Auditorium

Celebrate the special exhibition Wish You Were Here: The Buffalo Avant-garde in the 1970s with a variety of programming. All events will take place in the Auditorium

12:30–3:30 pm
Film: James Blue’s Who Killed the Fourth Ward? A non-fiction Mystery in Three Parts, 1978 (FREE)
James Blue’s documentary film explores the potential redevelopment of the Fourth Ward in Houston, Texas, in the 1970s. It provides an in-depth look at how Houston operated in the 1970s and the impact such revitalization would have on the city’s inhabitants, especially the many poor African American families who would be forced to relocate. (A screening of Blue's The Invisible City (Houston's Housing Crisis) (with Adele Naude Santos), 1979, will take place on Saturday, May 5, at noon.)

3:45–4:15 pm
Film: RainForest, 1968 (FREE)
The second Festival of the Arts Today was held in Buffalo in March 1968. This film captures an enigmatic performance by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at that festival. Cunningham’s choreography is complimented by David Tudor’s music and Andy Warhol’s set design, all under the artistic advice of Jasper Johns. 

4:15–4:30 pm
Films: Sara Hornbacher's Numerical Studies: Rutt Cube Interface, 1976, and Leaving Everything to be Desired, 1977 (FREE)
About Numerical Studies: Rutt Cube Interface: The parallelogram on screen was created utilizing a 16 mm Bolex camera to film a Rutt-Etra Raster device with variable shutter rates while successively increasing the frames per second to create the apparent rotating movement and illustrate the time-based intervals via an interface between the camera shutter and the vertical interval of the video raster. A structuralist approach to media prompted this investigation. About Leaving Everything to be Desired: This work on film was conceived as an ongoing sentence. . . . Integral to the work are basic cinematic and philosophical questions. Contemplation of fire brings us back to the very origins of philosophical thought. It was the rapid movement of fire that caught Man's attention—the quick, the agile. The flickering figures of human gesture in the work are Peter Kubelka (lecturing at UB), Tony Conrad (spectator in straw hat), and Hollis Frampton (speaking at AKAG)—great influences regarding our conception of experimental, avant-garde cinema. The work is indebted to Marcel Duchamp’s The Large Glass, Ernie Gehr’s Serene Velocity, Tony Conrad’s Flicker, Peter Kubelka’s Arnulf Rainer and Pause!, Hollis Frampton’s lucid critique of Western civilization and modernism through language and film, and Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic criticism.

5:30–5:45 pm
Performance: Paul Sharits’s FLUXUS piece, by Don Metz (FREE)
Don Metz, Associate Director, Public Programs, Burchfield Penney Art Center, will take the stage to perform a FLUXUS work by Paul Sharits, one of the artists featured in Wish You Were Here: The Buffalo Avant-garde in the 1970s. 

6:30–6:45 pm
Introduction and Welcome by Curator Heather Peasanti
FREE for Members / $5 for non-members (for all events after 6:30 pm)
Curator Heather Pesanti, who organized the special exhibition Wish You Were Here: The Buffalo Avant-garde in the 1970s, will welcome guests to the evening’s performances.

6:45–7:30 pm
Performance: “Mars”
FREE for Members / $5 for non-members (for all events after 6:30 pm)
The East Buffalo Media Association will unite on stage for a performance of “Mars.” This unique piece combines elements of poetry, art, and music, and demonstrates the EBMA’s mission of bringing together art and technology through content-based collaborations between artists and computer technology. 

8:30–9:30 pm
Performance: The Vores
FREE for Members / $5 for non-members (for all events after 6:30 pm)
The beloved Buffalo band The Vores will take the stage for an evening of music. The Vores started long ago and continue today as an avant-garage band with little interest in limiting influences, but always looking for something interesting. Sometimes loud, sometimes fast, but always right there like a car on fire. Members include Cathy Carfagna (keyboards, vocals), Biff Henrich (guitars, vocals), Mr. Heyden (drums), Gary Nickard (bass, vocals), and Scott Ryan (guitars, vocals).

Part of M&T FIRST FRIDAYS @ THE GALLERY

On the first Friday of every month—from 10 am to 10 pm—admission to the museum’s 1962 Building is free. Events and art classes are offered for FREE for Members and for a small fee for non-members. Learn More