Institute of Contemporary Art

A flurry of activities in both Boston and Cambridge this week. Do not miss the Elliot Norton laureate William Kentridge will present his animated films at the Harvard Archives. The Jewish film festival promises a variety of special movies. Maestro Bernard Haitink will conduct at the Boston Symphony Orchestra Mendelssohn’s incidental music to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Institute of Contemporary Art & World Music/CRASHARTS showcases the unforgettable India Jazz Suites: Kathak Meets Tap.

The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) presents performing arts programming at its Boston Harbor location for Summer 2012. Programming includes perennial summer favorites Talking Taste, Harborwalk Sounds, and DJs on the Harbor, plus dance performances and the return of Experiment, bringing 50 writers, dancers, actors, and performers to the museum for an immersive theatrical experience.

Do not miss Huntington Theatre Company opening of The Luck of the Irish. The American Repertory Theater continues its creative & invigorating Futurity: A Musical by the Lisps. The Boston Symphony Orchestra presents Ravel, Salonen and Stravinsky under the baton of the acclaimed maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen while the Celebrity Series features the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. The Harvard Film Archives showcases three exceptional films by Michael Glawogger and The Museum of Fine Arts presents films on Gerhard Richter Painting and Hollywood Scriptures series.

Boston University professor Patricia Hills continues coverage of the ambitious, multi venue project Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. We pick up the dialogue with Day Two starting with The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, with its exhibition MEX/L.A.: “Mexican” Modernism(s) in Los Angeles, 1930-1985.

The American Repertory Theater presents Futurity: A Musical by The Lisps while the Huntington Theatre Company features Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and The Luck of the Irish. The Boston Turkish Film Festival continues at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The Harvard Film Archives presents a retrospective on Carmelo Bene. The Coolidge Corner Theater features “She Stoops to Conquer” a play from the National Theater in London. The Boston Symphony Orchestra welcomes Orchestra Greek violinist and conductor Leonidas Kavados.

The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) presents The International Experimental Cinema Exposition (TIE), with an introduction by curator and TIE founder Christopher May, on Sunday, April 1 at 4 p.m. in the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater. Tickets for the screenings are $10 general admission or $8 for members, students, and seniors.

The Canadian Biennal was staged in 1989 at the National Gallery in Ottowa and shelved for lack of funding after that. Under Marc Mayer it has been revived. But rather than a true biennial the 2011 incarnation was an overview of recent acquisitions.

This June, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston presents the first museum survey of Josiah McElheny. McElheny uses the ancient and labor intensive medium of glass to create objects of exceptional beauty and formal sophistication. An artist of diverse interests, McElheny draws on art history, politics, and cosmology (a branch of astronomy that deals with the structure of the universe) to encode his glassworks with information, turning these exquisite objects into repositories of meaning. A mid-career survey of the artist’s work, Josiah McElheny: Some Pictures of Infinity

Many wonderful things to do during a cold winter week: The Goethe Institute launches a primary source concert series: between house and stage – public and private music making in the 18th century. The Boston Symphony Orchestra proposes a special Valentine evening of Gastronomy and Music and free chorale masterpieces. The Boston Celebrity Series presents Soweto Gospel Choir. The American Repertory Theatre premieres “Wild Swans,” a journey from the early days of Communist hope and struggle in China, through the chaos and confusion of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. and much more to warm your heart and mind.

Not to be missed Stephen Petronio’s Boston Premiere: performance of dance, music and visual imagery at the Institute of Contemporary Art; Emanuel Ax at Boston Symphony Orchestra; Sérgio and Odair Assad, duo guirtarits and Soweto Gospel Choir presented by Boston Celebrity Series. The Harvard Film Archives features live Director David Gatten in conversation with Curator Mark McElhatten. The Museum of Fine Arts presents a film on Boston College. The Boston Ballet showcases three ballets: Les Sylphides by Fokine, Polyphonia by Wheeldon and Symphony in Three Movements by Balanchine.

Both the Director and Chief Curator positions have been endowed for the first time in the Institute of Contemporary Art's 75 year history. Ellen Poss has endowed the Director position, now named the Ellen Matilda Poss Director; and Barbara Lee has endowed the Chief Curator post, now named the Barbara Lee Chief Curator.

The ICA has two extraordinary programs not to be missed: Dance/Draw exhibition and Trisha Brown Floor to Forrest performance final week as well as Andy’s Warhol: God Squad’s Kitchen that showed to sold-out performance in New York. The Harvard Film Archives presents three films by directors Dominik Graf, Christian Petzold and Christoph Hochhäusler the result of their correspondence on the subjects of film aesthetics, the Berlin School, Germany and the film genre. Music can be heard at the MFA: J.S. Bach: The Six Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord and at the venerable Symphony Orchestra with excerpts of Weber, Beethoven, Harbison & Strauss.

