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The High Museum now offers free admission one Wednesday a month through their Access for All program. The program aims to make art accessible to people with varying levels of experience. They offer workshops, hands-on art programs, and art conversations to engage visitors. The High Museum hopes to create a more inclusive and welcoming space for the Atlanta community. Additionally, actress Valen Hall discusses her role as Aunt Tiffany on HBO's The Righteous Gemstones and her career as a UI engineer. She talks about the growth of her character and the positive response from the audience. This program is intended for a print-impaired audience and is brought to you by the Georgia Radio Reading Service, GARS. Welcome to Metro Arts for Friday, January 19, 2024. I am Kristen Moody for the Georgia Radio Reading Service. Metro Arts is brought to you by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. For our first articles, we move to the Atlanta Magazine publication online. For the High Museum is now free one Wednesday a month. The new Access for All program features free admission along with drop-in activities by Rachel Garbus. On January 17, the High Museum of Art's Access for All program was off to such a good start. The entire parking deck was already full to capacity. It was the first day of the new initiative, which welcomes visitors for free every third Wednesday of the month, and the museum was bustling. On the third floor, a dozen museum-goers were deep in discussion, comparing an Adolph Gottlieb oil painting to a nearby Mark Rothko. In the elevator, two young visitors in puffy jackets headed down to a key gong movement workshop in the lobby, while down in the sunny atrium, a jazz band tuned their instruments ahead of an afternoon performance. With the Access for All program, we are making the collection accessible to people with varying interests, varying levels of experience with art, says Laura Humble, head of Creative Aging and Lifelong Learning at the High. Some people feel really comfortable around art, some people really don't, but this program is an entry point for everyone. Access for All is the cornerstone of the High's new culture collective initiative, which welcomes adults into the museum with arts-centered workshops, conversations, and performances. The free Access is sponsored by the Art Bridges Foundation, which is dedicated to making American art more accessible to the public. The High already offers free admission every second Sunday, an event that usually draws large crowds of families with children. Access for All, though open to everyone, is designed to appeal to adults of all ages, Humble explained. No matter your age or stage of life, there's always more to see, to learn, to do, she says. That mission demanded programming that would appeal to a wide range of potential adult museum-goers. One such element is the adults-only, hands-on art programs. In open studio, visitors can experiment with high-quality artist materials, like oil pastels and watercolors, while a rotating workshop series focuses on creating a more fully realized piece of art. January's workshop, Beaded Prayers, is linked to the current museum exhibit, Sonia Clark, We Are Each Other, which includes Clark's ongoing Beaded Prayers project, a fiber art installation collaboratively created by thousands of people all over the world. The High has held several Beaded Prayers community workshops and recently added two panels to Clark's installation, full of pieces crafted by Atlantans, a rare and powerful moment of community programming weaving itself into real museum art. I tear up just going in there and seeing those panels, Humble says with a smile. Future High exhibitions may work their way into future Access for All workshops, she noted, depending on programming needs. Another important component of the Culture Collective initiative is Throughlines, a series of free, drop-in art conversations guided by a High staff member that pair two pieces in the museum. For January's event, Throughlines invited visitors to compare a 14th century religious panel to a modern painting by a Ghanaian painter, Otis Kwame Kai Kayose, Sonia Clark's Gelikente flag to the traditionally woven Adir cloth by a 20th century Yoruba artist, and Adolph Gottlieb's Duet to Number 73, a painting by Gottlieb's contemporary and friend, Mark Roscoe. For each 30-minute event, the High provides folding stools for visitors to settle around the artwork and study its details, while a guide provides history, context, and poses questions. For me, as someone who loves talking about art, I just love gathering together a group that doesn't know each other, but then they start listening to each other and really connecting over this work, Humble says. There's just something about being in a space together, interpreting works of art that just gets you seen differently. The High offers a host of other art discussions, from guided tours to their program conversation pieces, but Throughlines, with three drop-in discussions a day, is intended to draw in visitors more spontaneously as they make their way through the museum, intrigued by the conversations taking place as they pass through the galleries. At the High, we really see and believe how talking about art can bring people together and make for a better, healthier community, and a better, healthier museum, she says. The Art Museum is an institution with a complicated history, its roots tangled up with Western imperialism and white supremacy. Today, debates rage about who rightfully owns the work on museum walls, which work belongs there, and even