Ashley Bryan: Pioneering Illustrator Of African Tales
In the 1950s, when Ashley Bryan first came by boat to summer on Maine’s Great Cranberry Island, he recalled, “I had my boxes and things, someone reached for it and…Continue Reading →
Gonzalez ‘Running For Governor To Help Artists And Everyone Else, All The Little Guys That Are Being Left Behind’
At the end of a “Create the Vote” candidate forum Monday with Jay Gonzalez—the Needham Democrat running against Republican incumbent Charlie Baker for governor of Massachusetts— Melissa Nussbaum Freeman of…Continue Reading →
Giant Coral Reef Arrives In Boston’s Fort Point Channel As Call For Help
This morning, if all goes according to plan, an artificial coral reef—conceived by Fitchburg artist Jerry Beck of The Revolving Museum and crafted by more than 50 artists, kids and…Continue Reading →
What To Make Of The MFA’s Sumptuous ‘Casanova’ Exhibit In Our #MeToo Moment?
“Casanova’s Europe: Art, Pleasure, and Power in the 18th Century” at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts through Oct. 8 is a sumptuous, deeply researched exhibition inspired by Casanova, the charismatic…Continue Reading →
Celebrate Halloween In Salem’s Curious 1630 ‘Pioneer Village’
Salem, Massachusetts, is a city filled with curious attractions, but one of the most curious is “Pioneer Village: Salem in 1630.” Billed as “America’s First Living History Museum,” it was…Continue Reading →
Gentrification Is A Big Threat To Somerville In Dina Gjertsen’s Tiny Dioramas
“Katie Gradowski called them ‘displacement dollhouses,’ which I thought was kind of cute,” Somerville artist Dina Gjertsen tells me about the dioramas she’s been making lately. At Martha Friend’s Friend-Smithsonian…Continue Reading →
Public Art In Prudential Center Atrium Is A Call To Halt Global Warming
The title of Boston artist Stephanie Cardon’s public artwork “Unless”—installed in the main entrance of the Prudential Center shopping mall at 800 Boylston St. through November—comes from Dr. Seuss’s 1971…Continue Reading →
Exhibit Of Original Drawings For Winnie-The-Pooh Transports You To The Sweet, Sad Hundred Acre Wood
There are moments of delight and happiness in the tales of Winnie-the-Pooh—like the very first one, the comedy of the stuffed bear pretending (badly) to be a rain cloud so…Continue Reading →
Checking In On Ekua Holmes’s Blossoming ‘Roxbury Sunflowers Project’
“I thought that this sunflower because of its special attributes would make a great symbol or emblem for Roxbury,” Ekua Holmes told me in June as her “Roxbury Sunflower Project”…Continue Reading →
Boston Arts Department Hires Cultural Planning Director
Boston’s Office of Arts and Culture has named Courtney Sharpe (pictured above) as the department’s new director of cultural planning. The position is new, the city says, but it kinda…Continue Reading →