People
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Dr. Ruth Talks About Sex at Barrington Stage
Moderated by Playwright Mark St. Germain
By: - Jun 22nd, 2012Barrington Stage Company presents Dr. Ruth Westheimer in “Talking Sex with Dr. Ruth†moderated by “Dr. Ruth, All the Way†playwright Mark St. Germain, on the BSC Mainstage (30 Union Street, Pittsfield), Monday, July 2 at 7pm.
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Ralph Brill on Photographer Leonard Freed
Eclipse Mill Exhibition and Other Projects
By: - Jun 05th, 2012A version of the traveling exhibition The Italians by the late photographer, Leonard Freed, will be presented in August at the Eclipse Mill Gallery by the gallerist/ entrepreneur Ralph Brill. We met with Brill to discuss Freed and other wide ranging thoughts and projects. There was a focus on North Adams as the former home of Arnold Printworks and Sprague Electric prior to becoming home to Mass MoCA.
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Grita Insam 1939-2012
Vienna Gallerist Ist Tot
By: - Jun 04th, 2012We spent quality time with Vienna gallerist Grita Insam. We recall visiting her main and project galleries. Over wine and sausages she revealed that she was formerly a champion ballroom dancer. It was among her many unique qualities.
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Michael Snow and Wanda Koop at Mass MoCA
Dialogue with Canadian Master Artists
By: - Jun 01st, 2012During the intensely busy opening weekend we attempted to interact with artists in the sprawling Mass MoCA survey Oh Canada. The selection mostly focused on younger and lesser known artists. The exceptions proved to be two internationally recognized artists Wanda Koop and Michael Snow.
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A Conversation With Herb Gart - Part V
A Philosophy of Management and Lurking Disasters.
By: - May 26th, 2012With his feet planted firmly in several aspects of the music business, Herb Gart found himself managing the careers of a number of artists. In this installment we talk a bit about his philosophy and style of management. While he had great successes, clearly there were instances when he had to swallow some pretty bitter pills.
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Rock Drummer Levon Helm at 71
Performed at Mass MoCA's Solid Sound Festival
By: - Apr 19th, 2012Last summer Levon Helm fronted a big band delivering a two hour concert that anchored the Sunday afternoon of the weekend long Solid Sound Festival at Mass MoCA. Wilco joined Helm on stage to end the festival. The legendary drummer who died today was born on May 26, 1940. He was 71.
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Danièle Sallenave Woman Immortal Elected to French Academy
Sallenave Awarded Maurice Druon Chair
By: - Mar 30th, 2012The novelist Danièle Sallenave was elected April 7, 2011 to Maurice Druon chair at the venerable French Academy. She was received with great fanfare yesterday, Thursday March 29, 2012 under the Academy dôme where she will join in the regal green coat - the trademark of the academy - her four immortal sisters amongst 40 immortals as the members of the academy are called.
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Patssi Valdez of Asco Part Three
From No Movies to Carlos Castaneda
By: - Mar 21st, 2012Decades later the art world has caught up with the LA based, four person, Asco. Patssi Valdez, the only woman in the group, insists that all four voices be heard. Until now she has rarely talked about this legacy with the media. She had long since moved on from that period and work. Troubled by chronic migraines in the 1980s she worked with the healer Howard Lee and then for two years joined a group led by the legendary Carlos Castaneda.
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The Challenges of Running Music Festivals
In The Lebanon with Entrepreneur Myrna Bustani
By: - Mar 15th, 2012Running music festivals in economically difficult times is a challenge in itself worldwide. A conversation with the founder and president of the Al-Bustan Festival in The Lebanon shed some lights on these risks. We also present highlights about this festival to our audience and its director's personal involvement for the last nineteen years.
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Patssi Valdez of Asco Part One
Bi-Coastal Exhibition at Williams College Museum of Art.
By: - Mar 11th, 2012During the opening weekend and seminar associated with the bi-coastal exhibition "Asco Elite of the Obscure a Retrospective 1972-1987 " at the Williams College Museum of Art we met and spoke briefly with one of the four artists, Patssi Valdez. Later we spoke at length by phone when she returned home to LA. She spoke of the drive early on to make it into the art history books. Due to this major exhibition, catalogue, seminar and this coverage, that dream has become a reality. This is the first segment of a dialogue with a charming art star,
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Patssi Valdez of Asco Part Two
How a Mural Walked Through East LA
By: - Mar 11th, 2012When Asco agreed to meet and create an event at a particular time and date Patssi Valdez states that she never knew what to expect. Gronk arrived at her home as a Christmas tree. Willie was a mural and Passi dressed as the Virgin Mary with glitter and platform shoes. They cavorted through East LA as A Walking Mural straight into the history books. Their friend Harry took the documentary photographs.
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Canadian Curator Claude Gosselin 2
Designing Biennials for Younger Audiences
By: - Mar 08th, 2012Claude Gosselin has been the artistic director for La Biennale de Montreal. His recent projects have focused on new and digital media attracting a younger audience. As an authority on contemporary Canadian art he is skeptical about the survey of 65 Canadian artists planned for Mass MoCA this summer. He also sees paradigm shifts for museums scrambling to attract declining audiences for the visual arts.
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Canadian Curator Claude Gosselin 3
Reviving the Canadian Biennial
By: - Mar 08th, 2012The 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.
