NEWS
May 25, 2012 | By Bonnie L. Cook and INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Waving small plastic shovels, a crowd of 100 well-wishers broke symbolic ground Thursday on a new performing arts center for Norristown that officials hope will help bring cultural revival and economic prosperity back to the beleaguered Montgomery County seat. I'm so thrilled," said Erin Reilly, cofounder of Theatre Horizon, Norristown's professional drama company. "Today is the day when dreams come true. It's an auspicious beginning. " While the renovation to the first floor of the former Bell Telephone Building will provide permanent digs for the drama company for the first time, a lot more is riding on the $1 million project.
NEWS
May 25, 2012
Inquirer critic and culture writer Peter Dobrin tells you who's making news, noise, and splash in the Philadelphia arts world and beyond at www.philly.com/philly/blogs/artswatch .
NEWS
May 25, 2012 | By Stephan Salisbury and INQUIRER CULTURE WRITER
The rich blue salvia is in bloom. Ditto the red yarrow, the yellow yarrow and the pure white bellflower. Thousand of flowers stand at attention, like horticultural brigades waiting to march up the hill and pour through the columned west entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. They create a splashy parade ground — great squares of blue, red, yellow and white — where before had been a simple swath of green lawn. These flowers, which will fade and be superseded by others coming into bloom (next up: blue false indigo, red blanket flower, yellow false indigo, white gaura)
NEWS
May 25, 2012
The animal kingdom will dominate two sales at Freeman's at the end of next week, with Audubon prints at one and equestrian paintings and related sporting art at the other. Prices at both are expected to take off. The 10 Audubon prints, plus an eight-volume edition of his Birds of America, are among the nearly 750 lots of fine books, maps, and manuscripts that Freeman's will offer beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday at the gallery at 1808 Chestnut St. About half came from a single consignor who bought from a big dealer, according to David Bloom, who cataloged the sale with Kerry-Lee Jeffrey.
NEWS
May 25, 2012 | By Victoria Donohoe, For The Inquirer
The Wharton Esherick Museum's exhibition "Poplar Culture, the Celebration of a Tree" at Historic Yellow Springs is an inspired use of a towering tulip poplar that had to be cut down. The end result: the 75 artworks now on display, crafted from the tree that stood outside eminent woodworker Esherick's studio door on a wooded hill in Paoli. None of the works at Yellow Springs, which range from large furniture to a little spoon, tell the full story of what can be done when you can't save a tree.
NEWS
May 24, 2012 | By Molly Eichel, Daily News Staff Writer
THE PHILADELPHIA Live Arts Festival has announced the lineup for its 2012 show, which will once again feature a mix of international and homegrown performers. The centerpiece of the festival, which runs from Sept. 7-22, will be the U.S. premiere of Back to Back Theatre's experimental work "Food Court," which deals with bullying, body image and the abuse of power. The dance program is split down the middle, with two acts hailing from Montreal and two from Philly. Among the former is Sylvain Émard Danse's "Le Grand Continental," a work featuring 200-plus amateur dancers — the largest dance piece ever performed at the Live Arts Fest.
NEWS
May 23, 2012 | By Roberta Fallon, For the Daily News
IT TOOK SEVEN punches on a SEPTA eight-ride One Day Convenience Pass ($7) to see 10 Art in Transit projects — a three-hour journey on the Market-Frankford and Broad Street lines, with a stop at Suburban Station. Many of the projects are beyond the ticket gates and thus viewable for paying riders only. The projects vary widely and although they all succeed as public art, some can't compete with SEPTA's overwhelming infrastructure of walls, exposed beams, platforms, stairways and gates.
NEWS
May 23, 2012 | By Roberta Fallon, For the Daily News
"WALKING ON Sunshine," the newest SEPTA Art in Transit piece on the platforms of the rehabbed Spring Garden station, is unexpectedly cheery and colorful. With its snappy, patent-leather shine, it gives the underground station "soul," as one appreciative rider put it. This creation of Philadelphia artist Margery Amdur is one of 21 art projects SEPTA has created systemwide since 1998, when Art in Transit began at the behest of then-new SEPTA general director Jack Leary. Leary came from Boston, which had an art program in its MTA; he wanted art for Philadelphia, too. Everybody up and down the SEPTA line embraced the idea, according to Elizabeth Mintz, who came on board at the same time as Leary and is the authority's director of communications and manager of the Art in Transit program.
NEWS
May 23, 2012 | By Matt Huston, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
In its mission to draw inspiration from black culture in Philadelphia, an arts organization is offering its yearly breakout conversation among artists, writers and citizens. The 28th annual Celebration of Black Writing, which began Monday and continues until June 2, attracts creative people from many realms - performance and spoken-word artists, authors, editors, journalists, musicians and other cultural craftspeople. Its events cover a wide window of African-American artistic expression and technique, including performances, readings and film screenings, chick lit, advocacy journalism, urban fiction and black mental health.
NEWS
May 21, 2012 | By Wendy Rosenfield, for the inquirer
Here's the funny thing about Art, Yasmina Reza's much-produced comic drama about three men and a painting: It's truly a matter of perspective. A director can go serious with it, or sharp, as Act II Playhouse's Bud Martin did earlier this season, or, as is the case with Hedgerow Theatre's Penelope Reed, she can blunt its edges and treat it as a light comedy. And it will still suit the room. It's handy that this script yields so willingly to a company's point of view. Translated from the original French by Christopher Hampton, its catalyst is a white-on-white canvas purchased for 200,000 francs that reflects all the colors and shades in the longtime friendship among three men: Marc (Tom Teti)