Long Island City event round-up; February 1st-7th

Mira Aldridge’s “Endgame”, exhibiting w/Kit Brown @ Dutch Kills Gallery, LIC

Monday 2/1

• Curious about what it takes to make a famed Steinway piano here in Queens? Greater Astoria Historical Society presents a film screening of Note by Note at 7pm, which “explores the relationship between musician and instrument, chronicles the manufacturing process, and illustrates what makes each Steinway unique in this age of mass production,” FREE. 35-20 Broadway, 4th FL, LIC, 718.278.0700

Tuesday 2/2

• The Creek is having a benefit in LIC for the people of Haiti starting at 7pm. Musicians (LIC Jazz Band, Michael Powers, Dharma Bums, Six Arm Tiger, Meghan Kerper, and more) and comedians (Sean Patton, Peggy O’Leary, Rob Cantrell, and Neil Stasny) will be featured in addition to a raffle, a Spare Change Bucket (bring any spare change you want to donate), drink specials like you’ve never seen, and a bake sale. $10 suggested donation, money donated to Doctors Without Borders. 1093 Jackson Ave, LIC, 718.706.8783

• THROW at Chocolate Factory Theater at 7pm, featuring work by Lindsey Drury, Kelly Hanson, and Milka Djordjevich. “Curated and moderated by Sarah Maxfield, THROW is designed to provide artists with a platform for ideas-in-progress, and to provide audiences with insight into the investigative process of performance-making.” 5-49 49th Ave, LIC, 718.482.7069

Thursday 2/4

• Opening reception of new exhibition Drawing On Paper at m55 Gallery, 6-8pm featuring the work of 15+ gallery artists. Exhibition on view through February 14th. 44-02 23rd St, LIC, 718.729.2988

• Now playing at the Secret Theatre: ‘The Servant To Two Masters’ at the Little Secret (their original, smaller space) running February 4th-7th, 10th-14th & 17th-20th @ 8pm; matinees on Feb 13th & 20th @ 3:30 pm, tickets $15. “Luckily for modern audiences [Goldini] created a masterpiece that is still very funny hundreds of years after it first premiered.” 44-02 23rd St, LIC, 718.392.0722

Friday 2/5

• CrossFit LIC will be screening their CrossFit Games movie at 8pm. Doors are open to anyone who is interested, and it’s FREE. There’s a preview of the movie available online. 5-26 47th Ave, LIC, 646.415.8363

Saturday 2/6

• CrossFit LIC is still holding their FREE Saturday classes at 11am – no CrossFit experience required. “The training session takes about one hour and consists of a warm-up, skills required for the exercises to be performed, workout and stretches” and you can sign up using their Online Scheduler. More free classes coming up on February 13th, 20th, and 27th. Next Foundations Program sessions start on February 2nd & 15th. 5-26 47th Ave, LIC, 646.415.8363

• Gallery Night at the Silks Building: Putting-It-All-Together: Collage, Montage, and Assemblage opens at Climate/Gallery from 6-9pm, exhibition runs through February 21st; An exhibition of new work by Mira Aldridge and Kit Brown opens at Dutch Kills Gallery, 6-9pm, runs through February 28th. Both located in the same building – Climate/Gallery at Suite 406, Dutch Kills at Suite 402. 37-24 24th St, LIC, 718.784.2737

Continuing

• ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is now playing at the Secret Theatre’s Big Secret, their new, larger space. Remaining performances continue February 3rd-6th @ 8pm, matinee on Feb 6th @ 3:30pm. “In director Greg Cicchino’s production, Verona is not so fair. Rather, it’s part of an Earth that’s running out of time – resources are running low and desperation is climbing..” 44-02 23rd St, LIC, 718.392.0722

• New group exhibition ‘Parallel States’ at Dean Project gallery, featuring Sangbin Im, Palma Blank-Rosenblum, and Kris Tamburello, through February 14th. More info in a PDF. 45-43 21st Street, LIC, 718.706.1462

• Alex Sax’s ‘Various Amusements’ at AES Gallery through February 19th. “Inspired by Gertrude Jekyll’s book, ‘Children and Gardens,’ first published in 1908, Alex expands on her historical fiction project Menagerie Recovery featuring mixed media cast paper and bronze animal sculptures.” 44-02 23rd St, LIC, 718.249.9359

