Venice's Ark, Peggy Guggenheim, Barca xe Casa

So much is happening in Venice! I have been running like a maniac since I've been back from the mountains. Yesterday, I was at a press conference with the mayor, Massimo Cacciari, who announced an exciting new Jewish festival, Festival dell'Arca, in The Ghetto which will start on Sunday, May 25th and run through June 1st. There will even be an actual ark! It is to promote a deeper understanding of the Jewish culture, and I have to say that it sounds fantastic, with theatrical performances, music, lectures and conversations., etc. They hope to make it an annual event.

For example, on May 29th at 9:00 straight from Broadway will be a presentation of Iris Bahr in her one-woman show called Dai (Enough). From Amanda Cooper's CurtainUp review: "...A BBC reporter who has been covering the Israel-Palestine conflict for months decides to head into a local Tel Aviv spot (the coffee shop) in order to get an Israeli civilian perspective on the conflict. After a number of revealing interviews with a surprisingly international group (no more than a couple Israelis in the bunch), a suicide bomber enters the shop, killing all (or at least most) of the people we have just heard from. I'm not being a spoiler here. Bahr's play structure has us viewing each individual's moment of bomb impact throughout the evening. Each person's life story/interview is interrupted by the explosion. If this sounds like overkill for the viewer, it isn't...."

Another highlight will be the renowned performer Moni Ovadia in Kavanah, Stories and Songs of Jewish Spirituality, together with Arke String Quartet, on June 1st at 9:00pm.

Here's the link to the entire program: http://www.atduende.it/index.php?page=programma

Tickets are 15 euro, 10 euro for students and seniors.

Next, I dashed over to the L'Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e Arti in Campo Santa Stefano for the conference in preparation for Coming of Age - American Art from 1850 to 1950. From the Guggenheim's site:

"AND THEN PEGGY ARRIVED
1948-2008: 60 YEARS OF THE PEGGY GUGGENHEIM COLLECTION IN VENICE

To celebrate 60 years of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the museum offers a calendar of activities to supplement the temporary exhibitions. There will be lectures, free guided visits to exhibitions, a movie program during the summer, educational workshops."

Here is the link to that: http://www.guggenheim-venice.it/inglese/news.php

The evening before was the opening of the exhibition Barca xe Casa, wonderful photographs from one of my favorite organizations, il Circolo la Gondola (as you know if you read this blog) over at the lobby of the bank, Cassa di Risparmio Venezia in Campo San Luca. You can wander into the lobby through May 30th and have a look at some beautiful, haunting photos of Venice from the 1940s. through 1960s. The hours are bank hours, 8:30am to 1:30pm, and then 2:25pm to 3:35pm. And here is the link to that:

http://www.cflagondola.it/Mostre/Barca/index.html

Ciao from Venice,
Cat