Front Page
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Corona Cookbook: Pizza
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Virtual Works & Process from the Guggenheim
Social Distancing Dance and Music
By: - Jun 14th, 2020Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions financially supports artists and nurtures their creative process during these challenging times. Works & Process at the Guggenheim is granting over $150,000 for artists to create new works while observing social distancing. New works will be posted on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube (@worksandprocess) every Sunday and Monday at 7:30pm.
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Joseph Nechvatal’s Art Springs From Algorithms
Viral Venture Online at White Page Gallery
By: - Jun 15th, 2020Long before we had heard of, or even imagined, viruses like Covid-19, Post-Minimal painter, multi-media artist and art theoretician Joseph Nechvatal was generating them. Not the contagious types, but computer-robotic assisted ones.
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MoMA Streams "Right On" from The Last Poets
Produced by Woodie King Jr and Directed by Herbert Danska
By: - Jun 11th, 2020MoMA is streaming a restored print of Right On!, a classic film released in the early 1970s. Featuring The Last Poets, we are taken back to the origins of Hip Hop and of the first presentation of black culture by blacks. Felice Luciano, one of the original poets, speaks briefly about the prophetic poetry of the group. Fifty years ago they predicted today.
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We Are All Contagious
On Line Juried Exhibition
By: - Jun 12th, 2020We Are All Contagious is an on line exhibition of U Mass Dartmouth. It was juried by Nato Thompson the Artistic Director of Philadelphia Contemporary. He started his career at MASS MoCA. Artists respond to COVID-19. Will the art of contagion be heroic, tragic, mythic, humorous? We are authoring our own history and future right now with this online exhibition.
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Palm Springs ShortFest
Upcoming Virtual Festival
By: - Jun 12th, 2020For the first time in the festival’s history, ShortFest, will not host an in-person event. Instead, the Palm Springs ShortFest, one of the most prestigious film festivals and the largest film market for short films in the world, remains undaunted and will present a ‘virtual festival’ that will run from June 16 through June 22, 2020.
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Water and Stillness
Go With the Flow
By: - Jun 11th, 2020Forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves. It is not for the sake of those we forgive; it is for our own sake. We take our anger and disappointment out of our backpack and toss it away. We stop carrying it with us, get unstuck from the past, and bring ourselves into the present.
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Collage Brain: Insights, Ideas, Inspiration
An Ilustrated Book by Berkshire Artist
By: - Jun 13th, 2020The collage artist Lynn Gall divides time between the Berkshire and New York where she works and exhibits. Collage Brain: Insights, Ideas, Inspiration is her first book.
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Spa Journeys for Astral Travelers
What A Trip
By: - Jun 10th, 2020Canyon Ranch may be just down the road for Berkshireites, but in the time of Covid, it's as inaccessible as the moon. Jessica Robinson suggests how to satisfy a spa yearning safely.
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HERE Presents Disposable Men
James Scruggs Multi-faceted Picture of Black Men
By: - Jun 10th, 2020HERE has always been on the cutting edge of multi-disciplinary art. In 2005, they produced Disposable Men by James Scruggs. Scruggs presented the black man as the object of fear in communities. People in turn rise up against innocent men of color. Amadou Diallo, shot 41 times on his doorstep in New York in February 1999 is Scruggs' jumping off point.
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Hairspray is a Show for Our Times
Musical Rejuvenates and Inspires
By: - Jun 09th, 2020It's hard to deny Hairspray's timeliness during these days of discord. Protagonist Tracy Turnblad can serve as a role model for us all. Hairspray Live! recently streamed on Andrew Lloyd Webber's YouTube channel, The Shows Must Go On!"
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Tuesdays with Woodie King on Theatre
Founder of New Federal Theatre Raps with Talent
By: - Jun 09th, 2020New Federal Theatre is fifty years young and going strong. Even in this time of lock down, its founder, Woodie King Jr. persists. On Tuesdays at 3 during June he is discussing theatre with various artists. Not only are these captivating afternoons a superb introduction to aspirants in theatre and the performing arts, they show King at his best, drawing out talent and showing the path for others to follow.
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Hancock Shaker Village
A Pledge
By: - Jun 05th, 2020Since the late 18th century, the Shakers have embraced individuals of all racial and cultural backgrounds as equals – including black, brown, and indigenous. We are a museum, not Shakers – but as a museum and in keeping with the historic Shaker values of equality and justice, we are appalled by what we see before our eyes across America.
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Translating Movies into Opera
Why Operatic Movies Fail on Stage
By: - Jun 07th, 2020It is tempting for current composers of new opera to use films as a jumping off place. In two recent efforts, the creative artists miss the strength of the film's story arc and flatten their effort to create opera. Marnie at the Metropolitan Opera (and English National Opera) and Breaking the Waves (Opera Philadelphia) both overlook the strengths which provide drama in the films on which they are based.