who belongs within the walls of a museum, and how they ought to behave while there. For the High, programs like Cultural Collective and Access for All attempt not only to engage those conversations directly, but to open them up more accessibly to the Atlanta community. There are perceptive barriers to engaging with museums, says Humble. Museums haven't always done a great job of welcoming people in different ways, making them feel comfortable in this space. That's another goal for us, showing that there's not one way to visit a museum. Whether that's a key gong movement workshop in the lobby, or an exuberant dance party in the atrium that goes viral, the High Museum is working to push open their doors wider. Work is made relevant by the people and the communities that come to explore them, Humble says. That community made relevance was on full display as the growing group of museum visitors, from a wide range of ages and demographics, pivoted their attention to Rothko's No. 73. From the corner, a young visitor in a brave hat pointed to the top of the painting, where heavy purples had given way to an airy light orange. It's like the lightness was always there, but you had to reach for it, he said, as the visitors around him nodded. You had to get through all that darkness to find the light up at the top. That was The High Museum is Now Free One Wednesday a Month, by Rachel Garbus. Next, meet Valen Hall, Aunt Tiffany on the Righteous Gemstones and longtime Atlanta resident. The actress chats with us about HBO comedy, her other job as a UI engineer, the SAG-AFTRA strike, and what she wishes folks knew about Atlanta, by Leah Picard. I'm sitting in the East Pole's bustling Armour Yards location when Valen Hall, easy to spot with her striking red curly hair, springs into the coffee shop. It's an exciting moment for this writer who doesn't get to interview UI engineers or actors on HBO's irreverent comedy, The Righteous Gemstones, every day. Hall happens to be both. On The Righteous Gemstones, with a cast that includes John Goodman, Danny McBride, Edie Peterson, and Adam Devine, Hall stands out among the ensemble with her portrayal of Aunt Tiffany. The lovable country ditz married to Baby Billy, played by Walton Goggins, worked her way into the hearts of the self-absorbed gemstone family of televangelists and the audience's hearts at home throughout the three seasons. I just got an audition through my agency, and I think I was sufficiently weird enough as a person that they were like, yeah, she's the one, laughs Hall. Since Aunt Tiffany's introduction in season one, spoiler alert, she offs the bad guy, the character has only grown, further endearing herself to fans of the show. She's getting more time. She's getting more sussed out for sure as a character, says Hall. Meanwhile, Hall still lives in Midtown and works in her tech role. We chatted about her dual career paths and her life in Atlanta. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Which came first, acting or the tech job? Acting first. I've been acting since I was a kid. I won this acting competition in Florida when I was 17. And my current manager was there and picked me up. He's amazing. I've been with him ever since. How did you find your way into your role as a UI engineer? I used to be a hair and makeup artist. I did that for 10 years because I really couldn't afford to go to college. And then I just wasn't down to hustle anymore. I really needed health care. And I wasn't making enough as an actor to qualify for health care, which is something we just striked over. So I went to Georgia Tech's first coding boot camp. That was a six-month program. And I graduated from that. And I got a job, I think, two months later. What do you love about your job? I love it because you can do it anywhere. You can do it at home. I've been known to do it on set. On Gemstones, Aunt Tiffany's role has grown a lot since she was first introduced. What's it like to experience that? It's really cool. As an actor, I've been kind of doing day player roles here and there. And I've always been pretty happy with that. It's just something that I love to do. Then when I got this, I didn't realize it was going to be an actual recurring thing. I got on set. I got on set, and Danny McBride, creator of the show and Jesse Gemstone, came to me and said, what's your day job? I told him I build websites. And he said, somebody else will have to build those websites because you're in this. The audience seems to have really taken to her. What surprised you about that? I was surprised that everyone was on her side. Because a lot of times, when you have the kind of character who isn't super smart, they're usually like, oh, whatever. But everybody responded really well. And I think that's because Tiffany, while she doesn't know a lot of things, she can learn. She just hasn't been exposed to anything. And I think watching her be exposed to things, that's kind of where the comedy comes in. She also seems really empathetic. She is very empathetic. She has three main drives. And those are family, God, and snacks. She loves snacks a lot. Somebody asked me the other day, they were like, are you similar with Tiffany? And I was like, no, actually, we are very different. Because Tiffany loves Funyuns. And I'm more of a ranch Doritos girl. And Tiffany enjoys whole milk with ice cubes. And I'm a 2% girly, totally different people. Why was it important to you to be vocal during the 2023 SAG-Astra strike? There weren't a lot of picket lines in Atlanta, because we don't have box studios. We have private studios that are utilized by these other studios. And they had already shut down. So