Coronavirus (COVID-19) Closures and Update

MoMA Temporarily Closes Museums and Stores in New York

MoMA announced today that it will close The Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street, MoMA PS1 in Queens, and the MoMA Design Stores on 53rd Street and in Soho, effective immediately and through March 30. MoMA will continue to monitor developments with COVID-19 and regularly reassess this temporary closure.

Glenn D. Lowry, The David Rockefeller Director of The Museum of Modern Art, said: “Nothing is more important to MoMA than the health and safety of our community. We take seriously our responsibility as a civic institution to serve the public good. With that in mind, as it is more and more challenging to predict the impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, we have decided to temporarily close MoMA.”

MoMA has been prepared for this possibility for several weeks and made the decision in ongoing consultation with public health experts, city and state officials, peer institutions, and the Boards of The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1. There have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 among MoMA employees. Plans are in place to continue to support employees and MoMA’s better than best practice cleaning and sanitization protocols.

MoMA plans to re-open at the first opportunity that ensures the health and safety of all visitors and employees.

All Events at Carnegie Hall from Friday, March 13 through Tuesday, March 31, 2020 are Cancelled

All March events cancelled in effort to reduce spread of COVID-19

With the health and safety of its public, artists, and staff as its foremost priority, Carnegie Hall today announced that it will be closed for all public events and programming through the end of March, effective midnight tonight, in an effort to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19).

All events and programming at Carnegie Hall from Friday, March 13 through Tuesday, March 31, 2020 have been cancelled. For a list of performances at Carnegie Hall that are affected, please see the attached list or click here. Carnegie Hall events on Thursday evening, March 12 will take place as scheduled.

Upcoming education programming presented by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute—whether taking place at Carnegie Hall or in off-site locations—is suspended through March 31. All free Carnegie Hall Citywide performances in venues throughout New York City are cancelled through March 31.

All other scheduled concerts and programming starting on April 1, 2020 and beyond remain on the schedule pending the reopening of Carnegie Hall. The general public is encouraged to check carnegiehall.org/events for the most up-to-date programming information.

Patrons who purchased tickets by credit card from Carnegie Hall for a performance that has been canceled will receive automatic refunds; those who purchased by cash at the Box Office may email a scan or photo of the tickets to feedback@carnegiehall.org, along with complete contact details (name, mailing address, and phone number), through June 30, 2020, for a refund. Those who purchased tickets directly from other concert presenters should contact that presenter for refund information.

Patrons who have any further questions should contact CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or email feedback@carnegiehall.org. Please note that email and call volume may be high with limited in-house staff, and tickets may be refunded on a delayed schedule. We thank you for your patience as we navigate this evolving situation together.

Asian Art Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Announce Temporary Closure Effective March 14, 2020

The Asian Art Museum, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum and the Legion of Honor, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) collaboratively announce a temporary closure to the public effective at 5 pm PST on Friday, March 13. With their united focus on the health and safety of their visitors and staff members, the museums made this decision to align with local and federal guidelines and social distancing recommendations for the containment of the coronavirus.

The Asian Art Museum and SFMOMA will tentatively reopen to the public on Saturday, March 28, 2020, and the FAMSF museums will reopen on Tuesday, March 31, 2020. The museums will individually evaluate whether the closure timeframe needs to be extended.

ASIAN ART MUSEUM

The closure of the Asian Art Museum includes the museum, its café (Sunday at the Museum) and its store. More information can be found at asianart.org.

FINE ARTS MUSEUMS (FAMSF)

Both the de Young and the Legion of Honor, including museum cafes and stores, will be closed. Please find the most up-to-date information at deyoungmuseum.org/coronavirus-response.

SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (SFMOMA)

SFMOMA’s closure includes the museum, its restaurants (In Situ, Cafe 5 and Sightglass coffee bars), stores (museum and SFO store) and the Artists Gallery at Fort Mason. For the most up-to-date information including information on rescheduling a visit, go to sfmoma.org/coronavirus-update.

VMFA 2020-21 Fellowship Program Supports 26 Student and Professional Artists

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is pleased to announce the 2020-21 recipients of VMFA fellowships. Twenty-six students and professional artists were selected from more than 500 applicants to receive a total of $146,000 towards professional advancements in the arts. The VMFA Fellowship Program has awarded more than $5.8 million to over 1,395 artists since 1940. Recipients must be Virginia residents and may use the award as desired, including for education and studio investments. Each year, professional curators and working artists serve as jurors to select fellowship recipients.

“The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship Program is proud to support student and professional artists working across the Commonwealth,” said Alex Nyerges, VMFA director and CEO. “We offer one of the largest fellowship programs of its kind in the United States and recognize this effort as a core part of our mission.”

Abigail Lucien, Sculpture, Richmond

Fellowship Recipients

VMFA awarded ten professional fellowships of $8,000 each this year. Professional fellowship recipients are:

Emma Gould, Photography, Richmond

Margaret Meehan, Sculpture, Richmond

• Paul Finch, New & Emerging Media, Richmond;
• Emma Gould, Photography, Richmond;
• Sterling Hundley, Drawing, Chesterfield;
• Sue Johnson, Mixed Media, Richmond;
• Abigail Lucien, Sculpture, Richmond;
• Margaret Meehan, Sculpture, Richmond;
• David Riley, Film/Video, Richmond;
• Dash Shaw, Drawing, Richmond;
• Jon-Philip Sheridan, New & Emerging Media, Richmond; and
• Susan Worsham, Photography, Richmond.

Dash Shaw, Drawing, Richmond

Sterling Hundley, Drawing, Chesterfield

Veronica Roberts, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Blanton Museum of Art, was the juror for the professional fellowship entries.

Undergraduate fellowships of $4,000 went to ten students this year. The recipients are:

Tatyana Bailey, Photography, Richmond

Zoe Pettit, Mixed Media, Mechanicsville

• Tatyana Bailey, Photography, Virginia Commonwealth Univeristy (VCU), Richmond;
• Emma Carlson, Film/Video, VCU, Des Moines, IA;
• Nicolas Fernandez, Photography, VCU, Fredericksburg;
• Erika Masis Laverde, Mixed Media, VCU, Glen Allen;
• Amuri Morris, Painting, VCU, Richmond;
• Megan O’Casey, Mixed Media, VCU, Arlington;
• Zoe Pettit, Mixed Media, VCU, Mechanicsville;
• Sarah N. Smith, Sculpture, VCU, Williamsburg;
• Nadya Steare, Drawing, George Mason University (GMU), Falls Church; and;
• Elizabeth Yoo, New & Emerging Media, VCU, Glen Allen.

Walker Moving Image features Women With Vision: Then and Now

From 1994-2010, the Walker Art Center presented an annual month-long screening series featuring women directors, starting with a touring program “Women in the Director’s Chair (WIDC): Homegirls”, which blossomed into the Walker’s very own “Women With Vision” (WWV) festival. This March, the Walker Art Center will celebrate the legacy and influence of these groundbreaking programs that both launched and inspired so many women directors from our region.

Celebrate the legacy and influence of the Walker’s Women with Vision programs, which supported female filmmakers and sought to bring their experiences and perspectives to the forefront. Celebrated international directors screened side by side with local artists at all stages of their careers. Two past participants, Melody Gilbert and Kelly Nathe, guest curate and pay tribute to this era of film programming, largely helmed by Senior Curator Sheryl Mousley.

Image courtesy Walker Art Center.

“My indie filmmaking career kicked off in 2002 when Sheryl Mousley selected my first indie doc Married at the Mall to screen at the Walker in the Women with Vision program. I was so honored, and I know there are so many other women in our region who came up through this program just like me. Finding those filmmakers and having a reunion as well as celebrating the up-and-coming women filmmakers of today are reasons why I wanted to guest curate this program with Kelly Nathe. We both had life-changing experiences by screening films at the Walker, and we wanted to find out what happened to the others. And with the Academy Awards leaving women off the best director list again, we thought now would be a good time to do this.” —Melody Gilbert

The four-day program includes shorts screenings, on-stage conversations, introductions of new films by emerging local directors and a celebratory reception.

Image courtesy Walker Art Center.

“I have always believed that filmmaking is women’s work. When I came to the Walker in 1998, I took on the annual film program that had started in 1994 called “Women in the Director’s Chair” which had a local sidebar called “Homegirls.” I turned the program into Walker’s “Women With Vision” film festival, always keeping the local filmmakers at the center,” states Sheryl Mousley, Senior Curator, Moving Image. “After my eleven years with the festival, and only when a woman, Katherine Bigelow, in 2010 finally won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director, did I hear the shout, “We’ve won!” While ending the series on a high note, I vowed to continue showing women filmmakers at Walker throughout all our programs. I am proud to say that 25% of the Walker Dialogues are women, and the year-round cinema program continues to give voice to local filmmakers and celebrate the legacy and influence of women in international cinema. I am proud of all the Minnesota filmmakers who have shown their films at Walker. It is a wonderful history and confirmation of home-based talent.”

“My very first short film, Rock-n-Roll Girlfriend, screened in the WIDC: Homegirls program back in 1995 when I was still a student, and I can’t begin to explain how much my inclusion in the program meant to me back then. It remains a badge of honor to this day! I’ve always wondered what happened to all the women who started here. Where did they end up and how did the Walker program that focused on women directors shape their careers? Melody Gilbert and I were co-chairs of Film Fatales in Minnesota, an international organization of women and non-binary directors of feature films, and we both pondered that question and decided to go on a journey together to find these women as well as celebrate the emerging filmmakers in our region.” adds Kelly Nathe

Women with Vision: Then and Now
Guest curated by Melody Gilbert and Kelly Nathe
Thursday–Sunday, March 12–15

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Film Fatales Presents: New MN Shorts Showcase
Post-screening conversation with Film Fatales
Thursday, March 12, 7 pm
Walker Cinema, Free

Film Fatales MN. Photo courtesy Film Fatales.

Enjoy a sampling of recent works directed by MN women and selected by Film Fatales, a national organization of women and non-binary filmmakers advocating for intersectional parity in the film industry. The evening’s screening is followed by an onstage conversation led by Film Fatales about making the leap to feature filmmaking in our region.

Alison Guessou’s Happily Married After. Photo courtesy the filmmaker.

