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Carolyn: The Westchester Italian Cultural Center in Tuckahoe, NY was the dream of Generoso Pope, a Southern Italian immigrant who made his fortune in construction, newspapers and radio stations. Generoso Pope wanted to create an inviting place where people could gather and celebrate both classic and contemporary Italian culture. The Westchester Italian Cultural Center was created in 2003, through funding from the Generoso Pope Foundation.

Here to tell us more about the Center and what it has to offer is the executive director, Dr. Evelyn Rossetti. Prior to coming to the Center, Dr. Rossetti served as executive director for the Children's Museum of the Arts in NYC. During that time, she created Operation Healing, an art therapy program created in response to 9/11. She also created Images of Peace, an international peace kite program, and Arte Giovane, an artistic and cultural exchange initiative between children in New York City and Trieste, Italy. From 2000-2002, she served as a panelist for the New York State Council on the Arts.

Evelyn, tell us about the Center.

Evelyn: The Westchester Italian Cultural Center we're very proud to say our tag line which is where Italy comes alive, I'd like to add to that where Italy comes alive for everyone. So you don't need to be Italian to come here. We have many people who are Italian and who are of Italian descent coming here, just finding a home here. This is a home for all things Italian in Westchester County, but really it's for everyone. That's one of the most exciting parts of the programs, one of the most exciting parts of being here on a daily basis.

The Westchester Italian Cultural Center was incorporated in 2003 thanks to the Generoso Pope Foundation. We are in fact a separate, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization but we have the good fortune to reside within the same building as the Pope Foundation offices. and that’s a real blessing for us because being that was Generoso Pope's dream, it feels correct, it feels appropriate to be close to him and close to the Foundation that created it.

Carolyn: This location is amazing.

Evelyn: This building is so perfectly situated. It's right in the town square, right across the street from the train station, right in the town square. It couldn't be more accessible for people coming up from Metro North, for people in Tuckahoe and the surrounding communities. It's just perfectly situated and it's a gorgeous building.

The building that we reside in has been many things, including the town hall of Tuckahoe for many years. It had the library, the mayor's office, the police chief's office. It’s a long and rich history, including having been a funeral home and a video production studio.

In fact, every so often I'll still get an invoice for the funeral home for caskets, and that's the truth! Not so much for the video production company but definitely for the funeral home, every once in a while.

Carolyn: It's been renovated and customized to house the Center and the Foundation, hasn't it?

Evelyn: There was a multi million dollar renovation to this building.

Carolyn: David Anthony Pope, the great grandson of Generoso, really turned this into a reality.

Evelyn: The renovation was undertaken by David Anthony Pope who really oversaw it himself. It was David Anthony's vision. And he did a magnificent job in keeping all of the architectural integrity of the original building, but then adding all the bells and whistles and making it technologically state of the art building.

And he took great care to make sure it was preserved perfectly. That it had its original beauty and its original splendor was all restored. Adding to it, however, wonderful technology as well as some wonderful art. In fact if you see the cupola, you'll see a great stained glass picture. It was David Anthony Pope that designed that stained glass window with those beautiful images.

Carolyn: No kidding!

Evelyn: That was David Anthony's work. That was not an original part of the building.

Carolyn: The cupola Evelyn refers to is a lighted dome built into the ceiling of the top floor, covering the area over the circular staircase. The image is made of stained glass, created in the Renaissance style. But don't linger too long staring up at it, or you'll miss the rest of this amazing place.

Evelyn: So we have a wonderful state of the art kitchen where we hold culinary demonstrations, cooking classes, dinners, we have culinary demos and classes for kids as well as for adults. In fact we were just making mozzarella with kids on Saturday.

Carolyn: I need to learn how to do that!

Evelyn: Well, come back when we have the adult mozzarella making workshop; we hope you'll come in. Another one of our projects we're doing in the kitchen is something called ‘A Tavola’ which means ‘At the Table’.

And this program is designed for state senator Klien and his constituents and it's funded by his office and we crafted this program to reach out to and engage senior citizens in the community as well as the general public, and teach them a little bit about the Mediterranean cuisine and get their hands dirty, get them involved in making something, learning a little bit more and having it be a very hands on experience. And we just started this initiative and so far, so good. We've worked with many seniors so far and we look forward to many future sessions.

Carolyn: what kinds of things are you making with them?

Evelyn: We've started making pasta with them and we're going to expand our repertoire. Different kinds of pasta, homemade. We have a wonderful Italian chef who actually is from Assisi in Umbria and he talks with the participants about the Italian cuisine, about the ingredients, tells them the story and then he walks them thru the process. So they get to make it themselves.

Carolyn: That’s wonderful.