• New art exhibition ‘Urbanesque’ is installed in the 6 lobby showcases in the atrium of the Citicorp building. In this exhibit, sponsored by Women in the Arts Foundation, Inc., 4 artists explore the urban landscape, with several paintings of the LIC area included as well. Works by Carole Barlowe, Elinore Bucholtz, Diane Waller and Sharon Florin, who curated this exhibit, will be on view through the end of March. Hours are Monday-Friday, 7am-7pm. One Court Square, LIC

• Josh Smith’s On The Water now on view at Deitch Project through March 28th, 2010. Smith painted 47 paintings directly on the wall to “create a show of paintings that looked like something else. The intention was to make ‘art without an art object’ and to take the commodity out of the art.” 4-40 44th Drive, LIC

• Leopards in the Temple continues at SculptureCenter through March 30th, 2010. Named after the Franz Kafka parable, “the group exhibition of the same name [featuring a number of increasingly prominent European artists] focuses on moments of metamorphosis, paradox, and formal adjacency, borrowing from the parable an ability to promote multiple readings of succinct forms and extraordinary occurrences.” 44-19 Purves St, LIC, 718.361.1750

• Socrates Sculpture Park’s EAF 09: Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition is on view through March 2010, featuring 16 artists awarded fellowships with the Park to create and exhibit their work in the outdoor studio. 32-01 Vernon Blvd (@ Broadway), LIC, 718.956.1819

• P.S. 1’s fall exhibitions are now on view, including ‘1969′ and ‘Between Spaces’. Exhibitions run through April 2010. 22-25 Jackson Ave @ intersection of 46th Ave, LIC, 718.784.2084

Upcoming Events

• LICBDC is hosting a Financing Seminar on February 10th, 8-9:30am at the UN Federal Credit Union Building in LIC. “The presenters will help you understand your borrowing and credit needs, what banks need to approve lines of credit, installment loans, and commercial mortgages, and how to find the right financing product for your business.” No charge to attend, networking and continental breakfast, RSVP to Indra Smith: 718.786.5300 x 21 or ismith@licbdc.org.

• Upcoming at Chocolate Factory Theater: Selective Memory (in progress), February 11th-13th at 8pm, FREE: “a real time video performance about nostalgia for relationships that never took place, events which never happened; the soundtrack to a film which was never made, but which everyone remembers…” Also: Andrew Schneider’s solo performance WOW+FLUTTER, February 25th-27th at 8pm, tickets $15: “In Schneider’s surreal world, time loses linearity. Using a mix of live and prerecorded media, the past and the future poke holes in the present.”

• Upcoming performances at the Secret Theatre: ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ at the Big Secret running February 10th-14th, 17th-20th @ 8pm; matinees on Feb 13th & 20th @ 3:30pm, tickets $15; “you can expect a show high on laughs” with Oscar Wilde’s hilarious play. Also: ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ & ‘Serse’ at the Big Secret running February 24th-28th: Pocket Opera presents two classic Italian Operas: Mozart’s comic opera, ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ and Handel’s ‘Serse.’

• The Adrienne Hindmarsh Jazz Duo is playing Vernon Blvd eatery Manducatis Rustica on Friday, February 19th from 6:30-10pm, and again on March 19th.

• Flux Factory’s HOUSEBROKEN is the first major exhibition in their new LIC space and also the largest collaboration in their 15 year history. It’s coming up on February 19th, and will “inaugurate the space as a complex, ever-evolving, multimedia, radical work of art: an installation to the scale of a full building.” In short, they’re “putting the flux back in the factory,” so don’t miss it. Eclectic performances and unparalleled reverie start at 8pm. There’s a $15 tax-deductible suggested donation and a 21+ open bar courtesy of Campari. RSVP to rsvp@fluxfactory.org to get in on it. HOUSEBROKEN will remain on view every Saturday and Sunday from 12–6pm until March 21st.

• Upcoming performances at Green Space Dance Studio: Cross Pollination on February 12th (free-expression/improv workshop for artists and dancers, $5), Take Root on February 20th with KineticArchitecture ($10), and Fertile Ground on February 21st featuring Owen David, Megan Bascom, Luke Murphy, Sarah A. O. Rosner, and Amy Larmier ($15).

• LICBDC is hosting a Queens Agency Breakfast on February 25th from 8-9:30am at Queens West’s Riverview Restaurant in LIC. “Come and meet three leading City officials and learn about the Administration’s plans for these vital areas of civic infrastructure.” Networking and continental breakfast, $20 for members, $30 for non-members. Contact Indra Smith at 718.786.5300 x 21 or register online.