C. Ryder Cooley performs Animalia at MCLA

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Wednesday, November 18, at 7:30 p.m. at MCLA’s Church Street Center. (Ryder Cooley, photo by J. Craig Thompkins)
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. - Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts presents Animalia: Stories of Collapse, Calamity and Departure, a lyrical fairytale by C. Ryder Cooley with Todd Chandler, Anna Jacobs and special guests, Wednesday, November 18, at 7:30 p.m. at MCLA’s Church Street Center. Ryder, a performance-installation artist, brings Animalia to North Adams as part of the MCLA Presents! series.

Animalia combines music on singing saw, accordion, banjo, and bass with theatrical movement. Performed within a landscape of mesmerizing video and archival film, the work invokes visions of secret bee societies and haunted circus scenes.

This feature length, multi-media performance offers metaphors of flight as departure points from environmental collapse and the hallucinatory effects of war.

By appropriating the masculine power symbol of the buck rack and reinserting it onto feminine characters, the narrative blurs the divisions between masculine/feminine identity and human/animal forms. Ryder’s work can also be seen at the current exhibition in MCLA Gallery 51, Nest.

MCLA Art Professor Melanie Mowinski, the curator of the show at MCLA Gallery 51, approached Ryder about working with students, exploring both her visual as well as her performance work.

“It seemed a natural fit to co-present her performance work as part of MCLA Presents!,” said Jonathan Secor, director of special programs at MCLA. “She literally spent a week building a ‘nest’ here at the gallery, inhabited by her work. Now I can't wait to see the world she builds in the Church Street Center on Wednesday.”

Dedicated to presenting work in unique and site-specific settings, Ryder has participated in a wide range of public works, educational projects, and international shows.

Named Best Performance Artist by residents of New York’s Capital District in 2006 and 2007, selected works have been performed and installed at White Box and Exit Art galleries in New York City, Yerba Buena and Theater Artaud in San Francisco, and Proctors Mainstage Theater in Schenectady, NY, among other sites.

Ryder, a resident of Troy, NY, received a master’s of fine arts degree in integrated electronic arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2008 and a bachelor’s of fine arts degree in sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design in 1993.

Animalia also features Todd Chandler, who worked with Ryder on a series of musical collaborations called Fall Harbor. In 2008 they produced a CD, Songs from Fall Harbor.

Todd is an inter-disciplinary artist, musician and creator of impressionistic and introspective journey-oriented films and issue-driven documentaries.

Anna Jacobs is a Brooklyn-based circus artist and performer. She has performed with LAVA and Wise Fool Circus.

Animalia was developed as part at the Byrd-Hoffman Watermill Center with the support of NYFA, The MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. Tickets are $12, $8 for MCLA alumni, $5 for MCLA faculty and staff and non-MCLA students, and free for MCLA students. For reservations call (413) 662-5204.

MCLA Presents! is a program of MCLA’s Berkshire Cultural Resource Center. For more information about C. Ryder Cooley email rydercooley@yahoo.com or visit www.carolynrydercooley.com.
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Companion Corner Grey Boy at No Paws Left Behind

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — There's a cat No Paws Left Behind still waiting for his forever home.

iBerkshire's Companion Corner is a weekly series spotlighting an animal in our local shelters that is ready to find a home. He was previously highlighted but he now has new information.

Grey Boy is 10 years old and is a gray and white domestic shorthair and was previously highlighted on Companion Corner.

The shelter's Executive Director Noelle Howland introduced us to him and his long journey to be ready for adoption.

"He's been here a couple months. He was a transfer from a rescue in Bennington. They were out of space, so we had taken him in with a few other cats. So he's been here a couple months. He came in with what we believed was a respiratory infection," she said. "So it took us a little bit to get him ready, and then he also needed a dental. So he has nice, clean teeth. He had some teeth removed, and then he has to go back in and have one more dental. So he'll be all ready to go."

It was previously thought that he has feline herpes but he was recently diagnosed with a palette fracture because of how bad his dental disease was, which is what is causing his sneezing. He can now go home with cats, a cat-savvy dog and children.

"He has had two dentals since being with us. Due to the palate fracture he will be sneezy for the rest of his life, not contagious sneezing, but that doesn’t stop him from living a perfectly happy life. He should be on wet food with chunks due to this and since he has had many teeth removed," Howland said.

Grey Boy loves to play with toys and enjoy treats. He would also love to have a window to lounge or bird-watch in.

"He is not afraid of anything. He's very curious, so I'm sure he'd love if you have windows for him to look out of. He still plays, even though he's 10 it does not stop him. So any home would be a good fit for him."

Now that he is ready to be adopted, he is excited. When you walk into the room with him he will rub up against your leg introducing himself and asking to be pet.

"Usually, I would say, when you're walking, he'll bonk into you so he might catch you off guard a little bit. He constantly is rubbing against you," Howland said. "He really, I would say he's lazy when you want him to be, and he's active when you want him to be. He'll play with toys. He's usually lounging away. And then when he comes out he'll play. He loves it. So, very friendly, easy going cat."

He is now perfectly healthy with his dentals all done and veterinary care up to date and is ready to find his forever family.

"I would say the friendliest, easiest cat you could have. He's just, he's just gonna be a little sneezy sometimes, but that doesn't stop him from doing anything," she said.

Grey Boy's adoption fee is sponsored by Rooted in Balance Counseling LLC.

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