Cheap Date visits the Art Mission and gives Conversations a plug! Thanks again
Hannah and Andrei for stopping in and checking out the Art Mission. Here is their writeup!
Get a dose of art and film in one place
The weekend after Thanksgiving always can be counted on for some big movie releases, which sort of inspired our date this week.
Instead of heading to a big blockbuster film at a major theater, we instead went to see a screening of an independent film at The ART Mission and Theater, located at 61 Prospect Ave., in Binghamton.
We had seen the gallery/ theater during our First Friday Art Walk travels, but a reader also invited us recently to an event called "Conversations at the Art Mission." The event featured a discussion about a documentary that was shown Nov. 13. The "conversations" are part of a series, and you can likely find information about upcoming events like that at www.artmission.org.
The ART Mission and Theater is located in a four-story building built in the 1900s. It was originally a railroad hotel and former home of a publishing company, among other businesses. Now, the gallery and two theaters occupy the bottom floor and the top floors are rented as lofts.
We saw Tuesday's 9 p.m. showing of "In the Shadow of the Moon," a documentary by Ron Howard about America's late 1960s quest to put a man on the moon. It featured fascinating first-hand interviews of the astronauts who landed and/or walked on the moon. Unfortunately, you'll have to catch the release on DVD if it sounds interesting -- it was only in the theater for two days.
However, both the mob-thriller "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and director Sean Penn's much talked about film "Into the Wild" will run through Thursday. Other upcoming films include "The Darjeeling Limited" and "For the Bible Tells Me So."
Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for students, members and matinees (before 5 p.m.). We were thoroughly impressed with the cheap concession prices. We each got an enormous candy bar for only $1, as compared to $3 or $4 at regular theaters. A bottle of water also is only $1.
In the theater we were in, there were about 40 seats -- giving it a very intimate atmosphere. We found it much classier than any other local theater we've been to, as well. There are brick walls and sconce lighting; however, the screen is slightly angled in relation to the chairs. We can't really figure out the architectural reasoning behind it, except that the actual wall must be angled and it was the easiest way to display the screen. The seats were definitely comfortable, however, although we preferred sitting in the back row or so for the best view.
We highly recommend checking out both The ART Mission and Theater when you have the chance. It's a great way to support local art and get a good deal at the same time. And, it's a good opportunity to see movies that are not shown in the major theaters.
