Features:

Studio Furniture is one of the strongest New England artistic traditions. The John Eric Byers show underscored the craft, elegance and even intelligence of one of its emerging masters. Each of his objects’ surface intensity, both carved and painted, is almost exhaustive in its complex simplicity.

Inspired to create a democratic, distinctively American style of house, master architect Frank Lloyd Wright created a series of homes that he called Usonian. Perhaps, the best of these was built in Manchester, NH. FLW considered this an affordable house, for middle class people. The Zimmerman House cost $55,000 to design and build in the early 1950’s. This was at a time when a comparably sized house cost around $5000. But, this particular Manchester house has the Wright stuff.

One of our greatest artists, Robert Rauschenberg, has passed away at 82. We consider his position and contributions in the short list of leading Pop artists.

On Memorial Day New Englanders plant and pray. Folks seem to take enormous pride as to who has he first ripe tomato. Each year we enjoy visits to Mt. Greylock Greenhouses in Adams, Mass.

The Brooklyn Museum has published a fascinating, richly illustrated, scholarly text to accompany a traveling exhibition. This catalogue covers the complex rituals and artifacts related to preparing the deceased for life after death.

Theater, music and dance performances are sprouting up everywhere. Here's a head's up on the most promising. After a hard winter, it's nice to see the Berkshires bloom with life again.

Using a computer program Devorah Sperber reduces details of Old Masters into a pattern of individual pixels. These are then combined in grids made of spools of thread. The results prove to be visually delightful as well as educational.

A recent symposium at the GSD focused on how ephemeral art can build civic engagement, community dialogue and public debate. What is the impact of temporary public art events? Is public art a force for urban change? Coupling this with sense of place, citizenship and ecology, UK curators discussed the impact of their work. Can this work in America as well? Part 1 of 2 parts

After a provocative keynote address on Thursday evening, an all day symposium looked at a variety of compelling ephemeral art projects in London. UK curators discussed the nuts and bolts of temporary project work of artists and architects. The Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square, The Serpentine Gallery’s Pavilions, The Tate Modern’s Public Space and the Sultan’s Elephant were all striking. London’s public art energy was persuasive.

A short distance from downtown Nashville is the mansion and plantation of the seventh President of the United States, Andrew Jackson. The Hermitage is a grand neo classical home and signifier of the wealth and power of one of America's most remarkable and controversial presidents.

The 2008 Coolidge Award continues its five year tradition of honoring the best of contemporary filmmakers. Jeremy Thomas’ 30 year career as an independent film producer demonstrates the highest levels of world cinema style and craft.

The 2008 season of the artist run Eclipse Mill Gallery in North Adams opens on May 23 with an open invitation for regional artists to participate in the Berkshire Salon.

The Parthenon is all that remains of pavilions erected to commemorate the Centennial of Nashville, Tennessee in 1897.

Visiting Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania we encountered the enormous, rusticated stone masterpiece by Henry Hobson Richardson, his last project, the Allegheny Courthouse and Jail.

Located in the French Quarter on the edge of Jackson Square is the Cafe du Monde. It has served beignets, New Orleans style fresh donuts and coffee since 1862.

The wrought iron balconies of the French Quarter are a distinctive architectural element and part of the heritage of the Crescent City. Because it sits on relatively higher ground this area was spared much of the devastation of hurricane Katrina.

In New Orleans, for many visitors, every day is Mardi Gras. You see them on Bourbon Street well before noon clutching powerful concoctions such as Hurricanes and Handgrenades. Then there is a fabulous food from oysters and gumbo, a Po Boy sandwich for lunch, or K Paul and Antoine's for an elegant dinner. The Big Easy.

Most visitors to the Big Easy come to party in the French Quarter. We took a day to see first hand the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in the working class 9th Ward which has been slow to recover. There were signs of hope, life, and renewal but the rate of progress remains a social and political scandal.

