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Paley on Park Avenue featured 13 original sculptures that graced the median of one of the nation’s best known avenues. They were installed June 14-15, 2013 on Park Avenue in New York City as part of The Fund for Park Avenue’s Temporary Public Art Collection. WXXI was given unprecedented access to Paley’s studios to document the project. Narrated by award winning journalist , artist Jay Schadler.

The WXXI production follows world-renowned sculptor, Albert Paley, as he creates 13 original sculptures that graced the median of one of the nation’s best known avenues for the past six months.

WXXI was granted unprecedented access to Paley and his studios to document the creation of these pieces for a one-hour documentary that shares Paley’s incredible journey. Paley on Park Avenue: New York Cityisnarrated by Emmy Award winning journalist, photographer, and artist Jay Schadler. In addition to the documentary premiering on WXXI-TV in December, it will be shared with PBS stations throughout the country early in 2014.

The exhibit, which Patterson Sims, a member of Sculpture Committee for the Fund for Park Avenue described as “one of the most ambitious projects that any sculptor in the last decade of the program has come up with,” took two years to complete. Paley on Park Avenue: New York City follows the project from conception to installation. It also shares personal stories about the sculptor, his work, and the Park Avenue project from Paley, his wife Frances, his staff, and community leaders.

“Albert Paley took on a challenge far greater than he’d ever experienced and the result is an incredible story that WXXI is proud to share with our community, as well as art lovers across the country,” WXXI President Norm Silverstein said.

In May 16, 2013 WXXI launched a six-part, web-only series that shared Paley’s process with the world online at WXXI.org/paleynyc. The 3-5 minute segments, which went live weekly, shared the progression of the project with the final webisode documenting the installation of the sculptures along Park Avenue on June 14, 2013. After the installation, WXXI’s production team continued to shoot the sculptures and events surrounding the project. That footage and interviews, coupled with footage shot for the six-part web series, tells the full story of the artist and Paley on Park Avenue.

Paley’s Park Avenue exhibit ran from June 14 – November 8, 2013.  Eight of the 13 sculptures have been sold, including “Cloaked Intention”, which now resides on the newly formed quad between the Golisano Institute for Sustainability and Louise Slaughter Hall at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Paley on Park Avenue: New York City was made possible with support from The Elaine P. and Richard U. Wilson Foundation and The Ames Amzalak Memorial Trust.

More about Albert Paley:
Albert Paley, an active artist for over 40 years, is the first metal sculptor to receive the coveted Institute Honors awarded by the American Institute of Architects, the AIA’s highest award to a non-architect. Paley, Distinguished Professor, holds an Endowed Chair at the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology. Commissioned by both public institutions and private corporations, Paley has completed more than 50 site-specific works. Broadly published and an international lecturer, Paley received both his BFA and MFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. 

More about Jay Schadler:
Jay Schadler is a two-time Emmy Award winning journalist, photographer and artist.  He has been a correspondent and anchor for ABC News for nearly 30 years, reporting for 20/20, PrimeTime, Good Morning America, World News and Nightline. Shadler, who began his broadcasting career in Upstate New York, graduated from the S.U. Newhouse School of Public Communications and also received a law degree from the Syracuse University College of Law. An artist himself, Schadler has his own gallery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Shadler recently collaborated with WXXI and a local photographer, Jeffrey Mills, to create a unique poster of the façade of Rochester’s Little Theatre.

More about Park Avenue’s Temporary Public Art Collection:
The Sculpture Committee of The Fund for Park Avenue and the Public Art Program of the City of New York’s Department of Parks & Recreation have collaborated with artists to exhibit artwork on the medial strip of Park Avenue since 2000.  Paley is the 20th artist to participate in the project. Paley’s exhibit ran from June 14-November 8, 2013.  Funding for the Albert Paley exhibition on Park Avenue is generously provided by Ann Mulligan; Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT); Kathy and Marc LeBaron; Kenneth and Constance Hess; John and Fonda Elliot; and Klein Steel.

Explore the science behind soft clay, the history and spirituality of the material, and the need for ceramics in modern technology. Dr. Alexis G. Clare, professor of glass science at the New York State College, Alfred University, explores this new definition of ceramics from ancient to industrial times. Detailing the dance between mind and material through the art of ceramicists of today.

WXXI is pleased to present, Oak Hill: A Great Walk Celebrated. This documentary features interviews with Jack Nicklaus, Curtis Strange, Jeff Sluman and many others. Oak Hill: A Great Walk Celebrated highlights the club’s rich history, explores the impact it has had on the Rochester community and Upstate New York’s economy, and celebrates some of golf’s greatest moments.

