SARATOGA SPRINGS — Jerry Crouth, a local Fun FM 93.3 radio DJ, will present his new book, “Thank You, Mom: My Life’s Stories Growing Up in the Forties” at the Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs on Sept. 11 at 6 p.m.

The book pays tribute to Crouth’s mother, who brought up Jerry and his five siblings after their father was permanently hospitalized in Marcy Mental Hospital one month before Jerry’s birth.

“We didn’t just survive,” Crouth said. “We had very happy formative years living together. It was all because of our mother.”

The book event, free and open to the public, will include an overview of the book and an author signing. “Thank You, Mom” is available for purchase both at the store and on Amazon.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) recently announced the return of its “CulinaryArts@SPAC” initiative this fall and winter with three events hosted at The Pines at SPAC. Tickets for the events are available at spac.org.

Project Griddle with Steven Raichlen

Oct. 7, 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Barbecue legend, James Beard Award–winning author, and host of PBS’s “Project Fire,” Steven Raichlen kicks off the CulinaryArts@SPAC fall season with a sizzling celebration of the griddle. In conversation with WAMC host Joe Donahue, Raichlen will share the inspiration behind his newest book, “Project Griddle”—a guide to griddles, planchas, and flat-tops packed with practical cooking techniques, chef’s shortcuts, and nearly 80 recipes. Prized for their accessibility, versatility, and fun, griddles are having a moment—and Raichlen traces their history from the teppan of Japan to the plancha of Spain to champa grilling in South America. Guests will enjoy tastings from Project Griddle including Tapas Bar Shrimp, Griddled Figs and Halloumi Cheese, Bacon-Seared Dates, Vietnamese Pork Meatballs and Manchego Crisps with Greens—alongside wine, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages. A book signing will follow.

Chop Chop: Cooking the Foods of Nigeria with Ozoz Sokoh

Nov. 15, 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.

CulinaryArts@SPAC presents an evening of West African culture with Nigerian-born culinary anthropologist and author Ozoz Sokoh in conversation with WAMC’s Sarah LaDuke. Sokoh will share stories from her highly praised new book “Chop Chop: Cooking the Foods of Nigeria,” a guide to Nigerian cuisine featuring 100 recipes that honor and preserve the nation’s rich culinary traditions. The evening’s tasting menu will be prepared by Albany’s Keobi Restaurant, known for its authentic Nigerian dishes, and will feature dishes like Chin Chin and Puff Puff, Jollof Rice, Nigerian Salad, Egusi Soup, Fried Chicken and Mingau de Tapioca. Guests can also enjoy Afro-beat music and explore a marketplace presented by Nine Steps Away from Africa, offering handcrafted silver and beaded jewelry, balafons, soaps, musical instruments, and more. Nigerian cocktails and mocktails, wine, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages will be served. A book signing will follow.

Potluck Desserts to Share with Pride with Justin Burke

Dec. 4, 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Indulge in dessert for dinner with an inclusive, joy-filled dessert potluck hosted by baker, activist, and TV personality Justin Burke, in conversation with WAMC’s Sarah LaDuke. The region’s hottest pastry chefs (including Michele Hunter of Familiar Creature, Sam Pierre of Standard Fare, and Vanessa Traver of The Reading Room) will offer sweet creations such as icebox cakes, layered desserts, self-saucing puddings and slab pies from Burke’s new cookbook Potluck Desserts. Champagne and a specialty cocktail will be curated by Saratoga Springs’ Bocage and Standard Fare. Wine, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages will also be available. A book signing will follow.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College announced Wednesday a series of free public tours for the fall season, including Tang Guide Tours each Sunday beginning Sept. 7, and monthly Curator’s Tours.

The Tang rotates exhibitions in and out of its galleries, presenting more than a dozen each year. Fall exhibitions include “See It Now: Contemporary Art from the Ann and Mel Schaffer Collection,” opening Sept. 13, a sweeping presentation of contemporary art collected over the last five decades; the recently opened “All These Growing Things,” an exploration of becoming and belonging through a selection of work from the Tang collection, which now numbers over 20,0000 objects; and “Sheila Pepe: Where and When We Rest,” opening Oct. 11, the sixth iteration in the mezzanine installation project that invites an artist to design a community lounge space.

Continuing through Nov. 2 is “Up to Us: Black Dimensions in Art, 1975–Tomorrow,” which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the grassroots organization through archival material, oral histories, and art.

Tang Guide Tours

Sundays, Sept. 7– Dec. 7, 2 p.m.

A tour of current exhibitions with a Tang Guide.

Curator’s Tours of “Up to Us: Black Dimensions in Art, 1975–Tomorrow”

Thursday, Sept. 18, noon

Rebecca McNamara, the Frances Young Tang ’61 Associate Curator, leads the tour.

Curators’ Tour of All These Growing Things

Thursday, Oct. 9, noon

Led by McNamara.

Curators’ Tour of “See It Now: Contemporary Art from the Ann and Mel Schaffer Collection”

Thursday, Nov. 13, noon

Ian Berry, Dayton Director, leads the tour.

Curators’ Tour of “Sheila Pepe: Where and When We Rest”

Thursday, Dec. 11, noon

Rachel Seligman, Assistant Director for Curatorial Affairs and Malloy Curator, leads the tour.

For more information about these tours or about other upcoming events, please visit https://tang.skidmore.edu or call the Tang Visitors Services Desk at 518-580-8080.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A vintage DeLorean (although presumably not a time-traveling one) was displayed on the grounds of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) last Saturday for a special “movie night” screening of the 1985 classic “Back to the Future.”

