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I’m always on the lookout for mobile apps whose goals are to help people explore the built environment and landscapes of historical significance. The National Park Service (NPS) recently introduced an official app to the Boston National Historical Park and the Boston African American National Historic Site. The app which is free of charge, features short entries on some of the country’s most significant buildings and landscapes associated with the struggle for independence and the birth of the nation. Entries on roughly two dozen pre-Civil War black owned structures are also…
These are hard times for historic house museums. According to research conducted by the Pew Charitable Trust in 2008, there are more than 15,000 historic house museums in the United States (see footnote for more information on this statistic). This is a staggering number, but one that has most likely dwindled with the troubled economy as many have been forced to shut down and even sell their property to private buyers. While important in telling the story of this country, a particular region, family, or groups of people, there are far too…
Every week, BR&S picks out a series of gallery events/screenings/exhibitions/performances. Here are our choices for you to go & see this week: • Events Monday 31 December First Night Festival Boston’s First Night Festival of the Arts, annually showcases the work of 1,000 artists in 200 performances and exhibits at 35 indoor and outdoor venues located throughout the downtown area on New Year’s Eve. This signature Boston event is the oldest and largest of its kind in North America, typically attracting about one million people from throughout the region. The day-long celebration…
J.R. Uretsky Women I’ve Known, Biblically: The Book of The Satan Performance sketch, 2012 Well, it’s mid December — a special time of year that may conjure up thoughts of snow and perhaps a warm sugary beverage or two. For an adjunct professor however, the valley between December 10th and January 14th is a desolate one. In bed, at noon I attempted to think of clever analogies for the dark, dark Winter Session. I came up with something stupid about an Oreo cookie with all the white stuff licked out and then…
Nothing worse than showing up to a holiday party wearing the same festive tie. But currently, both the ICA, Boston and the Davis Museum at Wellesley College are exhibiting Adrian Piper’s My Calling Card at the same time, so who wore it best? Adrian Piper, My Calling Card Installation at ICA, Boston Adrian Piper, My Calling Card Installation at Davis Museum, Wellesley More images of her Calling Card series on Tumblr. Black on Campus about this series. Holland Cotter about Piper’s retrospective curated by Maurice Berger in 1999
For those of you disappointed in today’s lack of rapture, destruction or enlightenment, BR&S presents a few artists in whose work you can find the solace that, someday, the end may indeed be nigh. In the Holocene at the List Visual Arts Center includes one of Laurent Grasso’s Studies into the past (not the one pictured). Laurent Grasso. Studies into the past – Horn Perspectives. 2010. Oil on panel. 11 x 13.5 inches The Rose Art Museum is showing 300+ works spanning the career of Ed Ruscha, beginning February 13th. Ed Ruscha.…
Art openings in December are difficult to attend and hold for a simple reason, “other obligations.” In the face of the additional responsibilities put on many around this time of year, there are still a few who trudge on, decide to not take this month off, and still show original work instead of leftovers from their inventory for some holiday sale. Here in Providence, Yellow Peril Gallery takes the lead this holiday season and presents a new body of work from artist, Gage Prentiss. Ironically, despite being based in Pawtucket, this is…
In this installment of Studio Sessions I interview Matt Hinçman about his work. Matt Hinçman is an associate professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. Primarily creating work that exists in the public sphere, he typically creates art objects and interventions by providing a slight twist on a familiar object. Several of his interventions surreptitiously incorporate people into the experience without them knowing that it is intended to be considered art at all, and if you’ve picked up any odd coins off the sidewalk lately there’s a chance…