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The collection of Japanese art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), is one of the most comprehensive in the world. Five newly transformed galleries showcasing nearly 200 highlights—including painting, sculpture, decorative arts and selections from the Museum’s vast collection of ukiyo-e prints—open on May 11, 2024.Japanese

The exhibition title temporary arrangements refers to Mary Lum’s journeys though the streets of New York and Paris, observing the fragments of a crumbling façade of a building, a vendor’s pushcart, or a poster for a vernissage, which may have a short shelf life in the urban environment. Lum takes photographs on the streets looking at geometric forms, planes of color, and text.

In conjunction with the exhibition Hallyu! The Korean Wave, which explores the worldwide impact of South Korean pop culture, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), presents films by some of the country's greatest auteurs.

While the authors tell us that the play is “inspired” by the artist’s personal and political life, unfortunately, all of the “real-life” characters are so hastily established and sketchily drawn, that what we’re left with is a lack of realism and emotional vulnerability. All the characters in this play are like wooden sticks, there is no depth to any of them.

Gus Kayafas is both an artist/ photographer and publisher of Palm Press. The company, now fifty years old, creates photographic portfolios as works with individual artists. Examples of this work is on view as well as selections from his series of Arizona landscapes.

Sanctuary City, the play at TheaterWorks Hartforddeals with the consequences for the children, often very young, they brought with them, These children have no connection to their country of origin since their parents could never visit and return; the US is the only country they know. 

Arguably, Dali's best known work and masterpiece is “The Persistence of Memory” 1931. It was included in his first New York exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932. In 1934 it was anonymously donated to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). It has been suggested that it was influenced by Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity. To which the artist replied that the soft watches were not inspired by the theory of relativity, but by the surrealist perception of a Camembert melting in the sun.

Raised by Chinese-American tiger parents, adult siblings Albert and Jennifer are stereotypically accomplished and conflict avoiding. But when Albert is passed over for a promotion that goes to a less competent European-American, he reaches wit's end. Neither sibling speaks any Chinese, but they feel that they will be better received in China than at home in the U.S. What could go wrong? What doesn't in this broad but provocative farce?

In an engaging cabaret entertainment, Julie Benko recalled her experience as all manner of stand-in performer with beautifully crafted songs from those shows and witty vignettes. She's also made it to the top, having played Fanny Brice, the lead in "Funny Girl," on Broadway over 180 times.

Over hill and dale, through mill towns and pastures, the entourage gathered in Glens Falls. Family and friends came from far and wide to celebrate yet another exhibition of the representational artist couple Pennie Brantley and Robert Morgan. The faithful were yet again rewarded by a stunning exhibition at LARAC in Glens Falls, New York.

Jacob’s Pillow announces that tickets are now on sale to the general public for the full schedule of programming at this summer’s Dance Festival, which will offer nine weeks of performances by world-class artists, live music, and free and paid family-friendly events, on indoor and outdoor stages. In addition to featuring local and regional artists, the festival will include dance companies traveling from across the United States, Canada, England, Switzerland, Italy, Argentina, Spain, and beyond. 

Though John Patrick Shanley’s play opened in 2004, he wisely set it in 1964. The Catholic church was in turmoil, but not for the priest abuse scandals that were roiling the church in 2004. The turmoil was caused by changes implemented by Pope John Paul the XXIII and Vatican Two, including the dropping of the Latin mass, proclamations on religious tolerance, and a philosophy that the church needed to be more involved with the community.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) is producing Macbeth (an undoing) at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn. The Royal Lyceum’s production of Macbeth (an undoing) at TFANA is a promising start to a reciprocal partnership, The Shakespeare Exchange, between Royal Lyceum and Theatre for a New Audience.

For over 30 years, Yinka Shonibare CBE has used Western art history and literature to explore contemporary culture and national identities. Suspended States is the artist’s first London solo exhibition in over 20 years. It showcases new works, interrogating how systems of power affect sites of refuge, debates on public statues, the ecological impact of colonialisation and the legacy of imperialism on conflict and consequential attempts at peace.

Twelve-year-old Amir comes from wealth and the dominant Pashtun tribe in Afghanistan. His only close friend, the illiterate Hassan, is not only from the deprived minority Hazara tribe but is the son of the servant of Amir's father. Hassan's kite running skills allow Amir to compete at the highest level in this important activity, but Amir will betray the trust of friendship, and the consequences reverberate.

Last fall, as Ferrin Contemporary shifted directions, we knew that moving the gallery meant we would have more time to focus on the work and exhibitions featuring gallery artists. It also gave us the freedom to travel to museums where their work is now on view and attend public events.

Pop acts at Tanglewood this summer.

I am pleased to introduce you to a new exhibition called One Life, curated with the inspirations of dance, plant life, and Coleridge’s poem “The Eolian Harp.”  

Carsie Blanton is a songwriter with hooks, chutzpah, and revolutionary optimism. Inspired by artist-activists including Nina Simone and Woody Guthrie, her catalog careens through American popular song from folk and swing to pop-punk protest anthems.

Imagine one opera about the heralded 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match and another about an obscure Belgian bird singing competition. How would they be packaged in a program? Of course, by framing them as broadcasts from ABC's Wide World of Sports, with Howard Cosell at the mic. Innovative production techniques lift these already interesting little gems.

When Kristina Wong's performing career was shut down by Covid, she turned to a skill that many Asian women learn from their mothers - sewing. Using social media and meeting technology, she organized a brigade of "aunties" who produced many thousands of cloth masks when masks were in short supply. In a high energy performance, she frames this personal experience in the context of the political world of 2020-21.

 Drawing inspiration from the 2007 cult-horror film by Mitchell Lichtenstein, this energetic show satirizes purity culture and sexual desire while tossing in a bit of biting commentary on misogyny.  

From Urinetown to Hello Dolly Boston's Lyric stage has programmed a seasons of hits. Unabashedly Artistic Director Courtney O’Connor says, “We’re thrilled to share six stories that focus on character connection and joy told by artists you already know and love and new artists we can’t wait for you to meet."

John Adams’ masterpiece Oratorio, El Nino, is being given a full production at the Metropolitan Opera this spring. The work premiered at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 2000.  Kent Nagano conducted.  Luxury casting included Dawn Upshaw, Lorrraine Hunt Lieberson and Willard White

Comedy reigns this summer in the Berkshires! Barrington Stage Company (BSC) is pleased to announce that it will be the new home of the Berkshire Comedy Festival, produced by the Long Island Comedy Festival in partnership with BSC. The company will also present special preview performances of Alison Larkin: Grief...A Comedy, written and performed by Berkshire resident, writer, and comedian Alison Larkin, prior to its UK premiere and world tour this summer.