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Greetings friends,

We are thrilled to share the news that Light in Winter, in partnership with The State Theatre of Ithaca and the Ithaca/Tompkins County Convention & Visitors Bureau, will present an effervescent mix of music, magic, movement and merriment, on February 17, 18 and 19.

In true Light in Winter fashion, this year’s events combine science and the arts in a feast for the mind and senses. The program coincides with the 2012 Winter Recess, an annual festival that celebrates public school teachers and school employees across the region with entertainment, activities, family fun, and discounts throughout the community.

On Friday, February 17, the magic begins in the upstairs space at Lot 10 Kitchen & Lounge (formerly Delilah’s) at 112 S. Cayuga Street. Drop by at 6:30 pm to experience Ithaca’s own dj laika, who applies her love of science and music to create multimedia sets that are “always fresh and on the edge.” At 7:30 pm, join New York-based magician, physicist, and author Alex Stone for “Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind,” a special Winter Recess edition of Ithaca’s celebrated Science Cabaret. Drinks and light snacks will be available for both shows.

The festivities begin again at 4:30 pm on Saturday, February 18, at Ithaca’s historic State Theatre, when physicist and fiddler Kathy Selby unlocks the mysteries of the violin in “The Secrets of the Devil’s Box.” Selby, who teaches the physics of musical sound at Cornell University, will be joined onstage by special guest performers.

Music lovers will want to return to the State at 8 pm for a spine-tingling performance by Stringfever, a British band that bills itself as “the world’s first genetically modified string quartet.” Playing electric instruments, brothers Giles, Ralph, and Neal Broadbent and their cousin Graham have been wowing audiences all over the globe with their wizardly (and often humorous) versions of popular tunes and classics.

On Sunday, February 19, at 3 pm, the internationally acclaimed troupe Galumpha brings its stunning acrobatics, striking visual effects, physical comedy, and inventive choreography to the State Theatre stage. The show, featuring new material, is perfect for families. At 5 pm, join Galumpha’s co-founder and director Andy Horowitz onstage for a physical workshop focusing on weight sharing and acrobatic partnering.

We hope you can join us—it should be a mind-bending weekend!

Light In Winter Board of Directors

(Ithaca, NY) After 12 years as Founder and Artistic Director of the Light in Winter Festival, Barbara Mink announced she is stepping down to pursue new artistic opportunities. The Light in Winter board today accepted, with regret, her decision. The board is committed to the vision of  Light in Winter and is planning for future festivals.

Mink said: “We have enjoyed eight years of exciting, creative and enlightening programs that have brought new visitors to the community and new insights to many of us. I look back with pride at many of our audacious productions over the years that made this small city gain national attention, and I thank everyone for helping turn what was just an idea into such a wonderful reality.”

The Light in Winter Festival, which produces collaborations between artists and scientists, debuted in 2004.

If you thought Saturday was busy, Light in Winter Sunday is positively overflowing with events!

Have you ever taken a photo, had your picture taken, or have seen a picture? Then Photo-Humor, a workshop with Light in Winter Artist-In-Residence is for you! Flash tickled an audience Saturday with her charming presentation “Laughing at the Speed of Light” this afternoon, but Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. until 12 noon at the Plantations Welcome Center, she’ll offer a workshop that combines her gift of gab with years of experience as a professional photographer. Audience members are encouraged to bring a paper and pencil – or according to Flash, “whatever electronic note-making system you prefer.”

Also at 10:00 a.m. but over at the Cayuga Nature Center, the non-profit will offer free family events.

At 12:00 noon, the tactile artist Rosalyn Driscoll will present a workshop and presentation about the art and science of touch. Driscoll, who has worked with neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, engineers, philosophers, architects and artists will explain why we so often want to touch artwork, why we should be allowed to, and how we can touch without touching. The presentation is called “Touching Sculpture,” and audiences are invited stop by at 11:30 a.m., when they will be exposed to a blindfolded touch experience. Click here for more info. Also at 12:00 noon, the free Hall of Wonders exhibit and demonstration will come to the Statler Atrium.

Looking to the stars, Nick Sagan presents “A Cosmic Adventure,” 1:30 p.m. in Statler, a lecture with music, celebrating the legacy of “Cosmos,” his father Carl’s landmark public television series. Nick Sagan charmed audiences at Science Cabaret on Tuesday, and held court at the Tompkins County Public during gallery night. Sunday afternoon, he’ll be joined by John Boswell who has created mash up videos he calls a “Symphony of Science,” which has included Carl Sagan. More info here.