A wisp of a scandal and the Primary campaign is thrown into turmoil in this rollicking comedy at the Boston Center for the Arts.

Steps from the market in the French Quarter opposite Jackson Square is the Moon Walk of New Orleans. Strolling along the waterfront one comes to the river boat Natchez. On the top deck a musician plays the colorful calliope as folks board for an excursion.

Family and tribal disfunctionalism are theatrically portrayed through current news headlines set in Turkey and Iraq. Intensity of emotions and relationships are underscored by journalistic opportunism and militant religious fanaticism. The play even has an aggressively searching agnostic musician boyfriend, a flawed woman prophet and Whirling Dervishes.

By far New Orleans is the dining Mecca of America. From a po boy sandwich, or a plate of oysters to oysters Rockefeller at the venerable Antoine's where they were first served, there is food of every taste and flavor to be enjoyed in the Crescent City.

The famous trolleys have resumed service in New Orleans. From downtown we boarded the Saint Charles Street line for a tour of the scenic Garden District.

In the devastated 9th Ward of New Orleans, Habitat for Humanity and its crew of staff and volunteers are nearing completion of the 70 new homes that comprise the Musician's Village. Some 70 new homes are also under construction by the organization which has been working in the area since the 2005 hurricane Katrina.

In the past few years Mass MoCA has presented major installations by the leading Chinese artists, Cai Guo Qiang and Huang Yong Ping. The current exhibition presents a diverse group of Western artists inspired by visits to China and encounters with a rapidly changing economy and culture.

Over the past several months, Greylock Arts, in Adams, MCLA Gallery 51 (North Adams) and Turbulence (a Net Art organization) have been working together to bring forward a series of exciting events, exhibitions, and opportunities to Northern Berkshire County.

My three-week adventure began as well as ended in South Africa, with trips in between to Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Soweto, South Africa is a proud, culturally vibrant city with a painful apartheid history. Chobe National Park in Botswana offers insights of a different kind with variety of large and small game and a vast terrain of woodlands, savannah and flood plains.

The Caprivi Strip is the wettest region of Namibia, known otherwise for its desert climate. Multiple rivers feed reed-filled swamps, flood plains, wetlands, and woodlands creating a verdant eco system that is home to over 450 animal species. Sunsets in this region are spectacles to behold.

The Okavango Delta is the largest untouched inland delta in the world. It combines a lacework of islands, tree-lined riverbeds, open floodplains and dense gardens of aquatic vegetation. Its fascinating eco system plays host to a myriad of animal, bird and plant life. The night sky is a spectacle to behold.

Hwange National Park rests on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. Waterholes, created by pumps to carry water above ground, have transformed the park into Zimbabwe's largest game reserve. Nearby villages provide insights to the traditions and the daily lives of the local people.

Victoria Falls is the world's largest curtain of water created by the Zambezi River. The tranquil river begins churning savagely as it nears the edge of a breathtaking gorge. Rainbows are etched in its rising mist; birds, butterflies and small creatures thrive in its rain forest.

Cape Town and Peninsula is a nature paradise with its oceans, mountains, flora and fauna. People from every part of the world have arrived here, some not by choice, creating a wonderfully rich and vibrant culture.

Since the 2002 season and the new ownership took over, the author has been a design consultant to the Red Sox. The 86 year old Curse of the Bambino was broken and the Old Town Team has now won two World Series in the last four years. Is there cause and effect?

The encaustic paintings are included in the exhibition Personal Geometries, curated by Nancy Sausser, at the McLean Project for the Arts, in Virginia, through February 23.

Now retired from teaching at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Domingo Barreres divides time between a studio in Boston and a home in his native Spain. In the latest work he conflates male erotica with Color Field paintings. Earlier works responded to Duchamp, Abu Graib, Velasquez and Goya.

Shelley Reed is pursuing aspects of Baroque still life and animal paintings. She collages elements of the past in compositions that reflect a range of contemporary concerns from the exotic through the sublime. Reed lives and works in Boston and, until his recent retirement, showed with the legendary Mario Diacono. Reed is represented by Sears Peyton in New York and Gibsone Jessop in Toronto.

