arts

Free today. Napoleon exhibition. Museum of Fine Arts.

the zak — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 12:37:47 -0500

Today a one time opportunity for free viewing of the Symbols of Power Napoleon exhibition and all of the Museum of Fine Arts during the Martin Luther King Day open house
http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/sub.asp?key=15&subkey=2140
http://www.mfa.org/napoleon/
http://mfa.org/press

Wear a universalhub symbol of power... Meet other people at the museum who've read the bits of local interest at http://universalhub.com

CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY opens in Boston, direct from a sold-out run in LA

Undercover Blonde — Tue, 01 May 2007 12:46:24 -0400

Steven Fales was the model Mormon boy: an Eagle Scout, international missionary, BYU graduate, married in the Salt Lake Temple, and father of two children. But what happens when the model finds himself in â€œreparative therapyâ€ for "same-sex attraction"â€¦and fails?

Hahvahd Yahd? Ya can't pahk ya cah in the Green Street T stop, eitha

adamg — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 23:46:52 -0500

MBTA cops ordered an artist's car out of the gallery at the Green Street T stop:

... I got a call from Ravi Jain last night asking me to come down to the new Axiom Gallery on Green Street to help him push his car, Hosey, OUT of the gallery. ...

Why was the car there to begin with? To show episodes of Jain's videoblog, taped on his morning commute. Cops were afraid it would blow up or something.

Athens of America? Not if the Herald had their way

Ron Newman — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 13:53:53 -0500

With today's front page, the Herald launches a jihad against the Mass. Cultural Council.

Further proof not to trust promises from out of town companies

adamg — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 08:09:44 -0500

Joel Brown discusses Bank of America's decision to stop funding the Celebrity Series, started by predecessor FleetBank:

...Both sides make nice with quotes about how important it is for givers and getters to diversify and blah blah. But basically this is the now out-of-town bank yanking major support from an arts series that has been a mainstay. ...

It's another reason to patronize a locally owned bank, Leslie Turek writes.

Vagina Blessings in Brookline

tblade — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 21:33:09 -0400

At the Coolidge Corner Theater today, Eve Ensler of â€œThe Vagina Monologuesâ€ fame read from her new book â€œInsecure at Last: Losing it in our Security Obsessed Worldâ€. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review summarizes the new work saying, â€œEnsler stitches together vignettes from her visits to locales where women are coping with the aftermath of calamities both natural -- the 2004 Sri Lanka tsunami and post-Katrina New Orleans - and man-made - Afghanistan, Kosovo and the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez.â€

Enslerâ€™s stage training punctuated the reading, particularly a vignette detailing a Katrina survivor who, after tending to her sonâ€™s severed fingertip for seven hours, waded with the wounded boy in neck deep, sewage and chemical filled water to New Orleansâ€™s convention center. The survivor recounts:

â€At some point, we decided to stay outside the center. Then someone said water was coming. Everyone panicked and started running. There was a stampede. Knocked down the elderly. I thought my leg was broken. Military suddenly arrived in a truck. The National Guard. I have no idea how many there were of them. They jumped out and put rifles to our heads, â€˜Motherfuckers! Bitches!â€™ they said. â€˜Lay down. Donâ€™t move, motherfuckers.â€™ We lay face down on the asphalt.

â€œI still have nightmares, all these months later.â€

Bill Marx signs off

adamg — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 20:08:33 -0400

The WBUR art critic is getting canned; he writes his final 'BUR commentary:

... The elimination of reviews on WBUR, as well as the cuts in column inches for criticism in the city's major newspapers and magazines, is symptomatic of a larger crisis. There's more arts activity in Boston than ever before, with politicians lauding the arts as crucial for the city's quality of life and arts advocates citing studies that suggest cultural tourism will be an increasingly vital part of Boston's economic survival in the future. Yet the praise of the arts has led to a baffling paradox: there is less -- not more -- meaningful coverage of culture in the city's media. Mainstream media refuses to treat the arts with the same depth and passion as they do politics and sports. ...

WBUR's response, which notes the station has hired a full-time art reporter (not critic).

Bill Marx has a new blog

No more arts criticism on WBUR

adamg — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 13:15:29 -0400

WBUR is firing long-time arts critic Bill Marx and shutting down its arts site, which Marx oversees and which features (featured) reviews, a blog, podcasts and an arts calendar.

No word on what will fill Marx's time. More time for headlines taken from the Globe and Herald?

Via the Bank of America Celebrity Series blog.

What museums and arts organizations could learn from the sports section

adamg — Tue, 16 May 2006 12:24:19 -0400

Imagine if the Sox always barred reporters from practices, the clubhouse and players. The sports section would be a lot thinner; the writing a lot less interesting. Joel Brown writes that's just what Boston-area arts institutions do, so no wonder they don't get much coverage:

... In the arts world, and perhaps especially in Boston's arts world, constant complaints about lack of coverage are often canceled out by the attitude that access is a privilege. With some arts organizations in this city, it takes weeks to arrange even the most benign feature. An interview with a curator or conductor is vetted with a control-freak tenacity more appropriate to the White House press office - and sometimes with as many hoops to be jumped as a Tom Cruise Vanity Fair cover. ...