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David Felton Wrote for Rolling Stone
Covered Manson and Fort Hill Lyman Cults
By: - Jun 04th, 2020When David Felton came to cover the Lyman Family, he knocked on my door in the Harvard Square Murder Building. He introduced himself as sent by my friend Bill “Dr. Gonzo” Cardoso. In his Rolling Stone piece, I was caricatured as a political thug, Harry Bikes. He covered Lyman and Charlie Manson both of whom he interviewed.
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Urban Arias Live Streams Independence Eve
Racism Sung Through a Century's Lens
By: - Jun 04th, 2020Prescient or just plain lucky, the streaming of Independence Eve occurred in the midst of a new pandemic of racism in America. The opera premiered in Arlington, Virginia in 2017. A triptych of duets between a white man and black man, who end up as 10 years olds in 2063, is a fresh look at the persistence of racial issues. Urban Arias continues to stream on Facebook.
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Larry Kramer at 84
Writer/activist Fought for Response to AIDS Crisis.
By: - Jun 02nd, 2020Larry Kramer died recently at age 84. The activist and playwright tried to bring attention to the AIDS crisis after perceiving indifference among government officials and others. Kramer penned a largely autobiographical play, The Normal Heart. The late, fiery Kramer also founded the Gay Man's Health Crisis. It was the world’s first and leading provider of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and advocacy.
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Corona Cookbook: Shaker Lemon Pie
Easy as Pie
By: - Jun 02nd, 2020Jennifer Trainer Thompson is director of Hancock Shaker Village. She is the author of numerous cookbooks. Here she shares a Shaker recipe for traditional lemon pie
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Drama Desk Awards Postponed in NY
Breaking News Events Cited as Reason.
By: - May 31st, 2020The Drama Desk organization and Spectrum News NY1 have postpone the Drama Desk Awards. "Breaking news events," purportedly in connection with protests, caused the postponment. A re-scheduled date will be announced. The Drama Desk Awards honor outstanding theater work in New York.
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Ella Sings at Theater for the New City
Zooming Theater Can be a Pleasure
By: - May 31st, 2020The Theater for the New City, executive director Crystal Field presents a unique on-line production of Ella the Ungovernable by David McDonald, directed by Melania Levitsky. Gracefully bridging the space between a full production and a reading, the actors bring the story to life.
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Monumental Conceptual Artist Christo at 84
It’s a Wrap
By: - Jun 01st, 2020They were known by first names, Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Until her death in 2009, and now his, they astonished the world with virtually imnpossible, monumental, site specific works. The official and bureaucratic opposition to their projects was formidable. Routinely it took years and decades to raise money and overcome obstacles. That all became part of the work. Solving that resistance made the end result all the more astonishing. Their amazing projects will be remembered by the millions who experienced them.
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Poloroid Photographer Elsa Dorfman at 83
Known for Studio Portraits Including Allen Ginsberg
By: - May 31st, 2020At 83 the reowned portrait photographer, Elsa Dorfman, passed away at home in the People's Republic of Cambridge. As a young women she worked for Grove Press in New York. There she met many writers including Allen Ginsberg who became a lifelong subject and friend. I included her in exhibitions and wrote about her for Art News.
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Art for TB-Aids Then. Covid-19 Now
Linda Troeller Creates Inspired Pandemic Art Again
By: - May 29th, 2020Linda Troeller exhibited in 2018 at the Griffin Museum in Winchester. Her earlier work focused on TB and AIDS. The Berkshires were a haven for TB patients when the disease was out of control. North Adams had a sanitarium. Gaylordsville was home of a sanitarium recognized nation-wide. Eugene O'Neill spent time there. Now Troeller looks at a new pandemic.
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Hancock Shaker Village Phase One
Campus Access as of June 4
By: - May 29th, 2020On Thursday, June 4 as part of Massachusetts Phase 1 initiative, Hancock Shaker Village will open only its outdoor spaces—including its beloved baby animals in outdoor fenced-in areas—to the public Thursdays through Sundays, 10 am–3 pm. This schedule will be in place at least through June, as the Village plans for a full reopening in Phase 3.
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Library of Congress and Portland Ovation
What Berkshire Grande Dame Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Hath Wrought
By: - May 29th, 2020Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, a grande dame of Berkshire music, financed the building of a concert hall for the Library of Congress. A concert planned at Coolidge Hall this spring was presented live streamed instead. The Library of Congress joined with co-presenter, Portland Ovation, and the International Contemporary Ensemble to present a program that worked amazingly well in Zoom.
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