Call for Young Performers for the 7th Annual Sounds of Highlands, Jr. Concert
ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS – Auditions will be held on Saturday, Jan. 10 for the 7th Annual Sounds of the Highlands, Jr. Concert. Singers, dancers, poets, actors, instrumentalists, and other performers between the ages of 5 and 18 are encouraged to audition for the concert, scheduled for March 15.
This special concert offers students an opportunity to perform live on a stage in front of an audience of 200 people. Singers can also work with a professional backup band.
This annual concert is sponsored by the Atlantic Highlands Arts Council, with Jose Loo as the music director and Michele Manegio as the producer.
Both the auditions and the concert will take place at the Henry Hudson Regional School in Highlands. Students must preregister with Michele Manegio at manegio@gmail.com.
The AHAC is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. The mission of the Atlantic Highlands Arts Council is to strengthen community through the arts. This program is made possible in part by Monmouth Arts through funding from the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Lecture on Degenerate Art at Congregation B’nai Israel
RUMSON – Art historian Vivian Gordon will speak about “Degenerate Art,” at 11 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 11, at Congregation B’nai Israel (CBI). Degenerate art, artwork that Hitler saw as a menace to German culture, is once again in the headlines as looted art troves are discovered in Europe and their provenance hotly debated. What is the history behind the headlines? Why were some of the great artists of the time – Chagall, Klee, Kandinsky – targeted and their artwork banned?
In 1937 the Nazi party opened a large exhibition to ridicule and condemn modern and abstract art confiscated from German museums and collections. Of the artists whose work was shown, only six were actually Jewish. Others were accused mistakenly of being Jewish, or associating with Jewish dealers and collectors, or just acting and thinking like a Jew. Hounded by the police and spurned by the public, most of the artists fled into hiding or exile. The Degenerate Art exhibit traveled around Germany, displaying works by modern masters and prominent German Expressionists. Many of the works were later sold, lost, or presumed destroyed. The subject of a recent show at the Neue Galerie in New York City, the story of “degenerate” art also has drawn attention from the recent discovery of a huge stash of modern work found in a Munich apartment, and from the film “The Monuments Men.”
Speaker Vivian Gordon is an art historian and lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A specialist in European art, Gordon has graduate degrees from Columbia University and was a recipient of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Fellowship. She has taught at Columbia College, Douglass College, and The City University of New York.
The lecture is being co-sponsored by Congregation B’nai Israel, the Red Bank Chapter of Hadassah and CHHANGE. Bagels and coffee will be served. Admission is free for members of CBI and Hadassah. Nonmember fee is $5. Advance registration is required at www.cbirumson.org.
Congregation B’nai Israel is located at 171 Ridge Road.
Rumson Garden Club Hosts Land Preservation Talk
RUMSON – The Rumson Garden Club, a member club of the Garden Club of America, will host a talk at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 20, by Linda Meade and Emily Blackman of D&R Greenway, a land preservation trust located in Princeton.
Meade, the president of D&R Greenway, has led the non-for-profit since 1997 and will discuss D&R Greenway’s challenges, accomplishments and approach to preserving over 18,000 acres of farmland, watershed and natural land during their 25-year history. Blackman, land protection associate and manager of the D&R Greenway Native Plant Nursery, will talk about the nursery, the importance of using native plants in our landscaping and what are the native plants in our area. The hour-long presentation will be held at the Rumson Country Club, 163 Rumson Road, and is open to the public.
For more information on the club, visit http://www.rumsongardenclub.org
Film on Factory Farming at Unitarian Meetinghouse
LINCROFT- “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret,” a groundbreaking feature-length environmental documentary will be shown at 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11 at the Unitarian meetinghouse, 1475 W. Front St.
The film follows an intrepid filmmaker as he uncovers the most destructive industry facing the planet today – and investigates why the world’s leading environmental organizations are too afraid to talk about it. As eye-opening as “Blackfish” and as inspiring as “An Inconvenient Truth,” this shocking yet humorous documentary reveals the devastating environmental impact large-scale factory farming has on the planet.
The screening is at 5 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 11, at 1475 W. Front Street, the Unitarian meetinghouse in Lincroft (uucmc.org).
The film is appropriate for all audiences, and refreshments will be provided. Hosted by NJ Farm Animal Save. For more information, call Dan Ciaglia, 732-284-6312 or email danciaglia@gmail.com.
