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The Rose Art Museum names Arghavan Khosravi (b. 1984) the 2023 Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence. Since 2002, the Perlmutter Residency has been part of the Rose Art Museum’s longstanding tradition of promoting emerging artists of extraordinary talent whose work addresses contemporary issues of vital urgency.

In a fast-moving 60 minutes, mime comic Ennio provides cleverly curated cartoon characterizations of celebrities and lip syncs to songs, mostly recorded by the people portrayed. The music is the songbook of our lives (if you’re middle aged or older!), including rock-and-roll, pop of various sorts, and rap.

While manager of the Boston Tea Party Steve Nelson booked, first the Yardbirds with Jimmy Page, then later the Jeff Beck band for four nights. Beck was touring with Rod Stewart, Ron Wood and Mick Waller. (Editor: I saw that lineup at the Newport Jazz Festival.) On the cusp of superstardom Beck broke up the band. Rod went solo and Ron eventually joined the Rolling Stones.

"Time Alone" is a moving and intense play about two prisoners. Boca Stage is presenting a riveting production of Alessandro Camon's play. The production runs through Jan. 22.

All the big opera companies have something to learn from the Prototype Festival, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

So, what makes “Annie” so popular? Where to start? Set during the Great Depression and opening in an orphanage with conditions straight out of a Charles Dickens novel doesn’t seem a likely starting point.

Gloucester 400th Plus is an occasion for research and reflection on all aspects of the history and culture of Cape Ann. in 2022 the Cape Ann Museum hosted a range of panel discussions and lectures. Here is the full program with links to their videos. It is significant that the museum has preserved and made available such a valuable resource.

Quarries, Poles Hill, Ocean Ledges and gratitude weave through the following essay, with 30 plus photographs.

Keith Haring made thousands of unsanctioned chalk drawings in New York City subway stations. Most of them were promptly thrown away or papered over by subway authorities. Only a limited number survive to this day. Seventeen of these historic drawings will be exhibited publicly for the first time at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center

It has taken months for Martin Mugar to get a fix on the remarkable Philip Guston exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. The work is now on the road. Mugar attempts to unpack the complex phases of the work from initial Social Realism to Abstract Expressionism to a late phase entailing controversial cartoonish images of the Ku Klux Klan. Initially the late work cast him as a pariah in the art world. During which he taught at Boston University and was embraced by like minded professors and students.

In short order, playwright Lynne Kaufman offers enticing insights into two contrasting, important modern poets, and the simple production succeeds through fine acting. This compact but impactful taste of familiarity fully satisfies on its own, while many attendees will want to learn even more about these fragile artists and their robust literary works.

The Komische Oper Berlin is one of three opera houses in the Capital. Committed to presenting lighter fare, it just celebrated its 75 birthday in January with a big gala and two operas by Jaques Offenbach: Oyayaye and Fortunio's Lied.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is pleased to announce the first round of recommended awards for fiscal year 2023, with more than $34 million in funding to support the arts nationwide. This is the first of the NEA’s two major grant announcements each fiscal year and includes grants to organizations through the NEA’s Grants for Arts Projects, Challenge America, and Research Awards categories.

VERY is pleased to begin the winter season with Death Show, a special compilation exploring how death reveals itself as both an unspoken subtext and conscious motif in the work of ten artists. Employing diverse mediums, these artists express the material and existential implications of the force that affects all.

Thursday, January 26, 7:30 p.m.; Friday, January 27, 1:30 p.m.; Saturday, January 28, 8 p.m. Andris Nelsons leads the world premiere of American composer/guitarist Steven Mackey's Concerto for Curved Space, a BSO co-commission (Thursday and Saturday concerts only). Mackey's style embraces influences ranging from Beethoven to modern rock.

He’s been making jazz, and nurturing young jazz artists, for more than 50 years, and it’s about time we paid tribute to Mike Schiffer. At the age of 93, he is still playing local gigs. But this time, on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 29 (4pm), he’ll be in the audience with the rest of us lucky jazz followers.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC),  announces the 10-minute plays, playwrights and casting for the 12th Annual 10X10 New Play Festival, part of the 2023 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival. Performances February 17 through March 5, 2023.

Some Like It Hot is fun, tuneful and worth spending Broadway prices to see. Is the musical really an adaptation of the classic slapstick, Billy Wilder comedy?

A vibrant equity national touring production of "Aladdin" is playing in Miami through Sunday. "Aladdin" offers a feast for the eyes. The popular musical's basis is a 1992 animated film, which an ancient folktale inspired.

The Clark Art Institute hosts three free events as part of I/O Fest, the Williams College Department of Music’s annual immersion in the music of today. Students in the music program take audiences on a tour of new sounds and adventurous music during a concert for families on January 15.

The artist Marjorie Minkin divides time between Boston and the Eclipse Mill in North Adams. Her Lexans have been shown in galleries and museums in MA, NYC, LA, Michigan, Canada, France, Belgium, Germany and Seoul. This is the first time a solo installation will be shown in Boston.  The work will be exhibited in the Atrium gallery at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston from January 5th through March 30th, 2023.

Here’s my list of the best Connecticut productions I saw this year. Instead of ranking them, I’ve just listed what I found particularly noteworthy.

The works in On the Town celebrate city life and community, illuminating a Boston area of the past through the vision of one of its more unique residents. Arnold Trachtman’s paintings tell stories and reveal an artist as deeply invested in his neighborhood as it was in him.  

Around Six years ago, I signed up for the National Geographic Family History DNA Test.  For around $125, I received a Cheek Swab Kit and some paperwork.  I was instructed to reveal nothing more than my Name and Age.  A few weeks later, I received a box which included a Printed Brill Family History based solely on the DNA I presented.  The National Geographic Report let me know that I am Jewish and that my Father’s Family started in the Middle East and traveled to Sicily around a thousand years ago. 

Gallery NAGA welcomes 2023 with a selection of works by two artists, Cheryl Ann Thomas and Michael F. Rohde, in a feat of interdisciplinary collaboration. This exhibition was first organized by the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona California and curated by Jo Lauria, Adjunct Curator for the American Museum of Ceramic Art and a design historian based in Los Angeles, California.