• Film Fatales Twin Cities Reel, 10 min
• Santuario, Christine Delp & Pilar Timpane, 3 min. (excerpt)
• A Winter Love, Rhiana Yazzie, 4 min. (excerpt)
• Master Servant, Julie Anne Koehnen, 3 min. (excerpt)
• North Side Boxing Club, Carrie Bush and Amanda Becker, 3 min.
• Peeled, Naomi Ko, 2 min.
• Muslim Sheroes of MN: Nimo Omar, Ariel Tilson, 4 min. (excerpt)
• The Coyote Way, Missy Whiteman, 4 min. (trailer)
• Oh My Stars, Cynthia Uhrich, 3 min. (excerpt)
• Happily Married After, Alison Guessou, 3 min. (excerpt)
• Little Men, Ayesha Adu, 3 min. (excerpt)
• Untitled Hmong Doc, Joua Lee Grande, 3 min. (excerpt)
• Underground, Beth Peloff, 3 min.
• Self-Creation, Shelby Dillon, 5 min.
• Jasmine Star, Jo Rochelle, 5 min. (excerpt)

Shelby Dillon, Self Creation, 2019. Photo courtesy the filmmaker.

Total run time: approximately 60 min.

The Mack Lecture Series Returns to the Walker Art Center this April

Mack Lecture Series
April 8–29, 7 pm$15 ($12 Walker members, students, and seniors)Walker Cinema

Hear directly from explorers of our culture and contemporary moment during the Mack Lecture Series. Throughout the month of April, artists, writers, and other great thinkers at the forefront of diverse fields share their vision on topics ranging from artificial intelligence in performance art to gender politics and gonzo journalism.

Annie Dorsen’s Hello Hi There, 2010 Photo: W. Silveri/Steirischer Herbst

Annie Dorsen and Catherine Havasi with Simon Adler
April 8, 7 pm

Simon Adler, 2018. Photo courtesy of Simon Adler.

Catherine Havasi, 2019. Photo courtesy of Catherine Havasi.

Annie Dorsen, 2019. Courtesy of John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Writer-director Annie Dorsen tries “to make perceptible how ideas change over time: where they come from, how they influence and are influenced by politics and culture, and how they take root in the body, physically and emotionally.” For this conversation, she explores the intersection of algorithms and live performance with artificial intelligence researcher and computational linguist Catherine Havasi, moderated by Simon Adler, a producer for WNYC’s Radiolab.

Annie Dorsen’s performance work Yesterday Tomorrow, takes place in the Walker’s McGuire Theater March 27–28.

JD Samson
April 15, 7 pm

JD Samson, 2019. Courtesy of the Artist

Genderqueer political activist, visual artist, and musician JD Samson is perhaps best known as leader of the band MEN and one-third of the electronic-feminist-punk band Le Tigre. As a self-defined “gender outlaw,” she will investigate the precarious masculinity of the butch/masculine-of-center body, play with traditional concepts of ownership and destruction, and break down the charged heteronormative history of queer sex dynamics.

Smithsonian Film Festival Celebrates Cultural and Linguistic Diversity

Fifth Annual Mother Tongue Film Festival Runs Feb. 20–23

The Smithsonian’s Recovering Voices Initiative will host a film festival that showcases films from around the world. Centered around the United Nation’s International Mother Language Day Feb. 21, the fifth annual Mother Tongue Film Festival will offer visitors the opportunity to see 21 films featuring 28 languages from 22 regions and hear from filmmakers who explore the power of language to connect the past, present and future. The four-day festival runs Feb. 20–23.

Vai looks on at her daughter Mata, filmed in Kuki Airani, one of seven Pacific Nations featured in Vai (2019). Photo courtesy of MPI Media

Recovering Voices is an initiative of the Smithsonian founded in response to the global crisis of cultural knowledge and language loss. It works with communities and other institutions to address issues of Indigenous language and knowledge diversity and sustainability. Recovering Voices is a collaboration between staff at the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of the American Indian and the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

“The Mother Tongue Film Festival provides a forum for conversations about linguistic and cultural diversity,” said Joshua Bell, curator of globalization at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and director of the Smithsonian’s Recovering Voices Program. “It gives the public an opportunity to talk with directors, producers and scholars who devote their lives to documenting the human experience.”

Screenings will take place at multiple locations across the Smithsonian and Washington, D.C. A complete schedule of screenings, including times and locations, is available on the festival’s website. Doors will open approximately 30 minutes before each show. All screenings are free and open to the public, with weekend programming for families.

The festival kicks off with an opening reception Thursday, Feb. 20, at 6 p.m. at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Festival highlights include:

• A performance by Uptown Boyz, a local intertribal drum group, before the screening of Restless River Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. in the National Museum of the American Indian’s Potomac Atrium. The film is set at the end of World War II and follows a young Inuk woman as she comes to terms with motherhood after being assaulted by a soldier. It is based on Gabrielle Roy’s 1970 short novel Windflower (La Riviere Sans Repos). This film contains a scene of sexual violence that some viewers may find disturbing.
• The world premiere of Felicia: The Life of an Octopus Fisherwoman Feb. 21 at 11 a.m. in the National Museum of Natural History’s Q?rius Theater. Felicia is one of the thousands of Malagasy fishermen and women on the Velondriake archipelago whose way of life is increasingly threatened by poverty and political marginalization. As an orphan and later as a mother, she turns to the sea as a means for sustenance, even when migration and commercial trawling threaten small-scale fishing operations. Like many other women in Madagascar, she embodies a steadfast willingness to keep moving forward in the face of major challenges.
• The North American premiere of Ainu—Indigenous People of Japan Feb. 22 at noon in the National Museum of Natural History’s Baird Auditorium. The film tells the stories of four elders from the declining Ainu population in Japan. It sheds light on their traditions, both past and present, and the efforts to keep the culture and language alive in Japan. A Q&A with the director will follow the screening.
• Age-appropriate viewers can enjoy Québec beer courtesy of the Québec Governmental Office during a late-night screening of Blood Quantum Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. in New York University Washington, D.C.’s Abramson Family Auditorium. The dead come back to life outside the isolated Mi’gmaq reserve of Red Crow, except for its Indigenous inhabitants who are strangely immune to the zombie plague. The local tribal law enforcement officer must protect his son’s pregnant girlfriend, apocalyptic refugees and the drunken reserve riff raff from the hordes of walking corpses infesting the streets of Red Crow. This film contains strong bloody violence and may not be suitable for younger audiences.
• A screening of One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk Feb. 23 at 3 p.m. in Georgetown University’s ICC Auditorium. The film is set in April 1961 as the Cold War heats up in Berlin and nuclear bombers are deployed from bases in the Canadian Arctic. In Kapuivik, north of Baffin Island, Noah Piugattuk’s nomadic Inuit band live and hunt by dog team as his ancestors did. When an agent of the Canadian government arrives, what appears as a chance meeting soon opens the prospect of momentous change, revealing Inuit-settler relationships humorously and tragically lost in translation. The events playing out in this film are depicted at the same rate as the characters experienced them in real life.

Walker Art Center Presents Native-Directed Film Series INDIgenesis: Gen 3, Guest Curated by Missy Whiteman

INDIgenesis: GEN 3, A Showcase of Indigenous Filmmakers and Storytellers, March 19–28

Presented over two weeks, the series INDIgenesis: GEN 3, guest curated by Missy Whiteman (Northern Arapaho and Kickapoo Nations), opens with an evening of expanded cinema and includes several shorts programs in the Walker Cinema and Bentson Mediatheque, an afternoon of virtual reality, and a closing-night feature film.

The ongoing showcase of works by Native filmmakers and artists is rooted in Indigenous principles that consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations. GEN 3 connects perspectives and stories from the past, present, and future to convey Indigenous truths, teachings, and values.

“Indigenous artists use the creative process of filmmaking for revitalization and narrative sovereignty,” says Whiteman. “Our stories tell us where we came from, re-create our truths, affirm our languages and culture, and inspire us to imagine our Indigenous future. We come from the stars. How far will we take this medium?”

Throughout the program, join conversations with artists and community members centered on themes of Indigenous Futurism, revitalization, and artistic creation.

Opening Night: Remembering the Future
Expanded Cinema Screening/Performance
Thursday, March 19, 7:30 pm Free, Walker Cinema

Missy Whiteman’s The Coyote Way: Going Back Home, 2016. Photo courtesy the filmmaker.

Combining film, a live score, hoop dancing, hip-hop, and spoken word, a collective of Indigenous artists led by curator Missy Whiteman creates an immersive environment that transcends time and place. Guided by ancestral knowledge systems, traditional stories, and contemporary forms of expression, the expanded cinema program features performances by DJ AO (Hopi/Mdewakatonwan Dakota), Sacramento Knoxx (Ojibwe/Chicano), Lumhe “Micco” Sampson (Mvskoke Creek/Seneca), and Michael Wilson (Ojibwe). Archival found footage and Whiteman’s sci-fi docu-narrative The Coyote Way: Going Back Home (2016), filmed in the community of Little Earth in South Minneapolis, illuminate the space.

Missy Whiteman’s The Coyote Way: Going Back Home, 2016. Photo courtesy the filmmaker.

View The Coyote Way: Going Back Home trailer

Indigenous Lens: Our RealityShort films by multiple directors
Friday, March 20, 7 pm, $10 ($8 Walker members, students, and seniors), Walker Cinema

This evening of short films showcases a collection of contemporary stories about what it means to be Indigenous today, portraying identity and adaptability in a colonialist system. The program spans a spectrum of themes, including two-spirit transgender love, coming of age, reflections on friends and fathers, “indigenizing” pop art, and creative investigations into acts of repatriation. Digital video, 85 mins

Copresented with Hud Oberly (Comanche/Osage/Caddo), Indigenous Program at Sundance Institute (in attendance).

Lore
Directed by Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians)

Images of friends and landscapes are fragmented and reassembled as a voice tells stories, composing elements of nostalgia in terms of lore. 2019, 10 min. View excerpt.

Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil, Jackson Polys, and Bailey Sweitzer’s Culture Capture: Terminal Adddition, 2019. Photo courtesy the filmmakers.

Culture Capture: Terminal Adddition
Directed by New Red Order: Adam Khalil (Ojibway), Zack Khalil (Ojibway), Jackson Polys (Tlingit), Bayley Sweitzer

The latest video by the public secret society known as the New Red Order is an incendiary indictment of the norms of European settler colonialism. Examining institutionalized racism through a mix of 3D photographic scans and vivid dramatizations, this work questions the contemporary act of disposing historical artifacts as quick fixes, proposing the political potential of adding rather than removing. 2019, 7 min. View excerpt.

Shane McSauby’s Mino Bimaadiziwin, 2017. Photo courtesy the filmmaker.

Mino Bimaadiziwin
Directed by Shane McSauby (Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians)

A trans Anishinaabe man meets a young Anishinaabe woman who pushes him to reconnect with their culture. 2017, 10 min. View excerpt.

The Moon and the Night
Directed by Erin Lau (Kanaka Maoli)

Erin Lau’s The Moon and the Night, 2017. Photo courtesy the filmmaker.