the best way that actors in Atlanta were able to contribute is by getting the word out on social media, and making sure that everyone's aware of what's going on, and what we're fighting for. I think we got a pretty good deal. I think generative AI isn't anywhere near ready to replace all actors, or replace all writers, or anything like that. It's good to get ahead of it. Besides not working, what was the worst part about the strike? Not being able to talk about the show. Because we started striking while season three was airing. That was terrible. That was terrible. Not being able to share all the fun behind the scenes stuff. Also, not being able to talk about other shows that I was watching. TV and movies are my actual hobby. I'd love to say that my hobbies are like mountain biking, or reading nonfiction books. But it's not. It's TV and movies. So I love discussing those things with other people. And not being able to do that in a public forum was so sad. There were so many good things. Why do you make Atlanta your home base? It's just the best city to me. I've lived in LA, in New York, and had a great time in both places. But Atlanta's always been this kind of diamond in the rough. Sort of hidden away in everybody's back pocket location. Now, it's getting to be more of an established film location. And I want to nurture that. I want to stay here. And I want to be a part of that. What do you like living about Midtown? I love being able to walk everywhere. And I love all the trees. Most of the time, if you're in a city, and you're smacked down in the middle of the city, you're not going to see a lot of nature and trees. We have owls and coyotes in our backyard. It's just nice to have nature. But also be able to walk anywhere you want. And have civilization around. What's something you wish people knew about Atlanta? I just want people to watch out for Atlanta. Because we've got such great talent. We've got Daily Show correspondent Dulce Sloan. Comedian Lace Larrabee. Josh Warren has a studio here called Action Show Studios. And they're doing some amazing work. Our comedy scene is getting really good. I hope more comedies come here. Because we've got so much talent. We need to expand. And we're ready. That was Meet Valen Hall. Aunt Tiffany on the Righteous Gemstones. And longtime Atlanta resident. By Leah Picard. Next, we move to the Burn Away publication for Two Cities Abridged. By Frances Archer Dunbar. Miami Beach was founded with the building of a bridge. Though a visitor may see Lincoln Road and Woodwood Falls from the same bus tour. The place commonly thought of as Miami is actually composed of two cities. With twin histories that continue to grow and work together. Under the ceaseless sun and rising tides. Miami was founded 20 years before the first wooden flat was laid for Collins Bridge. But from the moment that construction began on the predecessor to the Venetian Causeway. The fates of the two cities were inextricably and often exploitatively linked. The Department of Reflections Bridge Deconstruction Project has reconsidered this history. Because the looming cultural presence of the causeways continues to occupy the South Florida imagination today. More than most places, Miami is always deconstructing and reconstructing itself. But even in a place with a short memory. Every iteration holds on to scraps of what came before it. At least for the aesthetic appeal. The Bridge Tender House, Josephine Baker Pavilion at the Wolfsonian FIU is one of those scraps. For five decades it stood above the Miami River at Northwest 27th Avenue. Before being saved from destruction and moved to South Beach. To spend the last four decades as an art gallery. The year-long bridge deconstruction began with a class at FIU. And a call for artists and community members to reunite the Tender House with its lost bridge. The Department of Reflection was founded in 2018 by artist Misael Soto. In collaboration with the City of Miami Beach. To hold up a mirror to the municipality and foster creative exchange between residents. And the place where they reside. Especially on the local government level. There is very little space for pause or reflection on what you've even done in the last week. It's very reactive, said Misael. Art really asks you to stop and reflect. The department's work has included the construction of a gigantic boardroom in the Rotunda in Collins Park. A special commission on roads. And trolley and boat tours focusing on local history. This past August, a bus tour offered by the department took a group of curious Miamians. To sites of banal bridge history across the county. Including the resting place of the bridge Tender House's twin in Mainland Alapata. Which has not been as carefully preserved as its Wolfsonian counterpoint. And lies covered in rust and graffiti. Misael wanted to bring it to the beach to contrast the two. But it was logistically impossible. It's kind of a great tale of two cities, said Misael. Whereas the government can seem bureaucratically designed to limit voices. As Soto describes. The department's bridge deconstruction partnered with project associates. Who ranged from historians to artists to engineers. To tell the story of Miami. Miami Beach and the bridges that unite and divide them. One of the most powerful activations was created by artist Lani Johnson. Who led a large procession from the sea to an altar she constructed. In the Wolfsonian on December 1st. To honor the black workers who built Miami Beach. Without being able to live on the island for decades. Sundown town laws turned the bridges themselves into a site of nightly displacement. And Miami Beach still has