A night in ‘Casablanca’

The Willard Straight Memorial Room becomes Rick's Café Américain for one night only Nov. 18, with a screening of “Casablanca” presented by Cornell Cinema.

The event begins at 7:15 p.m. with live piano music, complimentary sparkling beverages and sweet treats around the piano bar. Attendees can have pictures taken as Rick and Ilsa in a cut-out scene from the film, which starts at 7:40 p.m. Tickets are $5.50 each, $10 for a pair and available at the door.

Cornell Cinema is closed for lighting renovations in Willard Straight Theatre and expects to reopen in late January. The reopening date and the spring 2017 schedule will be announced in mid-January.

A crowdfunding campaign for the installation of 3-D digital projection equipment (for new Hollywood movies and a catalog of 3-D work from 1915 to now) is raising matching funds through Nov. 30 for a New York State Council on the Arts grant. To date the campaign has raised more than 60 percent of its $10,000 goal. Tax-deductible donations of any size are welcome.

Build a ramp

Learn how to design and build an access ramp compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act by building one yourself at a free workshop, Nov. 20 from noon to 4 p.m. at Building Community’s Traveling Tool Library, between Sibley and Tjaden halls.

The ramp building workshop is open to any skill level and includes tool safety training. Safety gear, tools and materials will be provided.

The Traveling Tool Library, a local, mobile tool-share program and resource for tools, materials and knowledge, is one of 12 projects in the Cornell Council for the Arts’ 2016 Biennial, Abject/Object Empathies. Building Community, founded at Cornell last fall, connects students, artisans, artists and tradespeople in building projects serving the community, and fosters a culture of craft and skill sharing. Email buildcommunity@cornell.edu for more information.

Free concerts

The Department of Music presents several free performances before the Thanksgiving break. All are open to the public.

The Cornell University Wind Symphony, Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall, will feature Latin American music in anticipation of a winter tour to Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Guest artist and acclaimed keyboardist Ilya Poletaev plays organ, harpsichord, fortepiano and piano in a concert Nov. 19 at 1 p.m. in Barnes Hall, featuring Book 2 of J. S. Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier” on all four instruments.

Ellen Zaslaw/Provided

Fortepianist Mike Cheng-Yu Lee, Ph.D. ’15, continues his series of performances of the complete Mozart piano sonatas, Nov. 21 in Barnes Hall.

The Cornell Symphony Orchestra, with guest soprano Jessica Rivera and guest poet Nilo Cruz, performs Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. in Bailey Hall. The concert includes a world premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s revised “La Centinela y la Paloma (The Keeper and the Dove)” and the final movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 6.

Guest guitarist Peter Bernstein joins the Cornell University Jazz Band for a Sunday afternoon concert Nov. 20 at 3 p.m. in Barnes Hall. Also, “Masterworks” features 17th-century European masterpieces performed by University Organist Annette Richards, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m. in Anabel Taylor Chapel.

Students from across the university will compete in the 13th annual Cornell Concerto Competition finals, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall.

Ariana Kim’s violin students give a recital Monday, Nov. 21, at 5:30 p.m. at the Carriage House Café on Stewart Avenue; and fortepianist Mike Cheng-Yu Lee, Ph.D. ’15, presents the second in his five-part series of the complete Mozart piano sonatas Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. in Barnes Hall.

Town-Gown Awards

The Cornell Office of Community Relations hosts the 6th annual Town-Gown Awards (TOGOs), celebrating the best of town-gown cooperation, Nov. 19 from 9 to 11 a.m. at Ithaca High School’s Kulp Auditorium. The event is free, informal and open to the public.

This year’s TOGOs will spotlight five town-gown partnerships and salute several local leaders who are leaving high-profile posts after careers dedicated to the community. The event features remarks from Interim President Hunter Rawlings and a holiday food drive led by Cornell students. Attendees are asked to bring a donation of canned or other nonperishable food items for local organizations.

Partnerships receiving recognition are the Hospitality Employment Training Program, Cornell Dining and the Statler Hotel; Cayuga Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medicine; Ecovillage, Engaged Cornell, the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and the Department of Communication; the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes and the Public Service Center’s Translator Interpreter Program; and The Downtown Ithaca Alliance and Cornell downtown interests.

The awards also will honor community leaders Jennifer Engel of the Ithaca Public Education Initiative, Steve Griffin of Foodnet/Meals on Wheels, Dammi Herath of the Women’s Opportunity Center, Tompkins County legislator Nathan Shinagawa ’05, MHA ’09; Shortstop Deli owners Albert and Cindy Smith, Cayuga Heights Mayor Kate Supron, Charlie Trautmann of the Ithaca Sciencenter, Tompkins-Cortland Community College Dean of Student Life Amy Trueman and former Tompkins County District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson.

Cornell Woodwind Quintet

The Cornell Woodwind Quintet, formed earlier this semester by five visiting lecturers in the Department of Music, will perform Nov. 28 at 8 p.m. in Barnes Hall auditorium. The concert is free and open to the public.

The quintet is flutist Elizabeth Shuhan, oboist Emily DiAngelo, clarinetist Lenora Schneller, bassoonist Daniel Hane and horn player Ilze Brink-Button.

The concert program features works by four French composers (and one Dane, Carl Nielsen), with Adrien Barthe’s “Passacaille,” Jacques Ibert’s “Trois Pieces Breves,” Darius Milhaud’s “La cheminee du roi Rene,” a wind quintet by Nielsen and a suite by Charles-Edouard Lefebvre.

Art and disability panel

The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art will host a panel discussion on art and disability, Thursday, Dec. 1, at 5:15 p.m.

The open dialogue will be led by Leah Sweet, the museum’s Mellon coordinator for academic programs, and include Allison Weiner Heinemann, visiting lecturer in the ILR School’s Department of Labor Relations, Law and History, and members of the Cornell Union for Disability Awareness.

The museum will be open until 7:30 p.m. Contemporary Conversations is a free ongoing series examining focused topics and current issues using selected works of art from the museum’s collection.

Costume collection centennial

The Department of Fiber Science & Apparel Design (FSAD) celebrates the Cornell Costume and Textile Collection’s centennial, and the legacy of its founder, with “100 Years of Fashion Studies: Beulah Blackmore and the Cornell Costume & Textile Collection,” through Dec. 3 in the Human Ecology Building’s Terrace (Level T) gallery.

Seeing clothing and textiles as expressions of culture and as an accessible art form, Blackmore began collecting examples of historical, contemporary and ethnographic dress in 1916 – the starting point of the Cornell Costume and Textile Collection, which now includes more than 10,000 garments, textiles and accessories. She led the Department of Textiles and Clothing from 1925 until her retirement in 1951.

The exhibition is open to the public daily. It was curated by Denise Green, assistant professor in FSAD and director of the costume and textile collection, with support from the Cornell Council for the Arts.