By Tracy Zwick

While we focus on Upper West Side events in this column, we also recognize that Upper West Siders are everywhere and they don’t hesitate to venture beyond the neighborhood to create and enjoy great shows, events, food, culture, and conversation. This column shares that spirit, including our first entry today, which lies a bit outside our geographical confines, but has a big UWS connection and is worth a short subway or bus ride. Maybe even a transfer.

Let’s Weekend!

October 18 to 21, 2024

Walton Ford: Birds and Beasts of the Studio at the Morgan Library & Museum: 225 Madison Avenue (37th Street), 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, with extended hours (until 7:00 p.m.) on Fridays; Tickets $25 for adults, $17 for seniors, $13 for students; children under 12 are free

The Morgan’s not on the UWS, but it’s easy to get to via public transit, and it has a new UWS connection. Claire Gilman, the recently installed Acquavella Curator and Department Head, Modern and Contemporary Drawings, is a longtime UWSer. Gilman had been chief curator at the magnificent Drawing Center in SoHo, where she spent 14 years. This is the final weekend of a splendid show of more than 60 works given by artist Walton Ford to the Morgan. Ford is a painter of large scale watercolors of animals, and his menagerie at the Morgan closes Sunday. It includes lions, a black panther, foxes, a parakeet, deer, and more. Ford chose works by other artists from the Morgan’s vault to hang alongside his own. They include Gustave Doré’s drawing of a lion, and works by Rembrandt and Delacroix. A favorite of mine is a study of lions by Rosa Bonheur, one of the 19th century’s great painters of animals and more. Audubon’s study of squirrels will look familiar to denizens of Riverside or Central Park.

Fall Block Party & Flea Market at West 104th Street Community Garden: West 104th Street Community Garden between Central Park West and Manhattan Ave., Saturday from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. with flea market continuing on Sunday from 11:00 to 5:00 p.m.

A flea market, plant sale, animal adoption clinic, and food will be on offer at this community event aimed at raising money for a new greenhouse. There’ll also be pumpkin painting and music, which is what I’m going for. Our longtime dog-walker and fairy dogmother to our family’s beloved pooches, Dee Greenwood, is part of a wonderful community music group, the Ukaladies, a subgroup of the SoHarmoniums choral group, and they’ll be performing around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Community gardens, community music, and community unity. Come on out! 

Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies: Triad Theater, 158 West 72nd Street, tickets $40; see website for dates and availability

This 70-minute one-woman show stars Jessica Sherr, an award-winning actor, writer and producer, as Bette Davis, and audiences are invited to watch as she fights her way up the studio system to reach the pinnacle of her profession. Drama Desk Award-winning director Karen Carpenter is at the helm of this show that was a sellout at the New York Fringe Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A friend of mine recommended this so highly to me last spring that I’ve been trying to find a time to check it out for months. If you’ve seen it, add your comments below, but no spoilers please!

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