disproportionately small black community. And a reputation for police violence that has increased recently. Due to new laws criminalizing homelessness on the beach. Johnson's 531 Sundown procession and altar. Honored the pain and division that these bridges represented. As segregators between the white world of Miami Beach. And the communities of color in Miami. Framed by a wall of speakers were calling the legacy of block parties. As sites of creative resistance. Johnson danced to the song I'm so high. By Miami hip-hop group grind mode. The performance honored a century of black artistry and joy on the mainland. As a call in and call out of the normally quiet lobby of the Wolfsonian. Whose collection is sometimes reflective of Miami Beach's oppressive history. Her altar included personal historical objects. Like her grandmother's jewelry box. As well as references to a mural of a 22-year-old Raymond Harris. Who was killed by Miami Beach police during urban beach week in 2011. In 2020 the city removed the mural by local artists Jared McGriff. Octavia Yearwood. Rodney Jackson. And Naomi Guerrero. After its installation at the request of Miami Beach police. Prompting a lawsuit from the ACLU. I do not often go to Miami Beach, Johnson said. I feel like that history. That narrative. Is in the soil. On the sand. And the beach. That energy has not gone away. If you think about how Memorial Day weekend is treated versus Ultra. How different bodies are treated in the space. A lot of work has gone into thinking how these institutions exist in our ecosystem. Through work like the Department of Reflection. 20 years before Miami Beach was a twinkle in Carl Fisher's eye. Miami was founded with a black man listed as the first name on the charter. Though much of the neighborhood that he lived in may have been lost to the bridges of expressways constructed in the 1960s. The cities of Miami and Miami Beach themselves stand as testaments to the hands that built them. And very few of those hands were white. Part of the reason Miami and Miami Beach may have started to become so indistinguishable to a casual observer. Is because the bridges have once again become symbolic displacement. Whereas the beach was once the center of art and wealth in the city. For the past two decades, both have begun a steady march inland. Perhaps acknowledging the inevitability of the king tides that swallow the low-lying barrier island. But leave most of the historically black neighborhoods dry on the mainland. Soto sees their project as a way to deconstruct the past while envisioning the future. Envisioning a more just future by challenging the complicity of bureaucratic structures. I'm interested in how a complex reading of public space can lead to a form of abolition. And I do see the department as kind of an abolitionist entity through its alternative futures mentality. It's almost like a kind of sci-fi or just fiction that leads us to future ways of working, living, existing in true community. Another response to Soto's prompt speaks to the mission. Miami's first tourist attraction was a bridge. Naturally constructed out of oolite through centuries of erosion at Arch Creek and sacred to the Toquesta Native Americans who originally inhabited this land. In 1973, decades of automobile use and train damage took their toll. And it fell unceremoniously into the creek in the middle of the night. Using traditional Andean weaving techniques and contemporary practices, artists Sterling Rook and Agua Dulce constructed a new bridge made of fabric collected from the community, which was erected over the former juncture of the natural bridge on December 23rd by a team of Miamians. In doing so, they honored Arch Creek as a place of gathering. A bridge. Few projects invoke the context of this place with as much ingenuity. Yet the telling of Miami's stories seem to always fall on its artists. We are responding to this Miami that doesn't want to see it, doesn't know how to deal with certain things, Soto said. Department of Reflections Bridge Deconstruction Project will conclude on January 28th, 2024, with a ribbon cutting ceremony for the figurative bridge that has been constructed over the past year, featuring local band Donzi. That was Two Cities Abridged by Frances Archer Dunbar from the Burnaway Publication. Next, we move to the Arts ATL publication for Dance Briefs. New Projects by Core Dance, Fly on a Wall, Stabe Dance, Atlanta Baroque by Arts ATL staff. Atlanta's contemporary dance company, Stabe Dance, led by Artistic Director George Stabe and the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, led by Artistic Director and Concertmaster Julie Andreski, are collaborating on a new work, a fully staged production of Henry Purcell's opera, Dido and Aeneas. It will be performed February 2nd and February 3rd at Emory University's Glenn Memorial Chapel and on February 6th at Spivey Hall. Stabe is stage director. He and Sarah Hilmer, founder of Immerse ATL, are co-choreographers. Stabe Dance Company artists Patsy Collins, Bailey Jo Harbaugh, Henry Koskoff, and Zach Pritz will perform in the work alongside Immerse ATL alumni Andy Knudson and Haley Wall. Deanna Joseph, Georgia State University Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities, will direct a chorus of current and recent Georgia State graduates, along with guest vocalists Hannah DePriest, Brian Giebler, Michael Galvin, and Andrea Walker. Core Dance will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its film series, Encore! Dance on Film, during the Decatur Arts Festival in May. In the meantime, the organization will feature three films by artists Deanna Serlin and