earth: Art and Ecosexuality, a student-curated online exhibition that encourages viewers to think critically about their bodies and the planet. The exhibition is presented on the Tang website.

Organized by Caroline Coxe ’20, Lover Earth draws on the ideas of Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, collaborative performance artists who coined the term “ecosexuality” to describe an erotic connection to nature. Instead of “Mother Earth,” they opt to use the phrase “Lover Earth” to denote a reciprocal relationship between humans and Earth.

Through a selection of paintings, prints, photographs, and moving images, Lover Earth recontextualizes artworks from the Tang collection—many being shown by the Museum for the first time—to create a diverse ecology that celebrates nature, sexuality, and the ways in which these ideas intersect.

Franklin Williams’s A Beautiful Dark Moment, 1973, combines acrylic paint, twine, yarn, and fabric to create abstract shapes and hairy tendrils that conflate human, animal, and plant sexual anatomy. Frank Moore and Jim Self’s video Beehive, 1985, explores the sexuality of honeybees through dance; Paula Wilson’s video Salty & Fresh pays homage to feminine creativity by telling the creation myth of an artwork while alluding to fertility and birth as they symbolically relate to bodies of water.

Other artists with work on view in the exhibition are Steven Arnold, Atong Atem, Dorothy Dehner, Naomi Fisher, Flor Garduño, Corita Kent, Ana Mendieta, John O’Reilly, Olivia Parker, Clare Richardson, and Dasha Shishkin.

Lover Earth continues the Museum’s tradition of Skidmore College students curating their own exhibitions. Coxe, a studio art major, is the 2019–20 Eleanor Linder Winter ’45 Intern, and the exhibition is the capstone project of her internship. 

 Go to: tang.skidmore.edu. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The 8th annual Beekman Street Art Fair (BSAF) scheduled for Sunday, June 14, 2020 has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, fair goers will still get to browse and purchase a variety of fine art and craft. 

The Fair is coordinated by members of the non-profit Saratoga Springs Arts District Inc.  Project managers are working with grantor Saratoga Arts to use the funds awarded for the fair on some alternate events later in the summer that will follow city and state guidelines for public safety.

The first event planned is an online auction featuring the work of artists who would have participated in this year’s fair.  The auction goes live on June 7 and runs for two weeks. It may be accessed through the Beekman Street Arts District website at SaratogaArtDistrict.com.   

The project team is also planning to host three late summer Second Sunday Pop-Up Art events on the lawns, porches, and interiors of the Arts District shops. If deemed safe to do so, these would be held on the second Sundays of each month – July 12, Aug. 9, and Sept. 13.

“When we realized it would be unlikely that we could hold our family friendly event, we started brainstorming some alternate venues to showcase our visual artists,” fair project manager Susan Rivers said in a statement. 

The Beekman Street Art Fair alternate projects feature the creation of a virtual art show via an on-line auction, and potentially mini pop up art events later in the summer.  “Since we will not be able to hold the traditional fair which brings in thousands of guests, we look forward to engaging with the community in innovative ways,” Rivers said. 

For more information, go to: www.saratogaartdistrict.com.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Northshire Bookstore, which sites stores in Saratoga Springs and Manchester Center, Vermont, is taking its motto of building community one book at a time to heart in this time of pandemic. 

Northshire hosts a series of virtual community gatherings for book lovers anchored around a standing Thursday 5 p.m. Northshire Live virtual event, with weekly authors and guests via Zoom. All events are password protected. Information on how to access each event is available at northshire.com. Beginning in June, all Northshire Live events will be ticketed – most on a “pay-what-you-can” basis.

The month kicks off with two events this week. 

• Tuesday, June 2 at 7 p.m.
Chris Bohjalian presenting The Red Lotus – in conversation with Rebecca Makkai. Beloved Vermont author and dear friend of the bookstore Chris Bohjalian will discuss his latest, The Red Lotus, a global thriller set amidst the adrenaline-fueled world of the emergency room. In this special ticketed virtual event, Chris will be joined by Rebecca Makkai–the New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed novel The Great Believers. Go to: www.northshire.com/event/northshire-live-chris-bohjalian

• Thursday, June 4 at 5 p.m.
Amy Meyerson, author of The Imperfects, and Alli Frank and Asha Youmans, coauthors of Tiny Imperfections. Meyerson is the author of the Northshire staff favorites The Bookshop of Yesterdays and The Imperfects, and Alli Frank & Asha Youmans are co-authors of the delightful debut comedy Tiny Imperfections. This event is ticketed on a pay-what-you-can basis. Go to: www.northshire.com/event/northshire-live-guest-authors-amy-meyerson-alli-frank-and-asha-youmans

Additional events in June include live author events featuring acclaimed science journalist and New York Times bestselling author Wendy Williams, internationally acclaimed Dominican American writer Julia Alvarez – in conversation with Northshire co-founder Barbara Morrow, the annual James Joyce Bloomsday  celebration on June 16, and many other events. 

For more information on these or other events, email events@northshire.com, or visit www.northshire.com.