FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                     Contact:  David Mayhew for Cohn Dutcher Associates
April 18, 2008                                                        (203) 533-5621     david@davidmayhew.net

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts announces the start of an online auction
as part of Notte Italiana, the House Museum Benefit and Exhibition Preview Party to be held in May

Online bidding for auction items now through Sunday, May 11th

 Honorary Chairs for May 17 Benefit are Hollywood Luminaries Gianna and Chazz Palminteri

Katonah, New York -  Let the bidding begin!  An online auction of items ranging from extraordinary vacation getaways to art, jewelry and so much more, is now open.  The online auction is a prelude to Notte Italiana, the May 17th House Museum benefit and preview party for Caramoor's 2008 Special Exhibition:  A Journey in Maiolica: Italian Renaissance to American Contemporary. 

Online bidding continues from now through Sunday, May 11th.  To participate navigate your web browser to http://caramoor.cmarket.com/.  If an online bidder is determined to be the highest bidder at the end of the evening of Notte Italiana items may be picked up by the winner at Caramoor or shipped.  There will be an additional cost for insurance and shipping.

Notte Italiana

Notte Italiana, an evening of Italian-style exuberance on May 17th, will begin with hors d'oeuvres at 7:00 p.m. while a harpist plays and marionettes perform in the style of commedia dell'arte.  A tour of A Journey in Maiolica: Italian Renaissance to American Contemporary, led by curator Liz Quakenbush, precedes dancing to music performed by Ed Polcer and His Swingtet, dinner catered by Ann Neto Catering, Paul LaRosa singing a few Italian arias, a scrumptious dessert and champagne table, and a spectacular silent auction.

Honorary Chairs for the event are Hollywood luminaries Gianna and Chazz Palminteri.  Actor Chazz Palminteri is best known for the films The Usual Suspects and his Oscar-nominated performance in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway.  He recently completed a critically acclaimed run on Broadway in his play, A Bronx Tale, based on the film for which he wrote the screenplay and in which he starred.  Benefit co-chairs are Barbara DuPont of Pound Ridge and Nina Stanton of Bedford.

$500 Artista Benefactor tickets include a pre-cocktail party at 6:30 p.m. and photo opportunity with Gianna and Chazz Palminteri.  $275 Artigiano Patron tickets include the pre-cocktail party.  $175 tickets include all aspects of the evening beginning at 7:00 p.m.  Tables of ten are also available at $5,000 Grande Donatore and $2,750 Molto Generoso levels and include the pre-cocktail party and photo opportunity with the Palminteris, as well as special recognition.

Notte Italiana tickets may be ordered by telephone by calling the House Museum at 914.232.5035
ext. 221.

The exhibition:  A Journey in Maiolica: Italian Renaissance to American Contemporary

Remarkable works of colorful Italian tin-glazed earthenware will be on display in A Journey in Maiolica: Italian Renaissance to American Contemporary.  The special exhibition opens at the House Museum at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts Sunday, May 18th and continues during regular museum hours through December 19th. 

A Journey in Maiolica: Italian Renaissance to American Contemporary, organized by guest curator Liz Quakenbush, Associate Professor of Art at Penn State, features remarkable works of Italian maiolica pottery dating to the 16th century, brilliantly colored in vivid yellow, blue, green, and beautiful ochre hues, and depicting an array of fanciful scenes.  The objects on view, selected from the House Museum's outstanding permanent collection, include drug jars or "Albarelli," flasks, large plates and vases and are all fancifully decorated with biblical, historical, and mythological images:  crowned goddesses flanked by winged cherubs, serpents swarming in a turbulent sea, horned satyrs dancing in the forest, and Adam and Eve tempted in the garden.

The exhibition also includes a set of twelve Catalan tiles from the 18th to early 19th century, designed by Francisco Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) and depicting whimsical musicians.  A related outdoor exhibition with works by Kathy Ruttenberg is scheduled for autumn.  Both exhibitions are part of All Fired Up!  - A Celebration of Clay in Westchester, an all-county effort organized by the Westchester Arts Council and the Clay Art Center to explore the versatility of ceramics.  Caramoor's fine examples of the popular Renaissance art form maiolica will be displayed along with artwork by several of today's top ceramic artists working on contemporary majolica.  The name maiolica refers to Majorca, where the Spanish Moors sailed with pottery to Pisa.  Europeans, believing the brilliantly colored Urbino pottery originated in Spain, referred to the Italian works as "maiolica."  A Victorian-era revival changed the name from maiolica to majolica.  The contemporary majolica artists are Rosie Wynkoop, Terry Seibert, and the exhibition's guest curator, Liz Quakenbush.  The artists will also have several pieces for sale in the Museum Shop.

House Museum Tours

Twenty magnificent rooms of the House Museum are open to the public, filled with the extraordinary collection Walter and Lucie Rosen, Caramoor's founders, amassed through the years:  Renaissance, 18th-century, and Eastern art objects and furnishings; tapestries, sculptures, paintings, textiles, furniture, exquisite wall coverings, stained glass, Urbino maiolica, and a major jade collection.  This remarkable museum is one of only five famous mansions in the United States that incorporate entire rooms from European palaces and country manors.

The House Museum opens its regular hours for the season on Saturday, May 3rd.  Guided tours are Wednesday through Sunday from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (last tour begins at 3:00 p.m.).  During the summertime Caramoor International Music Festival Saturday hours are extended to 5:00 p.m. (last tour begins at 4:00 p.m.). 

Tickets for tours of the House Museum, including the special exhibition, A Journey in Maiolica: Italian Renaissance to American Contemporary, may be purchased at the Museum and are $10.00, children under 16 are admitted free.

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The House Museum at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah, New York.

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About Caramoor

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is the legacy of Walter and Lucie Rosen, who built the great house and filled it with their treasures. Walter Rosen was the master planner of the Caramoor estate, bringing to reality his dream of building a country home to showcase his decorative arts collection and to entertain friends from around the world.  The Rosens' musical evenings were the seeds of the International Music Festival of today.  Realizing the pleasure their friends took in Caramoor - the house with its art collection, the gardens, and the musical programs on summer evenings - the Rosens gave the estate to the public as a center for music and the arts.

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