At 3:00 pm., a panel discussion moderated by Dava Sobel will bring together the luminaries of this year’s festival, including Diane Ackerman, Roz Driscoll, Dana Salisbury and Flash Rosenberg. Check out a bit of info here.

Harvard science historian and popular speaker Peter Galison examines the complex interaction between experimentation, instrumentation and scientific theory. His 4:30 p.m. talk at the Statler, “Building, Crashing, Thinking,” builds on more than 25 years of work exploring the relationships among, art, science, philosophy and authorship. Check it out here!

It’s been a busy winter for Light in Winter, but there’s still time to let the festival light up your chilly day. Join us and boldly go where no one has gone before with Star Trek Live, an action-packed adventure landing at The State Theatre Sunday, Jan. 23 at 4:30 p.m.

Here’s an excerpt from Bryan VanCampen’s article in this week’s Ithaca Times:

“Star Trek” has been around for more than 40 years in a variety of TV series, feature films, novels and other media. Thanks to a Trek-centric thread in this year’s LiW festival, organizers were able to bring in “Star Trek Live!,” an interactive stage show for a performance on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at the State Theatre.

Thanks to “Star Trek’s” ability to reshape itself so often, its audience is always a young audience.

“What we liked about the show is that it’s interactive, and also that it’s geared towards more of a youth-centered audience,” said LiW Executive Director Marie Sirakos. “It’s certainly enjoyable for all ages, but we are excited to be able to bring something that was gered a little bit toward the younger folks of our crowd. ‘Star Trek’ is sort of an exemplary popular culture example of how arts and sciences can go together, and it just seemed like a natural fit. It seemed like it would be enjoyable and fun.”

For more information, click here. Tickets will be available at the door.

Thursday night’s kick off was both provocative and off the charts, but there’s much in store for Friday. Here’s a round-up of the full Friday, which promises a feast for the senses.

Perennial festival favorite Irene (Zee) Zahava has been leading writing circles for adults and teens since 1994, and 3:30 p.m. Friday at the Owl Café (above Autumn Leaves, 115 The Commons) she’ll celebrate the senses – teaching word collage for fiction, poetry and memoir.

Also at 3:30 p.m. at The Mann Library at Cornell, a reception for the artist Susan Larkin will display her spectacularly detailed black and white images of seeds, pods and other plant structures, all taken by Helicon Focus, a computer program that combines multiple images to increase the depth of field.

The visual arts doesn’t stop there, for Gallery Night will have a Light in Winter theme Friday, with both the Kitchen Theatre and the Tompkins County Public Library participating in specially-themed shows, and The State of the Art Gallery and the CSMA Gallery also offering a feast for the eyes. At the Kitchen, Light in Winter found are and Artistic Director Barbara Mink will display recent paintings, and at the TCPL, an exhibition designed to celebrate the anniversary of Carl Sagan’s television series “Cosmos” will gather images of Mars provided by Cornell University’s Mars Rover Group, images of Saturn and Saturn’s ring by the Cassini Orbiter, paintings by Barbara Mink and an image of the Big Dipper by Dan Larkin.

Music will come alive on Friday, with the pianist Syau-Cheng Lai offering two solo concerts at Barnes Hall Auditorium at Cornell. At 3:30 p.m. she will perform J.S. Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” and at 5 p.m. she’ll present her take on another set of variations, Frederic Rzewski’s “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!” The latter is a set of 36 variations on a Chilean folk song.

Finally, Friday’s festivities will conclude with a collaboration between the Ithaca poet, essayist and naturalist Diane Ackerman and the Cayuga Vocal Ensemble called “A Midwinter Barbaric.” Beginning at 7:30 p.m. at the Statler Auditorium, Cornell, Ackerman will speak of ice and water in her trademark rich and evocative prose, urging us to live in the moment, to open our eyes and ears and noses and hearts to nature’s everyday miracles. The 16-member ensemble, led by Carl Johengen, will enrich the experience with winter-themed choral works by John Rutter and Brian Throckmorton. For tickets, please visit here.

(From the Tompkins Weekly, by Ross Haarstad, January 17, 2011. Reprinted with permission)

Barbara Mink, Light in Winter’s energetic and elegant Artistic Director, often compares the annual January festival of science and the arts to an extravagant banquet. Given the Scandinavian nature of Ithaca’s winter climate, perhaps a “smorgasbord” might be even more specific.

