2009 Festival Events

Cocktails and the Conductor

7:30pm-9:30pm Lost Dog Lounge, North Cayuga Street
Cayuga Chamber Orchestra

Cayuga Chamber Orchestra Music Director Lanfranco Marcelletti will lead a fun conversation about contemporary classical music. Music examples, including some from this year’s Light in Winter Festival, drinks, snacks and conversation will all be on the table.

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PUSH Dance Workshop

1:00pm–4:00pm Women's Community Building
Sponsored by Lila Olson

A three-hour workshop open to everyone, dancer or not, and variously abled, to create a piece that will be performed at the State Theatre Saturday night as part of the PUSH Physical Theatre/Thomas Warfield concert. read more »

Magical Writing

1:30pm-3:30pm Bookery II, Dewitt Mall
Sponsored by Bookery I and II

Magicians invite us to look beyond the rational world, to question the truth of what we see—or think we see. Participants will be encouraged to enter into the world of questions, from the mundane to the profound.
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Saving Appearances

1:30pm-3:30pm Community School of Music and Art, Studio 10 , 330 East State Street Sponsored by the Holiday Inn at Ithaca

Former Tompkins County Poet Laureate Paul Hamill leads a workshop on writing from observation, with emphasis on moments when memory is more accurate than the living eye. read more »

Memories of a Possible Future

4:30 to 5:30 First Presbyterian Church of Ithaca, North Cayuga Street
Made possible through funding from the Legacy Foundation

With Bruce Adolphe, the Daedalus Quartet. An exploration of memory, the future, inspired by Descartes Error.
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Light in Winter Gallery Night

5:00pm-7:00pm Tompkins County Public Library, Community School of Music and Art, State of the Art Gallery, Sola Gallery, Upstairs Gallery, The Inkshop
Sponsored by the Downtown Ithaca Alliance and Tompkins Weekly

Area Galleries host Light in Winter themed exhibits.

Sola Gallery  'Magic"

The Tompkins County Library will be featuring origami art pieces from the collection of Light in Winter performer Robert Lang.These almost unbelievable creations are each made from one uncut square of paper. Photos, crease patterns and more will be on display through the month of January!

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Jeff McBride's Magic at the Edge

7:30pm-10:00pm State Theatre, State Street
Sponsored by Tompkins Trust Company and Time Warner Cable

Jeff McBride is one of the world’s foremost illusionists. His performances combine disciplines from around the world, including pantomime, sleight of hand,
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Hall of Wonders

11:00am-4:00pm Statler Hall Atrium
Sponsored by CSP Management

Interactive displays of science, art, and the places where they meet.
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From Flapping Birds to Space Telescopes

11:00am-12:00pm Statler Auditorium, Cornell University
Sponsored by the Community Foundation's Schlather, Geldenhuys, Stumbar and Salk Fund

California physicist Robert J. Lang is one of the world’s leading masters of origami, the art of paper folding, and a pioneer in the cross-disciplinary marriage of origami with mathematics. read more »

Magic and the Mind

12:30pm-1:30-pm Statler classroom, Cornell University
Sponsored by the Hilton Garden Inn

Jeff McBride and Alex Stone

“Back in the Renaissance, magic and what we now call science were one and the same. Today we view the two disciplines as separate, but … I the laws of magic and the laws of physics are but two sides of the same coin." read more »

Trio for EEG Machines

2:00pm-3:00pm Statler Auditorium, Cornell University
Sponsored by Sprague and Janowsky Accountants

Music as brainwaves? Neurobiologist and composer David Sulzer/Soldier and a trio of musicians wearing EEG headbands, invite you to study the intricate mechanisms of the brain through real-time projection of their brainwaves as they play. read more »

Across the Great Divide

4:00pm-5:00pm Statler Hall classroom, Cornell University
Sponsored by Ithaca Bakery

Redshift Productions Founder Megan Halpern explores how art is created from the collaboration between pairs of scientists and artists. read more »

A Short History of Nearly Everything

4:00pm-5:00pm Statler Auditorium, Cornell University
Sponsored by David Kuckuk and Sheila Danko

