“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.”

Pandering to the public continues at the ever more accessible Museum of Fine Arts. It follows a blockbuster show of Sargent portraits of white supremacists with an in depth view of the ultimate charlatan Salvador Dali. He has been described as the greatest modernist from the wrist down. Dalí: Disruption and Devotion, opens in July with 30 works by Dali compared to European masterpieces from the museum's collection. The Dalis are on loan from the St Petersburg, Florida museum. The project is both cost effective and crowd pleasing.

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

Carlos Caicedo, a native of Colombia, is an award winning photographer and graphic designer. With his daughter Sandra, who also creates colorful fabric designs, they recently moved to the Eclipse Mill in North Adams. During a studio visit we discussed his process and how what he calls abstract photography is more accurately defined as non objective.

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

On the cusp of WWII David Smith created a series of fifteen, dinner plate scaled, bronze relief sculptures. A gift from his estate fourteen bronzes and one on extended loan have been donated to the Harvard Art Museums. There is irony that Medals of Dishonor are displayed on a campus engulfed in responses to inappropriate remarks by its President, Dr Claudine Gay, before Congress. Under pressure she has resigned. Because of war, and atrocities on both sides in Israel and Gaza, both Jewish and Islamic students proclaim that they do not feel safe on college campuses.

Huang Ruo, who searches for the Asian American voice and translates it for an audience of Asian Americans and all other Americans too, will present the New York premiere of his vocal theater work, Angel Island, at the Harvey Theater at BAM on January 11, 12 and 13.  It is part of the Protopype Festival, now celebrating its 11th anniversary. 

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.

The film Maestro reminds us that classical music can be accessible to a wide audience. This is not because the film makes the music accessible. In fact, Bradley Cooper conducting is a bad joke. You wonder what Yannick  Nezet-Seguin, credited with teaching the actor to conduct, was doing.

The Prisoners, a riveting play, entertains and shines a necessary light on unhealthy obsessions. While four performances remain, one of them is sold out. The theater is located in the Ft. Lauderdale suburb of Wilton Manors.

Rose Art Museum names Mexican artist Noé Martínez the 2024 Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence.Since 2002, the Perlmutter Residency has been part of the Rose Art Museum’s longstanding tradition of promoting emerging artists of extraordinary talent whose work addresses contemporary issues of vital urgenc

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. 

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.

Paintings by Mark Rothko, with evaluations reaching $80 million, are out of range for museums to borrow and insure. Currently there are two, once-in-a lifetime exhibitions of his work. Through April 2, 2024, more than a hundred paintings are on display at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris.  Through March the National Galley has Mark Rothko: Paintings on Paper with a hundred works drawn from all phases of his career.

The new year begins with Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director Andris Nelsons conducting the orchestra in two blockbuster programs that spotlight the BSO’s enduring creative partnerships and major recording projects. Both programs will first be performed in Boston: works by Maurice Ravel, Tania León, and Igor Stravinsky with acclaimed pianist Seong-Jin Cho on January 11–13, followed by a concert version of the landmark 1934 Dmitri Shostakovich opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk on January 25 and 27. Performances of the two complete programs will be repeated at New York’s Carnegie Hall on January 29 and 30, respectively.   

Dining with my Sicilian Dad, at home or out and about, was always a culinary adventure. From him I learned to eat anything that didn't eat me first.

Recipe for a delightful evening: Take one part A Christmas Carol and one part Sherlock Holmes. Blend well, then let a talented team of actors serve to it you. A Sherlock Carol by Mark Shanahan does just that and it is a delight. It’s getting a brief run at Westport Country Playhouse through Saturday, Dec. 23. I wish it were longer.

As the New York Times reported on December 17, “When (Romy) Golan arrived at Koons’s 10th Avenue studio in New York last winter for her interview, she said she was asked to sign a filming release giving the artist the right to “view and approve any footage, still images and/or promotional material that are proposed for use.” Golan had no plans to film her interview or take photographs but signed the release." Koons effectively killed the story in Brooklyn Rail.

The 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival is a winter arts festival located in Pittsfield’s Upstreet Cultural District in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, organized by the City of Pittsfield and Barrington Stage Company. Presenting short new plays during the dead of winter.  

Directed by Wallace Worsley, Universal’s largest-scale silent film played a large part in making Lon Chaney a legend. It paved the way for the rest of their enduring legacy of gothic horror from the golden age of film. In The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923; 2 hours, 13 minutes), Quasimodo (an inarticulate, deformed human being, who is the bellringer of the Cathedral of Notre Dame) sacrifices his life to save Esmeralda (a Gypsy girl who once befriended him) from Jehan, the hunchback's evil master and brother to Dom Claude, chief priest of the cathedral.

Palm Beach Dramaworks (PBD) in South Florida is the first stop for "The Messenger" in the National New Play Netwwork Rolling World Premiere Program. A cast of four excels in PBD's production, which runs through Dec. 24. Ultimately, "The Messenger" is about the need to speak out or take action in the face of hatred and violence.

The English Concert led by Harry Bickett performs an annual Baroque opera, semi-staged at Carnegie Hall.  These performances are highly anticipated, for good reason.  This year's was no exception.

Dreamgirls features a predictable show biz story about the career of a successful entertainer, in this case, a girl singing group, first called the Dreamettes.  It is also the story of a ruthless young man (Curtis) who will control, lie, manipulate, and cheat to achieve his aims. When he hurts or destroys someone, his response “It’s business.”

Shakespeare & Company announces the first four titles of the 2024 season, including a World Premiere and a musical exploration of Shakespeare’s language and music.  In addition to titles yet to be announced, Shakespeare & Company's 47th Season includes: 

Not only is A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas back at Hartford Stage, but it is better than ever. It’s been missing due to the pandemic and its aftermath.