During this holiday season if you can't get to the Nutcracker it will come to you. The San Francisco Ballet will stream the Sugarplum Fairies to your very own livingroom. Plan on great family entertainment.

During a year of Covid disruption our theater correspondent, Nancy S. Bishop, has taken time to publish a book of essays. She describes growing up a Cubs fan while pursuing the literary life. Some years ago she went bonkers over Bruce Springsteen. Often with her nephew, she has attended more than 30 concerts. The range of her interests and insights is formidable. Hop on and enjoy the ride for a tour of the Windy City and its arts.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), is pleased to announce the first round of Spark Grants of $2,500 each to eleven artists with whom Barrington Stage Company has either collaborated with on past work or looks forward to collaborating with in the future. Each recipient was awarded the grant under the single condition that the money be used to spark the artist’s creativity.

Norm Lewis: Christmastime Is Here premieres Thursday, December 17 at 8PM and streams on demand through December 31. It is part of the 54 Below Premieres series. Previously he co stared with Audra McDonald in Porgy and Bess at American Repertory Theatre.  

NCRT latest foray into filmed stage plays which ‘opened’ on December 9th is streaming the play “An Iliad” through January 3, 2021.  The play, freely, adapted, by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare from ancient Greek playwright Homer, creates a modern dress production of Homer’s “Iliad’.  Deftly directed by savvy NCRT artistic director David Ellenstein, “An Iliad” stars award winning actor Richard Baird in a powerful, mesmerizing, tour-de-force, performance that leaves the streaming home audience in a state of awe.

The Irish Repertory Theatre has brought superb streamed theatre to the public this fall. Their most recent production, streaming now, is Meet Me in St. Louis. It is just the right champagne for the holiday season.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced $32.8 million in grants to support 213 humanities projects in 44 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

For more than five decades artist Hunt Slonem has been painting and reimagining his obsessive motifs:  butterflies, birds, bunnies, and portraits of Abraham Lincoln, whom he refers to as his Marilyn. Repetition plays a huge role in his work. Excess and extravagance define his life and art.

As an institution that seeks to unite people and communities by celebrating cultural diversity in dance, Jacob’s Pillow has an ongoing responsibility to challenge white supremacy and to disrupt systems of bias and oppression. For the Pillow, this includes bringing under-recognized artists and stories to our stages, including Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+ artists, as well as increasing support to women choreographers and leaders of companies, and ensuring that people of color who have historically had limited or restricted access have robust opportunities to present, study, and develop work. 

A year like no other, let me wish you a warm home, enough to eat, company however virtual and safety from this deadly virus with the good fortune to come through this plague sometime in 2021 or 2022. Thank you for connecting globally on ZOOM, FaceBook + Messenger video calls.  Erica H. Adams is a photographer, artist and activist who lives on Cape Cod. We regularly enjoy her social media posts that keep us amused and connected.

Previously, Denzel Washington produced and co-starred (with Viola Davis) in August Wilson's "Fences." Now he has produced Wilson's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" with the late Chadwick Boseman. Washington plans to film the other eight plays in Wilson's iconic Pittsburgh or Century Cycle. For the decade of the 1920s Wilson took a side trip to Chicago and a recording session with the Mother of the Blues the great Ma Rainey. The best news is that the new release is available to stream on Netflix. The production is destined for a bundle of nominations during awards season.

Ann Reinking died in her sleep at age 71. The late Broadway star's extensive work in musical theater included playing Roxie Hart in 'Chicago.' She performed on Broadway for three decades.

Broadway soprano Rebecca Luker died on Wednesday, Dec. 23 at a Manhattan hospital from A.L.S. Luker received Tony Award nominations for her work in Show Boat, The Music Man, and Mary Poppins. Luker announced in February that doctors diagnosed her with A.L.S. Her last appearance came in June via Zoom.

The Vienna State Opera has recently  streamed their live production of Hans Henze’s The Sea Betrayed, a title translated with the approval of Yukio Mishima, the famed author of the novel on which the opera is based.  The opera premiered in Berlin in May of 1990.  Audiences in this country were not initially attracted when it was produced the following year by the San Francisco opera. The War Memorial Opera House was half empty. The opera is a masterpiece.

Initially when she married Frank Stella, the critic Barbara Rose embraced minimalism and formalism. She curated, promoted and wrote about an emerging generation of abstract artists, formalists, and women artists starting with Helen Frankenthaler. She could be quirky, wielding power that attracted friends and enemies. We never met or even spoke but she invited me to write for The Arts Newspaper (London and New York) for which she was an editor. She has died at 84.

After a long and successful career as a sculptor in the tradition of constructivist abstraction Christopher Sproat withdrew from the mainstream art world. On his property in Putney Vermont he has created Black Box a private museum. This legacy project is open to the public by appointment.

The exhibition comprises a mix of both studio paintings as well as self portraits dating to the 80s and 90s.  The studio paintings reflect Schwartz’s long history of using her space as her subject matter.

Southeast Florida's Island City Stage will present the world premiere production of Compensation. The play is about a young woman who becomes a surrogate for a gay couple. The production will open Feb. 5, with two weekends of live performances. A week later, the company will present Compensation virtually.

Mike Kaplan is a producer, documentary director, actor, award-winning poster designer and marketing strategist. He is known for co-producing The Whales of August, (Lilian Gish’s last film.) A Clockwork Orange,  I'll Sleep When I'm Dead,  Robert Altman’s Short Cuts and more. In addition, he is noted for his collection of historic movie posters that have been exhibited in Museums from Los Angeles to Jacob’s Pillow. He is also a songwriter.

Still Standing Standing Still, a virtual exhibition by North Adams artist, Galen Cheney, is now on view at Blue Heron Online Gallery. Linking through the site provides a slide show of recent work as well as a studio visit with the artist. Works may be purchased on line.

In 2015, Michael Conforti retired as director of the Clark Art Institute after some 20 years. The Clark is very different now then what he signed on for. Today, the Clark hosts summer blockbuster shows and is one of the nations foremost research centers. From the beginning, it has had close ties with Williams College where Conforti teaches a graduate course in museum studies. He oversaw the expansion and renovation with architect Tadao Ando. While running the Clark he was on the road and hard to pin down. Now retired, we worked together on an extensive overview of his career, accomplishments, and issues for museums.

There was an email invitation recently for a Zoom workshop in the UK, where one could learn how to draw a self-portrait or, as it was advertised: 'Learn how to draw a selfie...' Our Interactive Selfie Project, 2021, has wonderfully spoken to very many participants. There are now 130 selfies or almost selfies, as I called it, concluding phase 3. And, in fact, the project may yet continue.... -- Also, please read the article. Many, who have taken part, also contributed thoughtful messages.

Irish Repertory Theatre (IRT) will show all nine of its original digital productions created during the pandemic. The festival starts on Jan. 26 and runs through Feb. 21. The event includes pieces by Brian Friel, James Joyce, Conor McPherson, and Eugene O'Neill. While there is no cost, IRT encourages donations.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, reopens February 3!.

One of the largest, and most comprehensive, collections of 20th-century Mexican art takes over the Albuquerque Museum beginning February 6th.Consisting of more than 150 works— paintings, drawings, photographs, woodcuts, sculpture and publications. This blockbuster exhibition highlights the identity of Mexico in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.