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A leading scholar of American Art, Patricia Hills curated major exhibitions for the Whitney Museum including "John Singer Sargent."Her books and catalogues range from Eastman Johnson, to Alice Neel and Jacob Lawrence. At Boston University she trained a generation of scholars and curators. As a Marxist she has been particularly involved in social justice projects.

Barrington Stage always front ends an enticing musical. For the sixth time it's Stephen Sondeim. Into the Woods, with James Lapine, launches the 25th season on the Boyd-Quinson Main Stage in Pittsfield.

Working the night shift as a security guard at MASS MoCA has inspired Leo Mazzeo to use his cell phone to make images. They are shared with a growing fan base through Instagram. Here is a stunning sample of these night visions.

When I first wrote about Zombie abstraction in December 2013 several months before the concept achieved notoriety in Walter Robinson's now famous essay on Zombie Formalism, I got a blowback in a comment on my Zombie blog from artist Craig Stockwell.

The five One-Act plays presented by Ensemble Studio Theatre, Series C, are a crowning achievement in this 37th Annual event.

The Swiss dealer, Bruno Bischofberger commissioned a collaboration between Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol as well as Francesco Clemente. The project with Clemente fizzled by thrived with the other two artists. The dealer would purchase between sixty and eighty of their works together. The project wasn't completed but eight works from the series are on view at The School in Kinderhook New York. There are some hundred works by the artists on view, Saturdays, through early September.

Richard Thompson has been in the music limelight for over 50 years. His British background and love of anything Scottish, prose wise, music wise or lyric wise, has helped this former member of the '60s band, Fairport Convention catapult his career to a new generation.

The award winning play, America v. 2.1. The Sad Demise and Eventual Extinction of the American Negro, by Stacey Rose is a tough evening of theatre at Barrington Stage Company. It is the inaugural winner of The Bonnie and Terry Burman New Play Award, a new national play contest at BSC. The playwright has absorbed the spectrum of avant-garde theatre and deflected it as a timely theatrical screed about racism in America, past, present and future.

This production shows Rusalka in all its glory. Yet the opera is not often performed in this country, despite the resurgence of Czech opera. The clock time, a little excessive at 3:40 including intermissions, poses many additional costs and burdens.

Stonewall, an opera by Iain Bell with libretto by Mark Campbell, had its world premiere at the New York City Opera. The work was commissioned as part of a commitment by NYCO to produce an LGBT Opera during Pride Month every year. It is a triumph for the artists and the company.

A superb production of Sean O’Casey’s play, The Plough and the Stars, concludes the Irish Repertory Theatre’s O’Casey cycle. Charlotte Moore directs this subtly textured staging, deploying all the tools her theatre and actors have honed over the years.

Come From Away renews our faith in the human race. The popular Broadway musical demonstrates people's innate capacity for kindness. An invigorating equity national touring production is playing in Miami.

Working Theater Presents the World Premier of Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson by Rob Ackerman , directed by Theresa Rebeck. The Working Theater's Mark Present is the producing artistic director and Laura Carbonell Monarque the managing director bring us a play which is true the the vision and mission of the company. Stories reflect a diverse population of the working majority, acknowledging their complexity by creating theater of interest to working people.

This was the last of the plays both in time period and when it was written. It seems that Skeleton Crew is less dependent on the influences of August Wilson and Lorraine Hansberry than the other works. Morrisseau seems more sure of herself in this work.

Phenomenal Nature, the first American retrospective of the remarkable sculptures of Indian artist, Mrinalini Mukherjee, will be on display at the Met Breuer until September 29 and is well worth viewing.

Leo Mateo, the artistic and Executive Director of the Miners Alley Playhouse, is a fan of the podcast form. One day, he heard about Mae Brussell, a prominent conspiracy theorist who lived from 1922-1988. Her radio broadcasts were extremely popular. She dove into JFK’s murder, giving herself as a birthday present 26 volumes of the Warren Commission report. Her life and impact are explored in Josh Hartwell's highly entertaining and provocative new play.

Garrison Keillor and 'A Prairie Home Companion' are out to pasture. Chris Thile, successor and host of 'Live From Here' made their second appearance at Koussevitzky Music Shed in Lenox, Massachusetts. The musical, comedic, live radio show on American Public Media radio stations featured Thile and his back-up band of musicians, a female trio, a comedian and a pianist-composer-singer from Hudson, New York.

Paul Pelkonen, a brilliant critic, died suddenly of heart failure at the age of 46. Paul was one of the great pleasures of reporting on music. He loved it as much as anyone could, and knew more about it than most people. His taste was impeccable.

The fourth annual Berkshire Mountains Faerie Festival, Saturday, June 15 in North Adams, was the best so far. It takes time to develop an event and get the word out. For the first time there was a full parking lot and long line when the fanciful gate opened at 10 AM. There was a full schedule of family activites for the next twelve hours.

In 1967-68 Steve Nelson was the manager of the legendary rock and blues club The Boston Tea Party, and later ran The Woodrose Ballroom in western Mass. In his memoir Gettin’ Home: An Odyssey Through the ‘60s, he recalls the long and winding journey which took him from high in the Andes to become the foremost producer/promoter of concerts by The Velvet Underground. He will read from his book and chat about those times on Thursday, June 20 at 5:30.

Trident Gallery in Gloucester is presenting Gabrielle Barzaghi: The Tzar’s Children. There will be a discussion wth the figurative /narrative artist on Sunday, June 16, at 4 PM.

As a conductor, Barbara Hannigan is full of physical energy and a dynamic beat. Listening to her sing and conduct feels intimate, intuitive, and collaborative. Bowled over by Hannigan’s deep musicality, her sense of the proper degree of vibrato is often overlooked. She has just the right amount of delicate breath in each note, giving the slightest hint of texture to a smooth and pure line. One’s sense of this may be a matter of taste, but the style suits the music she chooses to sing.

The play won Artemisia’s 2016 Fall Festival of new play readings. Julie Proudfoot has been working with Traci Godfrey since then to refine the play for Artemisia, which is dedicated to new feminist plays that center on women who own their own narratives.

Playwright Lee Blessing, back in 1988, debuted his fact-based drama “A Walk in the Woods,” about two arms negotiators; one American John Honeyman (J.Todd Adams) and one Russian Andrey Botvinnik (David Ellenstein), is now wowing audiences at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach, CA.

A Bronx Tale's heart and humor makes this crowd pleasing musical a worthy afternoon or night at the theater. An equity national touring production is playing in Ft. Lauderdale through later this month. Loyalty, family and trust are some of the themes examined in A Bronx Tale.