Opinion
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Berkshire Based Blue Heron Gallery Online
Launched January 13 With Work by Galen Cheney
By: - Jan 07th, 2021During the Covid pandemic artists continue to work. Exhibitions, however, have been cancelled. To meet a need Michael McGrath an entrepreneur and designer has created Blue Heron Gallery Online. The Berkshire based site will offer online exhibitions as well as options for a range of services from PDF and print catalogues to promotional and marketing strategies. Visitors to the exhibition have easy access to make "go to cart" purchases. The gallery will launch with an exhibition by Galen Cheney from January 13 through February 12.
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2021
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NY Art Critic Barbara Rose at 84
My Former Editor
By: - Dec 28th, 2020Initially when she married Frank Stella, the critic Barbara Rose embraced minimalism and formalism. She curated, promoted and wrote about an emerging generation of abstract artists, formalists, and women artists starting with Helen Frankenthaler. She could be quirky, wielding power that attracted friends and enemies. We never met or even spoke but she invited me to write for The Arts Newspaper (London and New York) for which she was an editor. She has died at 84.
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Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia
Riveting Nine Hour Trilogy of 19th Century Russians
By: - Dec 27th, 2020Recently I had a chance to revisit the most spectacular theater experience I’ve ever had. It took place on a weekend in February 2007. Over the course of two days, I experienced all nine hours of The Coast of Utopia, Tom Stoppard’s trilogy on 19th century Russian intellectuals and revolutionaries.
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Shakespeare & Company Greetings
If music be the food of love, play on
By: - Dec 18th, 2020Holiday greetings from Allyn Burrows the artistic director of Shakespeare & Company. With hope for a New Year and a lively summer season.
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The National Endowment for the Humanities Grants
$32.8 Million to Support 213 Projects in 44 States
By: - Dec 16th, 2020The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced $32.8 million in grants to support 213 humanities projects in 44 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
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Hancock Shaker Village
Greetings for the Holidays
By: - Dec 15th, 2020Seasons Greetings and an appeal from Hancock Shaker Village.
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Boston’s Museums Shuttered Again
Mayor Marty Walsh Orders Rollback
By: - Dec 15th, 2020Faced with a spike in new cases of the coronavirus Mayor Marty Walsh has taken action to flatten the curve. Starting tomorrow categories of businesses and cultural institutions will be closed for the next three weeks. Even with vaccines it is too early to say if there will be business as usual for the arts this summer in the Berkshires.
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Chicago Girl by Nancy Bishop
A Lively Collection of Essays
By: - Dec 09th, 2020During a year of Covid disruption our theater correspondent, Nancy S. Bishop, has taken time to publish a book of essays. She describes growing up a Cubs fan while pursuing the literary life. Some years ago she went bonkers over Bruce Springsteen. Often with her nephew, she has attended more than 30 concerts. The range of her interests and insights is formidable. Hop on and enjoy the ride for a tour of the Windy City and its arts.
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Hot Water Tanked
No Big Deal
By: - Dec 08th, 2020My hot water tank blew last week. I went to bed on Friday after a hot shower, and woke up Saturday morning with only cold water. A new hot water tank was installed on Tuesday, and order was restored. Four days of dishes and pans got washed, as did I. No big deal.
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I Am Jacob's Pillow
Help to Rebuild After Recent Fire
By: - Dec 04th, 2020Recently the Doris Duke Theatre of Jacob's Pillow was lost in a fire on November 17. You can help to rebuild this landmark of American dance in the Berkshires.
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Helping Our Pal Alice Brock
Famed for Berkshire’s Alice’s Restaurant
By: - Nov 28th, 2020Now elderly, infirm, and living in Provincetown, Alice Brock, the famed proprietor of Alice’s Restaurant in the Berkshires, has always helped others. Her restaurants were staffed with friends and neighbors. She was always a soft touch for a free meal, job, or handout. Today it’s Alice, afflicted with ailments, who needs a helping hand.
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Greetings from MASS MoCA
Thanksgiving Message
By: - Nov 26th, 2020In a year like no other, we're as grateful as ever for you, our art-loving community near and far. Thank you for your continued support, words of encouragement, and mask-covered smiles — we wouldn't be here without you.
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Hancock Shaker Village Thanksgiving
Celebrating a Year Like None Other
By: - Nov 23rd, 2020Hancock Shaker Village felt like a home-away-from-home this year. In a year when we are counting our heroes, the Village has had many.
