As part of the first International Week at Jefferson Academy, the Austrian Embassy participated in their World Fair event on November 21, 2014, co-hosted by D.C. Public Schools and the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.
Students from all grades were eager to learn about location, population, food and other fun facts relating to Austria.
The Austrian Cultural Forum Washington is currently showing an exhibition entitled "A Different View of Vienna".
Barbara Zeidler has set out to discover museums in Vienna, open to the public but off the beaten track, tucked away from any Museum Mile or Art Quarter: Besides the great temples of art such as the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Fine Arts), the Belvedere or the Albertina, Vienna offers a number of specialties, which hardly anyone knows - some of her discoveries are not even mentioned in specialised guidebooks such as "Unknown Vienna".
For instance, who knows the location of the world's largest collection of magic boxes or has ever heard of the unique museum of the Mekhitarist Congregation, the Imperial Hat Museum or the Circus and Clown Museum? Yes, all of them can be found in Vienna!
Thus, use this unique opportunity to complete your picture of the Austrian capital!
The exhibit will be on display until December 19, 2015. Visit www.acfdc.org for more information.
On November 4, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York hosted the U.S.-premiere of the English adaptation of the successful Austrian play, "Butterbrot" ("Chickenshit").
Written by Gabriel Barylli and translated into English by Alan Goodson and Jerry Marwig, the play focuses on the life of two bachelors, Stefan and Martin, who prepare to celebrate the birthday of their married friend Peter. To their surprise, Peter shows up without his wife Lilli after he found out that she had cheated on him. The fact that Peter has been disloyal to his wife multiple times is irrelevant to him. In a drunken frenzy he decides to join the male-only household of Stefan and Martin and for a short period of time everything works out perfectly – until Martin falls in love again with a woman.
The English adaptation of "Butterbrot" starred Alfons Haider as cheated, disloyal Peter, Howard Nightingall as bachelor Stefan and Dave Moskin as enamored Martin.
The play was performed at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York and was fully booked for three consecutive evenings.
Visit the Austrian Cultural Forum New York online: www.acfny.org
In 2010, Austrian cable-car company Doppelmayr was awarded the contract to build the Oakland Airport Connector between Oakland International Airport (OAK) and the Coliseum Station.
The new 5.1 km (16.732 ft.) long Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) automated people mover opened just in time for the holiday season on November 22, 2014. The train will transport up to 3.2 million passengers per year; adding a fourth car to the current fleet would expand the capacity to 4.9 million passengers annually.
The cable-cars are equipped with windows on all sides, so passengers can view the traffic beneath them on their approximately 8-minute ride. With an investment of $484 million, the city of Oakland now disposes of a train-to-airplane transport system that is comparable to those in San Francisco (also operated by BART) or the AirTrain – systems in New York (JFK) and Newark (EWR).
On November 19, 2014 the Austrian Cultural Forum Washington hosted the Austrian Actress Maxi Blaha for her monologue "Soul of Fire - She fought for peace".
The Austrian suffragette and first Nobel Peace Price winner Bertha von Suttner is the central figure of the performance, portrayed in deliberately and chronologically chosen chapters, contrasts and episodes.
From passionate humanitarian engagement to dramatic love-affairs, the heroine's life's vicissitudes were presented in a moving, yet humorous manner.
Accompanied by guitar music, Maxi Blaha spoke and sung about the political, psychological and emotional aspects of Suttner´s life. Based upon scientific research, the play showed that the visions and ideals of Berta von Suttner are still valid to date.
Gery Keszler, founder and CEO of Life Ball has requested fashion designers and international personalities to create unique Build-A-Bear® bears to be auctioned for the benefit of Operation Bobbi Bear.
The auction of these unique bears will take place on December 8, 2014 at Sotheby's New York ( 1334 York Avenue, NY, NY 10021)
The Second United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) was held from 3 to 5 November 2014 in Vienna, Austria. At the LLDC Conference, more than 1,000 participants from governments of LLDCs, transit developing countries and donor countries, UN and other international organizations and the private sector came together to shape the new development agenda for the landlocked developing countries for the next decade.
They agreed on a Vienna Declaration and a Vienna Programme of Action to address, in a holistic manner, the special development needs and challenges of landlocked developing countries arising from their landlockedness, remoteness and geographical constraints.
For more information visit: www.lldc2conference.org