Gallery director retiring to Santa Fe
JOYCE RUDOLPH
Jill Conner is retiring as gallery director at Brand Library Art
Galleries, a post she has had since August 1996. She has been
managing both the gallery and library for the past two years. Her
last day is Saturday.
The Alhambra resident is moving to Santa Fe, N.M., and plans to
explore opportunities in the art field there, she said.
“I have friends there and have been visiting for three years,” she
said. “It’s an art colony and I feel very much at home there.”
At Brand, Conner began an “artists talk” program so the public
could meet and talk to the artists about their creative processes.
Conner is one of the most creative and imaginative gallery
directors Brand Galleries have had, said her supervisor Carolyn
Flemming, one of the library administrators.
“She has been responsible for bringing children into the gallery
for the first time ever and for making the exhibits more exciting,
different and thought provoking,” she said.
A goodbye party for Conner is planned from 3 to 4 p.m. Saturday at
Brand Art Galleries, before the 4 p.m. artist talk and 5 to 7 p.m.
reception heralding the new exhibits by Carolyn Applegate and J.J.
L’Heureaux. Brand Library is at 1601 W. Mountain St., Glendale.
Conner’s replacement has not been hired, Flemming said. The senior
library supervisor for Brand Library will be hired first, and that
person should be in place hopefully by the end of March, she said.
*
Rick Besoyan’s “Little Mary Sunshine” is the next concert staged
reading that will be performed by the Musical Theatre Guild at 7:30
p.m. Monday at the Alex Theatre.
Billed as an operetta spoof, the play is set at a Colorado Inn,
and follows the romance of Capt. Big Jim of the forest rangers and
the title character, Mary Potts, who owns the inn. The original 1959
off-Broadway production played at the Orpheum Theatre in New York for
1,143 performances over a three-year period.
Starring in the title role in the Glendale production is Broadway
veteran Teri Bibb, who performed in “Phantom of the Opera” and “She
Loves Me.”
What makes this event special is that Elmarie Wendel, who played
Nancy Twinkle in the original off-Broadway production, will attend
the show, we learned from Kevin McMahon, an executive committee
member. Wendel’s most recent credit is playing the neighbor in the TV
show “3rd Rock from the Sun.”
Instead of a live orchestra, the musical accompaniment will be two
grand pianos set on the stage and played by the show’s musical
director Tom Griep and guest musician Dean Mora. Five Star Music in
Glendale is providing the pianos.
Tickets are $35 and can be reserved by calling 243-2539. The Alex
is at 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale.
*
Applications are being accepted for two music scholarships that
will be awarded by the Women’s Committee of the Glendale Symphony
Orchestra in the spring.
The first is the Women’s Committee Encouragement Award of $400 for
a musician 17 and younger who is a Glendale resident and plays one of
the standard orchestral instruments (strings, brass, winds).
Applications must be received by March 5. For more information,
call 662-0294.
The other award is the Nellie Morris Terry and Francis Paul Morris
Vocal Scholarship, which will be $1,550 this year, for a singer
between the ages of 18 and 30, and not limited to students living in
Glendale.
Applications must be received by March 12. For more information,
call 248-0874.
Both winners will be presented in recital at the Brand Library the
evening of May 14.
* JOYCE RUDOLPH’s column appears Wednesdays. For events happening
this weekend, read her 48 Hours column Saturdays. Reach her at
637-3241.