SARATOGA LIVINGThe City. The Culture. The Life.

Everybody loves Maurice Sendak. Like so many others, I’ll never forget the first time I saw the wonderfully grotesque, slightly terrifying and yet oddly kid-friendly creatures of the famed children’s author/illustrator’s classic Where The Wild Things Are. He captured childhood not through a perspective of “innocence,” like so many others do, but rather a more evocative lens of childlike curiosity and emotional revelry. Gone only six years now, the late Sendak’s imagination and illustrations continue to inspire new generations of artists, authors and readers.

Now, Sendak’s genius is about to get a little closer to Saratoga Springs. Yaddo announced this week a new grant from The Maurice Sendak Foundation to fund a residency at the world-renowned artists’ retreat at Yaddo’s 400-acre estate. Designated for an artist whose primary media is nondigital work on paper (like Sendak himself), the Sendak/Glynn Narrative Illustration Residency (Dr. Eugene Glynn was Sendak’s partner of more than 50 years) will support one artist for a residency at Yaddo, which can last anywhere from two weeks to two months, in addition to a $1000 stipend. “We’re grateful to The Maurice Sendak Foundation for the opportunity to expand Yaddo’s burgeoning community of narrative artists,” said Yaddo President Elaina Richardson in a statement. “The funding will help to support work that is, in Maurice Sendak’s words, ‘not vapid or stupid, but original; work that excites and incites.’”

Contiguous to the Saratoga Race Course, Yaddo consists of a 55-room mansion (currently under renovation) and studios on 400 acres of private land, pines trees and manicured gardens, only a small portion of which is open to the public. Although it keeps a very low profile about all the famous artists coming and going within its walls (many Saratogians aren’t even aware of the retreat), Yaddo is one of the most successful artist communities in the county. Painters, writers, poets, musicians and now filmmakers and other creative types have been checking in and out of the many rooms of Yaddo’s main Victorian mansion since it first opened to guests in 1926. The track record speaks for itself: so far Yaddo has hosted writers who have won 74 Pulitzer Prizes, 68 National Book Awards and even a Nobel Prize (Saul Bellow). The list of alumni includes the biggest names in the arts and entertainment such as Truman Capote, Leonard Bernstein, Alice Walker, Raymond Carver, Langston Hughes, Aaron Copland, Eudora Welty and Philip Roth, among many others.

The Maurice Sendak Foundation is a charitable organization that supports the legacy of Maurice Sendak and nurtures emerging and established artists in children’s literature and theater design through its own residency program and fellowships. Stationed in the late author’s home in Ridgefield, CT, the Foundation also promotes children’s literacy and animal welfare programs. Lynn Caponera, President of The Maurice Sendak Foundation, is excited about the new partnership with Yaddo. “Maurice, throughout his lifetime, was a student of all the arts, and we are delighted to be able to give illustrators the opportunity to enhance their craft by enabling them to work among other Yaddo residents,” she says.

The application deadline for the Sendak/Glynn Narrative Illustration Residency is August 1.

The REVEAL International Contemporary Art Fair has unveiled its exciting list of exhibitors for its inaugural run at the Saratoga City Center this August, along with details on the Fair’s “Art Talks,” or live discussions with art world professionals on the opening day Friday, August 3. REVEAL will be Saratoga Springs’ first-ever major contemporary art fair, and it’s not just an opportunity for art enthusiasts to view fine art from all over the country and around the world, but it’s also a chance to purchase it.

REVEAL has collected 30 select galleries to be a part of its fair, including some establishment names, such as the our feature on artist Zack Lobdell, one of the founders of the gallery).

Jacquie Grande, Founder and President of REVEAL, has always had a passion for the arts and wanted to bring more new and contemporary art to the Spa City. So she conceived of the REVEAL Art Fair to demonstrate that Saratoga is just as capable of being a hub for contemporary art as it is for Thoroughbred racing, ballet and classical music. Aside from the 30 national galleries Grande was able to bring in to her show, she was also able to snag two international galleries: DECORAZON Gallery of London and Dallas, TX and Galleria Ca’ d’Oro from New York, Miami and Rome. Galleria Ca’ d’Oro is one of Rome’s best-known contemporary art galleries and was founded in 1970 by Antonio Porcella, the son of the respected Italian art critic, Amadore Porcella. Today, Antonio’s daughter, Gloria, manages Galleria Ca’ d’Oro, and has expanded it to locations in Miami (2010) and New York (2015). DECORAZON was established by Mexican artist-designer Hugo G. Urrutia in Dallas in 2004 (Urrutia graduated from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX). He opened a second location in London after he earned his Masters in Architecture there at the Architectural Association in 2013.

There will also be an elegant VIP preview and celebration at REVEAL on Thursday evening, August 2. VIP tickets are $50 and include admission to the preview as well as all fair days (a day pass is just $15 and a multi-day pass is $25). On Friday, REVEAL’s big reveal, there will be two lively “Art Talks” with contemporary art experts discussing and presenting on important art-world issues. The first talk, scheduled for 3pm, is entitled “BUY WHAT YOU LOVE… and Other Advice,” and is about the intimidation factor that new collectors face when viewing contemporary art—how its represented, sold and reported on. The second talk, at 4pm, is entitled, “The Art of Collecting: Building, Managing and Protecting a Collection” (a little more self-explanatory). Both discussions will feature experts in the field of contemporary art and collecting such as Renato Danese, President of Danese/Corey in New York; and Laura Doyle, Vice President and Collections Manager at CHUBB (one of the talks’ sponsors).

For more information on REVEAL’s list of exhibitors and “Art Talks,” visit its website here.