Linda Mary Montano. Chicken Dance, The Streets of San Francisco, March 3, 6, 9, 1973 (still); performance, in front of Reese Palley Gallery, 550 Sutter Street, San Francisco. (Mitchell Payne)
Known among other things for her multiyear “endurance art” pieces, for her Sacred Sex workshops with Annie Sprinkle and Barbara Carrellas, for founding the Art/Life Institute in Kingston, for having spent two years as a nun and for fascination with the subjects of chickens and death, internationally renowned performance artist Linda Mary Montano regularly returns to her birthplace, Saugerties, for an audience-participation event. At the 2018 Shout Out Saugerties festival, she performed The Psalms R Us in the Reformed Church; last fall, she led a Laugh-Cryathon at the Saugerties Library.
Montano will be back on Saturday, January 25, with another Interactive Laugh-Cry event, titled Art/Life/Death and described as a 78th-BirthdayArama. Dedicated to nursing home Certified Nursing Assistants and curated by Jennifer Hicks, it will be hosted by the 11 Jane Street Art Center/Gallery. On the program, besides some guided/spontaneous group creativity, are two film premieres: one about cremations in Benares, India, and the other about Saugerties’ Father Harty Drum Corps; an invocation of Angel Blessings by “guest preacher” Reverend Lynda Carré; Desmond Conrad-Ferm leading the Chicken Dance; and a question-and-answer session. The birthday-party part involves an invitation for anyone so moved to bring along “a very very very Creative Art Cake for our viewing pleasure and mutual celebration.”
Admission is by a $10 suggested donation. To purchase tickets, visit https://bit.ly/2tvN2mC.
Linda Mary Montano’s Interactive Laugh-Cry Art/Life/Death 78th BirthdayArama, Saturday, Jan. 25, 7-8:30 p.m., $10 donation, 11 Jane Street Art Center, 11 Jane St., Saugerties, www.11janestreet.com