Nuno Vega. They will be screened once a month on Core Dance's studio windows in Decatur as part of its Real Art Film Series. Three Scarce Four Strata No. 1, Lines, will screen February 1st through February 29th, followed by Three Scarce Four Strata No. 2, Lights, in March and Three Scarce Four Strata No. 3, Screens, from April 1st through May 2nd. These dance films were created for Serlin's exhibit, Strata, that was on view in Portugal from June 2020 through June 2021. Vega and Serlin will be guests on the February 29th edition of Core Dance's online conversation, 1830 EST, Artists Talk. On March 8th, Core Dance will screen all three films, followed by an in-person conversation with the artists. Fly on a Wall will present its second annual big show with Pearl Elizabeth DeLeon's In This Country at Moving the Spirit Studios in Candler Park on February 3rd and February 4th. The big show program awards an artist $2,000 in unrestricted funds and a weekend of shows produced by Fly on a Wall. DeLeon says In This Country is informed by her experiences growing up as a Filipino American and coming to terms with being a minority in the United States. The big show platform has felt important for me because not only does it give me space to showcase my work, it makes me feel like I have a voice in this ecosystem of dance. Just the offer alone has instilled a confidence in me to create this work, she stated in a press release. The evening-length work will feature dancers Claudia Thrasher, Issei Ferrato, and Julie Kim. That was Dance Briefs, new projects by Core Dance, Fly on a Wall, Stave Dance, Atlanta Baroque by Arts ATL staff. Next up, Q&A. Voices of Mimi and Rodolfo in La Boheme make their debut in Atlanta by Mark Thomas Ketterson. Atlanta opera bridges the gap between the magic of the holidays and the romance of February with a revival of Giacomo Puccini's perennial classic, La Boheme. The opera opens at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center on January 20th for a run of four performances. Since its world premiere at Italy's Teatro Reggio in 1896, La Boheme has held a prominent place on the shelves of the National Gallery. It has held a prominent place on the shortlist of most popular operas ever written. The work is based on the novella Scenes de la Vie des Bohèmes by Henry Merger, which centers around the lives and loves of a group of young Parisian artists and their Bohemian lifestyle. Puccini's delectable adaptation gave us one of opera's most treasurable romantic couples, the winsome seamstress Mimi and her lover, the struggling poet Rodolfo. Atlanta's Mimi is Gabriela Reyes. The first Nicaraguan American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera, Reyes was plucked from Boston Conservatory directly into the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. She has subsequently graced the stages of Paris, Dresden, and Glyndenbourne and has returned to the Met as Puccini's Lu in Turndo and as Musetta, the second soprano role in La Boheme. Reyes recently received acclaim as Rosabella in the Met's history-making mounting of Daniel Catan's Florencia en la Amazonas, the first Spanish-language opera ever performed there. Our Rodolfo is the delightful Chinese lyric tenor Long Long. After study in Shanghai and Beijing, Long has carved out an impressive international career in Dresden, Salzburg, Glyndenbourne, London's Covet Garden, Hanover, and Israel with Dallas and Santa Fe on the horizon in leading tenor roles for Mozart, Donizetti, and of course, as Puccini's Rodolfo. ArtsATL sat down with the pair to explore their thoughts on Puccini's La Boheme. ArtsATL, why is Rodolfo such a coveted role for tenors? Long Long, Boheme is a beloved opera and most opera houses play it frequently, so that provides a lot of work for tenors. Most importantly, Rodolfo is quite a satisfying role. There are so many colors in his music and changes in his character. In the beginning, Rodolfo can be naive, even childlike, but in the third and fourth act, his heart struggles, he faces tragedy, and he grows into another person. That doesn't happen with all roles. The Duke in Verdi's Rigoletto is a big challenge with beautiful music that I love to sing, but dramatically, he's not as difficult. He doesn't change much. He's this pretty surface guy who really loves women. Rodolfo is much more challenging. The aria Ceglielda Menina is quite different from a bel canto aria. It's almost like an extended recitativo with aria, because he's always talking. It's very narrative. Then this splendid moment comes with the phrase, And he breaks into aria. That phrase is the most legato tenor phrase in opera history, in my opinion, and the aria's famous high C only comes after four minutes of singing. It's a challenge for the voice and the whole body. And how about Mimi? Why do sopranos love this role so much? Mimi gives us a chance to be who we are when we are most confident in ourselves. If she wasn't so confident, I don't believe she would have the audacity to knock on Rodolfo's door. She knows how dire her situation is, and unlike the guys, she didn't choose this bohemian life. She has had to survive on her own. When she knocks on that door, she does so because she knows that if she doesn't, she might not survive another winter. That drive to survive draws many singers to the role, and she has a quiet specialness without trying to impress others. She is beauty in its essence. Her music is challenging because you are constantly balancing things. There is a lot of parlando writing. She often seems to be speaking, but then she breaks into the arias. You must embody that natural beauty without seeming to try