50 Years and Forward: Works on Paper Acquisitions (through March 10, 2024) marks the 50th anniversary of the Manton Research Center — the home of the works on paper collection — with a selection of prints, drawings, and photographs acquired between 1973 and 2023. The Clark has free admission from January through March.

The continuing evolution of Esther Solondz’s fascination with portraits and transformative materials is expressed in her new work. For the past 20 years, she’s worked with suggestive half-here, half-there images made with substances that evolve over time. In her current exhibition, Solondz is using ink, which she drops onto wet paper. This allows for a certain amount of control but also happy accidents as the ink moves and pools in unforeseen ways. 

This exhibition embodies the notion of uniting diverse artistic styles and techniques to honor the abundance and variety of creative expression within the Galatea membership.

Highlights include residency with new Jazz Studies co-chair Anna Webber; concert of music by David Bowie; celebrations of Duke Ellington, Max Roach, Wayne Shorter, Mahalia Jackson, and Chris Connor; and a special appearance by the NEC Jazz Orchestra at Cambridge's Regattabar

I don’t do a ten-best list; instead, I like to recall some of my favorite shows of the past year.

While Jeff Weaver is among America’s elite realist painters his work is not widely known beyond Gloucester. During Gloucester 400th Plus an exhibition, This Unique Place: Paintings and Drawings of Jeff Weaver, was featured at the Cape Ann Museum. His remarkable work preceded the blockbuster show of Josephine and Edward Hopper who met in Gloucester during the summer of 1923.

“Museums are not simply repositories of art. They humanize the landscape of human events. They connect us to life’s most enduring themes. I have long felt this way about the Gardner, and feel it particularly keenly about a work that will be specially presented at the Museum January 20–February 4, 2024.”

Foraging through the belongings of their recently deceased mother, two middle-aged, somewhat estranged sisters learn more about their birth father and stepfather from a trove of letters and other documents. They also learn more about each other as they clash and bond over historical events that they either did not share or had seen from different perspectives.

Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Arts mounted a comical and believable production of Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park." The production ran through Jan. 28. "Barefoot in the Park" takes place in New York City during the 1960s.

Barrie Kosky, former director at the Komische Oper, Berlin, directed Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's last opera "Der Goldene Hahn" (The Golden Cockerel) at the Schiller Theater, the temporary house of the Komische Oper during its renovation.

A month of dining on the road has its ups and downs. Mostly when turning off for the night there is a range of chains. Now and then we got lucky with diners, drive-ins and dives.

Since 1975 Raindancer Steak House in West Palm Beach has been serving the Florida clan of the rich and elegant. With a fabulous vintage jazz soundtrack we enjoyed exquisite fine dining. The more so as we arrived in time for the Early Bird special menu.

During our epic road trip to and from Florida we sniffed out barbecue. By default, we enjoyed many Mexican restaurants. In a hamlet off 1-95 we enjoyed authentic North Carolina grub at Stormin Norman's Barbecue.

David Hertzberg's opera, The Rose Elf, opened The Angel Space series, a collaboration between Unison Media and Green-Wood Cemetery. After whiskey amidst gravestones, the audience took a walk through the glorious grounds, where ancient trees are thick, tall and promising. The production in the Catacombs was thrilling.

Carnegie Hall ended its 2017-18 season Tuesday night with the last of three concerts featuring the MET Orchestra. This year, the pit band at the Metropolitan Opera has been playing under a succession of different conductors. This one was conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.

Betrayal through informing is at the core of Athol Fugard’s masterful A Lesson from Aloes, one of several penetrating plays that earns the South African playwright a position in the pantheon of modern authors. First produced in 1980, the play is set in 1963, a full three decades before the end of apartheid. Weathervane Productions renders this classic with exceptional skill.

I didn’t think there were really any outstanding musical productions this season. By that I mean productions where the work itself and all elements of the production hit the mark. Most had flaws of some kind.

New Southern Florida theater company's production of Into The Woods is mostly a success. The director's approach suggests the innocence our youth has lost in the aftermath of tragedies. Mostly, this production leaves Into the Woods intact.

Peace for Mary Frances by Lily Thorne is produced by The New Group. It is in many ways a tough play, a domestic drama set during the final weeks of hospice at home. The cast featuring Lois Smith and J. Smith-Cameron is terrific.

Under the guise of the Red Scare, Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), abrogated the rights of thousands of people. Their practice of denouncing their political opposites is little different from the same strategy used by the current presidency.

The author recently visited Cartagena, Colombia. The city is a 500-year old urban jewel in the Caribbean with a wonderful scaled and visually vibrant Old Town (el Centro Historico). It is a wonderful destination on the western edge of the Caribbean. Planning of Cartagena both in terms of preservation and new development is a challenge, but climate change and rising sea levels is threatening its cultural heritage.

Astrid Hiemer contributed 19 photo illustrations for my fifth book of gonzo poems Topsy Turvy. On Sunday of Labor Day weekend we collaborated for a reading and book launch at historic Bascom Lodge on Mt. Greylock. There was a nice turnout on the porch. Jose, Alvin, Rick and Art joined us for the jazz dinner that followed. We stayed the night and had breakfast with hikers. It was an adventure we need to have more often.

Despite occasional lineup changes, the band has always had a “Jay.” Even so, the original name that was bestowed upon them by the legendary songwriting and producing team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller did not use any of the bandmembers’ names. What's in a name? The vintage band is on tour this fall.

Connecticut is blessed with an abundance of fine professional theaters – from the major regional companies (Yale Rep, Long Wharf, Hartford Stage, Goodspeed, TheaterWorks, Westport Playhouse) to more locally oriented theaters (Ivoryton Playhouse, Playhouse on Park in West Hartford, Connecticut Repertory Theater at UConn, Sharon Playhouse, Seven Angels in Waterbury, MTC in Norwalk and ACT-CT in Ridgefield). Plus there are the major presenting house that bring in national tours – the Bushnell in Hartford, Shubert in New Haven and the Palace in Waterbury.

Spread over 52,000 acres on high plateaus (7,000 to 8,500 feet), Mesa Verde National Park offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Puebloans who built their homes there from around 650 until about 1300 AD.