BOB ROSS, HE’S NOT: If you are headed out to Gerald Peters Gallery to take in “Tony Foster: Searching for a Bigger Subject,” you owe it to yourself to read this recent feature on the artist in The Wall Street Journal. The story talks with the English painter about the daring adventures he endures in [...]
Burning Man Festival, 2008 Looking over pictures of Dadara‘s Checkpoint Dreamyourtopia installation at Burning Man 2008, it is obvious that sacrifices of visual impact were made in order to bring it to Centraltrak, the UT-Dallas artists’ residency in Exposition Park. Missing was the exterior facade of a pink skull and crossbones. Also missing when I [...]
The Austin Museum of Art’s $23 million downtown expansion project is one of the biggest casualties of the economic downturn. But all in the capitol is not grim. Jeanne Claire van Ryzin at the Austin American-Statesman checks in with this thorough report of how arts groups are faring in Austin. I wonder if we’ll see [...]
In 2008, more adult Americans were reading fiction (novels, poems, short stories, plays) than were the year previously — it’s the first time since 1982 that the number hasn’t gone down, says an NEA report. On the other hand, most Canadians can’t name a single Canadian author, living or dead. But then … can most [...]
BRACE FOR THE INFLUX: The travel section of The New York Times picked the 44 Places to Go in 2009 on Sunday. (Why 44? Well, I imagine they wanted to do 50, but you know, with the economy and everything …) Landing at No. 17 on the list is Dallas. Why mention this on an [...]
In a couple of weeks, composer Felix Mendelssohn will be 200 years old. His childhood was as brilliant as Mozart’s (both also had highly gifted older sisters), and he was immensely popular in the 19th century, especially in England. Yet his star has dimmed lately, and no one is quite sure why. Is it just [...]
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, like the Dallas Symphony, is kicking off the new year this weekend. But Fort Worth, unlike Dallas, is hewing to symphonic tradition, with heavyweight Brahms and Wagner rather than Viennese bonbons. The concerts in Bass Performance Hall are under the direction of a guest maestro, Klauspeter Seibel. He was impressive [...]
It’s pronounced like you’re saying “darling” but you stutter at the beginning: duh-DAR-ruh. Dadara’s home studio is in Amsterdam. He believes each of you is living inside your own brain, your own bubble, and that “even though you live in the physical world, you always take your bubble with you.” At the 2003 Burning Man [...]
Today, we welcome aboard January’s guest film blogger, Todd Camp. Todd is the Artistic Director for Q Cinema, Fort Worth’s Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival. Musicals may still be a hit-or-miss gamble for the major studios (for every Chicago and Hairspray, there’s also a Rent or Phantom of the Opera), but the genre is [...]
We Signed, oil on canvas, 30″ x 40″ by Grayson Harper Buzzworms in the Backyard is an art exhibition with a purpose. For the uninitiated, Buzzworms asks artists to submit a piece of work that protests the practice of urban gas drilling. The contest is based out of the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, and [...]