Mink’s suggested approach to LIW’s eighth annual edition, running this Thursday through Sunday, January 20–23, is to put together your own plate, with healthy helpings of what immediately appeals to you, and a taste or two of something far more exotic.

“Earl Grey, hot.” (Capt. Jean Luc Picard)

If Star Trek is your thing, you can beam up to two events: In “The Physics of Star Trek,” astrophysicist and author Lawrence Krauss explores the plausibility of scientific phenomena from the Star Trek universe, including warp speed, time travel, humanoid aliens and whether anyone in our universe will be “beamed up” by transporter anytime soon. (2:30 pm Sat, Statler).

For a more immersive adventure, families will love “Star Trek Live!” When Romulan forces from the future invade Earth, cadets at the new Starfleet Academy must defend the planet. Two onstage actors will recruit rookies from the audience, with one caveat: these rookies can only use 21st century science and technology to defeat the Romulans. (There will be help from a time-traveling Vulcan.)  Cutting-edge special effects, audience interaction and on-screen appearances from Captain Kirk and Spock are promised. (Sun, 4:30 pm, State Theatre.)

“Billions and billions.” (Carl Sagan)

Another great television legacy will be celebrated in “Cosmic Inspirations.” To celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Cosmos,” novelist and screenwriter Nick Sagan, son of the late renowned Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan, will share his thoughts on how that pioneering PBS series continues to inspire to this day, sparking scientific careers, and influencing a variety of creative projects.

One such project is “The Symphony of Science,” by musician and videographer John Boswell. According to Boswell, “the goal of the project is to bring scientific knowledge and philosophy to the public, in a novel way, through the medium of music.” Boswell now focuses on “re-mixing scientists” through a series of music videos starting with Carl Sagan in “A Glorious Dawn” (2009.) On Sunday he will perform a live collaboration with Nick Sagan. (Sun, 1:30 pm, Statler.)

“I turned it over, and gave an exclamation of surprise. There was a full-page picture of the most extraordinary creature that I had ever seen. It was the wild dream of an opium smoker, a vision of delirium.” (from “The Lost World” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Ithaca audiences always thrill to the work of the modern silent-film ensemble the Alloy Orchestra, who most recently played sold-out shows of “Metropolis” at Cornell Cinema in June and November. You can catch them twice this Saturday, venturing to a fictional world of dinosaurs in the remote jungles of Venezuela in Conan Doyle’s “The Lost World” (Sat, 10:30 am, Statler) and to the Antartic of 1914 in “South: Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition” (Sat, 4 pm, Statler). Museum of the Earth’s Warren Allmon will talk about how we go about imagining dinosaurs as part of “The Lost World” screening. “South” recounts the thrilling expedition by Shackleton to reach the South Pole with authentic footage.

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” (Galileo Gallilei)

Venture over to the Hangar Saturday evening to visit with Galieo’s Daughters and the music of the spheres. Sarah Pillow (soprano), Mary Anne Ballard (viola da gamba) and Ronn McFarlane (lute and theorbo) team up with best-selling author Dava Sobel (Galileo’s Daughter, Longitude) for a breathtaking multimedia tour of the heavens as Galileo and his peers saw them set to the music of his time, which was also in the midst of a seismic shift as the Renaissance gave way to the Baroque.  “Perpetual Motion: Revolutions in 17th Century Science and Music” takes the stage at 7:30 pm.

The intriguingly titled “A Midwinter Barbaric” unites another well-known author, Cornell’s Diane Ackerman, with yet another music group, Ithaca’s own Cayuga Vocal Ensemble, a 16-member chorus under the baton of Carl Johengen. They will offer winter-themed choral works by John Rutter and Brian Throckmorton as Ackerman “contemplates snow, ice and water in her trademark rich and evocative prose.” (Fri, 7:30 pm, Statler.)

“I can’t see! I can’t see!” “What’ wrong?” “I’ve got my eyes shut.” (Three Stooges)

You can volunteer to be blindfolded in two events: a tactile sculpture experience and a decadent four-course meal. The former is tactile artist Rosalyn Driscoll’s lecture/demo “Touching Sculpture” (Sun, 12 noon, Statler.) The adventurous should arrive at 11:30 am to be blindfolded for a pre-lecture tour. The latter is being promoted as “a sensory feast that celebrates ‘whole-body seeing.’” Host Dana Salisbury (darkdiningprojects.com) will offer a mystery menu, along with instrumental pairings including anything from Japanese flute to South Indian percussion. (Sun, 6:30 pm, Taverna Banfi at Statler.)

