A time in arcadia, exhibit at Curious Matter

A Time in Arcadia

May 19 to June 23, 2013

Presented by Curious Matter & The Jersey City Free Public Library – a special collaboration featuring work by 33 contemporary artists and a bibliography of nearly 200 selections from the Main Library’s 6 Departments and 9 Branches.

“Is not thilke the mery moneth of May,
When loue lads masken in fresh aray?
How falles it then, we no merrier bene,
Ylike as others, girt in gawdy greene?
Our bloncket liueryes bene all to sadde,
For thilke same season, when all is ycladd
With pleasaunce: the grownd with grasse, the Wods
With greene leaues, the bushes with bloosming Buds.
Yougthes folke now flocken in euery where,
To gather may bus-kets and smelling brere:
And home they hasten the postes to dight,
And all the Kirke pillours eare day light,
With Hawthorne buds, and swete Eglantine,
And girlonds of roses and Sopps in wine.
Such merimake holy Saints doth queme,
But we here sytten as drownd in a dreme.”

EDMOND SPENCER
A SHEPERD’S CALENDAR, 1579

We dream of Arcadia. Whether it’s called Eden or Shangri-la, we long for a verdant and fecund place where food comes without toil and peace fills our days. Some cultures have taken a more proactive approach to attaining this dream and set aside land to build their own Arcadias. Persian paradise gardens and the Italian Renaissance Mannerist gardens were attempts, by those with the means, to create a place separate from the dreary drudgeries of life. Extravagant fountains and statuary complemented clipped hedges and trellised vines, all surrounded by a wall to protect the sanctuary.

Ewelina Bochenska, (film stills) LOA, 2013, 16mm film decayed in homemade concoctions, including tumeric, fruits, flowers and organic material. 5:39 minutes.

Not all gardens were so grand and ornamental. Medieval monastery gardens could be intimate in scale and cultivated solely for food and medicinals. The plants themselves being the most vital component. For most life on Earth, plants are the base of the food chain. Their importance is nearly absolute. Relying upon the plentiful light of the sun for survival, plants create their own food. Often they produce more than they need at any one time. These stored reserves feed the rest of life on Earth. Roots, stems, leaves, seeds and fruit are all exploited by the diversity of living things to obtain their own nourishment for survival.

read more at www.curiousmatter.org

Arcadia, Tom Stoppard, Shakespeare Theater at NJCU

 ASC at NJCU’s 2010-2011 season will conclude with Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia,” June 22-26; the piece is also part of the “ASC in the Community” series.

           ASC at NJCU officially became the University’s theatrical company-in-residence in 2008, making NJCU only the fourth institution of higher education in New Jersey to be affiliated with a professional theatre company.  The collaboration between the company, which is in its eleventh season, and NJCU began in 2005.  Since that time, NJCU and ASC at NJCU have partnered to present professional classical theatre to both the NJCU and wider Jersey City communities and NJCU faculty and students have been regularly involved in ASC productions and workshops. 
ASC at NJCU works through the NJCU Foundation, a non-profit, tax-exempt organization, and is supported in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, New Jersey City University, and contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations.
 For further information or to make reservations call (201)200-2390

visit  HYPERLINK "http://www.ascnj.org" www.ascnj.org.

NJCU’s West Side Theatre is conveniently located near Culver Avenue (on the NJCU campus), just minutes from Routes 440 and 1-9, exit 15E of the N.J. Turnpike, and exit 14B of the N.J. Turnpike extension I-78.  Congregation B’nai Jacob is just 2 blocks south of the West Side Theatre at 176 West Side Avenue.