Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – George Graham of Oakfield holds a stone sculpture he made called the “English Rose” that is featured at the Marti’s on Main art gallery. Graham’s piece is made from Indiana limestone. Behind him on mantel are two more of his sculptures: “Floppy Disk” made of alabaster and “Mobius II” made from Pink Wonderstone.

Graham and Richard Bannister will be featured sculptors at Marti’s which kicked off a new season of art shows on Friday. The gallery at 20 South Main St. also is having an open house today from noon to 4 p.m.

Kim Martillotta Muscarella, the gallery’s owner, has an expanded lineup of shows this year, up from six last year to eight in 2026. This is Marti’s 16th season of doing art shows in Albion.

These paintings were created by Dr. Athena Nichols, an Albion High School art teachers. Marti’s is displaying artwork by Nichols and five of her students – Hanna Kumulac, Aubrey Gannon, Nerik Santiago Franco, Lindsay Crawford and Mickhale Meyer-Lane.

The schedule and the opening celebations on the third Friday each month include:

• April 17 – Albion High School Seniors Show and Tony Barry
• May 15 – Becky Winans, Cindy Meal and Mark Weld
• June 19 – Arthur Barnes, Marco Rodrigues, David Burke and Rosie Patronski
• July 17 – Kim Martillotta, Richard Della Costa, Nancy Radzik and Rebecca-Berry Kent
• Aug. 21 – Jan Kisiel, Jenna Papponetti, Paul Facklam and Sharon Stewart
• Sept. 18 – Jennifer Hecker, Jeff Watkins, Jill Gussow and Rosanne Mascari
• Oct. 16 – Sam Roskowski and Susan Cameron-Duffy
• Nov. 20 – Shirley Nigro, Elizabeth Cooper, Paul Martin and Geoff Harding

For more information on the gallery, call Martillotta at 585-590-9211.

Artwork by Hanna Kumulac

Photography by Mickhale Meyer-Lane

Artwork by Aubrey Gannon

Kermit and giraffe artwork by Lindsay Crawford and artwork at right by Aubrey Gannon

‘Madam George’ expected to be entered in film festivals

Photos by Tom Rivers

ALBION – Maja Korsika, a filmmaker and student at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, is shown in the Pratt theater in downtown Albion on Saturday. Korsika is the writer and director of a short film, Madam George, which she described as an absurdist comedy.

Korsika and a team of about 20-25 people will be spending four days in Albion working on the 12-minute film.

Korsika was looking up photos of the Pratt Center in New York City when she came across photo of the Pratt theater in Albion on the internet. Those photos by Walter Jakubowski showed the opera house in Albion as an authentic theater from about a century ago.

Crew members getting ready to shoot a scene inside the Pratt Theater on Saturday. The crew arrived in Albion about 2 a.m. Saturday and will be busy making the film this weekend.

The Pratt Opera House was built in 1882 by a local farmer, John Pratt. The Pratt was largely unused after 1930, until Michael Bonafede and his wife Judith Koehler worked to save the site over the past 20 years at 114-120 North Main St.

When Korsika saw the photos online of the Pratt Theater, she went to the Pratt website and contacted Bonafede to ask if she could see the theater. She and two others from her team drove from New York City in early March and toured the opera house.

She was convinced the Pratt would be an ideal backdrop for her film.

“I like the rawness of the this theater,” she said. “There is so much imperfection that makes it so cinematic.”

The brick walls and wooden floors are better than a sterile “black box” studio for making the film, she said.

The Pratt stage needed to be cleared out to accommodate the filmmakers. Bonafede had drums and percussion equipment on the stage from concerts in 2024, as well as historic wall hangings and amplifiers. He was able to mobilize a group to move all of those items last week.

He is hopeful the film will allow more people to see the Pratt theater and Albion, which has many historic resources besides an authentic opera house. Albion is home to five districts on the National Register of Historic Places – Courthouse Square, downtown Albion, Mount Albion Cemetery, the Cobblestone Museum and Erie Canal.

“This will shine a good light on the community,” Bonafede said about the film.

Korsika said she and her team will do the coloring and sound design after the filming in Albion. She plans to enter “Madam George” in film festivals with a premiere in late summer or early fall.

