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For many, public art  conjures up images of bronze statues of a soldier on horseback, images of historically significant and/or forgotten politicians or leaders, or symbolic (often mythological) figures of metaphoric significance. But these days public art takes a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and forms. It can be temporary or permanent.

Everyone has an absolute right to place their own lives in danger.   The Darwin Award was created to recognize such people posthumously.  But no one has the right to place anyone else’s life in danger.  To do so is selfish and ignorant.  Even freedom has its limits – – fire in a crowded theater, for instance.

The two season Israeli series "Fauda" was a boffo smash on Netflix. Accordingly I binged on its more or less sequel "Hit and Run." The creative team jumped the pond to create an Israeli/ American production in English and Hebrew. In seeking a wider and American audience the team lost its Sabra base and churned out yet another mediocre action thriller. If you are a 'Fauda" fan this will be a major disappointment.

The production is enjoyable due to the hard work and talent of the cast. Because of various complications caused by Covid, the cast does not include any members of Actor’s Equity.

The Irish Repertory Theatre has expanded our notion of performance in their streamed productions.  A company with a small theatre (146 seats in the main house), now offers its consistently superior productions to the wide audience they deserve.

HallSpace is pleased to present monotypes and shaped, multi-panel paintings by Rob Roy in "Dispatches from America."  The Dorchester based gallery exhibition continues to September 4

The Mount is open for guided tours through October 31. Tours can be booked online at EdithWharton.org. The grounds are open, dawn to dusk, unless otherwise posted.

Kingston Gallery members Jeesoo Lee and Jamal Thorne, with guest juror Lavaughan Jenkins, read James Baldwin’s interview with Studs Terkel. Then, with the interview fresh in their minds, the jurors focused on what it means to be disruptive and all the stories that people have to tell.

ArtWeek Berkshires is a collaboration among Berkshire County’s five cultural districts (Great Barrington, Lenox, Pittsfield, North Adams, Williamstown), supported by 1Berkshire and the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, with media support from Berkshire Magazine and Lamar.  

It's the final lap for the summer season at Tanglewood with more great concerts to come.

Perhaps unique among performed operas, Francesco Cavalli’s 1667 “Eliogabalo”’s world premiere was delayed – by over three centuries – until 1999 to be precise.  Why, one might ask? 

The Boston artist, Kahlil Gibran, is best remembered for his welded steel and bronze sculptures. Recently the Ogunquit Museum of American Art presented an exhibition of small early paintings that make us reconsider the relationship to his teacher Karl Zerbe and the Boston Expressionists.

Harriet Harris has caught Eleanor’s mannerisms well, her physical motions exactly - living in the age of newsreels, her figure, her speech, her presence are indelible in public memory.

Our first outdoors headliner concert takes place on Sunday, Aug. 15, at newly-refurbished Gateways Inn in picturesque downtown Lenox.

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) announces its first annual PEM Prize to celebrate creative expression and civic engagement. The inaugural recipient of the PEM Prize and its $25,000 award is multidisciplinary Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa. Over the next year, Garaicoa will lead a series of events and civic engagement initiatives with the museum to coincide with the reopening of Partitura (August 1, 2021–February 6, 2022).

Singer-songwriter Paul Beaubrun was born into Haitian musical royalty (his parents are lead singers in the Grammy nominated band Boukman Eksperyans, and his grandfather is Haiti's beloved actor/comedian Languichatte Debordus). He will perform at Hancock Shaker Village on July 31.

And Away We Stared is an inventive and theatrically imaginative production, using text from the works of writers Charles Mee, Gertrude Stein and Matei Visniec, a Romanian-French playwright frequently produced by Trap Door. The theater is committed to “seeking out challenging yet obscure works and bringing them to startling life on stage” and they’ve succeeded here.

In “Elizabeth Cree,” the eminent Pulitzer Prize winning team, composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell, have crafted a score and a darkly comic libretto with Gothic atmosphere that is absolutely riveting.  West Edge Opera’s stellar new production at its wonderful outdoor venue channels the creepiness of the events even at a broad daylight matinee.  

With “Katya Kabavona”’s powerful score and intense drama, Janácek expressed his full maturity in the vocal genre.  It is a classic, and West Edge’s production is well worth seeing.

Wolf and Badger is a tight and intense drama receiving its world premiere production at Main Street Players in Miami Lakes. The drama by Michael John McGoldrick shows what can happen drug use becomes habitual. The play takes place in 2006 in a working class neighborhood of Syracuse, N.Y. Main Street Players' strong production runs through Aug. 29. People can watch the play virtually if they choose.

The Munich State Opera is presenting Salome, the opera by Richard Strauss. The set is dark, yet in full view as we enter the opera house. A man is fidgeting over a desk deep in the set. On it sits a banker’s lamp with its classic green hood. A patent for this lamp was taken out in 1909. In a prologue to the opera, Mahler songs are being sung, another brief clue to date the monumental, elegant setting created by Malgorzata Szczesniak. 

The National Academy of Design is pleased to announce the launch of the virtual Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné on July 29, in recognition of the anniversary of the artist’s birthday. In this first phase, the catalogue raisonné is focused on American artist Eastman Johnson’s paintings. Subsequent phases will include the artist’s drawings and prints.

“The Song of Summer” contains many stock situations, but they are written and performed with great flair, and the outcomes are not always as expected.  Importantly, the play’s subtext provides layers of depth that result in a thoughtful work.  Though the work doesn’t wallow in self-importance, this is not an episode of “Happy Days.”  

American journeyman playwright and author Jeremy Hatcher has fashioned a new version of Dr. Glas that takes into considerations the heart of the story set in 1905 Sweden, while creating a riveting psychological thriller, and a perfect vehicle for the talent of polished British actor Daniel Gerroll, in a solo tour-de-force performance that is smartly directed by NCRT artistic director David Ellenstein.

GableStage in Coral Gables will open its 2021-22 season with Arthur Miller's The Price. The nonprofit, professional theater company near Miami had planned to produce Miller's drama last season, however, the pandemic closed theaters. GableStage's 2021-22 season will be the first under new producing artistic director Bari Newport. Newport succeeds Joe Adler, a South Florida theater icon who has died.