Set in rural Hawaii, a Native Hawaiian teenage girl must confront her father after he enters her beloved pet in a dogfight. 2018, 19 min. View excerpt.

Erin Lau’s The Moon and the Night, 2017. Photo courtesy the filmmaker.

Erin Lau. Photo courtesy the filmmaker. Photo By: Antonio Agosto

Shinaab II
Directed by Lyle Michell Corbine, Jr. (Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa Indians)

A young man seeks to honor the memory of his late father in a film that looks at Ojibwe ideas surrounding death and mourning. 2019, 6 min.

Daniel Flores’ Viva Diva, 2019. Image courtesy the artist.

Viva Diva
Directed by Daniel Flores (Yaqui)

This road trip movie follows Rozene and Diva as they make their way down to Guadalajara for their gender affirmation surgeries. 2017, 15 min. View excerpt.

Daniel Flores. Image courtesy the artist.

Dig It If You Can
Directed by Kyle Bell (Creek-Thlopthlocco Tribal Town)

An insightful portrait of the self-taught artist and designer Steven Paul Judd (Kiowa), whose satirical manipulations of pop culture for an Indigenous audience are gaining a passionate, mass following as he realizes his youthful dreams. 2016, 18 min. View excerpt.

“Feel Good” At STORY At Macy’s

STORY at Macy’s teams up with Well+Good to demystify wellness with curated products, health tips and experiences at 36 stores nationwide

STORY at Macy’s, the ever-changing, narrative-driven retail concept inside 36 Macy’s stores nationwide, unveils its latest theme: “Feel Good.” Now through April 2020, Feel Good STORY brings a fresh focus on wellness and uses merchandise curation and events to explore simple and actionable ways for customers to find greater balance, energy and nourishment. In partnership with the award-winning fitness and wellness media platform, Well+Good, Feel Good STORY leverages its expertise in the field to help define and demystify what it means to live a healthy life through both editorial tips and product picks.

The wellness-focused retail narrative invites discovery through three curatorial spaces and each introduces merchandise and experiences to help you feel Balanced, Energized and Nourished. The Balanced moment is all about mindfulness and invites guests to pause for a complimentary meditation in partnership with Calm, the number one app for sleep, meditation and relaxation. To feel Energized, customers are invited to explore something new, from weighted arm bangles by Bala to an in-store barre fitness class. Finally in Nourished, healthy habits are the focus with new takes on snacking from Dada Daily and alcohol-free elixirs by Seedlip.

Bala – Bangles Resistance Loop Bands, Set of 5 $19.00

STORY at Macy’s product curation meets with editor-approved intel from Well+Good to add a simple, informative layer to the experience. For example, shoppers will discover that to get a good night’s sleep, editors suggest “cooling down your bedroom,” alongside the dodow, a glowing timer that teaches you to fall asleep. Additional tips cover topics like the benefits of dark chocolate, relaxation techniques, and how to maximize your crystals. Well+Good also supports STORY’s merchandise curation by leveraging its 2020 Wellness Trends to inform product selections like snack-able chickpeas. Within these broad moments, STORY at Macy’s and Well+Good take aim at trending topics like sleep, self-care, exercise, hydration, muscle recovery and healthy snacking.

Bala – Weighted 1lb Bangles $49

Bed of Nails – Pillow $49

“Well+Good decodes and demystifies wellness to help our community live a healthy lifestyle in a way that works for them,” said Alexia Brue, co-founder of the award-winning media company Well+Good. “Partnering with STORY at Macy’s allows us to share our rigorously researched editorial content in a new and exciting way, giving people in-person tips to feel more Balanced, Energized and Nourished.”

VIM & VIGR-Compression Socks $36.00

Well + Good 100 Healthy Recipes + Expert Advice For Better Living Cookbook $29.99

To bring the Feel Good experience to life, STORY energizes its in-store environment with meditation spaces in partnership with the Calm app at all locations and a range of community-centered events focused on wellness. The concept will host events featuring local experts in the health and wellness space for cooking classes, panel discussions, journaling and meditation workshops, a manicure bar, yoga and barre classes, and mocktail-faking workshops.

AcousticSheep -Sleepphones Headphones $100.00

The Growing Candle-Hyggelight Edith Sandalwood Growing Candle $28.00

Eat For Beauty by Susan Curtis and Tipper Lewis 25.00

The Wellness Project By Phoebe Lapine $25.00

A special selection of STORY at Macy’s wellness product will also be available on macys.com, curated by the three focus areas. From a lavender mimosa candle by Paddywax in Balanced and collapsible foam roller by Brazyn Life in Energized to a mocktail faking kit by Luckies of London in Nourished, online shoppers will be able to discover something that will make them feel good, too.

Laugh, Cry, Love, Thrill and Cheer as 14 All-Time Film Favorites Light Up Movie Theaters Nationwide in the 2020 TCM Big Screen Classics Series

More Than 60 Years of Incredible Hollywood History Will Be Back on the Big Screen, Playing Across the U.S. for the Enormously Popular Event Cinema Series

“Surely, you can’t be serious!” In 2020, 14 of movie history’s greatest romances, funniest comedies, scariest monsters, boldest visions, ultimate adventures, and most unforgettable dramas will be back in movie theaters across the country as Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies present the fourth annual, yearlong TCM Big Screen Classics series.

2020 TCM Big Screen Classics

Among the highlights are the first national theatrical release of 1933’s King Kong in more than 60 years; the tear-jerking Love Story for Valentine’s Day; the 60th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho; and a rare big-screen appearance of Fiddler on the Roof. Plus, 2020 is the 40th anniversary of Airplane! We are serious. And don’t call us Shirley.

The 2020 lineup for the TCM Big Screen Classics series is:

• An American in Paris (1951)
• Love Story (1970)
• The Color Purple (1985)
• King Kong (1933)
• A League of Their Own (1992)
• Airplane! (1980)
• Annie (1982)
• The Blues Brothers (1980)
• Ghost (1990)
• Babe (1995)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• Psycho (1960)
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
• Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

Now in its fourth year, the TCM Big Screen Classics series continues to grow in popularity. In 2019, many events in the series experienced sold-out audiences and ranked near or at the top of box-office results – showcasing the enduring appeal and popularity of gathering in a darkened movie theater to see the sights and hear the sounds of the best Hollywood has ever created. Each film is presented with pristine digital projection and movie-theater-quality sound, further enhanced by fascinating pre- and post-feature insights presented by popular TCM hosts.

“2019 was a banner year for Fathom and the TCM Big Screen Classics series, with record levels of attendees and a bigger box office than ever before,” said Fathom Events Vice President of Studio Relations Tom Lucas. “That success challenged us to search out some of the greatest films ever released, including iconic titles from over six decades, featuring world-renowned filmmakers, legendary stars, Best Picture winners, and epic productions – all meant to be seen on the big screen.”

“This is a slate of films to make every movie lover genuinely excited, and our partnership with Fathom Events means we can bring these films to a bigger audience than ever. This series celebrates the magic of the movies all throughout the country, proving that there is nothing that matches the joy of seeing these films in a movie theater,” added Genevieve McGillicuddy, vice president of enterprise and strategic partnerships, TCM.

Tickets for all films in the 2020 TCM Big Screen Classics series are available at www.FathomEvents.com or at participating theater box offices. For a complete list of theater locations for each event, visit the Fathom Events website (theaters and participants are subject to change).

The movies coming soon to a theater near you in the TCM Big Screen Classics are:

Love Story (1970) – 50th Anniversary from Paramount Pictures

Love Story

Love Story (1970) – 50th Anniversary from Paramount Pictures
Sunday, February 9, and Wednesday, February 12
One of the most romantic movies ever made remains one of the most enduringly popular. This heartfelt tale of the love of a lifetime received seven Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress. 
CAST: Ryan O’Neal, Ali MacGraw, John Marley, Ray Milland
SCREENPLAY: Erich Segal, based on his novel
DIRECTED BY: Arthur Hiller

The Color Purple

The Color Purple

The Color Purple (1985) – 35th Anniversary from Warner Bros.
Sunday, February 23
Resilient Celie endures decades of abuse, bigotry and violence, as she finds love – and family – amid her harsh and unforgiving surroundings. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and presented to honor National Black History Month.
CAST: Whoopi Goldberg, Margaret Avery, Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, Akosua Busia
SCREENPLAY BY: Menno Meyjes, based on the novel by Alice Walker
DIRECTED BY: Steven Spielberg

King Kong

King Kong (1933) from Warner Bros.
Sunday, March 15
“No, it wasn’t the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast.” When King Kong is captured and taken off his tropical island for the bright lights of Manhattan, an unexpected bond is formed between the great beast and a damsel in distress.
CAST: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher, King Kong
SCREENPLAY BY: James Creelman and Ruth Rose
DIRECTED BY: Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack

Macy’s Celebrates Black History Month By Embracing and Expressing The Diversity Of Black People and Culture

In 1976, the U.S. government introduced Black History Month in conjunction with the nation’s bicentennial to honor the achievements and cultural richness of the African-American community. Today, more than 44.5 million U.S. citizens identify as Black. As such, the company celebrates the gifts, voices and legacy of this diverse population.

Macy’s celebrates Black History Month 2020 at select locations nationwide with special appearances by influencer Monica Veloz, Hair Love writer, director and producer Matthew Cherry, comedian Phoebe Robinson, activist Marley Dias, NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, celebrity hair stylist Kim Kimble, and many more.

Macy’s Black History Month events will be held at the following stores:

• Macy’s Baldwin Hills (Los Angeles) – Saturday, Feb. 8 at 2 p.m. with Monica Veloz
• Macy’s State Street (Chicago) – Thursday, Feb. 20 at 6 p.m. with Matthew Cherry
• Macy’s Herald Square (New York City) – Thursday, Feb. 20 at 6 p.m. with Phoebe Robinson and Marley Dias
• Macy’s Union Square (San Francisco) – Saturday, Feb. 22 at 2 p.m. with Jerry Rice
• Macy’s Lenox Square (Atlanta) – Saturday, Feb. 22 at 2 p.m. with Kim Kimble
• Macy’s Aventura (Miami) – Saturday, Feb. 22 at 2 p.m. with The Workshop at Macy’s

The month’s events kick off at Macy’s Baldwin Hills in Los Angeles with a make-up tutorial and discussion about diversity and inclusion in the beauty industry from influencer Monica Veloz. At Macy’s State Street, Chicago native Matthew Cherry will screen his 2020 Oscar®-nominated short-film Hair Love and discuss how he used the power of family to tell a compelling story about real people. Comedian and co-star of podcast 2 Dope Queens, Phoebe Robinson, and 14-year-old activist and creator of #1000blackgirlbooks, Marley Dias, will appear at Macy’s Herald Square in New York City for an evening of insightful dialogue. Three-time Super Bowl® champion and Hall of Famer Jerry Rice will appear at Macy’s Union Square in San Francisco. At Macy’s Lenox Square in Atlanta, customers can enjoy a demonstration and celebration of the diversity of Black hair from celebrity stylist Kim Kimble. At Macy’s Aventura in Miami, representatives from Macy’s Diversity and Inclusion team and The Workshop at Macy’s will participate in a discussion on the diversity of Black people and Black culture as well as select a high potential Black-owned business to join The Workshop at Macy’s class of 2020.

artist lisa Hunt

In addition to appearances by these notable innovators, Macy’s will showcase Black History Month-themed windows throughout February in Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Macy’s locations. The windows were created in partnership with Maplewood, New Jersey artist, Lisa Hunt. “My work explores the spatial and meditative relationships found within repeat patterns,” she commented. “The windows are expressed with a minimalist approach inspired by Art Deco, traditional African and Eastern textiles comprised of graphic shapes, symbols, and re-imagined typographic elements. The screen printed patterns employ an aesthetic use of gold leaf as a nod to its adorning use throughout art history.”