too hard. There are beautiful sweeping lines, but you don't need to fuss with them. You just need to follow the road map that Puccini gives you because he is one of the best vocal writers ever. Arts ATL, why do you think this opera holds such an eternal fascination for audiences? Long. Because this opera reveals the true feelings of ordinary human beings. The lyrics and music are so natural. Boheme isn't about nobility. It's not Aida or Turandot. Puccini focuses on a lower level of society, which was just like his own experience when he was poor and studying in Milan. You know, he shared a piano with Muscogni because neither of them could afford one. Puccini was a bohemian when he was young, Puccini was a bohemian when he was young. And you really feel his true life experience in Boheme. It's not some remote story because so many of us have had a time like this in our lives. Boheme is relatable. It's all about relationships and how we connect with other human beings. It's the perfect piece for novices. It isn't overly long. It's a gorgeous piece of music from beginning to end. And it has everything, drama, comedy, every emotion under the sun. With Rodolfo and Mimi, we see people in every stage of a relationship from early love to jealousy, to the need to cope with sickness and loss. You hear the love happening in the music. It's masterful. What would your advice be for those who may be coming to the opera for the first time? Bring tissues, but also just stay open to experiencing how relatable it is. People think of opera as something far away. But if you pay attention to this story, you will find that you are not so far removed from these people. I would advise people go into it with an open heart. Yes, everyone is singing in a foreign language and there are subtitles above. But many people watch Netflix with subtitles on. What's the difference? Is there anything you would like Atlanta's audience to know as you both debut here? Long. I would like audiences to know that I am not just a singer who is always thinking about technique. I am a storyteller. I want to say something to audiences, and I want them to feel something. I have sung Bohème multiple times, and I'm always trying new things with it. I never get tired of it, and I want Atlanta's audience to feel how much I love and respect it. Reyes. I want to say how important it is to expect people to be exposed to this art form. I had a humble upbringing. My grandmother came here from Nicaragua and worked in a cafeteria, but she loved the Met broadcasts and would sing along. If it weren't for that, I don't know that I would have fallen into studying voice. You never know who will hear you and who could be the next famous singer or pianist. My father is also a pastor, and I see his passion for his ministry. Music is my ministry. That was Q&A Voices of Mimi and Rodolfo in La Bohème Make Their Debut in Atlanta by Mark Thomas Ketterson. Next up, What to See, Do, and Hear. Historic Chairs, Big Screen Ballet, Women in Rock, and More by Arts ATL staff. Dance. The war in Ukraine has impacted the lives and careers of many performing artists in both Ukraine and Russia. Ballet dancers Olga Smirnova and Jacob Tissi fled Russia at the start of the war and found a new home at Dutch National Ballet. A film of their performance in that company's Giselle will be at two Atlanta movie theaters on January 21st and 24th. The Regal Atlantic Station and Regal Hollywood will screen it at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sunday. And 7 p.m. on Wednesday. Tickets are $17.42. Theater. Seven Stages Theater will host Authenticity Theater's production of The Whale this Thursday through Sunday. Set on the outskirts of rural Idaho, The Whale is a heart-wrenching story of Charlie, an overweight, introverted man who longs to reconnect with his past. Tickets start at $30 and a portion of ticket proceeds will be donated to the locally-based charity Kate's Club. Music. Music. Journalist Katherine Reske Taylor will sign copies of her first book, She's a Badass, Women in Rock Shaping Feminism, on Saturday evenings at Karis Books and More in Decatur. Arts ATL writer Shannon Marie Tovey spoke with Taylor about how the definition of feminism evolved within her book as much as it did in society. Taylor will be in conversation with Amber Ritchie, board member of Y'all Rock Camp ATL, at the event. This is at 7.30 p.m. and free. Film and TV. On Saturday evening, Plaza Theater will host a screening of the Georgia Shot short film, Kim. This evening includes three other films, all four shorts dealing with issues and stories around the fight for women's reproductive rights. A Q&A with the director, cast, and crew of Kim will take place after the screening. Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased online or at the door with cash, Venmo, or PayPal at 5 p.m. Art and Design. Photographers Gail Albert Haliban and Mary Ellen Bartley have new works on the show at Jackson Fine Art. The architectural compositions and thoughtful geometry of their works belie the intimate worlds contained within. Also on view will be a selection of works from Spanish photographer Andrea Torres-Ballaguer. An artist talk with Haliban and Bartley will be held Thursday at 5 p.m. Opening reception 6 p.m. to 7.30. Moda's new exhibition, Please Be Seated, A Century of Chair Design, will prompt visitors to contemplate the chair as a symbol of space, identity, and power. The show is inspired by Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to U.S. Congress who once said, if they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair. From classic to contemporary, the chairs are by designers