Downtown’s own Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra winds up its season with “Music at Melville: Hurrah for the Harbor,” at the Melville Gallery on June 10.
By Janel Bladow
Ah June!! Getting ready for a hot time in our little niche of the city!
SOUNDS OF THE SEAPORT… Help our local Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra wind up a fantastic season with a lovely evening next Friday. “Music at Melville: Hurrah for the Harbor” will fill the brick-walled gallery on Water St. with music and song. Music Director Gary S. Fagin leads an ensemble of musicians and tenor Glenn Seven Allen in an evening of Dvorak, Ives and Joplin… and even a few surprises.
The group promises you’ll be “entertained, inspired, even transported to a world of sails, sycamores and sauvignon blanc (a bubbly too)!” The concert is to celebrate 100 years of the National Park Service, honor Seaport Museum founder and visionary Peter Stanford, and toast Lower Manhattan’s unique waterfront and its parks. Co-sponsors of the evening are Laura Starr of Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners, Madelyn Wils of the Hudson River Park Trust, and the Old Seaport Alliance.
Tickets are priced for all levels of support: $20 First Mate (we couldn’t sail without you!), $50 Skipper (your generosity will steer us true), and $100 Commodore (the KCO fleet of musicians salute you)!
Concert is Friday, June 10, 6–8 p.m., at Melville Gallery, 213 Water St., order tickets at www.knickerbocker-orchestra.org.
SEA SCHOOL ART SHOW… The South Street Seaport Museum and New York Harbor School sponsors an exciting new spectacle. “Cultural After School Adventures: Discover Your City’s History” is a student exhibition of maritime art, photography and film influenced by New York Harbor, opening at Melville Gallery on Friday June 3.
In 2015 the South Street Seaport Museum received a grant from the Cultural After School Adventures to provide an interdisciplinary arts-in-education program to the New York Harbor School in Council District 1. The program provides high-quality cultural experiences to eligible students enrolled in after-school activities at the school.
Ten years ago the New York Harbor School opened its doors on the fourth floor of the Bushwick Campus High School to 125 freshmen who lived almost exclusively in the surrounding neighborhood in Brooklyn. South Street Seaport Museum and Waterkeeper Alliance joined as its founding partners. In 2010, Harbor School moved to its new home on Governors Island in City Council District 1 and expanded its student body to kids from all five boroughs.
The Discover Your City’s History after-school program gives students a chance to study the history of the Port of New York through a variety of media. At Harbor School, the program has two semesters of after-school workshops taught by an art teacher, a photographer and a videographer.
Come see what they’ve accomplished at the South Street Seaport Museum’s Melville Gallery, 213 Water St. The preview party is Thursday, June 2, at 6–8 p.m., and the exhibit is open to the public June 3–5, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
EATS ON THE STREET… Dine Around Downtown is back next week for its 15th year! More than 45 Lower Manhattan restaurants will be selling mouth-watering treats from 11 a.m.–3 p.m. on Wednesday, June 8, at 28 Liberty Plaza, at the corner of Nassau St.
Last summer more than 15,000 people sampled and sipped offerings from restaurants as diverse as ATRIO Wine Bar & Restaurant, The Capital Grille, Cowgirl Sea-Horse, Fresh Salt, Mark Joseph Steakhouse, SUteiShi, and at least a couple or three dozen more. Signature dishes sell for between $3 and $7 all afternoon. The gastronomical event is co-sponsored by the Downtown Alliance and Fosun. This year’s host is Food Network’s Chef Alex Guarnaschelli. Music is by The National Jazz Museum in Harlem All-Stars. And look for great promotions and prizes from other sponsors: the Seaport District and Platinum Properties.
Old Seaport Alliance board member Amanda Zink, center, and other volunteers plant flowers at Peck Slip. The Alliance is looking for more volunteers to help tend the plants throughout the summer and into the fall.
PRETTY BARRELS… Old Seaport Alliance is still looking for volunteers to perk up the recently delivered flowers, plants and whiskey barrels filling Peck Slip Plaza. They have a four-gallon backpack pressure sprayer on order to help with the watering chore (also sounds like fun on a hot afternoon)! Supporters including Pete from the Paris Café supplies the water until they can hook up to fire hydrants. A big thanks to Howard Hughes Corporation for donating the flowers and barrels. The flowers will need watering and attention through the fall, and even an hour a month will help. To volunteer, contact oldseaportnewyork@gmail.com or 917-881-9783 and check out www.oldseaportny.com
RUMOR HAS IT… Word on the street is that the city has selected the Seaport as one of six “affluent” neighborhoods to target with a parking ticket violation blitz. Just yesterday, one resident got zapped while unloading her car on Water St.