A Walk Through History in Mount Hope Cemetery spotlights the magnificent 196-acre piece of land, with its lofty hills and picturesque valleys, and features the mausoleums, Egyptian obelisks, Florentine cast-iron fountain, and the infinitely varied tombstones marking 350,000 graves. It shares the history behind the cemetery, the people buried there, the symbolism behind the monuments, and much more

It was a palace, a jewel among ball parks both minor league and major. Silver Stadium set the standard from the time it opened on a rainy May day in 1929 right through the 1980’s. Rochester saw athletic drama played out on it’s broad, beautiful green stage. Welcome back the smells of white hots grilling, vendors shouting, the view from your favorite seat. Welcome back your Silver Memories.

Produced by WXXI, Silver Memories shares the history of Silver Baseball Stadium through interviews and anecdotal discussions on the stadium, the players, baseball, and its relation to the community itself.

Wendell Castle: A Portrait provides a unique opportunity to see first-hand Castle at work, as WXXI’s production crew follows him through the creation of his “Dizzy” chair – from his original drawings to the finished work of art. Through Castle’s own words and interviews with family, friends, viewers will learn about his early years as an artist, his creative process, and the vision for his work.

Filmed over the course of a year by WXXI-TV’s production team, Wendell Castle: A Portrait captures the life of the master furniture artist, designer, sculptor, and educator.

Through Castle’s own words and interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, viewers will learn about his early years as an artist, his creative process, and the vision for his work.

The hour-long documentary also providesaunique opportunity to see first-hand Castle at work, as WXXI’s production crew follows him through the creation of his “Dizzy” chair – from his original drawings to the finished work of art. It was one of the last chairs Castle created before passing away on January 20, 2018 at the age of 85.

Castle was born in Kansas and received a BFA from the University of Kansas in Industrial Design and an MFA in sculpture, graduating in 1961. He then moved to Rochester in 1962 to teach at the School of American Craftsmen at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he was on staff as an “Artist in Residence” at the time of his death. An artist for more than 60 years, he is often credited as the father of American Studio Furniture and Art Furniture Movements. More than 100 of his works are installed in museums worldwide, including the Memorial Art Gallery.

The film visits Castle in his Scottsville home and studio, and looks at his masterpieces in wood, including his stack lamination method, his Technicolor gel-coated fiberglass pieces, and the Steinway 500,000^th piano he was commissioned to create. Castle’s wife Nancy Jurs, well known as a potter who trained at Rochester Institute of Technology’s School for American Craftsmen, shares how they met, how he landed his teaching job at RIT, and details about his work and technique. Castle’s daughter Alison and step son Bryon Jurs also give insight into Castle’s medium and process.

The designer, sculptor, and educator continually pushed the boundaries of inventiveness, imagination and sustained innovation. “He defined an entire world of creativity,” explains Jonathan P. Binstock, PhD, Director of the Memorial Art Gallery, in the film. Others featured in the film include:

• Josh Owen, Designer, Professor and Chair of Industrial Design, Rochester Institute of Technology
• Rick Hirsch, Professor Emeritus, Rochester Institute of Technology
• Peter Kenney, Craftsman, Wendell Castle Studio
• Marvin Pallischeck, Former Studio Director, Wendell Castle Studio
• Marc Benda, Co-Owner, Friedman Benda
• Loic Le Gaillard, Co-Founder, Carpenters Workshop Gallery
• Grant Holcomb, Director Emeritus, Memorial Art Gallery
• Evan Snyderman, Co-Founder, Creative Director, R & Company
• Daniel Herberger, Studio Director, Wendell Castle Studio
• Carole Hochman, Director, Friedman Benda
• Bridget Sheehan, Craftsman and 3D Modeler, Wendell Castle Studio

Funding for Wendell Castle:  A Portrait is generously provided by Nocon and Associates, a private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, Incorporated. And, by the Sands Family Foundation. Additional support provided by Waldron Rise Foundation, Lilliputian Foundation, Louise Epstein, Tom and Ebets Judson, Martin Messinger, Mimi and Sam Tilton, Alan Cameros, Reenie and Stan Feingold, Jane Ellen Parker and Fran Cosentino, and Essie Germanow

Countless Irish people came to Rochester to escape the Irish potato famine. They were families steeped in tradition and history, and their contributions helped to make Rochester the community it is today. Don’t miss this insightful program that highlights Rochester’s Irish Americans and their effort to maintain their heritage through song, dance and stories.

19th century American women were seen but never heard. That is, until suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, ordained minister Antoinette Brown Blackwell, and business women Kate Gleason and Martha Matilda Harper changed American history. All were from the Rochester area.