such as Eileen Gray, Ron Arad, Moy, Verner Panton, and Paola Lenti. The exhibit also includes a video game called Chair Simulator, which blends design and gaming. Opens Sunday through March 11th. Tickets are $10. Discounts are available. Printmaker Norman J. Wagner's exhibit, Images Discovered, A New, A Meditative Journey Through Time, Space, and Memory, closes this week. A reception and artist talk will take place at Atlanta Printmaker's studio on Saturday at 4 p.m. In Cullum's notebook, Arts ATL's Jerry Cullum's described Wagner's skill in multiple media and his influence as an educator. Books Bangladeshi-American authors Rahad Abir and Gemini Wahaj will talk about their new novels with moderator Aruni Kashyap on Thursday. Abir's Bengal Hound traces the turbulent years of erst Pakistan that led to a mass revolution culminating in the creation of Bangladesh. Wahaj's The Children of This Madness is a complex tale of modern Bengalis that illuminates the recent histories not only of Bangladesh but also America and Iraq. That's at the Decatur Library. Doors open at 6.30 p.m. Free. Registration is requested. That was What to See, Do, and Hear, Historic Chairs, Big Screen Ballet, Women in Rock, and more by the Arts ATL staff. Next review. Opera star Sandra Radvansky gives mother of all performances at Spivey by Pierre Roux. Sandra Radvansky, a radiant, golden-voiced superstar in the opera world, made her belated Spivey Hall debut on Sunday afternoon with a program called From Loss to Love. Chronicling the phases of grief and renewal, From Loss to Love follows Radvansky's mother's excruciating struggle with dementia and eventual death. Across the recital, at turns chatty or in tears, the singer told us the details of her mother's death exactly two years ago to the day and, song by song, put on full display her inner awakening. Radvansky's gorgeous voice, no less than her personality, thrives in epic, romantic repertoire and on the world's biggest stages, from New York's Metropolitan Opera to London's Convent Garden. The question going into Sunday's show wasn't whether the adoring audience would be transported by her art, but rather whether she could scale back her spectacularly opulent and piercing instrument to fit inside Spivey's jewel-box acoustics. Pianist Anthony Minoli, the singer first performed a version of the From Loss to Love program at Carnegie Hall last season to mostly rapturous acclaim. At Spivey, she and the pianist opened with two baroque operatic gems sung by heroines sinking into despair. Like everything on the program, these arias triggered her memories and fit loosely into the scene. Minoli's mother, too, had succumbed to dementia. In Henry Purcell's When I Am Laid in Earth, from Dido and Aeneas, Queen Dido has been abandoned by her lover and sees death as a welcome guest. Queen Dido's father, John Krasinski, an icon of her field, started her career as a mezzo-soprano, and she told us this was one of the first arias she learned. On the devastating last line, Remember me but forget my fate, her fortissimos overwhelmed the room as we were submerged in her vocal splendor. With George Frederick Handel's Piangero la sorte mia, I shall weep over my fate, from Giulio Caesar, she won her first singing competition as a young professional. Cleopatra laments the loss of her lover and the loss of her kingdom, and here Radvansky is a trapped woman who nevertheless retains tremendous dignity and nobility. She acted the role as much as she sang it. She choked back the emotions, keeping something in reserve till the final moments, where she completely opened the floodgates of her sound while seeming to break down in heartbreak and despair, a thrilling goosebump moment. This is why we love her. This is why we will follow her anywhere. Across the afternoon, Minoli drew fabulous sounds from Spivey's piano, nicknamed Clara, reminding us that beneath the right fingers, this is the perfect instrument for the region's best music room. The nine-foot Steinway's tone was almost as attractive as Radvansky's voice itself, and his accompaniment, although a little foursquare, was always spot-on and supportive. The middle of their program held art songs in three languages, all favorites of her mother, but none of them really a convincing match for her interpretive style. Sets by Sergei Rachmaninoff, sung in Russian and taught to her by the much-missed Russian baritone Dmitri Havrotsky, Richard Strauss in German, a rarity for her, and Franz Liszt's three Petrarch sonnets, love songs in Italian, which she sings better than most natives, were at times a little muddy and over-the-top, although to hear her float high notes with such lasting beauty made these moments stop time. Still, Radvansky is thoroughly a grand opera singer, with the roles of art song recitalist and chamber musician less prominent in her career. We know that she can sing to the top balcony of the 2,800-seat Carnegie Hall and soar over a raging orchestra in the 3,800-seat Met Opera. By design, Spivey Hall, tiny at just 400 seats, best flatters a different kind of musician. And alas, no one at Spivey thought to close the sound-dampening curtains that ring the room's upper walls which might have soaked up some of that overwhelming sonic energy. Radvansky's most confessional conversation with the audience came near the end. Artists commonly channel their inner thoughts, regrets, and passions, turning private emotions into public expression. The singer offered that and more, talking about how at the time her mother died, she was divorcing her husband and was in contact with her mother's doctor. He's very handsome. On Sunday, that doctor was in