Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks delivers her annual State of the County address Thursday evening at the Eastman Business Park, and we’ll have live coverage on AM 1370 WXXI and www.wxxi.org
Brooks will be talking about the key role the business park is playing in the effort to revitalize the local economy, and she’s also expected to discuss other job growth efforts.
Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks presents her State of the County address tonight, and WXXI will provide live coverage on AM 1370 (listen live) starting at 7 p.m. WXXI News Director Randy Gorbman will anchor our coverage from the "Theatre On The Ridge" at Eastman Business Park. You can also follow our real-time Twitter stream during the address - @WXXINews.
The Memorial Art Gallery cut the ribbon on its Centennial Sculpture Park Wednesday.
Four world-renowned artists created anchoring pieces for the sculpture garden. Albert Paley, Wendell Castle, Jackie Ferrara and Tom Otterness each attended dedication ceremony where they had an opportunity to explain their work.
"The sculpture’s called the Soliloquy,” says world-renowned artist Albert Paley. “It will be 25 feet tall. It will be stainless steel and also with color. So when people come off of University [Avenue], they'll see the sculpture and it will create that transition into the area."
Paley says his piece will be a landmark for the Goodman Street entrance to the MAG once it’s installed sometime in August.
Wendell Castle crafted an outdoor living room with 900 pound steel chairs, a table and a nearly 16 foot lamp that lights up the whole exhibit at night. He calls it the Unicorn Family.
“The reason for the unicorn is that if we didn't do any of this [unicorn horn] they [the chairs] would be kind of short,” Castle says. “I really wanted to give some things some height. I thought that made it sort of more important."
Castle says he enjoys that his exhibit sits close to University Avenue, so motorists can see it as they drive by.
"An interactive site where you have superb public sculptures by major American artists,” says the director of the MAG, Grant Holcomb, says the sculpture park is what he envisioned for that neighborhood. “This is unique. It is a wonderful urban, culture park."
Jackie Ferrara created multiple paved pathways called Marking Crossways on the MAG's circle driveway, a Path of Colors - that connects the park gateway at Goodman Street and University Avenue to the Gallery’s main entrance - and a number of 2 feet square patterns that are scattered throughout the grounds.
"Some of them are in Morse code," Ferrara says about the walkway design at the entrance of the museum. "One says University of Rochester and the other Memorial Art Gallery."
Ferrara says she wanted to add content to her work. At the mouth of the sculpture plaza are two large limestone statues title the Creation Myth. It’s the reversal of the classical Pygmalion fable.
"Where the guy carves a woman out of stone and then kisses her and she comes to life. This is the gale carving the guy out of stone," Tom Otterness says, who says he wanted to create a transition between the arts neighborhood and the museum. "I thought a sculptors studio where the work in the museum is being made. So it's a half way step to the museum inside.
Otterness also has more than a dozen small bronze sculptures sprinkled throughout his exhibition. Two of the pieces represent historical women's rights champions Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
During the ceremony, the MAG presented Ferrara and Otterness with a gift made by local artist Scott Sober for their participation in the Centennial Sculpture Park. Castle and Paley received the 2013 George Eastman Medal from U of R president Joel Seligman. It's an award recognizing individuals whose achievements and service represents the epitome of the University of Rochester model.
The sculpture garden also showcases the work by other noted artists from the MAG’s collection.
The construction of the park coincided with the latest phase of ARTWalk, a public initiative to transform the Neighborhood of the Arts into an interactive outdoor museum. The project received more than $25 million in federal money, including a $250,000 grant through the National Endowment for the Arts.
Governor Cuomo, who still has not issued a decision on whether hydro fracking should be allowed in New York, is backing further away from the controversial gas drilling process in his economic development plans for the future.
Two years ago, Governor Cuomo considered hydro fracking a key component of his plans for economic development in the faltering upstate regions of the state.
There's the possibility that the Hickey Freeman plant in Rochester could be sold again. The CEO of the company that operates that plant, Doug Williams, has confirmed for WXXI News that he's in talks with a Canadian company, Samuelsohn, which is interested in buying the Rochester clothing factory.
Williams says this deal would be a positive move for the local Hickey Freeman plant, and could add jobs here.
Hickey Freeman now employs nearly 400 workers in Rochester. If the deal goes through, there's no word yet exactly how many more jobs could be added locally.
The City School District wants to change its transportation policy so it can provide busing for students who live within a half-mile of school.
The state provides financial assistance to transport students who live a mile and a half or more from school. It's asking for permission from the State Education Department to change the guidelines. Rochester City School Superintendent Dr. Bolgen Vargas says it will take a change in current law, but with an adjustment to the policy, parents would be encouraged to choose their neighborhood school for their children.
Xerox CEO Ursula Burns is again on Forbes Magazine's annual list of the world's 100 most powerful women. Forbes looks at factors that include revenue, media moment and impact.
It was a near-record crowd and near-perfect weather for the annual J.P. Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge on Tuesday night in Rochester.
A total of 10,921 runners and walkers in teams representing 460 companies and other organizations competed in the three and a half mile race.
The weather started out muggy, but a cool breeze greeted the participants by race time at the RIT course, and then toward the end, thunderstorms drenched whoever wasn’t under the many tents set up at the campus.
One day after the state’s powerful Assembly Speaker admitted “glaring failures” in his handling of a sexual abuse case, the Albany establishment seemed to be moving on, with the usual round of press conferences, bill passage, and leaders meetings.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver attended a top level meeting with Governor Cuomo and Senate leaders on casino gambling , and oversaw passage of a one house bill on the Dream Act, to help children of undocumented immigrants get funding for college.