The Provincetown based artist, Jay Critchley, whose work is currently on view in the Mills Gallery of the Boston Center for the Arts, combines social and environmental concerns with originality and humor. He gets us to laugh and think about issues that aren't all that funny. Critchley is represented by artSTRAND in Provincetown.

The Chicago based artist and fashion designer, Nick Cave, a former dancer in the Alvin Ailey Company, creates elaborate costumes from found materials which are activated in ritual performances. This Profile is presented in collaboration with United States Artists (USA) and the film company City Projects.

Two hours inland from San Diego is the largest state park in California: the Anza-Borrego Desert. And just to its east lies the strangest body of water in America: the Salton Sea. In the 1950s they had a brief moment in the sun as tourist destinations.

North Shore artist focuses on Rome and its environs. Coming from a background in realist painting, Harry Bartnick takes liberties in editing his photographs, while remaining deferential to the basic image. Inspired by the gripping power and sensuality of the Italian visual environment, this Guggenheim Award winning artist presents soaring views of the Roman countryside, angels in the architecture, and obscure corners of the city.

Over the past 6 years, design elements and details have been added to the now grand Art Deco Coolidge Corner Theatre. This is a case of certainly getting better rather than just getting older.

In June the final production by Nicholas Martin the musical "She Loves Me" will close at the Huntington Theatre Company, where he has been based since 2000, and open on June 28 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival where he is taking over as artistic director.

Last year, its most successful to date, the Barrington Stage Company drew an attendance of 45,000. Its artistic director, Julianne Boyd, is committed to bring a diverse program and affordable theatre to the Berkshires.

New York is suffering from municipal malaise. Failing with plans for Ground Zero, the 2012 Olympic Bid and now Atlantic Yards in Downtown Brooklyn, NYC lacks vision and civic follow through. A few individual architecturally interesting buildings are getting built but not larger visionary urban design schemes. Politics, provincialism and perhaps fear of the new have caused America’s greatest city to civically belittle itself. Why?

For the past 30 years Tina Packard has brought Shakespeare to the Berkshires. Now Shakespeare & Company is gradually building out the campus it has moved to and is working toward year round programming. Tickets go on sale in January for a season that will be launched on Memorial Day Weekend. Let the games begin.

If all goes according to plan in April gallerist Ralph Brill will light up a section of the Hoosic River between the Eclipse Mill and Mass MoCA in North Adams. He is involved in the development of a World War II Museum that would become the Northern Berkshires' "Fourth Museum."

The Barrington Stage Company season opens on Valentine's Day and will continue through October 26 with a lively mix of drama and its signature award winning musical "The 25th Annual Puntam County Spelling Bee."

In keeping with its mandate for risk taking the New Museum, which was founded by Marcia Tucker in 1977, has recently opened a permanent home on the Bowery of New York.

New England contains several architecturally distinctive houses. This is the first in an occasional series of articles and reports in BFA focused upon these special structures. Built in the late 1930’s, Bauhaus founder and Harvard architecture professor Walter Gropius’ house followed his Modernist’s philosophy and principles while sensitively being company-comfortable and family-friendly.

The recently established tradition returns to Lenox, Mass with the annual Labor Day Weekend Tanglewood Jazz Festival. Tickets to all Tanglewood events are now on sale.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2008 Tanglewood program with James Taylor celebrating the Fourth of July weekend and an even greater emphasis on opera but no great changes or surprises.

Jacob's Pillow Dance Company has announced that it will present a special two week residence and performances by the Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company of the work Chapel/Chapter starting on June 23 before the usual opening of the summer season.

Having finally resolved a year long stuggle with Christoph Buchel Mass MoCA has cleared that clogged gallery and installed "Projections" by Jenny Holzer which will be on view for the coming year.