ONYX, Macy’s Black Employee Resource Group, was instrumental in developing this year’s campaign including the theme, display windows, and volunteer opportunities across the country. Throughout the campaign, Macy’s will contribute a total of $10,000 to charitable organizations such as Jerry Rice’s 127 Foundation and local Urban Leagues.

“Macy’s mission is to embed diversity and inclusion into how we think, act, and operate. We are strongest when we are representative of the many communities we serve and we are thrilled to offer our customers engaging Black History Month events that honor and reflect the Black experience and its impact on global culture,” said Shawn Outler, Macy’s chief diversity officer.

Experience Black History Month at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Open 365 days a year, the VMFA shares its growing collection of African American art all year long. During Black History Month 2020, it’s great time to visit the collection and join the ongoing celebration of African American art, history, and culture.

Boy and H, Harlem, 1961, Louis Draper (American, 1935–2002), gelatin silver print, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment. Courtesy of the Louis H. Draper Preservation Trust, Nell D. Winston, trustee.

TALK
Working Together: Louis Draper and the Kamoinge Workshop
Dr. Sarah Eckhardt, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, VMFA, in conversation with Nell Draper-Winston
Thu, Jan 30 | 6:30–7:30 pm, $8 (VMFA members $5), Leslie Cheek Theater

VMFA’s Dr. Sarah Eckhardt, curator of Working Together: Louis Draper and the Kamoinge Workshop, will provide an overview of the exhibition, which features photography by members of the Kamoinge Workshop, an artist collective founded in New York City in 1963. Nell Draper-Winston, sister of photographer Louis Draper, will join Dr. Eckhardt in conversation to discuss her brother’s photographs and his roots in Richmond.

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Celebrate African and African American Family Day: Mali

OPEN STUDIO PLUS PERFORMANCE
Grandma’s Hands
Sun, Feb 2 | 1–4 pm, Free, no tickets required. Art Education Center. Performances in the Atrium 2 pm & 3 pm

Join others as they encounter generational lessons from two sisters with remarkable stories to share from the perspective of the African American South. Through song, stories, and signed poetry, we will learn how women have made an impact on culture through practices passed down from family matriarchs.

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RVA Community Makers Art Activity
Sun, Feb 2 | 1–4 pm, Free, no tickets required. Art Education Center

During Open Studio Plus Performance, celebrate family with Richmond artist Hamilton Glass and local African American photographers.

Take your digital family portraits onsite at VMFA to become part of a mixed-media public art collaboration. Glass will guide attendees in hands-on participation. You can also capture fun memories in the Family Portrait Photo Booth.

Extending the meaning of family to community, the project also brings together six local photographers—Regina Boone, Courtney Jones, Brian Palmer, Sandra Sellars, Ayasha Sledge, and James Wallace— who will create portraits of six selected community leaders.

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FIRST FRIDAY
Spirituals, Fri, Feb 7 | 6–8 pm, Free, no tickets required. Atrium

Welcome sopranos Lisa Edwards Burrs and Olletta Cheatham to the First Friday series with an evening of Spirituals. Lisa and Olletta will sing many powerful songs of the genre and explore their resonating impact on history.

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DANCE PARTY
VMFA After Hours: VMFA Is for Lovers
Sat, Feb 15 | 7–11:30 pm, $45/person ($35 VMFA members). Museum wide

Join host Kelli Lemon for a night of art, music, dancing, and love after dark. Catch DJ Lonnie B on the spin in the Marble Hall. Enjoy Legacy Band performing live music in the Atrium. Experience the exhibitions Edward Hopper and the American Hotel and Working Together: Louis Draper and the Kamoinge Workshop.

All galleries will be open during this event to give you access to our diverse collections of art from around the world.

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LIVE JAZZ, Dominion Energy Jazz Café: Jazz Around the Museum. Thu, Feb 13 | 6–9 pm, Free, no tickets required. Marble Hall

Back by popular demand! Who says a Jazz band can’t party, get down, and get funky? Led by saxophonist Robert “Bo” Bohannon, Klaxton Brown combines the old with the new, and will rock you steady all night long. Prepare to get Klaxtonized!

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92nd Oscars® Producers Announces First Slate Of Presenters and Oscar Show Performers

Oscar® Winners Mahershala Ali, Olivia Colman, Regina King and Rami Malek Return to the Oscars® Stage

Cynthia Erivo, Elton John, Idina Menzel, Chrissy Metz And Randy Newman To Perform Nominated Original Songs

With Special Appearances By Eímear Noone And Questlove

Oscar® winners Mahershala Ali, Olivia Colman, Regina King and Rami Malek (Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting actress, and Best Actor in 2019) will present at the 92nd Oscars®, show producers Lynette Howell Taylor and Stephanie Allain announced today. All return to the Oscars stage after winning last year in their respective acting categories.

“We love the tradition of having the previous year’s Oscar-winning actors on stage to celebrate the achievements of their peers and are thrilled to welcome back these four great talents,” said Howell Taylor and Allain.

Oscar® winners Mahershala Ali, Olivia Colman, Regina King and Rami Malek (Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting actress, and Best Actor in 2019) Imaged provided by the Academy

Cynthia Erivo, Oscar® winner Elton John, Idina Menzel, Chrissy Metz and Oscar winner Randy Newman will perform this year’s nominated songs at the 92nd Oscars® ceremony.

Award-winning singer-songwriter Cynthia Erivo is set to perform her nominated song “Stand Up” from “Harriet” (Music and Lyric by Joshuah Brian Campbell and Cynthia Erivo) at the 92nd Oscars. credit: Benedict Evans.

“We’re excited to have an incredible group of nominees and performers who will deliver one-of-a-kind music moments you will only see on the Oscars,” said Howell Taylor and Allain.

This year’s Original Song nominees and performers are as follows (in alphabetical order by song title):

Cauleen Smith: Mutualities To Open At The Whitney In February

Mutualities, the multidisciplinary artist Cauleen Smith’s first solo show in New York, will open at the Whitney Museum of American Art on February 17. The exhibition includes two films, Sojourner (2018) and Pilgrim (2017), shown in two installation environments newly created for the Whitney, along with a group of new drawings, collectively titled Firespitters (2020).

Image credit: Cauleen Smith, still from Sojourner, 2018. Video, color, sound, 22:41 min. Courtesy of the artist, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, and Kate Werble Gallery, New York.

Scott Rothkopf, Senior Deputy Director and Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator, remarked, “We’re delighted to welcome Cauleen Smith back to the Whitney. With their exquisite atmosphere and construction, Sojourner and Pilgrim offer lyrical views of important figures and sites in Black history, and also look toward a shared future. The show builds a beautiful bridge between the other pillars of our spring exhibition program, pointing to the political concerns of Vida Americana and the spiritual uplift of Agnes Pelton.”

Smith (b. 1967)—whose banners were prominently featured at the Museum in the 2017 Whitney Biennial—draws on poetry, science fiction, non-Western cosmologies, and experimental film to create works that reflect on memory and Afro-diasporic histories.

Cauleen Smith is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work draws upon Black radical thought, structural film, poetry, and science fiction. Born in Riverside, California in 1967, she grew up in Sacramento, and earned a B.A. in Cinema from San Francisco State University and an MFA at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Theater Film and Television. At UCLA, she studied with the L.A. Rebellion filmmakers, a group of graduate students who started a Black Cinema movement at the university in the mid-1960s. She has made over 40 films, and her first feature length film, Drylongso (1998), premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival before circulating with acclaim to other film festivals. She has had exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, ICA Philadelphia, MASS MoCA, the Studio Museum of Harlem, the New Museum, New York, the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, and the Kitchen, New York, and was featured in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. She is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies including the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2007), the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, Artist Award (2012), the Washington Park Arts Incubator, Arts and Public Life Residency (2013), and the Rauschenberg Residency (2015). She has taught at various universities over the span of the last two decades, and is a Faculty member of Cal Arts School of Art in Los Angeles.

Chrissie Iles, the Whitney’s Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator, who has organized the show with Clémence White, senior curatorial assistant, commented, “We are proud to bring together Cauleen Smith’s films, installations, and drawings in an exhibition that articulates an ethics of care, engagement, and generosity. Each element of the show is experienced through another—books written and chosen by poets invited by the artist appear in delicate gouaches; a film tracing a pilgrimage to spiritual sites is bathed in the colored light of the installation surrounding it. The Museum’s recognition of Smith’s long and deeply engaged practice is underlined by our recent acquisition of both films, Sojourner and Pilgrim, which join her banners already in the Whitney’s collection.”

Unfolding across several important sites in Black spiritual and cultural history, the two films in the exhibition weave together writings by women from different eras, including Shaker visionary Rebecca Cox Jackson, abolitionist Sojourner Truth, the Black feminist Combahee River Collective of the 1970s, and experimental-jazz composer and spiritual leader Alice Coltrane, whose music also forms the soundtrack for both films. This gathering of voices enacts a shared Black female subjectivity, the collective strength of which is expressed in Smith’s poetic use of the camera and light as improvisational instruments to reveal how invention, creativity, and generosity can be resources for transformation and regeneration. By placing the title of this exhibition in the plural, Smith draws a connection between the two films while pointing to the idea that what is held in common is never singular.

