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A new home for contemporary music in Connecticut
D.H. Callahan
Aug 26, 2026
This year, the ARChive of Contemporary Music, or ARC, is moving its collection to a permanent home in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
ARC is somewhat hard to imagine. Comprised mainly of huge collections from musicians, archivists, and DJs, it has compiled more than three million sound recordings, consisting of over 90 million songs.
But with the rate that it collects, there’s a good chance that number has now hit its ninth digit. The collection is arguably even more impressive than its board, which has included such illustrious members as Q-Tip, Keith Richards, Nile Rodgers, Fred Schneider, Martin Scorsese, Paul Simon, Carl Bernstein, and David Bowie, many of whom house their personal collections at ARC.
Given its size, it is likely to take ARC about two years to be open its new location to the public. It hopes to have its collection in the building within a year, and then spend the following year putting it all into place.
Since 1985, founder and director B. George has been storing away musical media on Chambers Street in New York City. George moved to the area in the 1970s, and quickly became friends with many of the day’s top musicians, who would gather in the one downtown eatery open after-hours, Dave’s Lunch. It’s where he met David Bowie and Lou Reed.
George was immersed in the culture, DJing parties, and rubbing elbows with musicians. He worked with Laurie Anderson, and released her ‘O Superman” single on his micro-label One Ten Records.
The artistic scene was thriving, due in no small part to its affordability. New York City had been written off by mainstream America as a dirty, crime-ridden trap.
A famous Daily News headline still tickles George to this day. It reads “Ford to City; Drop Dead.” Even the president of the United States thought New York was irredeemable. But in its weakest hour, the city created one of the greatest assets it’s ever provided: a place for poor artists to create without the looming threat of eviction or starvation.
In 1980, George edited a book titled “Volume: International Discography of the New Wave.” The book was so successful that people started sending him recordings for the next edition. Quickly, George had more than he knew what to do with, so by 1985, he started looking for a home for this rapidly growing collection. He found it on Chambers Street in lower Manhattan for just $68 a month.
The reality of financial constraints seems to be a constant concern for George. To him, the “revitalization” of the city meant fewer opportunities for artists to create without the need for a safety net. That era is now decades in the rear view mirror, and the whole creative world has felt the effects.
Today, George feels that “cool” has become too heavily commoditized to allow artistic scenes to thrive. Once corporate America identifies the next hive of underground cultural activity, it pounces.
George saw this happen in SoHo, where the rent he couldn’t afford in the ‘80s of $100 has now risen to as high as $10,000 a month. This pattern seems to keep repeating. In recent years, a vibrant creative scene in Williamsburg, Brooklyn mirrored the same trajectory, at an accelerated pace. An area littered with loft parties and underground venues in the early 2000s has already been replaced by luxury fashion storefronts in a matter of years.
That’s what’s driven George to move the ARChive out of the city. As his collection continues to grow, there’s simply no way to meet the financial demands for space in Manhattan. So five years ago, he started moving media to Dutchess County, as part of a short term agreement at an estate in Staatsburg. Now he’s found a more permanent solution in Ridgefield, Connecticut
For the ARChive, physical media is the priority. While it has a partnership with archive.org, digitizing millions of songs, and making them available to the public, ARC is not a traditional media library. Its collection has not been open to the public to browse at leisure. Instead, it mostly makes its resources available to researchers and rights holders.
This new home, however, presents new opportunities, and George is excited to share portions of the Archive with a broader audience. This will include a Japanese-style listening area – built in partnership with Klipsch and Sonos – DJ and listening spaces with extra copies of its robust music-book collection (they have over 35,000), and more public-facing spaces to experience otherwise inaccessible recordings. Its Adopt-a-Record program will allow the public to sponsor pieces of media much like sponsoring an endangered animal. For an additional donation, donors can even get their picture taken with their record at the ARC headquarters… once it’s open.
For George and the ARChive of Contemporary Music, the collecting never stops. With collecting trips all over the world, and donations coming in from every imaginable genre, they can only hope that their next expansion won’t be necessary any time soon. For now, it’s time to settle in, and listen to some tunes.
Learn more and support ARC at https://arcmusic.org/
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A Vietnamese water puppet musical returns to the quarry where it began
Natalia Zukerman
Aug 26, 2026
“The Magnificent Ms. Pham” combines Vietnamese water puppetry, shadow theater, music and storytelling.