the Spivey audience. She motioned for him to stand. The house lights came up, we gave the smiling new beau an enthusiastic round of applause, and the singer put in a plug for the dementia-related hospital he's building, suggesting we might donate to the cause. Details to come on all her social media platforms. TMI for sure. But rather than being cheesy, Radvansky's vocal glamour and deep well of adoration from her fans, like an operatic version of Taylor Swift, made every personal reveal another part of her charm. We couldn't get enough of her. After her mother's passing, the soprano wrote a poem titled, and had set it to music by Jake Heggy, a composer famous for Dead Men Walking and other compelling operas. With a nifty, roiling piano part, the short song was movingly delivered, a heartfelt expression of loss. She delivered perhaps the most poignant line, Not surprisingly, the most electrifying works of the afternoon were drawn from her Italian operatic specialties, Giordano's La Mamma Morta from Andrea Chenier, L'Osson Umir Ansella from Celia's Adrian La Couver, and the Italian opera, La Mamma Morta, from the Italian opera, La Mamma Morta. Giordano's La Mamma Morta from Andrea Chenier, L'Osson Umir Ansella from Celia's Adrian La Couver, and Passe Passe Mi Dio from Verdi's La Forza Del Destino, reminded us why Radvinovsky is already a legend. That was Review. Opera star Sandra Radvinovsky gives mother of all performances at Spivey, by Pierre Roux. Next, Cullum's Notebook, celebrating Benjamin Jones' printmaker, Norman J. Wagner by Jerry Cullum. The latest exhibition by legendary professor and printmaker, Norman J. Wagner, Images Discovered, A New, A Meditative Journey Through Time, Space, and Memory, has its closing reception and artist talk at Atlanta Printmakers Studio on January 20th, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The talk is designed to be the culmination of a process Wagner envisions as an exploration of the interconnections between his own life, the environment, and variations on artistic themes in 11 works taken from suites of artworks from 2023, 2022, and 1992. They represent an extraordinary variety of techniques in printmaking, drawing, collage, and other forms of mixed media. Wagner is beloved by generations of printmakers who studied with him in the printmaking department he founded and headed at the Atlanta College of Art. His own work, however, has been and continues to be art that constitutes, in his words, an intuitive and introspective experimentation in forms ranging from traditional printmaking to digital montage, letterpress printing, installation art, and assemblage sculpture. Wagner has accompanied the exhibition with a theoretical and anecdotal document that begins with the assertion that his work is and has been a circuitous search for continuity. His talk can be expected to be an exploration of the diverse cycles of his art making. It also promises to elucidate its relationship to the man itself, a story that has involved numerous varieties of aesthetic exploration since his and his wife's arrival in Atlanta from his native city of Chicago 60 years ago. It is coincidental but also significant that January has brought us a distinctive exhibition by another veteran of the Atlanta art world, though in this case one who now resides on Tybee Island, Benjamin Jones. The two artists have almost nothing in common except a determination to follow their own individual and distinctive paths. That in itself is a distinguishing feature. Jones's internationally exhibited work is in a fair number of museum collections at White Space through February 24th. He is presenting characteristically idiosyncratic work from the early 1990s to the present in Welcome to the Theater. Jones's work has always had points of commonality with Southern vernacular or outsider art despite his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He has never been imitative of the genre, however, despite his proclivity for using materials at hand. We see this in artworks ranging from self-portrait, a wine bottle encrusted with an elaborate collage that incorporates his mugshot from a long-ago traffic infringement to numerous brown paper bags on which he created a series of drawings during the pandemic when art supply stores were closed. In the present exhibition, a mixed-media drawing on a collage of postage stamps titled Happy Children's Day, hangs next to a 38-by-25-inch 21st-century map chronicling the events of the Trump administration in blocks of handwritten text overlaid on a map of the world. A major sequence of COVID-themed works and a 2022 portrait of Ukraine further document Jones's sensitivity to the events of a deeply troubled world accompanied by a persistent love of animals. That neither of these artists fits neatly into their rigorously defined categories of contemporary art history demonstrates the way in which substantial parts of the Atlanta art scene have simultaneously been in conversation with and apart from trends in the world's dominant art markets. There is now more reason than ever to recall and reassess the careers of the Atlanta artists of all backgrounds, genders, and ethnicities who have remained a bit or more than a bit in the mainstream during all their years of gallery exhibitions. That was Cullum's Notebook Celebrating Benjamin Jones' Printmaker Norman J. Wagner by Jerry Cullum That concludes today's Metro Arts program which is brought to you by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. Thank you for listening to GARS. The Georgia Radio Reading Service. Thank you for listening to GARS.
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