In Sojourner, a group of women walk in procession through sites including Dockweiler State Beach and Watts Towers in Los Angeles. The women carry translucent orange banners, each emblazoned with part of a text by the jazz composer and spiritual leader Alice Coltrane (1937–2007). Watts Towers, a cluster of seventeen sculptural spires, served as a symbol of hope and regeneration after surviving the 1965 Watts Rebellion unscathed. Smith locates a similar spirit in assemblage artist Noah Purifoy’s Outdoor Desert Art Museum in Joshua Tree, California. The women end their procession there, listening to readings of the Black feminist Combahee River Collective, Sojourner Truth (1797–1833), and Alice Coltrane. Their collective voices, echoed in contemporary footage of the Chicago-based activist coalition R3 (Resist. Reimagine. Rebuild.), fuse spirituality and activism into a potent articulation of self-realization and resistance. The actions unfold not only within different sites within the film itself, but in an immersive kaleidoscopic environment of light and seating in the Museum that interconnects the film with a more expansive sense of place and collective presence.

Pilgrim traces the artist’s pilgrimage to three sites: Alice Coltrane’s Turiyasangitananda Vedantic Center in Agoura, California; Watts Towers in Los Angeles; and the Black spiritual activist Rebecca Cox Jackson’s (1795–1871) Watervliet Shaker community in upstate New York. Smith vividly evokes the creative atmosphere of each place, allowing the camera to slowly explore the ashram’s interior and Coltrane’s musical instruments, and using the soft grain and subtle color of Super 8 film to infuse the footage of Watts Towers and the flowers in the Shaker garden with an emotional intimacy. Jackson’s advocacy of racial and gender equality, her fight against the patriarchy of organized religion, and her awareness of the African roots of her faith resonate with Coltrane’s own hybrid, transnational spiritual and musical language. Both women’s challenges to accepted authority are, like the enduring independent spirit of Watts Towers, grounded in a sense of place, community, and generosity that are also hallmarks of Smith’s own transformative work.

The screenings of Smith’s films in High Line Art’s presentation of Signals from Here, organized by Melanie Kress, High Line Art Associate Curator, will take place from dusk until the park closes, on the High Line at 14th Street. The program includes Three Songs About Liberation (2017), Crow Requiem (2015), Lessons in Semaphore (2015), H-E-L-L-O (2014), and Songs for Earth and Folk (2013).

PUBLIC PROGRAM

Screening and Conversation with Cauleen Smith and Michael Gillespie Friday, March 27, 6:30 pm

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Whitney will present a rare screening of Passing Through (1977, 105 min) by LA Rebellion filmmaker Larry Clark, preceded by one of Cauleen Smith’s films. Following the screening, Smith will be in conversation with film scholar Michael Boyce Gillespie, Associate Professor of Film in the Department of Media and Communication Arts and the Black Studies Program at the City College of New York, City University of New York.

Tickets required. ($10 adults; $8 members, students, seniors, and visitors with a disability).

Cauleen Smith: Mutualities is part of the Whitney’s emerging artists program, sponsored by Nordstrom. Generous support is provided by The Rosenkranz Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Artists Council.

Denver Art Museum Presents Untitled: Creative Fusions

Evening programming features collaborations with local artists, pop-up art installations, performances and more

The Denver Art Museum (DAM) will kick off its new season of Untitled: Creative Fusions on January 31, 2020, with an unprecedented night of pop-up art installations, performances, interactive elements and more created by local artists Eileen Roscina Richardson and Joshua Ware in collaboration with 17 local creatives.

Untitled: Creative Fusions is a newly reimagined version of Untitled, presenting a bigger, bolder program at the Denver Art Museum in 2020. Taking place four times a year, Untitled: Creative Fusions will bring local creatives together to merge their artistic practices with the DAM’s exhibitions and artworks.

(Untitled is included in general museum admission, however, a special exhibition ticket is required for Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature.)

Creatives Eileen Roscina Richardson & Joshua Ware. Image courtesy of Denver Art Museum.

Inspired by Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature and The Light Show, Richardson and Ware join forces to investigate the wild and the constructed through the theme Entanglements. Visitors are invited to explore the space between the man-made and the natural, where humans and nature are irrevocably intertwined.

With can’t-miss moments including live ice sculpting by Jess Parris, pop-up installations by the lead creators, wheat pasting with We Were Wild, a complimentary liquid nitrogen popcorn station courtesy of The Inventing Room, beats by Dance the NightShift and more, visitors can expect a once-in-a-lifetime night at the DAM during Untitled.

Walker Art Center Announces Extensive 2020–2021 Exhibition Schedule Highlights

The Walker Arts Center continues to flesh out what is considerably a very dynamic exhibition schedule for the next two years. Additions to the Walker Art Center’s 2020–2021 exhibition schedule include two new solo exhibitions by female artists, Faye Driscoll: Thank You for Coming (February 27–June 14, 2020) and Candice Lin (April 17–August 29, 2021) as well as a Walker collection show of women artists, Don’t let this be easy (July 16–March 14, 2021). For her first solo museum exhibition, Faye Driscoll incorporates a guided audio soundtrack, moving image works, and props to look back across the entirety of her trilogy of performances Thank You For Coming—Attendance (2014), Play (2016), and Space (2019)—works that were presented and co-commissioned by the Walker and subsequently toured around the world over the past six years. Another newly added exhibition, Candice Lin, is the first US museum solo show by the artist, co-organized by the Walker Art Center and the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts (CCVA). Lin is creating a site-specific installation that responds to the space of the gallery at each institution, allowing the shape of the work to evolve over the course of its presentation.

The Walker-organized exhibition Don’t let this be easy highlights the diverse and experimental practices of women artists spanning some 50 years through a selection of paintings, sculptures, moving image works, artists’ books, and materials from the archives.

The initiative is presented in conjunction with the Feminist Art Coalition (FAC), a nationwide effort involving more than 60 museums committed to social justice and structural change.

Other upcoming exhibitions include An Art Of Changes: Jasper Johns Prints, 1960–2018 (February 16–September 20, 2020), a survey of six decades of Johns’ work in printmaking drawn from the Walker’s complete collection of the artists’ prints including intaglio, lithography, woodcut, linoleum cut, screenprinting, lead relief, and blind embossing; The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object, and Performance (formerly titiled Still and Yet) (April 18–July 26, 2020), is an exhibition that rethinks the history of performance featuring artists whose works include performative elements but also embrace acts, objects, and gestures that refer more to the inert qualities of traditional painting or sculpture than to true staged action.

Additional exhibitions include Michaela Eichwald’s (June 13–November 8, 2020) first US solo museum presentation, bringing together painting, sculpture, and collage from across the past 10 years of her practice; Designs for Different Futures (September 12, 2020 – January 3, 2021)—a collaborative group show co-organized by the Walker Art Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago—brings together about 80 dynamic works that address the challenges and opportunities that humans may encounter in the years, decades, and centuries to come; Rayyane Tabet (December 10, 2020– April 18, 2021), a solo show by the Beirut-based multidisciplinary artist featuring a new installation for the Walker that begins with a time capsule discovered on the site of what was once an IBM manufacturing facility in Rochester, Minnesota.

OPENING EXHIBITIONS

• AN ART OF CHANGES: JASPER JOHNS PRINTS, 1960–2018, February 16–September 20, 2020
• FAYE DRISCOLL: THANK YOU FOR COMING, February 27–June 14, 2020
• THE PARADOX OF STILLNESS: ART, OBJECT, AND PERFORMANCE, April 18–July 26, 2020
• MICHAELA EICHWALD, June 4–November 8. 2020
• DON’T LET THIS BE EASY, July 16–March 14, 2021
• DESIGNS FOR DIFFERENT FUTURES, September 12–January 3, 2021
• RAYYANE TABET, December 10–April 18, 2021
• JULIE MEHRETU, March 14, 2021–July 11, 2021
• CANDICE LIN, April 17, 2021–August 29, 2021

CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS

• THE EXPRESSIONIST FIGURE: 100 YEARS OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY DRAWING, November 17, 2019–April 19, 2020
• CARISSA RODRIGUEZ: THE MAID, October 3, 2019–February 2, 2020
• FIVE WAYS IN: THEMES FROM THE COLLECTION, February 14, 2019–October 3, 2021
• ELIZABETH PRICE, December 8, 2018–March 1, 2020
• I AM YOU, YOU ARE TOO, September 7, 2017–March 1, 2020

Photo Credit: Flags I, 1973. Screenprint on paper, 27 3/8 x 35 ½ in. ed. 3/65. Collection Walker Art Center, Gift of Judy and Kenneth Dayton, 1988. © Jasper Johns/VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

An Art Of Changes: Jasper Johns Prints, 1960–2018, February 16–September 20, 2020. Gallery B/Target

When Jasper Johns’s paintings of flags and targets debuted in 1958, they brought him instant acclaim and established him as a critical link between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. In the ensuing 60 years, Johns (US, b. 1930) has continued to astonish viewers with the beauty and complexity of his paintings, drawings, sculpture, and prints. Today, he is considered one of the 20th century’s greatest American artists.

Artist: Jasper Johns Title: Figure 7 from the Color Numeral Series Date: 1969 Medium: lithograph on paper Accession number: 1985.319 Credit Line: Gift of Kenneth Tyler, 1985. Repro Rights: VAGA; Art copyright Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

Artist: Jasper Johns Title: Target Date: 1960 Medium: lithograph on paper Accession number: 1988.181 Credit Line: Gift of Judy and Kenneth Dayton, 1988. Repro Rights: VAGA; Art copyright Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

In celebration of the artist’s 90th birthday, An Art of Changes surveys six decades of Johns’s work in printmaking, highlighting his experiments with familiar, abstract, and personal imagery that play with memory and visual perception in endlessly original ways. The exhibition features some 90 works in intaglio, lithography, woodcut, linoleum cut, screenprinting, and lead relief—all drawn from the Walker’s comprehensive collection of the artist’s prints.

Target, 1974
Screenprint on paper
35 1/8 x 27 3/8 inches
Collection Walker Art Center, Gift of Judy and Kenneth Dayton, 1988
© Jasper Johns/VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Artist: Jasper Johns Title: Untitled Date: 2000 Medium: linocut on paper Accession number: 2001.197 Credit Line: Gift of the artist, 2001. Repro Rights: VAGA; Art copyright Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

Artist: Jasper Johns Title: Untitled Date: 2016 Medium: Linoleum-cut on paper Accession number: 2017.6 Credit Line: Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Gift of the artist, 2017. Photo by Gene Pittman for Walker Art Center.

Artist: Jasper Johns Title: Fragment of a Letter Date: 2010 Medium: intaglio on paper Accession number: 2011.59.1-.2 Credit Line: Gift of the artist, 2011. Repro Rights: VAGA; Art copyright Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

Artist: Jasper Johns Title: Between the Clock and the Bed Date: 1989 Medium: Lithograph on paper Accession number: 1991.155 Credit Line: Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Stacy Roback, 1991. Repro Rights: VAGA, Art © Jasper Johns/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photo by Gene Pittman for Walker Art Center.