Provided
“The Magnificent Ms. Pham,” the first Vietnamese American water puppet show, is returning to the water where it was born. The perpetual motion puppet show will be at TurnPark Art Space in West Stockbridge, Mass., Aug. 28 and 29, following a sold-out New York City premiere earlier this year. The production was originally developed at TurnPark, where its puppets first danced across the surface of the quarry lake.
Created by Vietnamese American artist Tommy Nguyen and director and designer Doug Fitch, the production tells the story of Nguyen’s mother, Kim Pham, and her journey from Vietnam to the United States. The story moves between memory, Vietnamese history and mythology, and the realities of immigration, following Kim from her childhood in Vietnam through her escape as a “boat person” and eventual life in Houston, Texas.
But this is hardly a conventional historical drama. The story unfolds as a country-western musical, with original music by MUR and additional music by Vietnamese American composer Hao Le. Puppets, shadow theater, songs and water combine to bring figures from Vietnamese history and literature into Kim’s story, including the legendary warrior Lady Trieu and Lady Kieu, the literary heroine who becomes one of Kim’s guides.
The production draws on a Vietnamese theatrical tradition that dates back at least to the 11th century, when water puppetry emerged in the rice-growing communities of the Red River Delta. Traditionally performed on ponds or flooded rice fields, the form uses the water itself as a stage, concealing the mechanisms that allow puppeteers to make wooden figures dance, swim and interact with one another.
For Nguyen and Fitch, the quarry lake adds another dimension to the story. The production was first conceived and developed at TurnPark, including a 2024 workshop and a 2025 festival presentation that featured a giant dragon carrying a Vietnamese village on its back.
The result is a theatrical hybrid: part family history, part mythology, part musical and part visual spectacle. And with the puppets once again moving across TurnPark’s natural quarry lake, the setting is not simply a backdrop — it is part of the show.
“The Magnificent Ms. Pham” will be presented Aug. 28 and 29 at 7 p.m. at TurnPark Art Space, 2 Moscow Road, West Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Tickets and information are available at turnpark.com
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Barry Blitt draws for the Northwest Connecticut Arts Council
Jennifer Almquist
Aug 26, 2026
Cartoonist Barry Blitt created a design for a limited edition T-shirt for Northwest Connecticut Arts Council fundraiser.
Jennifer Almquist
A drawing by Barry Blitt is recognizable from a distance simply for his line quality and hint of watercolor. Known for his scathing political cartoons, this longtime cover illustrator for the New Yorker has leaned his shoulder in to support the NWCT Arts Council and its Aug. 29 fundraiser at Buck’s Rock Camp in New Milford. Blitt created a design for limited-edition T-shirts that will be available for sale at the event and online at artsnwct.org.
David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker since 1998, called Blitt “One of the greatest political cartoonists of our time.” A native of Canada, Blitt won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning and has created more than 100 covers for the New Yorker since 1992. Perhaps most memorable is his 2008 iconic fist bump between Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, “The Politics of Fear.” A quarter century of his sketches and drawings are collected in “Blitt: In One Eye and Out the Other,” published by Penguin Putnam. He has created books for children, including “George Washington’s Birthday” and “Once Upon a Time, the End, (Asleep in 60 Seconds).”
When asked about his method, Blitt replied, “You’re trying to get a drawing that looks improvised and fresh, you know? Usually the first drawing I do, I’m not happy with it and I’ll go to a second one or I’ll redraw it several times … But the line becomes labored, so it always really is the first one. It’s probably some kind of Zen thing where you’re not worrying too much or you’re not overthinking it. There’s nothing like an improvised fresh line that’s there the first time you do it. First thought, best thought.”
Given two small prompts by the NWCT Arts Council, Blitt conjured up a fanciful tree in the landscape of the Litchfield Hills, with three artists painting at easels up in the branches. He hand-lettered the banner and reimagined the Arts Council’s logo as hand-painted, with a bit of sky and landscape peeking through. Blitt’s simple depiction of painters in the tree evokes the full spirit of the Council. For 23 years, the NWCT Arts Council has supported artists and creativity in the Northwest Corner of Connecticut. It promotes arts events, maintains an arts calendar, guides individual artists toward grants and funding, housing and studios, and connects the vast network of creative people who live and work in Litchfield County.
Blitt once revealed: “If you’re asking me what I love, it’s that point where I’m just scribbling and trying to make myself laugh and trying to outrage myself.”
Blitt may be best known for skewering politicians and pundits, yet he can also create magic with a child’s eye.
