The works by artists of the "Ashcan Tradition" are featured in the latest show at the Nassau County Museum of Art entitled Old New York and the Artists of the Period: 1900-1941. It is an exciting show and, even for the artistically challenged, it is accessible and entertaining. The exhibit opened on Aug. 19 and will run through Nov. 4. At a press preview, Frank Castagna of Americana Manhasset, the chairman of the museum's board of directors, gave an optimistic picture of the museum's future. Conceding that there had been a "period of bitter conflict" with Nassau County, he said that it is all over and the museum weathered it "without missing a beat." Now, subject to the passing of the New York State budget, the museum can look forward to a $900,000 grant which will cover the total cost of renovation, bringing it into compliance with the National Disabilities act, among other things.

The museum' s director, Constance Schwartz, was warm in her praise of what she termed "a staff that has no peer." The current show, she said, was the result of a year's worth of planning. A few years ago, she said, the artists whose work is shown were not valued by many of their owners. "It is incumbent that Nassau County have a museum of our stature to keep this art here," she went, adding that 30,000 school children visit the museum annually.

Franklin Perrell, who curated the show with Ms. Schwartz, introduced the show itself. "What makes New York like any other place?" he asked. He went on to describe the artists of the "Ashcan School" and other New York Realist artists who, in the early years of the 20th century, as America increasingly became an urban nation, abandoned traditional, romanticized ways of depicting landscape and looked to the new urban frontier for their inspiration, choosing to reflect lively city streets in a starkly realistic light. "Hoboes, sweatshops, beer halls and even the garbage cans dotting the streets became grist for this new urban aesthetic which came to be familiarly known as the Ashcan School. These artists--most notably Robert Henri, John Sloan, George Luks, Everett Shinn and George Bellows--took on the great city of New York in all its gritty urban glory. Their stark realism strongly influences the work of other New York Realists, such as Edward Hopper and the artists of the 14th Street School, among them Reginald Marsh, Isabel Bishop and Raphael and Moses Soyer.

Through paintings, works on paper and memorabilia, Old New York and Artists of the Period: 1900-1941, traces this movement. There is an excellent audio-guide tour of the exhibit available, narrated by Ms. Schwartz and Mr. Perrell, which will be available for rental to museum visitors. There is also a richly illustrated catalogue of the exhibition, which will be available for sale.

In conjunction with Old New York and Artists of the Period, NCMA will sponsor several public programs that will serve to amplify and enhance the experience of viewing the exhibition's works. Among them is a Sept. 30 program by popular actress/lecturer Shirley Romaine, in which she explores the extraordinary artistic ferment of the earlyi years of the 20th century.