Organized in four thematic sections, the show follows Johns through the years as he revises and recycles key motifs over time, including the American flag, numerals, and the English alphabet, which he describes as “things the mind already knows.” Some works explore artists’ tools, materials, and techniques. Others explore signature aspects of the artist’s distinctive mark-making, including flagstones and hatch marks, while later pieces teem with autobiographical imagery. To underscore Johns’s fascination with the changes that occur when an image is reworked in another medium, the prints will be augmented by a small selection of paintings and sculptures.

Artist Jasper Johns at work in his studio

Artist: Jasper Johns Title: Savarin Date: 1977 Medium: Lithograph on paper Accession number: 1988.276 Credit Line: Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Gift of Judy and Kenneth Dayton, 1988. Repro Rights: VAGA, Art © Jasper Johns/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

Curator: Joan Rothfuss, guest curator, Visual Arts.

• Exhibition Tour
  Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: October 12, 2019–January 20, 2020
  Walker Art Center, Minneapolis: February 16–September 20, 2020
  Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan: October 24, 2020–January 24, 2021
  Tampa Art Museum, Florida: April 28–September 6, 2021

MFA Boston Hosts Third-Annual Boston Festival of Films from Japan, Made Possible by 10-Year Partnership with UNIQLO

Free Opening Night Celebration Features Screening of Madhouse’s “Okko’s Inn” and Music by DJ Yuzu Kosho

From a heartwarming anime ghost story to a neo-noir thriller, 10 of the best feature films recently produced in Japan are screening at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), from January 30 through February 23, 2020. The third-annual Boston Festival of Films from Japan, made possible through the MFA’s 10-year partnership with global apparel retailer UNIQLO, kicks off with a free screening of Okko’s Inn (2018), the latest feature film from famed anime studio Madhouse. The opening night celebration on January 30 will also feature a set by local DJ Yuzu Kosho (Marié Abe), whose musical selection runs the gamut from retro kitsch to contemporary experimental sounds from Japan; an art-making activity inspired by a koi kite-flying scene in the film; and a showcase of the latest line of UNIQLO T-shirts inspired by works from the MFA’s renowned Japanese art collection. In addition to Okko’s Inn, highlights of the 2020 Boston Festival of Films from Japan include the exciting neo-noir thriller First Love (2019) from prolific auteur Takashi Miike and Shinobu Yaguchi’s award-winning Dance with Me (2019), a musical road-trip adventure filled with dance, humor and heart.

Free tickets for opening night can be reserved online only starting at 10 am on January 30. Tickets for all additional BFFJ films are $10 for MFA members and $13 for nonmembers, available starting January 23.

BFFJ 2020 Films

Okko’s Inn, directed by Kitarō Kōsaka (Japan, 2018, 94 min.)

Okko’s Inn

Okko’s Inn is the latest feature from famed anime studio Madhouse and director Kitarō Kōsaka, a key animator on numerous classic films at the venerable Studio Ghibli. Seamlessly blending immersive, idyllic landscapes with storybook charm, Okko’s Inn delivers a rare ghost story that—despite several floating characters—is firmly grounded in the trials and joys of humanity.

Killing, directed by Shin’ya Tsukamoto (Japan, 2018, 80 min.)

Set during the tumultuous mid-19th century Edo period of Japan, Killing is the story of a master-less samurai or rōnin named Mokunoshin Tsuzuki. As the prevalent peace and tranquility are threatened by impending war, the swordsman feels restlessness creep upon him. The stark consideration of violence and honor is handled with masterful artistry by one of contemporary Japanese cinema’s most essential auteurs.

First Love, directed by Takashi Miike (Japan, 2019, 108 min.)

Hatsukoi (First Love)

Prolific auteur Takashi Miike’s First Love is an exciting neo-noir thriller that takes place over one night in Tokyo. After meeting a troubled young woman named Monica, Leo, a young boxer, finds himself unexpectedly caught up in the world of drug smuggling, police corruption, the yakuza, and a female assassin sent by the Chinese triads.

Sundance ASCAP Music Café Presents 22nd Anniversary Lineup

Performances includes Renowned And Emerging Artists Including Matt Berninger, Derek Smalls, the bird and the bee, Barry Zito, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Matthew Koma, ZZ Ward And More

ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) announces an eclectic music lineup for its 22nd Annual Sundance ASCAP Music Café, taking place January 24 – 31, 2020 during the acclaimed Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Beginning at 2 p.m. each day, the Café will feature a dynamic mix of both established and emerging songwriters and artists such as Matt Berninger (of The National), Derek Smalls (formerly of the band formerly known as Spinal Tap), the bird and the bee, Barry Zito, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Matthew Koma (of Winnetka Bowling League) and ZZ Ward.

ASCAP Logo (PRNewsfoto/ASCAP)

“For 22 years, Sundance ASCAP Music Café has shined a spotlight on the exquisite alchemy of sound and vision embodied by the art of filmmaking,” said Loretta Muñoz, ASCAP Assistant Vice President, Membership. “We are continuing the tradition in 2020 with eight days of musical performances by extraordinary artists throughout the Festival. You will hear unique sets from artists you already know and love, and you’re guaranteed to find some new loves too.“

Other featured performers at the 2020 Sundance ASCAP Music Café include: Alex Lilly, Colter Wall, Fox Wilde, James Bourne, Jamie Drake, Joe Robinson, Joseph Arthur, LÉON, Lizbeth Román, Rain Phoenix, Ron Artis II, Ruen Brothers, Samantha Sidley, Stephen Kellogg, Steven Dayvid McKellar (of Civil Twilight) and NewSong Music Competition winner Jobi Riccio.

The Sundance ASCAP Music Café takes place at 751 Main Street, Park City, UT and is open to all Festival credential holders (21 and older).

To view a complete schedule of performances and hear the music of Café artists, visit www.ascap.com/sundance2020. For the latest information on ASCAP events at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as on-site coverage, follow ASCAP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and through the event hashtag, #ASCAPMusicCafe.

The ASCAP Composer-Filmmaker Cocktail Party
On the evening of Monday, January 27, ASCAP hosts the ASCAP Composer-Filmmaker Cocktail Party. This is an invite-only, after-show celebration held at the Sundance ASCAP Music Café. The private event is for Festival filmmakers, ASCAP film composers, Sundance ASCAP Music Café artists and music supervisors. Festival filmmakers and film composers who are interested in attending may contact filmtv@ascap.com for further details.

Music in Film
The 2020 Sundance Film Festival includes many films and audio/visual projects that prominently feature the music of ASCAP’s composer and songwriter members. ASCAP composers and foreign affiliates who have scored Festival films and New Frontier projects this year include:

Hans Zimmer (Rebuilding Paradise), John Debney (Come Away), Pinar Toprak (McMillions), Bear McCreary (Crip Camp), John Paesano (Tesla), St. Vincent (The Nowhere Inn), Dan Romer (Wendy), Alex Somers (Miss Americana, The Charm City Kings), Ty Segall (Whirlybird), Richard Reed Parry (The Nest), Alex Weston (Wander Darkly), Hauschka (Downhill, The Perfect Candidate), Anne Nikitin (Lost Girls), Jay Wadley (I Carry You With Me), Nico Muhly (Worth), Garth Stevenson (Little Chief), Joseph Arthur (Okavango: River of Dreams), Amanda Jones (Baldwin Beauty), Benjamin Woodgates (Dream Horse), Katya Mihailova (Code for Bias), Antonio Pinto (Nine Days), Elegant Too (Scare Me), Peter Albrechtsen (The Killing of Two Lovers), Bob Allaire (Beast Beast – addtl music), Olivier Alary (Softie), Kristian Eidnes Andersen (The Charter), Roque Baños (His House), Amine Bouhafa (So what if the goats die), Courtney Bryan (The 40-Year Old Version), Robin Coudert (Run Sweetheart Run), Jason Martin Castillo (Place), Florencia Di Concilio (Influence), Nainita Desai (Reason I Jump), Karim Sebastian Elias (Saudi Runaway), Ludovico Einaudi (The Father), Fabrice Faltraue (Inès), Thomas Gallet (My Juke-Box), Adam Gunther (Three Deaths), Neil Haverty (Hot Flash), Jon Hegel (Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist), Uno Helmersson (The Painter and the Thief), Dickon Hinchliffe (Into the Deep), Martin Horntveth (Do Not Split, The Farce), Josh Kaufman (We Are Freestyle Love Supreme), Michael Krassner (The Evening Hour), Fabrice Lecomte (Sylvie’s Love), Lucas Lechowski (Benevolent Ba), Nascuy Linares (Luxor, Once Upon a Time in Venezuela), Juan Luqui (The Fight), Michelle Miles (how did we get here?), Jon Natchez (The Climb), James Newberry (Buck), Andrew Orkin (Save Yourselves!), Owen Pallett (Spaceship Earth), Adam Peters (The Dissident), Mark Phillips (Betye Saar: Taking Care of Business) Nathan Prillaman (Dirty), Coco Reilly (The Starr Sisters), Thomas Roussel (Jumbo), Colin Sigor (Broken Orchestra), Eddie Simonsen (Chemo Brain), Josiah Steinbrick (Horse Girl), Jeremy Turner (Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind), Vincent van Warmerdam (Mole Agent), Zsuzsanna Varkonyi (Epicentro), Fernando Velázquez (Sergio) and Jim Williams (Possessor).

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a professional membership organization of songwriters, composers and music publishers of every kind of music. ASCAP’s mission is to license and promote the music of its members and foreign affiliates, obtain fair compensation for the public performance of their works and to distribute the royalties that it collects based upon those performances. ASCAP members write the world’s best-loved music and ASCAP has pioneered the efficient licensing of that music to hundreds of thousands of enterprises who use it to add value to their business – from bars, restaurants and retail, to radio, TV and cable, to Internet, mobile services and more. The ASCAP license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. With more than 735,000 members representing more than 11.5 million copyrighted works, ASCAP is the worldwide leader in performance royalties, service and advocacy for songwriters and composers, and the only American performing rights organization (PRO) owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. Learn more and stay in touch at www.ascap.com Twitter and Instagram @ASCAP and on Facebook.

Nat Geo WILD and Sun Valley Film Festival Launch Seventh Annual Wild to Inspire Short Film Contest to Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day

Grand Prize Includes Festival Screening and Filmmaking Expedition Abroad

In partnership with the Sun Valley Film Festival, Nat Geo WILD announces the seventh annual Wild to Inspire short-film contest. This year, the contest is seeking short films inspired by the milestone 50th anniversary of Earth Day. National Geographic has a storied history of inspiring people to care about the planet and is now looking for films to help with this mission. Films should celebrate the natural world, inspire viewers to work toward a planet in balance in the 21st century and draw a connection to the Earth Day anniversary.

