Insiders Westchester Group

This group gets out to local points of interest. Sign up if you’re interested. Future trips may include Mamaroneck Water Works, Save the Sound Water Quality laboratory in Larchmont, a muncipal sewer treatment plant (Mamaroneck? Rye?), our local EMS Dispatch Center, Aqueduct which brings water from the Catskills down to NYC, the Frick Museum, and more. Members are encouraged to make suggestions of future trips and volunteer as co-leads to help organize/coordinate events.

Past trips: Storm King Sculpture Park, Bruce Museum, New York Blood Center, Frick Museum, William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation. Note some of these can be re-visited in future if there is interest.

If you are not already getting emails for this group, please email bob@clyattsculpture.com and ask to be put on the list.

Upcoming Event- Wed May 20, Isamu Noguchi Museum (Astoria) and Chinese Lunch after in Flushing (Royal Queen Restaurant)

We will meet to carpool 10:00am (depart 10:15) from Whitby to the Isamu Noguchi Museum in Astoria. This is the former studio and now private museum of a remarkable mid-century Japanese American sculptor who worked principally in monumental carved stone. We will have a private docent-led tour which starts at 11:30 for one hour. Charge will be $150 for the docent for up to 15 of us which we can split, costing us something like $10-$15 apiece depending on number of us who sign up. Please bring cash.

Afterward we will stop off in Flushing at the grand Royal Queen Restaurant in the New World Mall for lunch. Bob Clyatt will act as guide for an impromptu walking tour of Main St. Flushing where his Chinese family lived in recent years.

David Hessekiel will again act as lead on this: hessekiel@hotmail.com. Please contact David if you plan to attend and he will put you on the list, first come first served. Limit 15, and a wait list will be formed if/when we hit the limit.

If you are not already receiving emails about these excursions please email bob@clyattsculpture.com and request to get on the email list.

INTRODUCTION LETTER SENT 5-16-25 TO INITIAL SIGNUP LIST

Thank you for signing up for events in the Insiders Westchester group. We are starting planning on a few events. This note is to thank you for signing up, and to get the ball rolling.

Any of us can suggest and/or lead a visit, so this is a definitely a group undertaking. I will try to keep all your ideas and suggestions, including this note, posted on the Insiders Westchester page on the Tuesdays at 10 website.

We have the first few outings being planned and will get detailed signup information out to you as soon as things are confirmed.

Our first planned event will actually be beyond Westchester, about an hour north of us up the thruway. A few of you asked if I could run a “sculptor-led tour” of Storm King, which is one of the biggest and best sculpture parks in the country. Tentatively scheduled for Friday June 27th, leaving Rye at 9:30am and returning around 3:00.

Our Save the Sound presenter Bill Lucey suggested a tour of their laboratory in Larchmont where water and shoreline samples are tested.

A few of you have suggested other ideas which now need fleshing out. One is to see if we can get on a cargo ship or other large commercial vessel while it is docked in NY Harbor. Another is to get inside Indian Point (could be difficult but we will try!), inside the aqueduct that brings water down from the Catskills (I know a guy who might be able to help) or inside factories, and municipal infrastructure such as waterworks, treatment plants etc. (Where do they monitor all the stoplights in New York City?)

Our general model will be: if you think something is interesting others likely will too, so probe your contacts for possible access and then speak with me for organizing/coordinating assistance. Ideally you can function as or recruit an Event Lead, managing attendance lists, entry access or tickets, legal releases if the location requires, carpooling, so the actual event and logistics go smoothly. Set a max attendance if needed and we will cut off and start a waitlist.

No set timetable but I would be happy if we had maybe ten events a year.

We are currently 20 people in this group but I’m confident we will grow. Forward this to guys you think will be interested. New people should email me to ensure they get added to the email list, at bob@clyattsculpture.com