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This March, journalist Julie Scelfo will be hosting conversations about extraordinary women from the nineteenth century who have helped shape the American story with their achievements. The events will occur free on Zoom.

Patricia “Pat” White is a mainstay of the New Federal Theatre (NFT). For twenty-five years she has handled all the details of running the producing company. This allows founder Woodie King Jr. to read scripts until 2 o’clock in the morning.

MASS MoCA presents Close to You, a group exhibition that gathers the work of artists who probe the capacity of the visual arts to conjure feelings of closeness — both to others and to ourselves. On view from Saturday, April 3, through January 2022, in the Michael & Agnese Meehan Gallery, the exhibition features the work of Laura Aguilar, Chloë Bass, Maren Hassinger, Eamon Ore-Giron, Clifford Prince King, and Kang Seung Lee.

The winners of the Virtual Berlinale, 2021, have received their Golden and Silver Bears and will return to Berlin in June for the award ceremonies and, so the world hopes, for a public viewing of their films.

This year, the presentation of the Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre will be digital. The event honoring promising lyricists and librettists will stream at 7 p.m. EST Monday, March 15. Melissa Li, Benjamin Scheuer, and Kit Yan are this year's winners. The award's namesake, Edward Kleban, is the late Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning lyricist of A Chorus Line.

Groupmuse, the community-building startup that aims to adapt the concert experience, announced their plan to become a musician-owned cooperative. They have assembled a Founding Council made up of ten diverse young musician activists. ranging from international prize-winners, to artists who have played over 150 concerts through Groupmuse, to social justice activists fighting to bring about a more equitable and inclusive concert music ecosystem.

Jacob's Pillow launches its 90th season with continuity as well as renovation and a Dance We Must fundraising campaign. It seeks to raise $2 million toward a goal of $22 million.

Sir Simon Rattle has taken out German citizenship to be closer to his children. It is also said he is exiting Britain and the cultural consequences of Brexit. Rattle will succeed Mariss Jansons as the chief conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerische Rundfunks. Recently he conducted the orchestra in a world premiere of Ondrej Adámek's "Where Are You?"

Blue Heron Gallery Online, a virtual art gallery, will be presenting the art of North Adams artist Chalice Mitchell beginning at noon on Saturday, March 1, 2021.  The show, appearing on www.blueherongallery.online, will feature her paintings, and present the artist in photographs and her Artist Statement.

New Federal Theatre has always promoted the inclusion of women artists as part of its mission. It is no surprise that they are offering works by and with women for Women’s History Month. They appeal to everyone. Petronia Paley and Margaret Odette are featured in the two-hander, Hospice by Pearl Cleage. Billed as a reading, the performances are full characterizations by actors.

American art scholar Patricia Hills has researched and published the work of genre painter Eastman Johnson (1824-1906). She is seeking funds to launch a Catalogue Raisonné website working with the National Academy of Design.

New Normal Rep.'s inaugural production is the dramedy Jericho, by the company's artistic director, Jack Canfora. The new online theater company's debut production features strong acting, quality direction. Jericho is streaming through April 4 at NewNormalRep.org. The play is touching and funny, but not particularly original.

Robert Morgan was born and raised in Pittsfield but became a citizen of the world. Now retired from a career in international finance he has returned to his roots. That means full time in the studio creating enormous representational/ surreal works on paper. Widely exhibited the new work will be seen at Blue Heron Gallery Online, a virtual art gallery. Well known in the Berkshires the virtual exhibition exposes the work to a readily accessible internet audience.

Marking the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s triumphant return to its summer home, BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons—who leads eight orchestra programs this summer—opens the BSO’s Tanglewood season on Saturday, July 10, with an all-Beethoven program, featuring one of the festival’s most preeminent guest artists, Emanuel Ax, performing the Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor, on a program with one of Beethoven’s most iconic works, Symphony No. 5.

Juilliard announces the launch of Juilliard LIVE, a new streaming initiative offering performances from across its three divisions—music, dance, and drama—online to a global audience. The broad initiative, part of the school’s long-term strategic plan, was accelerated over the past year when indoor performances were halted due to the pandemic. With a mix of livestreamed and on-demand content, Juilliard LIVE expands student performance opportunities both now and in the future, and it will increase accessibility to the performing arts for audiences around the world.

Bang on a Can announces the hourly schedule for its next Bang on a Can Marathon – Live Online – on Sunday, April 18, 2021 from 1-5pm ET. All 15 pieces on the program will be world premiere performances of newly commissioned works, streamed from musicians' homes around the country and across the world. Over its first six live online Marathons in 2020-2021 (May 3, June 14, August 1, October 18, February 21, and March 21) Bang on a Can has presented more than 125 performances, including 47 world premieres of new commissions and over 150 composers and performers. Bang on a Can plans to continue these Marathons, streaming online at live.bangonacan.org,

With large format watercolor on paper Robert Morgan renders superbly crafted representational images. A recognizable object or landscape, however, is generally juxtaposed with another crisply rendered but puzzling element. They form visual equations but cleverly askew. In the work of this artist one plus one often does not add up to two. It's left to the viewer to do the math.

John Wilkens has adapted “The Waste Land” to the stage as a vehicle for a solo performer.  Oakland Theater Project has produced the staging, starring the multi-talented Lisa Ramirez and directed by Michael Socrates Moran.  This production is the first live performance with a live audience sanctioned by Actors Equity in the state of California since the start of the pandemic.  But to accomplish the approval, the performance is outdoors, and the audience remain in their cars. 

The Niceties is an explosive drama that asks us how we might be contributing to systemic racism. The Eleanor Burgess drama takes place on a prestigious university in the Northeast. Island City Stage in suburban Ft. Lauderdale is presenting the show in person and online. In-person performances continue through April 18. Streaming will be available from April 16-25.

Debuting on April 24, 2021 in the Lampos Gallery, Under New Management: The Commodification of the Permanent Collection features works from Fuller Craft’s permanent collection selected by guest curators and Boston-area artists Oliver Mak, Kenji Nakayama, and Pat Falco. Operating as a fictitious marketing company, MFN Integrated Solutions, the curatorial team aims to activate the collection.

The Clark Art Institute’s popular First Sundays Free program continues on Sunday, May 2. Admission to the galleries is free to all visitors for the entire day, but advance registration is necessary.    

It's spring at Hancock Shaker Village. That means time for one of its most popular events. For family fun come see all the newborn animals from lambs and piglets to chicks and goats.

Noah Haidle’s sweet and painful play, Smokefall, directed by Anne Kaufman, staged by Goodman Theatre in 2013-14, and now streaming as part of Goodman’s Encore series.

The Clark Art Institute celebrates Earth Day on Thursday, April 22, with two guided programs that invite visitors to connect with nature and art on the Clark’s campus. Clark educators lead ninety-minute outdoor experiences that inspire participants to write, draw, move, and more as they explore the unique natural settings of the Ground/work exhibition.

What a pleasure to see Bay Area opera companies offering alternatives to traditional live performance productions until we are able to return to the opera houses to experience their magnificence as intended.  Following its streaming production of “Three Decembers” by Jake Heggie, Opera San José now offers a curated trilogy of one-act operas.  Marital relationships, or more loosely, love constitutes the common bond among the trio.  With each requiring only two singing parts, they are highly conducive to the strictures of pandemic era productions.