A digital bridge across the Florida Straits
The Obama administration is handing out visas to Cuban artists again, and Cuban musicians have begun showing up on Miami stages after a nearly decade-long hiatus. So the digital bridge artist Sage Lewis built to connect an acting ensemble in Miami with another in Havana in this weekend's U.S. premiere of multimedia drama "The Closest Farthest Away" is not strictly speaking necessary: the Cuban actors could come here to perform live. But the project, first seen at the Havana Film Festival in December, does not just bring Cuban actors to a Miami stage, it brings Cuba itself. Continue reading 'The Closest Farthest Away'
Thomas Morley (1557-1602).
Starting Friday, Carson Kievman's SoBe Institute of the Arts plunges audiences into the world of Shakespeare, and not incidentally, the world of English Renaissance music.
Kievman's production of the Bard's Twelfth Night previews March 18 at the newly rehabbed Little Stage Theater, then runs for three consecutive weekends, closing April 4. But this Friday, Robert Chumbley of the SoBe Institute faculty hosts a free event with the SoBe Arts Chamber Ensemble that will explore the music of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
I was pleased to learn that the production of Twelfth Night will feature period music by composers such as Thomas Weelkes, which I'm sure will make the play much more coherent. It brings up an interesting sidelight of theater: So many Shakespeare plays with music have been done with either too little attention or too much of the wrong kind of attention paid to the music.
Continue reading 'SoBe Arts' Shakespeare Puts On Renaissance Airs'
Food meets the arts this week as local chef, restaurateur & culinary icon Michael Schwartz is celebrating the Knight Foundation’s Dennis Scholl with a special menu addition. Scholl, the Foundation’s Miami Program Director, was recently awarded the Big Heart Humanitarian Award in the Arts by the American Heart Association at its annual Miami Heart Ball for the "extraordinary impact" he's made on people’s lives. Schwartz offered his congratulations via a post on his blog and a special menu addition: Dennis’ Big Heart (pictured) features pan roasted deep creek ranch beef heart, local beets, herb spatzle and beet puree.
Says Schwartz: “Dennis Scholl is a Renaissance man. Among his hats including lawyer, entrepreneur, humanitarian, and art collector, we like to think that he sports ‘MGFD regular’ best. But of course, as vice president of Knight Foundation overseeing Miami programs and directing all arts initiatives across the country, Dennis’ heart is as big as his passion for good food and wine.”
Art Center/South Florida recently debuted a new exhibit at its Lincoln Road gallery. Until March 28 Ritual and Process, a guide to sanity and survival in the soon-to-be present will explore & deconstruct our age of consumer capitalism. Generation Y Miami artists Orlando Estrada, Rosemarie Romero and Kacey Westall Keogh have combined their work to depict and predict the direction of consumer society; preserve & deconstruct history; comment on the evolving human experience; and explore their personal frustrations.
Orlando Estrada, The Dream Thief
Romero says of the exhibition: “Human memory is as fragile as our computer hard drives, in which data can be wiped out by a malicious virus, and the death of permanence in everyday life is deeply felt by the planned obsolescence of our disposable items. To cope with, understand, and maintain equilibrium in our rapidly changing environment, art-making becomes a form of ritual, where process and repetition are integral to the works’ meaning.”
Rosemarie Romero, Entertainment Industrial Complex
Ritual and Process, a guide to sanity and survival in the soon-to-be present: Feb 26-Mar 28 at Art Center/South Florida, 800 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach; 305-674-8278; artcentersf.org; Opening is Sat, Feb 27 at 7pm; all activities are free and open to the public
The 2010 Knight Arts Challenge is officially underway, with applications being accepted until March 15. Bas Fisher Invitational, a 2008 KAC winner, wants to help make sure your great idea is one of the winners. Head to the space this Sunday (Mar 7) from 7-10pm for a Knight Arts Challenge brainstorming session. Bounce your idea around, polish your wording and field feedback from fellow entrants. Extra bonus – stick around for a Zoolander screening after the session. 20 guests were confirmed as of Tuesday, get more info & add your name to the list here.
KAC Brainstorming session @ Bas Fisher Invitational: Sunday, Mar 7; 7pm; 180 NE 39 St, suite 210; Miami; basfisherinvitational.com
Think the Knight Arts Challenge is only for established artists and aspiring adults? Think again and think younger - way younger. A first grade class from Seminole Elementary School recently got to spend an afternoon with the Wizard of Oz courtesy of the Challenge. WSVN channel 7 met up with the kids and Dennis Scholl, the Knight Foundation’s Miami program director, to explore the impact of the experience and the Challenge. Click here to get all the print & video details.
The 2010 Challenge is open for you big ideas through March 15 – click here to submit and get more info.
They tore down a parking lot and put up a cinema!
2008 Knight Arts Challenge winner Leggo my Demo is revamping the electronic music world one demo at a time. Founded by Chris Chrebert after he was flooded with demo tapes at the 2006 Winter Music Conference, Leggo my Demo is an Internet-based community platform that showcases & celebrates new music each month via contests and networking opportunities. Preview the action with Chrebet, Winter Music Conference co-founder Bill Kelly and artists Rodrigo Barreto & Lance Blaise of Teggno Records.
Leggo My Demo Blog from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.
For more information, visit leggomydemo.com.
Forgive me for staying with Baroque music for another week, but after attending last week's crackerjack Brandenburg concerti done by the Firebird Chamber Orchestra, I'm thinking a lot about a local cantata pilgrimage.
Back in 2000, the British conductor John Eliot Gardiner took his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists on the road for an entire year to present the surviving J.S. Bach cantatas on the church days for which they were written. They spent most of their time in Europe, then finished the journey in New York.
I've watched a documentary about the pilgrimage several times on YouTube, and I've got several of the recordings from this journey on CD, and I think it was one of the most worthwhile musical stunts anyone ever pulled. Heard in context, the listener could appreciate better how Bach responded to the differences in text and feast day focus, and gradually come to realize what a great body of work this is.
Continue reading 'How About a Local Bach Cantata Pilgrimage?'
Jessica Delgado of FIU's Patricia & Philip Frost Art Museum checks in with an update on the museum, its exhibitions and its evolving understanding of the South Florida community...
The Frost Museum at night
With each exhibition we learn about what our state-of-the-art museum spaces can do. During Because I Say So: Selections of the Scholl Collection, we learned transforming the grand galleries was a challenge, but not an impossibility. We learned that over 7,000 people enjoyed the contemporary art show and that a million pins held together by shear will in the shape of a cube is a tempting sight; people will want to touch. During the exhibition The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, we learned that our museum’s grand galleries could very easily accommodate over 45 large-scale works of art. We learned “if you build it, they will come” and that over 11,000 people came to learn about the art of Buddhism. Hundreds attended the consecrating and de-consecrating ceremonies with The Drepung Loseling monks while they created the Green Tara mandala. We also learned that a 25 foot inflatable Buddha is also tempting to touch.
Continuing our exploration into Asian art with our current exhibition, Taiwan Discovered: In Place and Time, we continue to learn what our spaces can do. The works include traditional calligraphy, landscapes, and the extraordinary craftsmanship of paintings actually made from slices of rock. Heaven by Yao Jui-chung, features a brass helmut with video suspended from cables high above in the grand galleries, with 15 spiraling copper tubes connected to a corresponding painting. The common thread, the gold foil, represents both himself and the “born in Taiwan” element that all the images share.
With each exhibition we learn. We learn what we can do and what the community responds to. So far, we have had an excellent response and hope to continue to be the community’s cultural center.
The Patricia & Philip Frost Art Museum: 10975 SW 17 St, Miami; 305-348-3892