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Jessica May of Portland Museum of Art
Named Curator of Contemporary and Modern Art
By: - Mar 05th, 2012Jessica May has been named Curator of Contemporary and Modern Art at the Portland Museum of Art. May will be responsible for overseeing the interpretation and development of the Museum’s contemporary and modern art collection, including annual exhibitions, the Biennial, and the Circa series. May will join the staff in June 2012.
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Claude Gosselin Curator of La Biennale de Montréal
Starting with Aurora Borealis in 1985
By: - Mar 05th, 2012This summer Mass MoCA will present a survey of 65 Canadian artists curated by Denise Markonish. Recently we spoke at length with the leading Canadian curator Claude Gosselin who has organized major thematic exhibitions combining Canadian and international artists since 1985. His 2011 La Biennale de Montréal may have been his last. He plans to continue Centre international d'art contemporain de Montréal (CIAC) with a refocused program.
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Mass MoCA's Joe Thompson 4
Impact of Wilco's Solid Sound Festival
By: - Mar 01st, 2012With the Wilco Solid Sound Festival taking a hiatus and the Clark Art Institute in the midst of construction and renovation it may prove to be a challenging summer for Mass MoCA. We discussed with Thompson how best to continue to grow cultural tourism through synergy among the arts organizations of the Berkshires. In the past two years the 6,000 visitors for the Wilco weekends brought much needed revenue to the region. We need more such initiatives. This is the final chapter of the dialogue with Thompson.
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Joe Thompson Director of Mass MoCA Three
Buchel and a Peck
By: - Feb 24th, 2012Helping artists to fabricate and install new works entails trust, commitment and risk taking. All of those elements went terribly wrong in a project with the artist Christoph Buchel. Ever escalating demands resulted in legal action that brought Mass MoCA to a standstill. Eventually a judge found in favor of the museum. It is painful even now to revisit the incident from which Joe Thompson and the museum have moved on.
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Joe Thompson Director of Mass MoCA Two
Space is the Place
By: - Feb 23rd, 2012During the twelve years of developing Mass MoCA, before it opened in 1999, Joe Thompson and his wife Jennifer cooked and sold hot sauce to help pay their bills. Twenty five years later in further developing the vast museum complex Thompson discussed the once unthinkable notion of running out of vacant real estate.
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Joe Thompson Director of Mass MoCA
Reflecting on 25 Years
By: - Feb 22nd, 2012On an unseasonably mild February afternoon, during the off season, we sat with Mass MoCA director, Joe Thompson, for an in depth overview of his 25 years of developing the largest contemporary art museum in North America. In this first installment we discussed the beginnings and mandates for the 17 acre campus and its 650,000 square feet of "developable" space. We spoke on the record for an hour and a half then another hour after that. It is most unusual to spend that much time with a busy museum director.
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John Douglas Thompson Part Four
A Scholarly Approach to Developing Roles
By: - Feb 16th, 2012John Douglas Thompson undertakes considerable research to develop roles. He compares and contrasts his performances in O'Neill's The Emperor Jones and The Iceman Cometh now in rehearsal in Chicago. He has a two year grant to study Shakespeare's comedies and the tragedies of Marlowe through Theatre Communications Group. It will culminate in his third production with Theatre for a New Audience. Again he will be directed by Arin Arbus. On February 27 he will give a reading of The Misanthrope at the Clark Art Institute through Williamstown Theatre Festival.
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Critic Peter Bergman Part Two
Liking Theatre and Wanting It to Thrive
By: - Feb 07th, 2012Here Bergman states "My history in the theater as a critic, as an actor, a director, a designer and a playwright gives me a very "reasoned" opinion about any show I see. I have worked in this industry in all those capacities over the years and I am still a performing artist in my lectures, readings, in my classes, in performances before a paying audience. I may not be a star, but I am creditable in my work. All of my work."
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Berkshire Critic Peter Bergman
Covering Broadway at Fourteen
By: - Feb 06th, 2012Berkshire theatre critic reviews for the weekly paper The Advocate. He also posts overnight for his on line site Berkshire Bright Focus. His reviews are also syndicated nationally. He started covering Broadway at the age of fourteen and now in his 60s had been doing it ever since.
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John Douglas Thompson Three
Portraying Louis Armstrong and Joe Glaser
By: - Jan 22nd, 2012John Douglas Thompson is renowned for his interpretations of iconic theatrical roles. This summer he returns to Shakespeare & Company with a world premiere of Satchmo at the Waldorf written by Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout. Charles Giuliano started listening to Louis Armstrong in the 1950s. Here they discuss Satchmo and his controversial manager Joe Glaser. In the play Thompson will portray both characters.
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Friend Me: Portraits and Projects, Carole Freeman
Unite the World by Painting Portraits
By: - Jan 22nd, 2012Facebook has given rise to 'Friend Me Projects,' which started publicly with an exhibition in Toronto and has expanded into different elements. In its entirety, 'Friend Me Projects' aim to engage 800,000,000 Facebook 'friends' and a global general population as well. "Every body wants to get involved" is the reaction Carole Freeman and partner Michael Bain are receiving.
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Christina Olsen to Head Willams Museum
Joins College on May 1
By: - Jan 19th, 2012Williams College today announced the appointment of Christina Olsen as the Class of 1956 Director of the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA). Olsen is currently the director of education and public programs at the Portland Art Museum and previously worked at the Getty Foundation and Getty Museum.
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