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.

Hot Club of Saratoga, one of several bands performing atop a number of flatbed trucks on May 21, 2020, celebrating Caffe Lena’s 60th anniversary. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — From black-and-white images from the depths of Congress Park to pastel sketches of placid lakes, SPAC as created a social media page created for, and featuring images by members of the community.“Saratoga Performing Arts Center is deeply committed to the transformative power of art and beauty to restore and enrich the human spirit,” the organization says. “In these challenging times, we hope that this online forum inspires and creates a sense of community and hope.  We invite you to join us in a sharing of poetry, art, music, dance – things of beauty that bring you joy and light under the dark clouds of uncertainty.”  The page may be viewed at Facebook, by visiting “Sparked By Beauty.” 

WILTON — The History Channel has announced that its three-part mini-series on U.S. Grant will air on successive nights beginning May 25.   

The Grant Cottage, located near Saratoga Springs, will be featured in the docudrama, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s company.  Grant spent the last six weeks of his life at this Cottage in Saratoga County completing his Civil War memoirs. DiCaprio’s production company filmed at the cottage last October.

Grant Cottage President Tim Welch said the cottage received a $10,000 donation from DiCaprio, and that the History Channel s also donated two 30-second commercials in the national broadcast which will promote Grant Cottage as a national historic landmark. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — For the first time in its 53-year history, Saratoga Performing Arts Center has cancelled its classical season.

The cancellations include: SPAC’s summer resident companies New York City Ballet, The Philadelphia Orchestra and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as “Not Our First Goat Rodeo” featuring Yo-Yo Ma, and “SPAC on Stage.”

SPAC along with its board of directors made the decision to suspend its programming this summer in recognition of the continued threat to health and safety caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

“So much thought, care, heart and soul go into crafting and preparing for our summer season that we truly think of it as a love letter to our community. To find it necessary to cancel what would have been one of the most ambitious and artistically inspiring seasons to date is just gut-wrenching and inconceivable,” said Elizabeth Sobol, SPAC’s President and CEO, in a statement. “But the indisputable truth is that even with our park setting and our 5,200 seats, it would be simply impossible to find a way to keep the artists and the community safe.”

“SPAC has been New York City Ballet’s summer home since 1966 and this will be the first time in more than 50 years that the Company will not be performing in the capital region, which is devastating for all of us,” said NYCB Executive Director Katherine Brown. “However, the health and safety of our artists, staff, and audiences is our number one priority at this time, and we support SPAC’s decision to cancel this summer’s performances.  All of us at New York City Ballet look forward to returning to SPAC next summer to perform for the wonderful and loyal fans who come to see us each summer in one of the country’s most beautiful performing arts venues.”

Due to the impact of the coronavirus crisis, SPAC faces the loss of millions of dollars in ticket, rental and sponsorship income. As a 501(c)3 charitable organization, SPAC depends on ticket sales and the generosity of individuals and corporate underwriters for 80% of its annual budget, which includes an education program that reaches 50,000 students throughout the Capital Region every year.

“For the past 53 years, SPAC has been a beacon of hope, light and refuge for the community — and the support of the community has been critical to its life and longevity. The loss of ticket income, event sponsorships and key sources of revenue is going to hit SPAC incredibly hard.  Continued community support through membership, ticket donations and philanthropic contributions will be critical to how SPAC emerges from the crisis,” added Sobol. 

“That said, while our traditional season is unable to continue for 2020, SPAC leadership is committed to continuing to provide the kind of inspiring and transformative experiences for which SPAC is known and loved. Our dedication to art, artists and community is undimmed.  If anything, we feel more galvanized than ever to serve as a sanctuary and cultural convener for our community during this time of uncertainty and darkness,” said Sobol.

SPAC is holding dates for the return of New York City Ballet on July 13-17, 2021; The Philadelphia Orchestra on August 4-21, 2021; and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in August 2021, exact dates TBA.

For every ticketholder of the 2020 classical season who chooses to convert all or a minimum of $25 of their ticket purchase into a tax-deductible donation, SPAC will donate two 2021 tickets to first responders and local health care workers.

Visit SPAC.org for options to donate, receive a credit, or to request a refund for SPAC performances. Ticketholders will also be contacted directly via email with their ticketing options. 

Any changes to the rock, pop and country concert schedule will be made directly by Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which programs and manages those shows in addition to their related ticketing policies. Visit https://www.livenationentertainment.com/ticketrefund/.

At the moment, the first two pop concerts of the season –June 24: KIDZ BOP Live 2020 Tour, and June 30: Steely Dan with Special Guest Steve Winwood, are still on. The cancellation of annual two-day Saratoga Jazz Festival was previously announced.