The grand-prize winner will receive a once-in-a-lifetime, all-expenses-paid excursion to one of the far corners of the globe to find out firsthand what it’s like to be a National Geographic filmmaker. Past winners have traveled to Africa and Peru.

U.S. residents are invited to submit a short film of three minutes or less using the submission platform Submittable™. Up to three finalists, announced in early March 2020, will receive an invitation to attend SVFF, which unites filmmakers and industry insiders from around the world, in Sun Valley, Idaho, March 18-22. At SVFF, the finalists will screen their films for festival attendees and before a panel of judges that includes Nat Geo WILD executives. The grand-prize winner will be announced at the festival’s closing ceremony.

“National Geographic has always been at the forefront of storytelling excellence, having redefined the natural history genre throughout the decades,” says Chris Albert, EVP of global communications at National Geographic and Nat Geo WILD. “Which is why it’s so relevant to inspire the next generation of filmmakers who are eager to put our planet in the spotlight and encourage guardianship and sustainability through heightened awareness of our living, breathing and dynamic planet.”

Since 2012, the Sun Valley Film Festival has invited fans and filmmakers to America’s first ski resort to celebrate the magic of storytelling. The year-round Sun Valley Film Initiative develops professionals and illuminates the process of filmmaking, propelling emerging voices with grants and education. Each March, SVFF celebrates with a slate of cutting-edge films and TV premieres, industry panels, engaging Coffee Talks with entertainment luminaries, a Screenwriters Lab led by award-winning writers and a series of parties culminating with the spectacular SVFF Awards Bash. The 2020 SVFF will be held March 18-22. SVFF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. (Learn more at sunvalleyfilmfestival.org.)

“Sun Valley is committed to bringing together the best and brightest in filmmaking while also celebrating the aspiring creators whose work deserves our attention,” says Teddy Grennan, executive director of the Sun Valley Film Festival. “Screening Wild to Inspire finalists during our annual festival is just one way this contest helps foster new talent.”

Aubrey Plaza Returns to Host 35th Film Independent Spirit Awards

Film Independent announced that Aubrey Plaza will return to host the 2020 Film Independent Spirit Awards. The Spirit Awards are the primary fundraiser for Film Independent’s year-round programs, which cultivate the careers of emerging filmmakers and promote diversity in the industry. Nominees were announced by Zazie Beetz (Atlanta, Joker, Deadpool 2) and Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll, Ad Astra, Orange Is the New Black) on November 21. Best Feature nominees include A Hidden Life, Clemency, The Farewell, Marriage Story and Uncut Gems. The show will be broadcast live exclusively on IFC at 2:00 pm PT / 5:00 pm ET on Saturday, February 8, 2020.

2020 Film Independent Spirit Awards logo (Image provide by Film Independent)

“Like all great independent film performances, this one deserves a sequel,” said Host Aubrey Plaza. “The people have spoken. Bow down to your host!”

“At a time when the world is so bitterly divided and civil discourse is almost impossible, it’s nice we can all agree that Aubrey Plaza is the greatest host in the history of hosting,” said Josh Welsh, Film Independent President. “We are thrilled to have her back. Today is also the last day to join Film Independent as a Member to get access to the nominated films and vote on the winners. Only a fool would not watch the Spirit Awards on IFC on February 8, 2 PM PST / 5 PM EST.”

“Aubrey is back! Last year, fear of her signature take on hosting duties kept that other awards show host-less. We are excited to see what she brings to the tent this year,” said IFC Executive Director, Blake Callaway.

Now in its 35th year, the Film Independent Spirit Awards is an annual celebration honoring artist-driven films made with an economy of means by filmmakers whose films embody independence and originality. The Spirit Awards recognizes the achievements of American independent filmmakers and promotes the finest independent films of the year to a wider audience.

Plaza will next be seen starring in Black Bear, a suspenseful meta-drama, opposite Christopher Abbott and Sarah Gadon. The film, which she also produced, will premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. She is currently in production on Lina Roessler’s Best Sellers opposite Michael Caine which is based on an original screenplay that won a 2015 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting award. Plaza’s other feature film credits include: Ingrid Goes West (which she produced and received a 2018 Film Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature), Jeff Baena’s The Little Hours (also producer), Hal Hartley’s Ned Rifle, Colin Trevorrow’s Safety Not Guaranteed, Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Judd Apatow’s Funny People, among others. On television, she most recently starred in Noah Hawley’s Legion on FX and is well known for her role on NBC’s Parks & Recreation.

This year marks the 35th edition of the awards show that celebrates the best of independent film. Past Spirit Awards hosts have included Nick Kroll and John Mulaney, Kate McKinnon and Kumail Nanjiani, Fred Armisen and Kristen Bell, Patton Oswalt, Andy Samberg, Joel McHale, Sarah Silverman, Samuel L. Jackson, Eddie Izzard, Queen Latifah and John Waters, to name a few. The show, which will be held on the beach in Santa Monica, will be executive produced and directed by Joel Gallen of Tenth Planet Productions for the sixth consecutive year. Shawn Davis returns as producer for his 18th year, Rick Austin returns as producer for his fifth year and Danielle Federico and Andrew Schaff also return as co-producers.

Winners, who are selected by Film Independent Members, will be announced at the Spirit Awards on Saturday, February 8, 2020. The awards ceremony will be held on the beach in Santa Monica, just north of the Santa Monica Pier.

Winners of the Spirit Awards Filmmaker Grants will be announced at the Film Independent Spirit Awards Filmmaker Grant and Nominee Brunch on Saturday, January 4, 2020, at BOA Steakhouse in West Hollywood.

Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominees Return for Walker Arts Center Members

Get into the award season spirit with three weeks of free films just for Walker Arts Center members. The annual presentation of the Film Independent Spirit Awards nominees showcases creativity and innovation in visual storytelling with the best of indie cinema. Now is the perfect time to buy a mewmbership to get ahead of films sure to heat up the awards race in the next few months. The 2020 Film Independent Spirit Awards, hosted by actor Audrey Plaza, will be broadcast live exclusively on IFC cable channel at 2:00 pm PT / 5:00 pm ET on Saturday, February 8, 2020.

2020 Film Independent Spirit Awards
January 14–29, Walker Cinema, Free
Walker, Film Independent, & FilmNorth Members Only

Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart, 2019. Photo courtesy Annapurna Pictures.

Copresented with Film Independent and FilmNorth.

2020 Film Independent Spirit Award Nominees:

Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, 2019. L to R: “Jiang Yongbo, Aoi Mizuhara, Chen Han, Tzi Ma, Awkwafina, Li Xiang, Lu Hong, Zhao Shuzhen.” Courtesy of Big Beach. Photo courtesy A24.

Chinonye Chukwu’s Clemency, 2019. Photo courtesy NEON.

Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life, 2019. Photo courtesy Fox Searchlight.

Best Feature

Uncut Gems, Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie
A Hidden Life, Terrence Malick
The Farewell, Lulu Wang
Marriage Story, Noah Baumbach
Clemency, Chinonye Chukwu

Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie’s Uncut Gems, 2019. Photo courtesy A24.

Michael Angelo Covino’s The Climb, 2019. Photo courtesy Sony Picture Classics.

Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s The Mustang, 2019. Photo courtesy Focus Features.

Best First Feature

Booksmart, Olivia Wilde
Diane, Kent Jones
The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Joe Talbot
See You Yesterday, Stefon Bristol
The Climb, Michael Angelo Covino
The Mustang, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre

Stefon Bristol’s See You Yesterday, 2019. Photo courtesy Netflix.

Best Documentary

Gabrielle Brady’s Island of the Hungry Ghosts, 2019. Photo courtesy Autlook Films.

Honeyland, Tamara Kotevska
Apollo 11, Todd Douglas Miller
American Factory, Julia Reichert
For Sama, Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts
Island of Hungry Ghosts, Gabrielle Brady

Todd Douglas Miller’s Apollo 11, 2019. Photo courtesy NEON.

Tamara Kotevska and Ljubo Stefanov’s Honeyland, 2019. Photo credit Ljubo Stefanov, courtesy NEON.

The Academy Spotlights Shortlisted Documentary Feature Contenders for 92nd Oscars

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Announces “Oscars(R) Spotlight: Documentaries” National Theatrical Screening Dates Of 2019 Shortlisted Documentary Feature Contenders

Following the recent announcement of the shortlists in consideration for the 92nd Academy Awards®, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced details for its upcoming“Oscars® Spotlight: Documentaries” Screening Initiative leading up to the 92nd Oscars. The program, which debuted last year, highlights the Oscar® shortlisted Documentary Feature films by holding screenings at theaters across the country and offering moviegoers a chance to see these documentaries on the big screen. The films will screen theatrically in 20 cities nationwide starting December 25, 2019. Participating theaters include AMC Theatres®, Alamo Drafthouse, Harkins, IFC Center, Landmark Theatres, Laemmle Theatres and the Smithsonian.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

“We are so happy to be able to bring the Academy’s Oscars Spotlight series back for another year,” said Rory Kennedy, Academy Documentary Branch Governor. “By working together with theaters across the country, we will bring greater visibility to these exceptional shortlisted films, reach new audiences and help further the Academy’s mission to support all forms of filmmaking.”

The full list of participating theaters and corresponding locations are below. Please check local listings for show times. Theaters and show times are subject to change:

Atlanta	Landmark’s Midtown Art Cinema
Austin	Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Lakeline
Boston	AMC Boston Common 19
Chicago	AMC River East 21
Denver	Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Westminster
Los Angeles	Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Downtown Los Angeles AMC Burbank 16 AMC Sunset 5 Laemmle Monica Film Center Laemmle Playhouse 7
Miami	AMC Aventura 24
Minneapolis	Landmark’s Edina Cinema
New York	AMC Empire 25 IFC Center
Philadelphia	AMC Neshaminy 24 Landmark’s Ritz at the Bourse
Phoenix	Harkins Valley Art
Raleigh	Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Raleigh
Salt Lake City	Salt Lake City Film Society’s Broadway Centre Cinemas
Santa Barbara	SBIFF Riviera Theatre
San Francisco	AMC Bay Street 16 – Emeryville Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinema
Seattle-Tacoma	AMC Pacific Place 11
St. Louis	Landmark’s Tivoli Theatre
Tampa-St Pete (Sarasota)	AMC Veterans Expressway 24
Virginia	AMC Tysons Corner Center 16
Washington, DC	Warner Bros. Theater at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

Nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards® will be announced on Monday, January 13, 2020.