A rich week of Christmas Music: Bach at the Jordan Hall with the Handel & Haydn Society; Medieval Music with the Boston Camerata; Celtic Music at the Cutler Majestic & NEC Millennium Gospel Choir at the MFA. Longy School of Music presents Antonio Cesti’s opera Orontea. The Harvard Film Archives continues Henri-George Clouzot’s retrospective while the MFA has a series of films dedicated to Architecture (Foster, Eames and Portman); Arts Emerson presents the great Katherine Hepburn. Dance is featured through Diplomacy Through Dance: 
Bringing American Modern Dance to Kazakhstan. Enjoy!

For the upcoming winter and spring 2012, the ICA has developed a full and provocative series of events that include an array of performances, film programs and lectures. Be there or be square.

American Repertory Theatre presents Three Pianos – A Toast to Shubert’s Winterreise. The Goethe Institute showcases the Nobel Prize Screening. Two films retrospectives continue: The Greek Cinema at the Museum of Fine Arts and Henri-Georges Clouzot at the Harvard Film Archives. Boston Symphony Orchestra is on tour in San Francisco.

The Museum of Fine Arts presents a retrospective of Greek Cinema while the Harvard Film Archives continues Henri-Georges Clouzot retrospective. Boston Symphony Orchestra debut of Czech conductor Jiří Bělohlávek with Mahler and Harbison. WGBH proposes an evening with Rick Steves while the Boston Symphony Orchestra hosts a book signing for Ron Della Chiesa, Radio My Way.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Numerous cultural activities across the city with France present in several venues. Boston Symphony Orchestra presents a rich program of Berlioz, Mozart, Carter, Bartók; Harbison, Ravel, Mahler under the baton of the French conductor Ludovic Morlot. The Harvard Film Archives starts a series of Henri-Georges Clouzot films while the Museum of Fine Arts pursues Catherine Deneuve's retrospective.

Special this week events include in film Catherine Deneuve's retrospective at the Museum of Fine Arts, in opera Mozart's Don Giovanni the Metropolitan Opera Live on HD encore and Verdi's Nabuco at the Coolidge Corner Theatre; in dance Angel Reapers inspired by Ann Lee's life, founder of the Shaker movement at the Cutler Majectic Theatre; and the Untitled Still Life Collection by Trajal Harrell and Sarah Sze at the Institute of Contemporary Art.; and in music the Boston Philharmonic at Jordan Hall in a Brahms concert.

Boston selection of events: Trisha Brown Dance Company returns to Boston after over a decade hiatus at the Institute of Contemporary Art; not to miss Jean Yves Thibaudet and Angelika Kirchschlager at Jordan Hall part of the Boston Celebrity Series; the Jewish Film Festival continues at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Harvard Archives resumes its retrospective on Sergio Leone cinematographic oeuvre.

A week full of exceptional films: Andy Warhol at the Harvard Film Archives; The Palestinian Film Festival at the Museum of Fine arts, Trisha Brown dance performance at the ICA; Shumann and Strauss at The Boston Symphony Orchestra and much more....

This week highlights are: "Women of Will" at Central Square Theatre; Berlioz: Beatrice et Benedicte at the Cutler Majestic Opera Boston; the Palestinian Film Festival at the Museum of Fine Arts; ICA Art Music: Babaa Maal

This week highlights are the not to be missed MFA Christian Marclay’s video: “The Clock”; Central Square Theatre “Women of Will” play; Fenway Theater MET High Definition screening “Anna Bolena”; Harvard Film Archives “Dreamlife of Angels” and ICA Live performance “Knitting Nation Phase 7”.

An exceptional week of cultural activities in Boston & Cambridge: Trisha Brown’s Floor of the Forest, a mixture of sculpture, dance & performance at the ICA. The Harvard Film Archives showcase the work of the British filmmaker Ben Rivers and Romanian Andrei Ujica.

On the occasion of the opening of the Linde Family Wing of Contemporary Art we reflect on a troubling history. There has been a struggle going back to the 1930s and the founding of the Institute of Contemporary Art. There has been an awkward relationship between the ICA, MFA and other museums in the area. It is now time for art workers to unite and throw off their chains.

Directed by Susan Vogel (2011, 53 min.). Filmed over three years in Venice, Nsukka, and the United States, this is a powerful portrait of Africa’s most widely acclaimed contemporary artist El Anatsui. Fold Crumple Crush gives an insider’s view of the artist’s practice, the ingenious steps and thousands of hours of labor that convert used bottle tops into huge, opulent wall hangings. Anatsui explains how his artworks have become a marriage of painting and sculpture—objects that speak of African history but also reach for the ethereal—and he talks about his aspirations for artworks he has yet to make.