- By -Staff
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(Ithaca, NY) The Unveiling of the 2009 Ithaca Festival Button and T-shirt, artwork by the youth of the community, and the works of a man who survived years of genocide to later open his own photography studio in Cairo, Egypt will be featured during First Fridays Gallery Night in downtown Ithaca on Friday May 1, 2009.Ten art galleries and two businesses will be hosting open houses from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. All of the galleries are within walking distance of each other and flyers with maps highlighting each location and its show will also be available at locations throughout downtown that evening, to help visitors discover something new at each location.
The Clinton House Art space will host the unveiling of the artwork for the 2009 Ithaca Festival T-Shirt and Button. This year’s Ithaca Festival artist is Nancy Maas. Her artwork will be featured on all Ithaca Festival buttons and T-shirts sold for the festival. Button and T-shirt sales are a major revenue generator for the Festival, which has been a downtown Ithaca tradition for over 30 years.
Three open houses are taking place at the Community School of Music and Arts.
Tompkins County’s Rock the Arts program presents Art by the Youth… a collection of art works by some of the outstanding young artists in the area in the Beverly LIvesay Gallery on the lower level of the Community School of Music and Arts.
Two other open houses will take place at CSMA that night. The Ink Shop Printmaking Center presents Lisa Mackey Continuous Incident Installation in the ground floor gallery of CSMA which is a mixed media of paintings, collages, sculptures and video projections. The Ink Shop Printers also present Monotypes Show, which is a collection of works from local, regional and national artists. Monotypes Show will be on display in the gallery on the 2nd floor of the CSMA Building.
The State of the Art Gallery will use First Fridays Gallery Night to host the first of its two Annual Members Shows. Member artists will be displaying their finest paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, prints and other mixed media. This event serves as the grand opening of the State of the Art Gallery’s Summer Showcase.
Armenian-born photographic portrait artist Leovan Boyadjian, known as Van Leo of Cairo, survived years of Armenian genocide and deportation, before emigrating to Cairo, Egypt. “Van Leo’s” portraits of Cairo’s high society, oriental pashas, Lebanese Businessmen, British officers, etc., circa the 1940’s will be on display at Shangri-La Art Gallery in an exhibit titled Van Leo’s Cairo.
Other participating galleries include Belle Melange, Handwork Gallery, Sola Art Gallery, Titus Gallery and the Upstairs Gallery. Collegetown Bagels and Lynda Myers Designs will also host open houses featuring paintings and other art works.
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