SARATOGA SPRINGS – Following on last season’s success of the debut professional production of Agatha Christie’s The Stranger, iTheatre Saratoga will stage the world premiere of Christie’s The Man in the Brown Suit, adapted by Mary Jane Hansen.

Anne Beddingfeld’s whole world is turned upside down when her father dies. She accepts an opportunity to relocate to London, redefine her life, and experience the freedom she has longed for. But she may have found adventure beyond her wildest dreams. When a man dies in front of her, Anne finds parallels between the accident and another suspicious death. The clues take her all the way to Africa, accompanied by an eccentric cast of characters, where a revolution is simmering, and danger is waiting around every turn.

Performances: Jan. 24, 25, 31 & Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m., and Jan. 26 & Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. At Saratoga Arts, 320 Broadway. Tickets: $15 students / $25 adults. Ticket Link: https://dameagathac.brownpapertickets.com/.

SARATOGA SPRINGS – New for 2020: Saratoga Arts presents a new group of Art in Public Places exhibitions on view for the month of January. 

Works include: Frozen, photography by Susan Meyer at Saratoga Springs Public Library; photography Molly Bingham in Saratoga Arts’ Members’ Hall Gallery; Sculptural Painting, mixed media works by Betsy Masters Cannon at The Saratoga Springs Train Station; Life, acrylic paintings by Ya Li at Clifton Park – Halfmoon Public Library (Site A); Heaven and Earth, paintings by Marina Petro at Clifton Park – Halfmoon Public Library (Site B); Oil paintings by Jim Brearton at Saratoga Springs Visitors Center; The Places I’ve Been, Paintings by Caitlin Sweet at Saratoga Community Federal Credit Union; Harbors, acrylic and water based oil paintings by Neil Muscatiello in The Reception Area Gallery at Saratoga Arts.

Saratoga Arts’ Art in Public Places Program features monthly or bi-monthly exhibits of artists’ work in various locations around the region. The goal of the program is to present original artwork in easily accessible spaces throughout the Saratoga Region. Participation in the APP program is a benefit open to all members of Saratoga Arts from new and emerging artists who might be presenting their first exhibition to veteran artists with lots of experience presenting exhibitions.

Photos by Super Source Media, LLC.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College presents Mary Weatherford: Canyon–Daisy–Eden, from Feb. 1 through July 12, 2020. The survey of the acclaimed artist’s career draws from several distinct bodies of work made between 1989 and 2017. 

Over the last three decades, Mary Weatherford has developed a rich and diverse painting practice, from her early 1990s target paintings based on operatic heroines, to the expansive, gestural canvases overlaid with neon glass-tubing that brought attention to Weatherford’s practice in the 2010s. As constant experiments with color, scale, and materials, the works in the exhibition reveal the continuity of Weatherford’s preoccupation with memory and experience, both personal and historical.

The exhibition continues the Tang’s tradition of showcasing career-spanning surveys of important women artists. Recent exhibitions have introduced to new generations and audiences the work by influential artists such as Ree Morton, Dona Nelson, Alma Thomas, Corita Kent, and Nancy Grossman.

 A career-spanning catalogue will be published in conjunction with the exhibition and will include an introductory essay by co-curator Bill Arning, an interview with the artist by co-curator Ian Berry, and writings by Elissa Auther, Nick Debs, Arnold Kemp, Rebecca Morris, Michael St. John, Margaret Weatherford, and others.

Mary Weatherford: Canyon–Daisy–Eden is presented by the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College. The exhibition is organized by guest curator Bill Arning and Tang Teaching Museum Dayton Director Ian Berry in collaboration with the artist. The exhibition will travel to SITE Sante Fe in New Mexico and be on view from Oct. 16, 2020, through Feb. 8, 2021. The Tang Teaching Museum: Admission to the museum is free (donation suggested). Hours are Tuesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., with extended hours until 9 p.m. on Thursdays. For more information, go to: tang.skidmore.edu.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — In late December, Saratoga Performing Arts Center was awarded $2 million in funding through the Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) Initiative with a $1. 5 million grant from Empire State Development (ESD) and $500,000 from New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. 

The news was shared by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo as part of the 2019 REDC Awards, which granted $761 million in funds throughout New York State. 

SPAC’s awarded funds have been allocated to rehabilitate the Roosevelt II Bathhouse, an 18,000 square foot space that has been vacant since the 1980s and mirrors the Roosevelt Baths & Spa, operated by the Gideon Putnam Resort. In collaboration with the Saratoga Spa State Park and as part of SPAC’s mission to establish the venue as a unique international cultural destination, the project will provide a full-functioning year-round creative and maker space where art across multiple disciplines will flourish. 

“SPAC’s vision for the future includes an expansion of programming that will include the visual arts, the culinary arts, theater, and health and wellness in cooperation with COESA — in addition to our vibrant performing arts season. This new year-round space will restore a historic Park building that has been abandoned for decades, creating a community hub that will celebrate art in all its forms, while also providing vital learning and rehearsal spaces,” said Elizabeth Sobol, SPAC’s President & CEO, in a statement. 

Designed to expand opportunities for the community with educational, creative and cultural enrichment programming, the restored building will feature a black box theater, an art gallery, a rehearsal and learning space, and a teaching kitchen that will be operated by SPAC in collaboration with the Saratoga Spa State Park. COESA is slated to utilize 2,700 square feet of the building to provide retreat experiences and classes with offerings that include personal well-being, leadership, meditation, professional wellness training, and work-life balance. 

This upcoming renovation follows Governor Cuomo’s announcement of the $9.5 Million visitor services improvement project at SPAC, which is slated to be unveiled in the spring of 2020. These projects follow the 2019 renovation of the amphitheater ramps, made possible by a $1.75 million allocation from NYS Parks. The projects are all part of SPAC’s mission to rejuvenate its physical campus for future generations.