The film was accompanied by a live score courtesy of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Event-goers were able to examine the DeLorean up close and take photos with it.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The word “legend” is tossed around quite a bit, but it’s hard not to apply the term to Eric Andersen. The singer-songwriter has collaborated with people like Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, the Grateful Dead, Lou Reed, and Johnny Cash, to name a few. 

His career, documented in the 2019 PBS film “The Songpoet,” began in the famed Greenwich Village folk scene of the 1960s, the same time and place fictionalized in films like “A Complete Unknown” and “Inside Llewyn Davis.” Andersen himself appeared in front of the camera in Warhol’s 1965 underground film “Space,” as well as “Festival Express,” a music doc chronicling a 1970 train tour that featured the Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, and many others.

But it’s Andersen’s remarkable gift for crafting elegant, lovely, sometimes haunting songs for which he’s most recognized. His 1972 album “Blue River” remains his most acclaimed. The release of his latest LP, “Dance of Love and Death,” preceded a fall 2025 tour that will bring him to Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs on Sept. 5. The performance will also include Steve Addabbo on lead guitar and Cheryl Prashker on percussion.

Prior to the start of his tour, Andersen answered a few questions for Saratoga TODAY. Below are his responses.

Saratoga TODAY: You’ve played at Caffe Lena before. In your experience touring the globe, do you find that there are many traditional folk music venues like Lena remaining? 

Eric Andersen: It’s been a while, but I think Passim still operates in Cambridge. No more Bottom Line, Gaslight, or Folk City in New York. Otherwise, I think there are very few left.

ST: The Grateful Dead hold an important place in Saratoga’s music history, having played to the largest-ever crowd at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. What was it like spending time with the Dead during the Festival Express? Are there any memories that stand out in your mind?

EA: On the Festival Express, I got to be friends with Jerry Garcia and Bobby Weir. (Janis Joplin, Ian and Sylvia, and Rick Danko were the only friends whom I knew from before). All very nice, talented, good people to know. I wrote the song “Weather Report” with the Dead.

ST: “Dance of Love and Death” is your first album of all-new material since 2003. How do you determine when a collection of songs is ready to be released into the world? What makes an album feel complete?

EA: Complete? Good question! In my judgement, I think most works of art (songs, recordings, albums–maybe even paintings and novels…) are all more or less abandoned rather than ever “finished.” Each project just sort of reaches its own conclusion and becomes a song, album, painting, or novel. In this case, the album “Dance” is a collection of New York recordings I made when I was in town from my home in Europe and we did keep adding songs and recordings over the course of twelve years.

Finally, after arriving at seventeen good works, we called it quits and put out the double album “Dance of Love and Death.” It kind of ended itself and became a sort of a love song album. Maybe the best one since “Ghosts Upon the Road” and “Blue River.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS — On Aug. 23, The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College launched “All These Growing Things,” a year-long exhibition of contemporary and historical paintings, prints, textiles, photography, and sculpture from the Tang Museum collection that explores questions of becoming and belonging. The exhibition will be on view until July 19, 2026.

 Organized around four central ideas—Ancestries, Masks, Transformations, and Hybrids—the exhibition traces personal, ancestral, and cultural histories; considers masking as both revelation and concealment; explores the transformative possibilities of our lives; and highlights interconnections among humans, plants, and animals. Hybrids functions as a cross-cutting thread that weaves through the other three sections to draw out these interconnections. 

“All These Growing Things promises to spark new ideas about the interconnections between all of us,” said Ian Berry, Dayton Director. “As we celebrate our 25th anniversary, this exhibition reflects our mission as a hub of interdisciplinary art and ideas—where exhibitions can catalyze creative thinking.”

Many of the works on view are recent acquisitions that are being exhibited at the museum for the first time, including gifts from Ann and Mel Schaffer, Peter Norton, Jack Shear, Eileen and Michael Cohen, and Dieu Donné, a nonprofit that supports artists and papermaking.

The exhibition is free and open to the public. The Tang Museum, located on the Skidmore College campus at 815 N. Broadway in Saratoga Springs, is open noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, with extended hours until 9 p.m. on Thursdays.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) hosted its eighth annual PlayIN event last Thursday, allowing 90 local string musicians to perform on stage with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Participants ranged in age from as young as six to as old as eighty.

The youngest musician – Kullyn Hughes from Melrose, New York – had been playing for only two months when he joined in with one of the nation’s most esteemed symphony orchestras.

“It was pretty cool,” Kullyn said. “I mean…whoa!”

Kullyn played a double bass that was taller than he was, with some assistance from an adult. He said he was considering switching to the violin. 

On stage, Kullyn and company were led by Assistant Conductor Naomi Woo, who provided some helpful feedback and seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself. Other Philadelphia Orchestra pros participating in the event included First Associate Concertmaster Juliette Kang, bass player Joseph Conyers, and nine other string musicians. Later in the performance, two members of the classically trained string group Time for Three – Nick Kendall and Charles Yang – joined on stage as well.

All of the local musicians who participated in the event were given two free tickets to return later that evening for the “Copland & Bates with Time for Three” concert.

According to SPAC, PlayINs are signature events for The Philadelphia Orchestra and part of the ensemble’s HEAR initiative, a portfolio of programs promoting the role of music in health, education, access, and research. The PlayINs have taken place regularly in Philadelphia since 2012 and in Saratoga since 2017, and are part of an array of programs designed to promote access for people of all ages to experience orchestral music either as listeners or performers.