Directed by Holly Adams.
Based on Bill Bryson’s bestseller, this 50-minute play exudes a funny, fast, bumbling race for knowledge. Einstein, Newton, Curie, and Darwin lead us through a little bit of everything to prove that science is really all about YOU! read more »

The Whys of Winetasting

5:30pm to 6:30pm Statler Hall Atrium
Sponsored by Bet the Farm and Taverna Banfi at The Statler Hotel 

Nancy Tisch will be our guide in an “educational” wine tasting; a perfect way to end the afternoon of Light in Winter programs. read more »

PUSHing the Limits

8:00-10:00pm State Theatre
Sponsored  by M & T Bank

Gravity-defying PUSH Physical Theatre PUSH has been called a cross between fine art sculpture and the hit movie “The Matrix.” In collaboration with Thomas Warfield, dancers from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology, read more »

The Future

9:30pm-1:30am Castaways (18+)
Sponsored by Castaways

Entrance yourself at a multi-media dance party featuring a collaboration between electronic composer Morgan Packard and motion graphic artist Joshue Ott. Joined by experimental techno duo Hemiptera and Ithaca’s own DJ Laika. read more »

Fungus Amongus

10:00am-12:00pm

Mann Library 2^nd Floor Gallery, Cornell University

We all encounter molds and mushrooms in our everyday lives, but we seldom notice them. Kids and adults can get up close and personal with the fungi that inhabit the human sphere. Compiled by David Kalb of the Cornell Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbiology. And don't miss "Beneath Notice", an exhibition of unique photographic images of miniature fungi captured by Kent Loeffler with a specialized borescope lens, which will be presented in the Mann Libraries 2nd Floor Gallery.

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Beneath Notice: Little Fungi for Good and Evil with Kathie Hodge

10:00am-11:00am

Mann Library, Cornell University

In a lecture-presentation intended for all audiences, Associate Professor of Mycology Kathie Hodge takes us on a multimedia adventure through the world of fungi. And don't miss "Beneath Notice", an exhibition of unique photographic images of miniature fungi captured by Kent Loeffler with a specialized borescope lens, which will be presented in the Mann Libraries 2nd Floor Gallery.


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Fun Family Activities at the Sciencenter

10:00am-12:00pm The Sciencenter

Join us for science fun for the whole family!

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Cartoon-a-Saurus with Richard Kissel

10:00am-12:00pm Museum of the Earth

Sharpen your pencils and learn how to draw cartoon dinosaurs from a professional paleontologist. From Tyrannosaurus to Triceratops, the gang’s all here! Led by vertebrate paleontologist Richard Kissel.

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Celebrating Caffeine

11:30-12:30 Statler Atrium
Sponsored by Ithaca Coffee Company

Enjoy your Sunday morning with neuroscientist Linda Nowak and a competitive barista Chris Ganger from Ithaca Coffee Company and see why coffee affects us the way it does; and how to appreciate the many facets of a good brew.
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In Search of King Solomon's Ring

1:00pm to 2:00pm Statler Auditorium, Cornell University
Sponsored by Carol Travis

You’ve heard of Alex, the African Grey Parrot who acquired the vocabulary of a two year-old child. Meet his human, Irene Pepperberg Irene Pepperberg as she presents her ground-breaking work with Alex, posing intriguing questions about animal communication and intelligence. read more »

Finding Utopia

1:00pm-4:00pm Johnson Art Museum, Cornell

Explore ideas of utopia and the future through the special exhibition
Picturing Eden, search the Museum for other artist’s visions, and make
your own inspired creation! read more »

Is God a Mathematician?

2:30pm to 3:30pm Statler Auditorium
Sponsored by Scott and Sue Hamilton

Mario Livio spans the fields of cosmology, logic, and cognitive science in  Is God a Mathematician. He offers an accessible and lively account of the lives and thoughts of some of the great mathematicians of history, from Archimedes to Gödel, on to the present day. read more »

The Music of the Spheres

4:30 to 6:00pm Bailey Hall, Cornell University
Sponsored by Chemung Canal Trust Company

Joseph Burns, award-winning composer Roberto Sierra and the Cornell Orchestra led by Chris Kim, and the Early Music Group Frogwork Consort team up to honor the Year of Astronomy, and specifically, the magnificent pictures of Saturn captured from the Cassini satellite.
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