There’s much more on hand: stand up at the Museum of the Earth with science joker and Powerpoint humorist Tim Lee (Thur, 8 pm); the optical humor of photographer/cartoonist Flash Rosenberg in “Laughing at the Speed of Light” (Sat, 1 pm, Statler) and in a workshop on “Photo-Humor” (Sun, 10 am, Cornell Plantations); a lecture on “Building, Crashing, Thinking” by author Peter Galison (Sun, 4:30 pm, Statler); and an opening wine and cheese tasting called “Provocative Pairings.” (Thur, 6:30 pm, Museum of the Earth.)

All the above events charge admission, tickets are available at Ticket Center Ithaca (273-4497). But several free events are also being offered, including a Light in Winter Gallery Night, Friday from 5 to 7pm in downtown Ithaca; a writing workshop, “Celebrating Our Senses” with Irene Zahava (Fri, 3:30 pm, Owl Café above Autumn Leaves); J. S. Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” (1741) and Frederic Rzewski’s “The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (1975)” in back to back concerts by Syau-Cheng Lai (Fri, 3:30 & 5 pm, Barnes Hall); “A Closer Look”, detailed black-and-white images of seeds, pods and other plant structures taken by photographer Susan Larkin with Helicon Focus, a computer program that combines multiple images to increase the depth of field (Fri, 3:30 pm, Mann Library, Cornell); family events at the Museum of the Earth (Sun, 10 am to 12 noon); the hands-on science fair “Hall of Wonders” (Sun, 12–4 pm, Statler); and a festival panel, “How Our Senses Work” including live cartooning by Flash Rosenberg (Sun, 3 pm, Statler.)

For more information visit lightinwinter

Please Note: Dark Dining is Sold Out.

But there are many, many more events that still have tickets available.

For instance, A complimentary dessert tasting by Sarah’s Patisserie will accompany “Perpetual Motion: Revolutions in 17th Century Science and Music Reading and Musical Performance.” Author Dava Sobel weaves commentary by astronomers through a concert of the avant-garde music of Galileo’s time (7:30pm Saturday, Jan. 22, at The Hangar Theatre). Click here for tickets and info.

Catch up with Barbara Mink, founder and artistic director of Light in Winter as she is interviewed about the festival’s past, present  and future. As part of CornellCast, Mink explains how the festival celebrates collaborations, what art and science have in common, and how the festival didn’t wind up happing during the summer months.

The Light in Winter Festival uses the city and campuses of Ithaca as a backdrop for three days of creativity and exploration. Unique collaborations between scientists, musicians and artists create an unparalleled experience for participants and performers alike.

Experience the restaurant Taverna Banfi as you never have before with a four-course feast for the senses Sunday, Jan. 23 at 6:30 p.m. as part of the Light in Winter Festival. Dana Salisbury, a multi-disciplinary artist and creator/director of Dark Dining Projects will collaborate with Executive Chef Thomas Gisler to create what Salisbury calls a “celebration of non-visual perception.” Participants will don blindfolds and dine in velvety darkness. In between courses, a solo musician (according to Salisbury’s specifications unknown in advance) will help “get people out of language and the visual.” Gisler promised “a completely new experience,” and though the menu is a secret, he assured those familiar with the restaurant that the meal would feature a fresh take on Tuscan fare. With wine by Damiani Wine Cellars. Reservations are available by calling (607) 273-4497.

Join Light in Winter and boldly go where no one has gone before with Star Trek Live, an action-packed adventure landing at The State Theatre Sunday, Jan. 23 at 4:30 p.m. Audience members join the newly formed Starfleet Academy only to be unexpectedly whisked away into an exciting adventure steeped in the grand tradition of the Star Trek television and movie franchise. Cadets must use 21st century science and technology to defeat a Romulan invasion. This family-friendly show also features on-screen appearances from Captain Kirk and Spock. Tickets are $17.50 for adults, $12.50 for children.

RELATED: “The Physics of Star Trek.” Astrophysicist Lawrence Krauss examines aspects of the popular television series in light of whether they may ever come to pass; for Trekkies and non-Trekkies alike. (2:30 p.m. Saturday Jan. 22, at the Statler Auditorium, Cornell). Tickets are $10.

Tickets to Star Trek Live! and all other Light in Winter events are on sale at Ticket Center Ithaca, 171 The Commons – Next to 15 Steps, Open Monday – Saturday, 9:30 AM – 5:00 PM, (607) 273-4497, ithacaevents.com or lightinwinter.com.