Evelyn: It is wonderful. And that's one of the ways we bring the Italian culture to life. With the A Tavola program, which started with seniors, we're finding the seniors bring their kids and their grandkids, so it's becoming a multigenerational program as well. It's really reflective of who we are and what we're doing. Of engaging all people regardless of their age, regardless of their ethnicity, just engaging them with the Italian culture. Our mission is to present it and preserve it and promote it and hopefully everyone will enjoy it.

Carolyn: And speaking of enjoyment, there is the wine cellar…

Evelyn: The wine cellar is magnificent. It's a treat I will say it's probably my favorite room in the house. It is custom designed wine cellar, climate controlled; its a professional wine cellar. It houses approximately 3,000 bottles of wine and it's mission is really to present and to preserve all varieties of Italian wines representing all the different regions of Italy and in fact, we are currently undergoing a renovation of the wine cellar whereby it will be organized, categorized regionally. So we'll have the wines from the very north to the very south, from Sicily all the way up thru Umbria Sardinia, Friulia, Lazio, each region will be represented, with both reds and whites.

We offer private wine tastings and for some of our higher end members they can use that wine cellar for private tasting, wine classes with sommeliers and wine experts, so people can really develop a taste and hopefully an appreciation for Italian wines. And that's very exciting for us to see that happen.

Carolyn: So after a wonderful meal in the kitchen, sipping wine from the wine cellar, it's time to venture upstairs to the theater.

Evelyn: The theater can seat up to 100 people, it's state of the art technology with surround sound. We've premiered Italian films here, films by Pino Tordiglione, by Gianfranco Nerelli. We've also used the theater for musical performances like we're doing with the Metroplitan Opera, as well as lecture series. We have a renaissance lecture series that we are currently presenting, with our newly named professor in residence, Antonio Rutigliano, from NYU.

Carolyn: But what if you just want to learn Italian?

Evelyn: We also offer classes. Basic Italian language classes, but also special interest. We offer an Italian for Travelers class, for example. And in addition to those classes, another wonderful professor, Aldo Belardo, is also doing a lecture series for us. Both professors are covering many of the different facets of Italian literature and philosophy as well as art and ideology.

Carolyn: And of course, the music...

Evelyn: One of the most beautiful facets of the Italian culture is its music. So many wonderful composers, such as Verdi, Puccini, so many come out of Italy. And we felt that it was important to present Italian music and to hopefully bring it to a wider audience. And it's a real treat for us to be working with singers from the Metropolitan Opera and to be presenting showcases, different facets of Italian music and particularly of Italian operas. Including the Bel Canto, we're doing music of Verdi. We're doing a series of 4 concerts this year with them. We did one concert in May which was a survey concert featuring different arias from different Italian operas and it was incredibly well received. And so we are delighted to be working with them again and bringing them back to the Cultural Center.

Carolyn: The Center is also home to a wonderful reference library.

Evelyn: The library probably houses between 4,000-6,000 volumes and we're currently renovating it and reorganizing it so that it will reflect Italian American studies as well as Italian literature and philosophy with an emphasis on Dante and Pertrarch. One of the ways it's a community resource is we have a whole bank of computers that our members can come in and use to do genealogical research. And we offer genealogy workshops on an on-going basis, again incredibly well received, and if you're a member you can in and make an appointment and use one of those laptops and research your own family's lineage and while you're there you might also find a book that is of interest to you.

So it's a place to come to trace your roots and learn more about your culture and find books in the Italian language. We are very excited to be embarking on a new internship program helping us to acquire additional books that reflect the Italian American experience as well as Italian literature and philosophy.

On that same floor we also have 2 exhibit halls that we use for a variety of purposes. We hold cocktail receptions, we have special interests, celebrating special cultural activities such as working with the Pugliese federation, the region of Umbria, working with many different regions to celebrate different cultural events. But we also use those 2 rooms for exhibits.

Carolyn: Never at a loss for new and interesting ways to present and celebrate Italian culture, the Westchester Italian Cultural Center will have a 2-hour radio show called Tutto Italiano!, or Everything Italian, the second Sunday of every month from 10 am to 12 noon, beginning December 14, 2008 on WFAS radio, 1230 AM.

Evelyn: This is going to be a lot of fun. It will feature guest hosts, all the different facets of Italian culture such as food, wine, travel and art. It will also feature Italian music. It will be broadcast from Westchester Italian Cultural Center in Tuckahoe with a live audience. So Carolyn, if you're free you should come down.

Carolyn: I think I will!

Evelyn: I think you should! On of our first guests will be food historian Francine Sagone, who will not only be talking about traditional Roman cuisine as we get ready for the holidays, but she's also promised to cook for us as well. So whoever's in the audience that day will have some treats. It will be a new way for the Westchester Italian Cultural Center to reach out to our community.

To learn more, log onto their website, wiccny.org.

This is Carolyn Masone for essenceofitaly.net. Thanks for listening.