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A new literary festival puts storytelling in the spotlight in Kinderhook
Natalia Zukerman
Aug 26, 2026
Stories take many forms — poems, novels, songs, stand-up routines, films, visual art and even the pages of a community newspaper. The inaugural Rough Notes Festival, presented by Kinderhook Books Aug. 28-30, brings writers, performers, artists and readers together for a weekend devoted to the many ways stories are created, shared and transformed.
The three-day festival opens Friday, Aug. 28, with comedian, author and Oscar nominee Tig Notaro at Van Buren Hall. Following her sold out performance, Notaro will talk about writing and the creative process with actor and comedian Lauren Weedman, known for her work on the HBO series “Hacks.”
Saturday’s program begins with “I Too Dislike It: Why Poetry Endures,” a conversation moderated by poet Mark Wunderlich and featuring Michael Dumanis, Monica Ferrell and Vermont Poet Laureate Bianca Stone. Later, Temim Fruchter moderates “Queering the Queer Memoir,” with Eliot Glazer, Henry Hoke, Chloé Caldwell and Hugh Ryan.
At 2 p.m., writer and director Nadia Conners leads “The Afterlife of Art,” a discussion with novelists Peter Cameron and Sigrid Nunez about what happens to creative work after it leaves its creator’s hands. “The Unreliable Past,” moderated by former Tin House editor Rob Spillman, follows at 3:30 p.m., with authors Amitava Kumar, Jayne Anne Phillips and Francine Prose considering memory as both a source of inspiration and an unreliable narrator.
The weekend also has plenty for young writers and music lovers. Saturday morning’s free Typewriter Project invites children to create a community newspaper using vintage typewriters, inspired by Kinderhook’s 1950s-era youth newspaper, The Bugle. At 1 p.m., 11-year-old upstate New York singer-songwriter Lulu Grey performs on the Bank lawn.
That evening brings an intimate conversation and live music with singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant, who will discuss songwriting, storytelling and the creative process with Sarah LaDuke, former WAMC producer and executive director of Folk Alley.
Sunday shifts toward the practical craft of writing. Workshops include Richard Mirabella on starting a novel, Emily Nemens on the narrative power of friendship and Thomas Grattan on using objects to develop character, conflict and setting. Olivia Muenter and Casey Scieszka will discuss the spaces and communities that make creative work possible in “A Place for the Work.”
Visual art is also part of the festival, with “Re-Scripting,” an exhibition at September Sometimes (4 Hudson St., Kinderhook) featuring Mara Baldwin, Jane Bustin, Nicole Cherubini, Taylor Davis, Shanekia McIntosh and Cauleen Smith. The artists’ works incorporate written language through collage, painting, sculpture and vinyl.
Presented by Kinderhook Books, the festival takes its name from a 19th-century Kinderhook broadsheet and celebrates a community with a long tradition of storytelling. Through conversations, performances, workshops and art, The Rough Notes explores the journey from first idea to finished work — and the ways stories continue to change once they enter the world.
For the complete schedule and ticket information, visit theroughnotes.com
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Stissing Center brings Frankenstein back to life with live music
D.H. Callahan
Aug 26, 2026
Provided
When the 1931 horror classic “Frankenstein” plays with live musical accompaniment at the Stissing Center on Saturday, Aug. 29, it will open with a warning. A handsomely dressed man will step into the spotlight to warn the audience about the thrilling and horrifying tale to come. Then, it’s off to the graveyard.
“Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” was written in 1818 by English author Mary Shelley. A summary is comically unnecessary, as the story itself has become one of the most important pieces, not just of horror writing, but of the history of literature. A scientist playing with the finite constraints of life and death, alongside the themes of prejudice, acceptance, and the dangers of mob rule continue to capture generation after generation in ways that seem consistently fresh and relevant.
In 1931, audiences were treated to an early era cinematic masterpiece by director James Whale. The theatrical release was an instant hit, winning praise from the public and critics alike.It would soon spawn sequels, spinoffs, and spoofs including “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein,” “The Bride,” which was released earlier this year, and even Andy Warhol’s attempt, known as “Flesh for Frankenstein.” Notably, Mel Brooks’ comedic reinterpretation,“Young Frankenstein,” has, itself, become a timeless classic of Hollywood history.
Whale was not the first director tapped by Universal Studios to bring Frankenstein to the silver screen. Originally Robert Florey, who was best known for “The Cocoanuts” starring the Marx Brothers, was chosen to direct. His slapstick approach saw Frankenstein as more of a killing machine than the misunderstood portrait of humanity depicted in Shelley’s novel. This may have scared off the original monster, Bella Lugosi, who’d recently killed at the box office for Universal as Dracula. Though the exact reason is still a source of debate, the studio gave the project to Whale, who cast a relatively unknown Boris Karloff to play the monster.
