Press Releases 2006

Festa Press Conference

MILLVILLE, NJ – Have you ever seen a living chess match? It’s one in which the pieces, from pawn to queen, are portrayed by humans moving and capturing opponents on a chessboard the size of a squash court. And it’s one of the highlights of the Festa dell’ Arte weekend, September 15-17, presented by the Down Jersey Folklife Center at WheatonArts.

You can see how such a match is played at a news conference announcing details about the weekend and featuring sample gambits performed by members of the Mystic Realms Company, the group that will stage the living chess match on the weekend’s final day. The news conference will be held August 22, at 10 a.m. at the Down Jersey Folklife Center.

Long an annual event in the northern Italian city of Marostica, the living chess match began there in 1454, when a nobleman named Taddio Parisio settled a dispute between two suitors for the hand of his daughter Lionora, by decreeing that, rather than giving her to the winner of a duel to the death, he would give her to the suitor fielding a winning team of chess pieces recruited from his household.

The September 17 event will also recreate the wedding of Lionora to the winning suitor that ensued after the match, although both match and wedding will be set in Venice. The audience will be invited to take part in the wedding dances and other festivities.

The Feste dell’Arte weekend is the high point of WheatonArts’ and the Folklife Center’s celebration of local Italian and Italian-American arts and culture that began on May 12 and runs through December 31. The weekend opens on September 15 with a regional conference entitled, “Communities and Identities,” from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., followed by an evening Gala Venetian Carnevale Celebration. It will continue on September 16 with a series of demonstrations and workshops by local and guest artists from Italy illustrating the regional diversity of Italian and Italian-American culture. The final day begins with a special procession devoted to Padre Pio whose shrine in Landisville is a local landmark.

Also invited to attend the August 22 news conference city are representatives from Vineland and Millville, whose cooperation helped make the eight-month celebration a success. They include: Marianne Lods, executive director of the Millville Development Corporation; Dr. Frank De Maio, celebration chairman; and Dr. Iveta Pirgova, the Folklife Center’s director.

The celebration was organized by the Folklife Center as the second in its Creative Community Connections series designed to understand and embrace cultural diversity. The series began in 2004 with a salute to the arts of Oaxaca, the Mexican state that is home to many local Mexican-Americans.    

For further information about the program and the news conference, contact Janet Peterson, Marketing and Public Relations Director at 856-826-6800, extension 108, or jpeterson@wheatonarts.org.

The Italian Project Advisory Committee: Dr. Frank DeMaio (Chair), Clorinda Blasse, Cesarina De Cesero, Ezio and Rosemarie Galli, Biagio and Sarina Infranco, Vincenzo and Michelina Lombardo, Janice Olivio, Fr. Faustino Parisi, Nicholas Possumato, Joseph and Josephine Di Mento, Louise T. Bertacchi, Anna Giusti Garcia, Rudolph “Skip” Luisi, Joseph Rollo, Teresa Casazza, Sandy Brown, Sara Vivirito and the late John Vivrito.
 

Sponsors: National Italian American Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Sicilian American Club of South Jersey, Inc., Order Sons of Italy in America, Grand Lodge of New Jersey, General Mills, Italian American Benevolent Society, and the New Jersey Commerce, Economic Growth and Tourism Commission.
 

Patrons: Louise T. Bertacchi, Clorinda's Caterers, LLC., Frank DeMaio, Dun-Rite Sand & Gravel Company, Mrs. Cedola/Festa Italiana (Parsippany), James and Faustina Geraci, Dr. Andrew S. Heller, Sarina Infranco (Royal Travel), John Pastore, John F. Scarpa, and Dr. Joseph Wachspress.

The Down Jersey Folklife Center is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. It is open Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

WheatonArts is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., through December 31. Open Labor Day. Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

WheatonArts strives to ensure the accessibility of its exhibitions, events and programs to all persons with disabilities. Call two weeks in advance for special accommodations.

This program was made possible by a general operating support grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of Cultural Affairs in the Department of State. The Down Jersey Folklife Center programs are supported in part by grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment of the Arts, by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and the National Park Service. The Center is further supported by residents and groups with an interest in the traditional art and culture of southern New Jersey.

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