Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 157

tsO pflpfTJ NYU ready to close Town Hall Aug 31 other tenant the Alvin Ailey Dance Company There is virtually no chance that the building would be sold or rased Von Raab said "Our main concern is for the New York University Club which has been there for more than 20 years" he said primarily a matter of shutting down the The expenses are for less than they would be elsewhere or if the university did not own the building Von Raab said there have been several nibbles by organizations and concert groups interested in taking over Town Hall "but nothing really significant at this time" He added "We intend not to do anything rash Town Hall was given to us as a community Reese said that what the auditorium needed to survive was "anyone with a viable board of directors who could develop sufficient funds' to keep things going as well as strong leadership ing the ball ranges from $50000 to $150000 a year Most of Town programs these days are in its 5:30 PM series aimed at after-work audiences plus occasional late-morning events and a few other presentations averaging about 15 a month In its hey dey Town Hall operated on a folly booked schedule The only major talent currently booked is singer Tinia Kazan for May 24 Hie decline of the once-popular hall scene of many important New York debuts has been attributed to the opening of Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall more than 10 years ago as well as the seamy character of the Times Square neighborhood Jesse Reese Town executive director said "I would prefer to see the auditorium retained as a concert hall It has a legacy in the Two upper stories of the Town Hall building are occupied by the New York University Club and an By Bill Kaufinan New York University bu set an Aug 31 deadline for the dosing of Town Hall the well known but financially hard-pressed landmark for the performing arts on West 43rd Street The 1500-eeat auditorium considered acoustically excellent has been atwiggling for its existence in recent years In a move to consolidate and concentrate more on its academic activities NYU said that it hopes to get out of operating the hall by Aug 31 because it is a severe financial and management drain on the school The vice president for administration William von Raab said NYU was waging "a responsible group whom we feel can maintain Town Hall suitably and who can take over foil responsibility for its operation" An NYU spokesman said the cost to the university for operat art vuEvwwLyrical expressions of serenity The larger of papers are conventionally rectangular in shape which makes them more readily perceived as landscapes But in' the smaller works Vaux employs the tondo shape And somehow in the' circular form the landscape notion is not quite as dear That is especially true of two small circular silk-screen prints Both are made from the same stencils but different color relationships give each a distinctive flavor Both have an Art Nouveau quality that stems from the sensuous rather decorative treatment of the trees and foilage But even in the smaller works such as "Benevolent Woods" and Vaux maintains that special elusive translucent ephemeral quality that I remember in her earlier show Like those earlier pictures these recent landscapes have a dream-like aspect But there is more too These es-sences of woods remind us of the delicacy of nature and in a way askus to cherish and respect and our forests and as Vaux herself says not obliterate them from our horizons for the sake of the 'American The show will remain at Gallery 63 East (130 Main St) through Feb 26 ii By Malcolm Preston The ever-endless ever-changing and subtle colon and shapes of unspoiled woodlands are what Sandra Benny Vaux paints But even though nature is her theme her work is a long way from being naturalistic More internally exprestive than externally realistic her visions of forests infiltrated by smoky lights are in a sense abstractions essences of Vaux own lyrical responses to trees light-struck foilage and that special serenity one finds deep in the woods In her current show on view at Gallery 63 East in Cold Spring Harbor Vaux shows a handsome group of mixed-media works Done on paper with a combination of graphite and thin oil washes the pictures are a continuation in style and substance of the work seen in her Adelphi University show several years ago Her color remains misty and sensuous and her forms are broad yet flowing In "Horizontal Woods With Slanted light the tone is a shimmering diffuse green which envelops the trees in airy lightness "Rose is shadowy but warm in feeling And while one easily recognizes the forest motif the landscape seems to dissolve in blurred sunlight and the fleeting pattern of tree trunks and leaves 'October Woods 197T by Sandra Benny VQux Japanese prints on view "I would like to scatter these prints before viewers as Shelley would have strewn his poems before the West wrote Abby Weed Grey for a catalog which will accompany an exhibition of 20 contemporary Japanese prints making a year-long tour of Nassau County public libraries The traveling show will be on display until Feb 26 at the Peninsula Public Library in Lawrence The selection of drawn from the Ben and Abby Grey Foundation Collection of Contemporary Asian and Middle Eastern is on loan from New York Grey Art Gal- lery and Study Center The exhibition includes color from still lifes and landscapes to abstracts which represent three decades of postwar Japanese printmaking "Contemporary Japanese will be at the Levittown Public Library in March at Elmont Public library in April at Henry Wal-dinger Memorial Library Valley Stream in May at Massapequa Public Library in June at East Meadow Public Library in July at Freeport Memorial Library in September at Hicksville Public Library in October at Jericho Public Library in November at Long" Beach Public Library in December and at Seaford Public Library in January.