Opinion
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How Jan Fontein Stabilized the MFA
From Curator of Asiatic Art to Director in 1975
By: - May 17th, 2020Because of the Raphael Incident, Perry T. Rathbone. was forced out as director of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1970. The board president, George Seybolt, who ousted Rathbone, then passed over acting director, Classical curator, Cornelius Vermeule, to unilaterally appoint a dark horse candidate, Merrill Rueppel. That ended with a curatorial coup from which Asiatic curator, Jan Fontein, emerged as acting director in 1975. He calmed troubled waters and acccomplished much through 1987. From April 1983, this is the first of two transcribed interviews.
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The Mount On Line
Free Programming
By: - May 11th, 2020The Mount the home of Edit Wharton in the Berkshires announces a schedule of free programs. It is requires registration at EdithWharton.org.
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MFA Pledges $500,000 for Diversity
Settlement Negotiated by Attorney General
By: - May 11th, 2020There were incidents of racism when a school group visited the Museum of Fine Arts on May 16, 2019. Attorney General Maura Healey has negotiated an agreement between the Museum of Fine Arts and Boston’s Helen Y. David Leadership Academy. The settlment comes with an apology as well as a commitment of $500,000 to address issues of racism
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Victoria Bond at the Cutting Edge
Composer, Conductor and Musical Polymath
By: - May 10th, 2020Victoria Bond was born to be a musician. Her grandfather was a composer and conductor. Her father was an operatic bass, and her mother, a concert pianist. She found the piano herself. When her kindergarten teacher scolded her mother for pushing Bond too hard, her mother explained that she was trying to hold her back, but could not.
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Classical Music for Fun
Tom and Jerry and a Roller Coaster
By: - May 10th, 2020If you need a bit of levity, try opening the music below!
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Theatre and the New Normal
The View from My Sofa
By: - May 06th, 2020Since we have to do without live theater for the foreseeable future, however, theater on my sofa can be an excellent replacement.
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Do the Math
Response to the Unmasked
By: - May 04th, 2020We are all connected; we are one. One plus one is one. There is even a word for this. That word is love. As difficult as it may be sometimes, it is nonetheless the answer.
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Persimmon
A Tree Grows in North Adams
By: - Apr 26th, 2020The tree grows. It does not try to; it just does. This is our life, and the purpose of it is to live. In this moment, and the next. It’s okay once in a while to sit on the Old Bastard’s bench, and catch our breath. But life does not stop, and we must continue to live it.
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Hancock Shaker Village a Living History Museum
Jennifer Trainer Thompson Discusses Plans for a 2020 Season
By: - Apr 23rd, 2020In a normal season the Hancock Shaker Village, which was founded sixty years ago near Pittsfield, is open from April through December. With spring planting and the birth of livestock this is a busy time of year. The annual Baby Animals Festival draws some 20% of annual visitation and 15% of earned revenue. We spoke with director Jennifer Trainer Thompson about strategies to function during the pandemic.
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Watching Theatre from Home
Adapting to the Pandemic
By: - Apr 21st, 2020Stage shows are going on – maybe not live, but via live streaming and through other means. Since the world is in the midst of a pandemic, theater lovers are not able to experience the vitality and immediacy that comes with truly live theater. However, that doesn’t mean theater can’t be a part of your life under quarantine.
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Letter from Hancock Shaker Village
Three Little Lambs
By: - Apr 19th, 2020Jennifer Trainer Thompson, the director of Hancock Shaker Village, has a letter for friends and neighbors. It's spring and the lambs have been born. Soon it is time to plant the traditional gardens. Trying times call for creative solutions.
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Curator James Manning
Overview of Boston's Artists and Alternative Galleries
By: - Apr 17th, 2020For decades artist, curator, installer James Manning has covered Boston's emerging artists and alternative galleries. Other than when Bill Arning was at MIT List nobody has made a greater effort to interact with emerging artists and their galleries. He had his own gallery Art Vigor in East Boston and was director of Gallery FX, a pioneer of the SOWA art district. This activity was rarely covered by the mainstream media. This is an attempt to document a vibrant era . From 2008 until his death in 2018 Manning worked with curator Joe Ketner at Emerson College.
