NEW YORK -- The year got off to a furious start for Cornellians in the Big Apple. Events relating to art, music, theater and work were just a few of the offerings during January.

Making winter break work

Undergraduate and graduate students explored the world of work in New York City during the month. Dozens of undergraduates took advantage of Cornell's vast alumni network in the city through Cornell Career Services' winter extern program. Students shadowed alumni for periods from a day to a week at such workplaces as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The New York Times and Elle Magazine, Jan. 2 to 21.

On Jan. 19, more than 20 students in the Master's of Financial Engineering program traveled to Cornell's Operations Research-Manhattan in the Financial District to spend the day interviewing for internships with such firms as JPMorgan Chase, Bloomberg and Citigroup; they spent the evening socializing with representatives of these and other leading Wall Street firms.

Singing their hearts out

The Hangovers, the Cornell Glee Club spin-off, performed a cappella magic for Glee Club and Cornell Chorus alumni and fans at a bash at the Cornell Club on Jan. 13. The following evening, the Glee Club performed at Christ Church United Methodist, Park Avenue and 60th St. Glee Club alumni chimed in for many of the songs.

AAP shows off its new home

Surrounded by the smooth sounds of live jazz, Mohsen Mostafavi, dean of Cornell's College of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP), welcomed trustees and friends on Jan. 19 to AAP's new city home in the second-floor loft of 50 W. 17th St. While colorful images were projected onto white walls, wait staff dressed in black offered champagne and artfully displayed edibles. The loft, located in the Flatiron area, is ideal for artists, architects and planners. Design firms, art schools and venerable New York City buildings are packed tightly into this legendary city neighborhood. (See detailed story at http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan06/AAP.NYC.bldg..html.)

Tour of the 52nd Annual Winter Antiques Show

For the 14th year in a row, Frank Robinson, the Richard J. Schwartz Director of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, gave a tour for alumni on the opening day of the Annual Winter Antiques Show at the Seventh Regiment Armory on Jan. 20. Standing below the 1654 Rembrandt etching, "The Circumcision in the Stable," Robinson described why the stable setting in the etching is considered unique. Previous representations have depicted the circumcision ceremony taking place in temples, he said. He pointed to subtle markings on the print, which, he said, indicate its authenticity. Alumni Stefanie Tashkovich, Karen and Meyer Gross and Margaret Bernstein peppered Robinson with questions and poked in and out of the 74 dealer booths at this year's 52nd show.

Therapy and theater

Sex therapist Dr. Barbara Bartlik, assistant professor of psychiatry in obstetrics and gynecology at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC), and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lucinda Franks hosted an evening at the Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre on Jan. 25. George Bernard Shaw's "Candida" was being performed as a fund-raiser for women's sexuality research and education at WCMC. After the performance, Bartlik and Franks hosted a discussion with the cast and members of the International Shaw Society. Shaw's 1898 play, which tells the story of a woman forced to choose between the practical and the passionate, satirizes and challenges traditional relationships between the sexes in a remarkably contemporary way.

Brenda Tobias '97 is director of Cornell-New York City relations. The CU in the City column appears monthly. To suggest an item for coverage, e-mail Tobias at NYC@cornell.edu.