7 things to do this week in the Finger Lakes

Mike Murphy, MPNnow
·4 min read

HOPEWELL, NY - Retired Finger Lakes Community College humanities professor Barbara Murphy made a promise to her nephew and photographer Joe Ripperger.

Murphy and Ripperger began talking about a collaboration in early 2019 – his photos, her ekphrastic poetry, which is poetry inspired by works of art. Ripperger, who had bipolar disorder, died by suicide in June.

The “Keeping a Promise” exhibit, which opens March 2 at the Williams-Insalaco Gallery 34 on the FLCC campus, comes about from the collaboration.

Retired Finger Lakes Community College humanities professor Barbara Murphy will give a special talk at a photo exhibition featuring her late nephew's photographs.
Retired Finger Lakes Community College humanities professor Barbara Murphy will give a special talk at a photo exhibition featuring her late nephew's photographs.

“I wrote Joe's eulogy and began to write poems about the experience of losing him,” Murphy said. “I asked his father for Joe's hard drive and started working on the ekphrastic poems, obviously without Joe, but it seemed important to finish what we had started. I was amazed at the number and beauty of the photos.”

The exhibit was first staged last year at the Mental Health Association of Rochester’s office and then at the Joy Gallery in Rochester before coming to FLCC. Read on for more details of the opening.

And that’s not all to do this week:

Fierce Determination: Moving Forward with Grace and Dignity

Visitors enjoy the collection of African American portraits of Connie Fredericks-Malone and her husband, James Malone. The exhibit runs through February at Wood Library in Canandaigua.
Visitors enjoy the collection of African American portraits of Connie Fredericks-Malone and her husband, James Malone. The exhibit runs through February at Wood Library in Canandaigua.

Your last chances to see this Black History Month portrait exhibit at Wood Library are Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 27 and Feb. 28. All this month, Connie Fredericks-Malone and Jim Malone, with help from the Ontario County Historical Society, have displayed their personal collection of African American portraits ranging from the late 1900s to the present day. Wood Library is at 134 N. Main St., Canandaigua.

Learn how to tie flies

For the first time in three years, the Canandaigua Lake chapter of Trout Unlimited is holding its Fly Tying School. Classes are 6 to 7:45 p.m. and start Wednesday, March 1, and continue every Wednesday through the month at Victor Public Library, 15 W. Main St., Victor. For details, visit www.victorfarmingtonlibrary.org and to register for this and other programs.

Author Janice P. Nimura gives online talk through FLCC

Nimura
Nimura

Janice P. Nimura, whose book “The Doctors Blackwell” was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize, will give an online talk from 12:45 to 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 2, which will be hosted by Finger Lakes Community College. A link to the presentation is available at events.flcc.edu. It will also be broadcast live on Finger Lakes Television (Spectrum cable channel 1304, Roku, and fingerlakestv.org).

Keeping a Promise

This image is by the late photographer Joe Ripperger. An exhibit featuring his works and poems by his aunt, Barbara Murphy, is scheduled March 2 at Williams-Insalaco Gallery 34 at Finger Lakes Community College.
This image is by the late photographer Joe Ripperger. An exhibit featuring his works and poems by his aunt, Barbara Murphy, is scheduled March 2 at Williams-Insalaco Gallery 34 at Finger Lakes Community College.

This exhibit features photographs by the late Joe Ripperger with poems by his aunt, retired FLCC humanities professor Barbara Murphy, who will give a talk from 2 to 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 2, at the Williams-Insalaco Gallery 34 at Finger Lakes Community College, 3325 Marvin Sands Drive. Murphy will then welcome guests at an opening reception from 4 to 6:30 p.m. The exhibit runs through April 7.

Car seat checks

You’ll want to make sure you do this parenting thing right, so let the Victor Fire Department help. Car seat checks will be done from 9 a.m. to noon Friday, March 3, at Victor Fire Department, 34 Maple Ave., Victor. The public event concludes a week of hands-on and classroom training for participants to earn national Child Passenger Safety Technician (CPST) certification.

Welcome the 'Storm' to Clifton Springs

A new exhibition will open at Main Street Arts in Clifton Springs on Saturday, March 4, with an opening reception planned from 3 to 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. "Storm" is a group invitational exhibition highlighting the work of nine artists working in painting, drawing, collage, ceramics, digital, and fiber works and includes the work of: Faithanne Flesher, Ed Green, Angela Guest, Anne McCune, Joseph Paladino, Regina Quinn, Shu Tu, Joe Ziolkowski, and Stefan Zoller. A call for artwork was put out through the Main Street Arts website for art that was inspired by the title of the exhibition, and this is the result.

Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Workshop

This special program will help visitors learn more about the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid, from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, March 5, at the Cumming Nature Center, 6472 Gulick Road, Naples. Matt Gallo, terrestrial invasive species coordinator for the Finger Lakes PRISM, will be the key speaker. A winter walk through the hemlock stands at Cumming Nature Center to field survey for the pest also is planned. For more information, visit www.canandaigualakeassoc.org/education-outreach/hemlock-woolly-adlegid.

This article originally appeared on MPNnow: 7 things to do this week in the Canandaigua area