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Former ICA Director Sydney Roberts Rockefeller
Recalling Events 1973-1974
By: - Apr 15th, 2020Then 27 the Institute of Contemporary Art was the first of many boards that Sydney Roberts Rockefeller joined. Director Andrew C. Hyde quit not long after the beginning of his second term. Left in the lurch was a planned conference on public art. When she stepped up to rescue the conference the board made her director. She was on site during the renovation of 955 Boylston Street. It was designed and largely funded by the architect Graham Gund.
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Yin and Yang
Facing Fear and Uncertainty
By: - Apr 09th, 2020There is a line from the movie “Tombstone,” spoken by Doc Holliday to Wyatt Earp: “There is no normal life, Wyatt. There is just life.”
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Jeremy Denk on Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier
Preludes and Fugues Revealed
By: - Apr 08th, 2020The pleasures of streaming music are revealed in this delightful meeting with Jeremy Denk in his country home. He focuses on the C sharp Prelude and Fugue and dips into two others. What a joy!
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New Music Virtual Town Hall
Our Digital Present and Future Explored
By: - Apr 07th, 2020Many of us sense that coming out of lockdown we will find ourselves in a very different world. Ideas that have emerged from isolation suggest ways in which a wider group of people, worldwide, can connect. Music is a universal language. Organizations like the International Contemporary Ensemble have led the way into a musical future unimaginable before the most recent technology revolution. Gathered to discuss subjects like how to make an audience out of disparate listeners and platforms available for cooperation and sharing, many other organizations offered insights.
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MFA Cancels Programming
Suspended Through August 31
By: - Apr 04th, 2020Responding to the pandemic the MFA has issued this letter to its patrons.
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Update from Shakespeare & Company
Letter from Allyn Burrows
By: - Apr 03rd, 2020Shakespeare saw the theatres closed two times in as many years due to the plague, and he subsequently must have viewed the world through the lens of what the epidemic wrought.
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Berkshire Theatre Group to Open in August
Revising plans for Summer 2020
By: - Apr 01st, 2020This week Jacob's Pillow cancelled its coming season. Can Tanglewood be far behind? Today Williamstown Theatre Festival pulled back from selling tickets with a note for further review of seasonal plans. Berkshire Theatre Group announces the launch of its season on August 1. We have yet to hear updates from Shakespeare & Company, Barrngton Stage Company or other regional theatres. As non essential business Berkshire museums are closed with no time line for resumed programming.
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Jacob's Pillow Cancels 2020 Season
Response to Pandemic
By: - Mar 31st, 2020For the first time in its 88-year history, the Jacob’s Pillow Board of Trustees and Executive Leadership have made the decision to cancel the 2020 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, previously scheduled for June 24-August 30 along with its annual gala scheduled for June 20.
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Rafael Mahdavi: Corona Chronicles
Pandemic News from France
By: - Mar 30th, 2020During a time of confinement we reach out to family and friends by phone and e mail. From France my artist friend, Rafael Mahdavi, wrote a wonderful detailed note. He also sent a remarkable new work that inspired this piece. Art represents hope and salvation through the darkest moments of human condition.
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Corona Chronicles
Senior Shopping at Big Y
By: - Mar 27th, 2020In a time of pandemic the early bird scores the toilet paper. When the quality of life is measured in sheets.
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Music and the Virus
Pitching In
By: - Mar 25th, 2020Many organizations are offering wonderful streaming. Reports suggest that music with videos is doing better than sound only. Atlanta Opera, led by Tomer Zvulun, may be providing the most useful help.
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Boston Gallerist Arthur Dion
Gallery NAGA on Newbury Street Since 1977
By: - Mar 25th, 2020Gallery NAGA, with a lease from Church of the Covenant, was organized as a cooperative in 1977. In 1982 Arthur Dion was hired as director and soon became sole owner. With a commitment to painting and studio furniture it prevails on what was formerly Boston's gallery row. Now director emeritus Dion stepped away from daily management. As part of compiling an oral history of contemporary art in Boston, Dion shared insights of his remarkable career.
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Home Alone
Coping with Self Isolation
By: - Mar 21st, 2020I was joking with one of my daughters this morning about masks. She works in law enforcement, and was sharing a few stories about people who have called 911 about running low on toilet paper, and people who have come to her station to complain about a spouse who won't take this "virus thing" seriously. She wears a department-issued N95 mask, but she asked me if I knew where she could get a mask to protect her from stupid
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