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In Session
Panels on Anti Racism in Museums
By: - Nov 11th, 2020MASS MoCA and the Berkshire Cultural Resource Center (BCRC) at MCLA are launching In Session, a series of four panel discussions on anti-racist work in museums, streamed live on MASS MocA's YouTube channel and Facebook page beginning on Thursday, December 10, at 6pm EST with upcoming dates to be announced soon.
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Young Musicians Tune Out Covid
At The Monmouth Conservatory of Music
By: - Nov 10th, 2020Where once technology was thought to be the death knell of human social interaction, it is now bringing us together. During this pandemic, arts institutions worldwide have been regrouping and finding ways to keep going virtually. The Monmouth Conservatory of Music is no exception. Living in this altered reality, unable to gather in-person as they normally would, the school has gone all-out to ensure the beat goes on for its young musicians (some as young as 5!)
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Controversial Philip Guston Show Rescheduled
To Open at the MFA on May 1, 2022
By: - Nov 05th, 2020Postponed Philp Guston exhibition rescheduled. The first of four venues will be the Museum of Fine Arts. It opens on May 1, 2022 and continue through that September 11. MFA director, Matthew Teiltelbaum, shares thoughts about the decision to postpone the controversial exhibition.
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Warhol and Calder
Divagations on Jed Perl's Second Volume of Calder
By: - Oct 30th, 2020As I began to think about finishing my reading and reviewing Jed Perl’s monumental second volume of the life of Calder, the art world was inundated by the responses to the publication of Blake Gopnik’s thousand page book on Warhol. Yet again Mugar ferries us across the Styx of contemporary art history.
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Provincetown Arts Press
35th Anniversary Zoom Gala
By: - Oct 28th, 2020Provincetown Arts Press celebrates 35th Anniversary Gala, which will be held on Tuesday, November 19 from 7–8pm via ZOOM, and announces the launch of its first Silent Art Auction, which will open on November 1.
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Nick Capasso of Fitchburg Art Museum
Responding to Diversity and Social Justice
By: - Oct 15th, 2020After 22 years as a curator of the deCodova Museum, Dr. Nick Capasso, for the past 8 years has been director of the Fitchburg Art Museum. It is one of the poorest regions of the state. The community is 35% Latino and 55% of school children speak Spanish at home. The museum is unique for its bilingual initiatives and community outreach. There is diversity in all aspects of its exhibitions and programming. The museum shows New England artists. The collection has grown with an emphasis on photography, African, African American, and American art. Meeting daunting challenges the Fitchburg Art Museum is a remarkable success story.
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Calm But Alert
Martial Arts and Stillness
By: - Oct 12th, 2020Alan Watts once said that trying to define who you are is like trying to bite your own teeth; one of my Zen Buddhist masters used to say it was like trying to see your own eyeballs.
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Images Cinema in Williamstown
Update on Lockdown
By: - Oct 07th, 2020Images Cinema, an art house in Williamstown. has been shut down going on eight months. Here is an update from executive director, Doug Jones.
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Poe's Masque of the Red Death
An 1842 Masque for a Time of Masks
By: - Oct 07th, 2020In 1842, Edgar Allan Poe published one of his most famous stories, which turns out to be a parable for 2020. The Masque of the Red Death concerns a prince who gathers his wealthy friends within the walls of his castle when the Red Death rampages through the countryside, killing everyone who is exposed to it.
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Jay Critchley Takes on the White House
Tarred and Feathered in Provincetown
By: - Oct 06th, 2020The Provincetown based conceptual artist, Jay Critchley, is known for wit and outrageous projects. Trump has him mad as hell and he can't take it anymore. Rather than just get mad he's getting even. His latest stunt it literally to tar and feather the White House.
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Philip Guston Now to Not Now
What He Meant to Boston’s Artists
By: - Sep 26th, 2020The retrospective "Philip Guston Now" was scheduled to open in June 2001 at the National Gallery. It would travel to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, then to Tate Modern in London, and finally, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Of 125 paintings and 75 drawings some 24 works caricature the Ku Klux Klan. Fearing backlash the museums have postponed to 2024 to develop programming that contextualizes the work. The MFA has a history of ambivalence to the artist's work. From 1973 to 1978 he taught a graduate seminar at Boston University.
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