Your Week Untapped: Best Events for January 7-13

Our curated picks for New York events this week: Upstairs/Downstairs at Downtown Abbey Dinner, Equus Projects & Chef Patricia Clark’s movement installation/cocktail party, MAS Conference on Resilience and more.

MONDAY, JANUARY 7:  Upstairs/Downstairs at Downtown Abbey 5 Course Dinner. Chefs Alex  Guarnaschelli (recent winner of The Next Iron Chef), Sara Jenkins (Porchetta and Porsena),  Ashley Merriman (The Waverly Inn),  Colleen Grapes (pastry chef at The Harrison and the Red Cat),  Tamara Reynolds (The Sunday Night Dinner), and wine expert,    Sarah McCusker (The Waverly Inn), will join forces in offering food and Downton Abbey fans (and there are bound to be plenty New Yorkers that fit both categories) a five-course “Upstairs/Downstairs at Downton Abbey” dinner.  This all-star line-up of chefs has created a menu inspired by food that would have been served both upstairs with the English elite, and downstairs with the servants. 7pm at The Beard House, 167 West 12th Street. Members $130 / Non-members $170. Call 212.627.2308 to reserve.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 8:   What happens when a dance company, trained to move with 900 pound animals, takes over a French furniture store and bring some drinks, a chef and a visual artist with them? They help you create a new world where dreams and reality collide! Part movement installation, part cocktail party, The Equus Projects presents its 6th OnSite NYC event with chef Patricia Clark. 7:30-10pm at Ligne Roset, 155 Wooster Street. FREE.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9:   BRIC will collaborate with En Foco, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to cultural diversity in photography and celebrating its 38th year, to present a retrospective look at its prestigious New Works Photography Fellowship Award program. This exhibit, curated by BRIC’s Director of Contemporary Art Elizabeth Ferrer, will include work by some 7 photographers, demonstrating the significance of En Foco’s award in extending their artistic practice. 7-9pm at BRIC Rotunda Gallery, 33 Clinton Street, Brooklyn. FREE.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 10:  Brooklyn is home to more artists than anywhere else in the United States, making it the creative capital of the art world.  GO: a community-curated open studio project  is a borough-wide initiative designed to foster personal exchange between Brooklyn-based artists, their communities, and the Brooklyn Museum. Ongoing until February 24. 11am-10pm at The Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn. Suggested contribution $12 / students $8.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 11:  As part of the Municipal Art Society’s upcoming conference “On the Road to Resilience” on post-Hurricane Sandy preparedness, site visits to Sandy relief areas will be led by local partners to  Staten Island, hosted by  Council on the Arts and Humanities for  Staten Island  (COAHSI);  The Rockaway Peninsula, hosted by  Rockaway Waterfront  Alliance  & Walter Meyer,  Local Office Landscape;  Red Hook, hosted by  Red Hook Initiative;  Adapting to Change: Lower East Side Walking Tour hosted by  Green Map;  Hudson River Park hosted by the  Forum for Urban Design;  East River Esplanade & South Street Seaport hosted by the  Forum for Urban Design;  Brooklyn Bridge Park hosted by the  Forum for Urban Design;  NYCHA/Coney Island (tentative). 11am at designated sites. More info here. FREE. Register here.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 12: The MAS Conference, On the Road to Resilience: From the Ground Up, will bring together community leaders, civic officials, innovative entrepreneurs, New York & New Jersey residents, and urban practitioners to spark a conversation about how the New York metropolitan area can move forward from Hurricane Sandy into becoming a more resilient place to live. Additionally, Untapped Cities founder Michelle Young will be hosting a panel on “Communications, Social Media and Data” in disaster situations on Saturday, January 12th. Also facilitating will be Untapped Cities’ Digital Media Strategist, Alley Lyles, who comes from NYC Digital, part of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.  9am-4pm at The New School, 66 West 12th Street (at 6th Avenue). FREE, but registration required.

Also on Saturday:  No Longer Empty‘s Family Day: BankInk!  Children and adults are invited to join No Longer Empty and  Resobox  for a 75-minute demonstration course on Sumi-e led by Ayakoh Furukawa.  Sumi-e, also called Suiboku-ga, is the art of ink wash-painting. Characteristically, it is an East Asian art, and has been practiced there for well over a thousand years. Sumi-e depicts the spirit or essence of an object or scene rather than its outward appearance ”” and does so in the fewest possible strokes. Demonstration at 1-2:15pm, art making activities until 4pm at The Clocktower, 29-27 41st Avenue, Queens. FREE.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 13:  The No Pants Subway Ride is an annual event staged by Improv Everywhere every January in New York City. The mission started as a small prank with seven guys and has grown into an international celebration of silliness, with dozens of cities around the world participating each year. The idea behind No Pants is simple: Random passengers board a subway car at separate stops in the middle of winter without pants. The participants do not behave as if they know each other, and they all wear winter coats, hats, scarves, and gloves. The only unusual thing is their lack of pants. 3-5pm with an afterparty at Bar 13, 35 East 13th Street. More info about meeting points and participation rules here. Check out our photos from last year’s No Pants Subway Ride.

Also on Sunday: The Idan Raichel Project Concert.  A Blend of African, Latin American, Caribbean, and Middle Eastern Sounds in a spectacular show. The Idan Raichel Project burst onto the global music scene in 2003, changing the face of Israeli popular music. 5pm at The Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street. $45 and up. Buy tickets here.