Karloff had played a range of roles in over 80 films before Frankenstein, which would throw him into the public’s collective knowledge and nightmares. His image became an icon itself, still just as relevant today as it was when the film was released. Last October, a painting by Rob Zombie showed at his art show at the Morrison Gallery in Kent, Connecticut focused on Karloff’s face.
The film was released without a soundtrack. For Grammy-nominated composer Michael Shapiro, this provided an exciting challenge. In 2001, thanks to a commission from The Chappaqua Orchestra, Shapiro created a lush, emotional score intended to be played under the original dialogue.
Audiences loved the way the music brought the film to life. While there are multiplearrangements made for a variety of instrumental configurations, the performance at the Stissing Center will be a world premiere for string quartet and piano. The vibrant Argus Quartet, once tapped as the Graduate Resident String Quartet at the Juilliard School, will play the new arrangement with pianist and Steinway Artist Steven Beck. The composer Michael Shapiro himself will be there to conduct the group.
But the musicians won’t be the only ones on stage. In a special appearance for this world premiere, Sara Karloff, Boris’ daughter will be in attendance to participate in an interview before the screening. The Stissing Center asks that audience members leave their pitchforks at home.
For more information and tickets to the performance, visit thestissingcenter.org.
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Robert Rauschenberg: memories of an art world giant
D.H. Callahan
Aug 26, 2026
Rauschenberg in his Captiva studio.
Provided
In 1953, Dutch-American abstract expressionist painter Willem de Kooning was at the height of a career rarely reached by artists during their lifetimes.
That was the year a young Robert Rauschenberg brought him a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and proposed something audacious. He wanted to erase one of the famous artist’s drawings. De Kooning got it. He didn’t like the idea, but he understood the assignment, and started rifling through archived works for a drawing that he would “miss,” and one that would be difficult to erase. Rauschenberg spent the next month making it disappear.
The resulting work sent the art world into a tailspin, claiming artistic blasphemy. The act, they claimed, was nothing but hostility toward agreed upon artistic greatness. Rauschenberg didn’t see it that way, but he let them say what they needed to say.
He thoroughly enjoyed challenging the art establishment. While he loved the acts of drawing and painting, it seems that to him that technical artistic proficiency was secondary to bold new ideas.
For Rauschenberg, this was just one stop on a wild artistic ride that saw inventive works created across six decades until his death in 2008. Other career milestones include a 23-foot-long tire print, which he made with composer John Cage; the 190 panels and sculptural elements collectively known as the “The 1/4 Mile or 2 Furlong Piece”; and a whole new medium melding painting and sculpture that he referred to as his “Combines.”
Along for a good stretch of the ride were Jane Coats Eckert, founder and owner of Eckert Fine Art in Washington Depot, Connecticut, and Jonas Stirner, who now runs the Stirner Modern gallery in Easton, Pennsylvania. On Saturday, Aug. 29 the two will come togetherat the Washington Art Association & Gallery at 5 p.m. to discuss their time with Rauschenberg as friends, dealer, and studio assistant and collaborator.
Eckert first met Rauschenberg when she moved to Captiva Island, Florida in the mid 1990s. Although she was aware of the artist’s presence on the island, the two didn’t meet until some time after her arrival. Eventually, the two would become close, with Rauschenberg giving Eckert some pieces to sell. “He certainly didn’t need to sell anything,” she recalled, as he was already internationally celebrated.
Stirner worked as a studio assistant for Rauschenberg for over a decade. He tells of an incredibly supportive mentor, who was kind to all, and unnecessarily generous with his resources. When Stirner got the job, he was, by his own account, wonderfully underqualified, which was exactly what Rauschenberg was looking for. With artistic students working on their masters and PhDs hounding him for a job, Rauschenberg instead chose people who wanted to work with their hands. Stirner was a bartender at the time, and wasn’t aware of the level of success his new employer had already achieved.
Rauschenberg took both Stirner and Eckert around the world to big museum and gallery openings. In 1998, they both accompanied him to Frank Geary’s Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain, where his show would be the first retrospective at the new Museum. Back home in Florida, Eckert even staged a joint exhibition with works by both employer and employee, something Rauschemberg was honored to be a part of.
Together, the two gallerists have the experience to paint quite the picture.
To hear their stories about Rauschenberg at WAA on Aug. 29, get tickets at washingtonartassociation.org.
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