Korsika is thankful for the accommodations and hospitality of the Bonafede family and the Albion community.

Photos courtesy of Taylor McCabe

In one scene on Saturday, West Bank Street needed to be closed briefly to traffic. The Albion Police Department was able to block off the street for about 20 minutes beginning around 10:30 a.m.

The group is shown with dancers in the GAR room, which used as a gathering place of Civil war veterans from 1884 to 1930. The GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) room is on the third floor of the Day and Day building next to the Pratt.

The film crew is expected to shoot scenes today at the Pratt and on Beaver Alley.

Photo by Tim McMurray

ALBION – It was a big haul of trash today with 342.5 pounds picked up along the railroad tracks in Albion. That is a new record high since the Albion Rotary Club and Rotary Interact started the annual cleanup in 2021. This year students from the Albion National Junior Honor Society joined the effort and helped set the new record, eclipsing the 307 pounds from last year.

Photos by Tom Rivers

The trash was picked up as part of the Erie Canal Cleanup efforts around the county and state today.

Three high school students – Gideon Pask, Nisi Beltran Roblero and Julia Graham – are picking up garbage near the railroad tracks close to West Academy Street.

The volunteers filled about 25 big trash bags in area just east of Platt Street going along the railroad tracks to West Academy Street.

Rotary Club members Mike Schmackpheffer and Sandra Walter work on an area east of Platt Street.

Tim Archer, the Interact Club advisor, teams with students Ayme Vallejo-Morales and Cordelia Rivers in getting trash along the tracks.

Albion mayor Tim McMurray helped haul about 25 bags of garbage to the drop area by Tinsel/The Lockstone where it will be picked up by Canal Corp. workers.

Photo by Tom Rivers: Gregory Hallock, executive director of the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council, presents a “Lifetime Achievement” award to Lynne Menz on Friday at GO Art! in Batavia. Menz received the award for her many years of working on arts and cultural events in Orleans County.

BATAVIA – The Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council has recognized an organization and a long-time community member for their efforts to add cultural programs to Orleans County.

GO Art! each year presents Genean awards to people and organizations that are committed to cultural life in Genesee and Orleans counties. The awards were presented on March 28, but Lynne Menz, the Lifetime Achievement winner from Orleans County, was unable to attend the program that evening.

On Friday, when GO Art! was announcing its grants to cultural programs for 2026 in Orleans County, Menz also was presented with her Genean Award.

Menz, a Point Breeze resident, worked for many years with the Orleans County Tourism Department, and has been a very active volunteer with the Oak Orchard Neighborhood Association, Friends of the Orleans County Marine Park, Oak Orchard Lighthouse Association and Medina Sandstone Society.

Menz helped her father, the late Bill Menz, raise community support for a bronze statue of a soldier outside the YMCA in Medina, which formerly was used as the Medina Armory to train soldiers.

She is doesn’t with her projects. She is leading the Friends of Orleans County Marine Park in hosting a popup and jam on Sept. 12, a marketplace at the park on Route 98 with vendors and music.

There will also be a new fisherman selfie sign at the park for anglers to pose with fish.

Provided photo: Jodi Fisher, program director for GO ART!, presents the “Organization of the Year” award to the Greater Albion Community Recreation and Events Inc., a not-for-profit organization. This award was presented on March 28 to G-ACRE leaders, including Ron Albertson, center, and John Grillo, Albion’s recreation director for the past 50 years.

G-ACRE runs the annual Rock the Park – Albion Summer Music Festival, featuring bands and performers all day in an August celebration.

G-ACRE also has been a fundraising arm for recent improvements at Bullard Park, including new basketball and pickleball courts, a spray park, pavilion, disc golf course and other improvements.

The full list of Genean Awards includes:

• Lifetime Achievement in Orleans County: Lynne Menz
• Lifetime Achievement in Genesee County: Maryanne Arena
• Supporter (of the Cultural Sector) of the Year: Raeann Engler
• Individual Artist of the Year: Bill Schutt
• Honorable Mention: Lily Renz
• Organization of the Year: Greater Albion Community Recreation & Events, Inc. (G-ACRE)
• Volunteer of the Year: Andrea Hofmaster