We are planning a return to print with a January/February 2021 issue of Art New England. In the interim, we are working on enhancing ANE’s website and adding a few exciting new features, including a “rolling” Artist Directory (updated every two weeks); and a “rolling” Destination: New England section dedicated to the entire region.

When Wagner’s music crossed the English Channel, it attracted the attention of novelist and critic, George Eliot, who always took a great interest in music. Early on, she identified Wagner’s achievement as a path to the future, writing, “…anyone who finds deficiencies in opera as it has existed hitherto...” must admit that Wagner “…has pointed out the directions in which lyric drama must develop itself, if it is to be developed at all.”

Charlie Kaufman's "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" is being touted as one of the best new films of what proves to be a rather thin year. It is available on Netflix. You will need to see it at least twice. The first time to immerse in its convoluted twists and turns. Then, read the reviews, and follow the clues to figure out what the heck it is all about. Trust me, this is a work of genius, and while at times agonizingly, enervating and slow, it's well worth the time and effort.

Stephanie Alison Walker wins ATCA's Francesca Primus Prize. The honor annually recognizes an emerging female playwright. The award's namesake was a playwright, dramaturg, theater critic and ATCA member.

I have begun cutting back the perennials in the meditation garden that have passed for the season. Bleeding hearts, ligularia, lilies, with hostas not far behind. It is the way of things, the time of season. The butterfly bushes have presented their seed pods, and I’ve collected them for drying.

Players Club ,where the Irish Repertory production of Love, Noel is set, seems like just the right elegant space. Edwin Booth felt he had to make up for the assassination of Lincoln by his brother. Booth realized that a club where actors could socialize with the elite and elevate their status from rabble-rousers to artists was what New York needed. In 1888, he founded The Players Club at 16 Gramercy Park South together with fifteen other incorporators, including Mark Twain and General William Tecumseh Sherman. Players is the oldest club in New York City that’s still in its original location. Love, Noel graced its halls.

Artists everywhere are communicating and presenting work virtually that was conceived and created or executed this year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Life and art had mostly moved from our physical to our virtual world. Artists at the Eclipse Mill have done the same. Here we present three projects, two 'real' and one online, just a slice of artistic work that's being created in 40 studios. 'IMPROMPTU' has become a virtual exhibition on August 15 and 'Airborne Transmission' has been installed as described below.

Housing its comprehensive collection of Shaker material, the new museum facility will embody Shaker values of inclusion, innovation and equality. $15 Million project is expected to break ground in 2021 and be completed in 2023.

The Good Dog Foundation: Helping Humans Heal For more than 30,000 years dogs have been providing companionship and loyalty to humans. No wonder they are called ‘man’s best friend.’ Residents of the Berkshires benefit from the Good Dog Foundation. It provides Certified Therapy Dog visits to Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington and Crossroads Center for Enrichment in Pittsfield.

Lawrence Brownlee is an ambassador of song. He is not only a great bel canto tenor, but also leader in discussions on our racial divide. Identifying as a descendant of Africans and a person of dark skin tone, he has mentored young singers and helped direct the conversation on race in the arts and in the world about us. Yet he does not like the designation of Ella Fitzgerald as part of Black Heritage, her position on a postage stamp. Rather he sees her as a great American singer. Blacks are part of a larger community, not self-segregated.

Among the elite and most innovative jazz vocalists of her generation, Annie Ross who died this week at 89, was born in a suitcase and traveled for the rest of her life. She is best know for recordings with the legendary Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.

We have decided to put together a virtual group show that will run through August 29th. We wanted to show you what our artists are making right now and keep beautiful things in front of you until we (hopefully) come back for in-person exhibitions in the fall.

Just how successful was the popular TV series phenomena known as “Downton Abbey”? Mind boggling and totally entertaining and one of the most endearing and engagingly written Masterpiece Theatre/ BBC co-productions in the history of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). It ran for six seasons with audiences clamoring for Julian Fellowes to write another season. He authored all 70 episodes of the series.

For a fesive summer feast, that's fun for the whole faimily, try a Wiener Crown Roast. It has the eye appeal of a pricey crown roast but at just a fraction of the cost. With the proper boxed wine or cheap beer this is a meal fit for a king.

In December of 1984 Alice Sachs Zimet attended an exhibition at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York. She had come with Sam Wagstaff, the lover of Robert Mapplethorpe. They were there to see a flower photography exhibition from Wagstaff’s vast and groundbreaking collection.That’s where Zimet saw an image by contemporary photographer Andrew Bush titled Columbines. It was love at first sight.

Beth Morrison brings us the 'love fails' stream. Morrison is a leader in the march forward of opera into the 21st century. The opera was recorded in Poland with the superb Quince Contemporary Ensemble performing. Echo is used effectively to hover voices in the performance space.

Fresh basil mixed into the dough.

We look forward to theatre in the coming months. This is what is scheduled for Connecticut.

Boca Raton-based Primal Forces presents a riveting production of Villainous Company. Three actresses thrive in their roles. The characters aren't quite whom they claim to be in Victor L. Cahn's suspensful play.

Jack Quartet is in residence at the Mannes School of Music, the New School. They opened their program with Clara Iannotta’s “Dead Wasps in the Jam-Jar." The title is rich with suggestion. Wasps are not bees, but the buzzing was reminiscent of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s orchestral interlude from "The Tale of Tsar Sultan."

The professional, non-profit, regional Slow Burn Theatre Company is staging a rousing production of A Christmas Story: The Musical. The Ft. Lauderdale company's production runs through Dec, 29. A top-notch cast delivers as triple threats.

Kate Hamill, playwright of Long Wharf’s current production Pride and Prejudice has created somewhat of a cottage industry adapting famous 19th century novels by Austen and Thackeray though now she has moved onto 19th century American novels. Her approach will either delight or infuriate you.

Everything is Super Great is a touching and relatable comic-drama. Stephen Brown's new play is receiving a co-world premiere production at Florida Atlantic University's professional company, Theatre Lab. The production runs through Sunday and features strong acting. The play might remind some of Terrence McNally, with its focus on themes such as the power of art and the importance of human connection.

Lucy Shelton, the legendary soprano, did not let us forget. If we don't live in the action and passions of our musical times, we risk not having lived at all. Igor Stravinsky vocalise, with no words and only sung notes, introduced the evening.

Separately at Jewish Settlement houses Jack Levine and Hyman Bloom studied drawing with Harold Zimmerman. In 1929, when Levine was 14, they were instructed at the Fogg Art Museum by Harvard professor, Denman Ross. By the late 1930s, with Karl Zerbe, they gained national attention as Boston Expressionists. After a lapse of decades, through February, Bloom is featured in "Hyman Bloom Matters of Life and Death." The MFA has never given Levine the time of day. In 1986, while making a film with David and Nancy Sutherland, I interviewed Levine.