The 92nd Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 9, 2020, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscars will also be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

Seattle Museum Month Offers Big Savings in February

New Museum Openings Enhance Month Of Significant Discounts At More Than 40 Museums

Every February, savvy travelers look to Seattle, also known as the Emerald City, where big savings can stack up for arts and culture lovers of all ages with Seattle Museum Month. From Feb. 1-29, 2020, travelers who stay at any one of nearly 60 participating downtown Seattle hotels receive 50 percent off admission prices to more than 40 museums and cultural institutions. February also historically offers lower rates for airfare to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and special hotel packages to entice winter travelers. To see the full list of participating museums and hotels, visit the Seattle Museum Month website at www.seattlemuseummonth.com.

Seattle Museum Month is produced by Visit Seattle and funded by the Seattle Tourism Improvement Area (STIA), a dedicated marketing fund assessed from guests at 73 downtown Seattle hotels. The program was created to encourage travelers to visit Seattle in February and celebrate the remarkable collection of unique museums in the region.

(PRNewsfoto/Visit Seattle)

“Seattle has a richly diverse and world-renowned collection of museums that draw people to our city year-round, but Seattle Museum Month offers unparalleled discounts for our visitors,” Visit Seattle Senior Director of Cultural Tourism Tracey Wickersham said. “Engaging hands-on experiences with history-making computers, vintage pinball machines, and experiential music galleries where you can look, listen and re-create some of rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest moments mean our museums entertain as well as educate. You’ll find mind-blowing gardens made of glass and ancient artifacts that explore all facets of life on earth, and art from around the globe. A trip to Seattle for Museum Month will make memories that last a lifetime.”

Seattle Museum Month celebrates with a host of museum openings that give travelers the opportunity to explore Seattle’s cultural legacy.

Photo by: Dennis Miller. Caption: Savvy travelers look to the Emerald City for deep discounts on arts and cultural attractions all February with Seattle Museum Month. Travelers who stay at any one of nearly 60 participating downtown Seattle hotels receive 50 percent off admission prices to more than 40 museums and cultural institutions. The newly reopened Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture is among those participating this year.

The Seattle Art Museum hosts the grand re-opening of the Seattle Asian Art Museum February 8 and 9. After a two-year renovation and expansion, the museum reopens with a reimagined collection installation that breaks boundaries with a thematic, rather than geographic or chronological, exploration of art from the world’s largest continent. Set in Seattle’s picturesque Volunteer Park, the historic Art Deco-era museum underwent a $56 million renovation and expansion to more fully display one of the largest collections of Asian art in the nation. Visitors wishing to attend the historic re-opening weekend on February 8 and 9 can reserve free timed tickets online. Beginning Feb. 12, Museum Month passes will be accepted.

Photo courtesy of Visit Seattle. Caption: Every February, savvy travelers look to the Emerald City where big savings can stack up for arts and culture lovers of all ages with Seattle Museum Month. February also historically offers lower rates for airfare to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and special hotel packages to entice winter travelers. To see the full list of participating museums and hotels, visit the Seattle Museum Month website at www.seattlemuseummonth.com. (PRNewsfoto/Visit Seattle)

With 16 million objects in its collections and infinite stories to tell, the recently re-opened Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture – the oldest museum in Washington state – welcomes visitors to an entirely new experience. Locally known as The Burke, the museum is located at the north end of The University of Washington Seattle campus and re-opened in October 2019. The new building designed by Olson Kundig creates unprecedented opportunities for visitors to see university faculty, researchers and students uncovering dinosaur skeletons, analyzing insects and collaborating with Native communities every day.

Enjoy renowned favorites as well like Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI), The Museum of Flight, Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) and explore other regional museums, like LeMay – America’s Car Museum in Tacoma, USS Turner Joy Museum Ship in Bremerton or the Bellevue Arts Museum in downtown Bellevue.

Seattle Museum Month discounts are only valid for guests staying at one of the participating hotels, up to four people, during hotel stay dates. Visitors must present an official Seattle Museum Month guest pass at participating museums to redeem the discounts.

92nd Oscars(R) Shortlists In Nine Award Categories Announced

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced shortlists in consideration for the 92nd Academy Awards® in nine categories: Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, International Feature Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Music (Original Song), Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film and Visual Effects.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences logo

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Fifteen films will advance in the Documentary Feature category for the 92nd Academy Awards®. One hundred fifty-nine films were submitted in the category. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees. The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:

• “Advocate”
• “American Factory”
• “The Apollo”
• “Apollo 11”
• “Aquarela”
• “The Biggest Little Farm”
• “The Cave”
• “The Edge of Democracy”
• “For Sama”
• “The Great Hack”
• “Honeyland”
• “Knock Down the House”
• “Maiden”
• “Midnight Family”
• “One Child Nation”

“Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI” To Open at the FAMSF’s de Young Museum

As technological innovation continues to shape our identities and societies, the question of what it means to be, or remain human has become the subject of fervent debate. Taking advantage of the de Young museum’s proximity to Silicon Valley, Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI arrives as the first major exhibition in the US to explore the relationship between humans and intelligent machines through an artistic lens. Organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, with San Francisco as its sole venue, Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI will be on view from February 22 to October 25, 2020.

“Technology is changing our world, with artificial intelligence both a new frontier of possibility but also a development fraught with anxiety,” says Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI brings artistic exploration of this tension to the ground zero of emerging technology, raising challenging questions about the future interface of human and machine.”

The exhibition, which extends through the first floor of the de Young and into the museum’s sculpture garden, will explore the current juncture through philosophical, political, and poetic questions and problems raised by AI. New and recent works by an intergenerational, international group of artists and activist collectives—including Zach Blas, Ian Cheng, Simon Denny, Stephanie Dinkins, Forensic Architecture, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Pierre Huyghe, Christopher Kulendran Thomas in collaboration with Annika Kuhlmann, Agnieszka Kurant, Lawrence Lek, Trevor Paglen, Hito Steyerl, and Martine Syms—will be presented.

The Uncanny Valley

In 1970 Japanese engineer Masahiro Mori introduced the concept of the “uncanny valley” as a terrain of existential uncertainty that humans experience when confronted with autonomous machines that mimic their physical and mental properties. An enduring metaphor for the uneasy relationship between human beings and lifelike robots or thinking machines, the uncanny valley and its edges have captured the popular imagination ever since. Over time, the rapid growth and affordability of computers, cloud infrastructure, online search engines, and data sets have fueled developments in machine learning that fundamentally alter our modes of existence, giving rise to a newly expanded uncanny valley.

Photo Credit: Ian Cheng, Installation view: BOB, Central Pavilion, Giardini, Venice Biennale, Venice, 2019, Copyright Ian Cheng, Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels, Photography by: Andrea Rossetti

“As our lives are increasingly organized and shaped by algorithms that track, collect, evaluate, and monetize our data, the uncanny valley has grown to encompass the invisible mechanisms of behavioral engineering and automation,” says Claudia Schmuckli, Curator in Charge of Contemporary Art and Programming at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “By paying close attention to the imminent and nuanced realities of AI’s possibilities and pitfalls, the artists in the exhibition seek to thicken the discourse around AI. Although fables like HBO’s sci-fi drama Westworld, or Spike Jonze’s feature film Her still populate the collective imagination with dystopian visions of a mechanized future, the artists in this exhibition treat such fictions as relics of a humanist tradition that has little relevance today.”

Nestled within the museum’s garden, Pierre Huyghe presents Exomind (Deep Water), a sculpture of a crouched female nude with a live beehive as its head. With its buzzing colony pollinating the surrounding flora, it offers a poignant metaphor for the modeling of neural networks on the biological brain and an understanding of intelligence as grounded in natural forms and processes.

In the museum’s contemporary art galleries, Ian Cheng’s digitally simulated AI creature BOB (Bag of Beliefs) also reflects on the interdependency of carbon and silicon forms of intelligence. An algorithmic Tamagotchi, it is capable of evolution, but its growth, behavior, and personality are molded by online interaction with visitors who assume collective responsibility for its wellbeing. In A.A.I. (artificial artificial intelligence), an installation of multiple termite mounds of colored sand, gold, glitter and crystals, Agnieszka Kurant offers a vibrant critique of new AI economies, with online crowdsourcing marketplace platforms employing invisible armies of human labor at sub-minimum wages. Simon Denny also examines the intersection of labor, resources, and automation. Presenting 3-D prints and a cage-like sculpture based on an unrealized machine patent filed by Amazon, he literally casts human labor as the proverbial canary in the mine.

SFMOMA Presents Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Tauba Auerbach Mixed Media Exhibitions in April 2020

Lozano-Hemmer’s First Major Survey in the U.S., Unstable Presence Features Large-Scale Participatory Installations and Immersive Environments

Auerbach’s First Museum Survey, S v Z Traverses the Boundaries Between Art, Design, Science and Craft

Also Opening at SFMOMA, Select Video Projections from Theaster Gates and Cauleen Smith Shown Together for the First Time

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) will present two major exhibitions celebrating the mixed media work of contemporary artists Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Tauba Auerbach this upcoming spring. The artist’s first major survey exhibition in the U.S., Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence (April 25–November 1, 2020) will explore our presence in fundamentally turbulent environments through a focused selection of 16 engaging installations on the museum’s seventh floor. Simultaneously on the museum’s fourth floor, Auerbach’s first museum survey, Tauba Auerbach — S v Z (April 25–September 7, 2020), will highlight her prolific and varied output over the last 16 years.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art logo

Also on view this spring will be select video projections from renowned interdisciplinary artists Cauleen Smith and Theaster Gates in Future Histories (April 25–November 1, 2020).

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence, April 25–November 1, 2020, Floor 7

Air and water, heartbeats and voices, text and light — these are the materials of media artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Over the past few decades, the Mexico City–born, Montreal-based artist has earned international recognition for large-scale participatory installations that frequently incorporate technology and the architecture of public spaces. On view in the U.S. exclusively at SFMOMA, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence brings together recent sculptural installations and immersive environments realized on microscopic and macroscopic scales. These works engage visitors’ sense of play, and anxiety, as they experience the implications of technology and behaviors of participation in social and political contexts.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Vicious Circular Breathing, 2014 (installation view, Pseudomatismos, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, 2015); Borusan Contemporary Art Collection; © Rafael Lozano-Hemmer / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City; photo: Oliver Santana

“Unstable Presence refers to the dynamic, poetic, but also disturbing turbulence that characterizes social and technical interrelations,” said Rudolf Frieling, curator of media arts at SFMOMA. “Materializing on various scales, from the personal to the geopolitical, the instability of these layers of presence is powerfully echoed in the atmospheric but also sculptural installations.”

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence additionally examines the concept of “co-presence” by highlighting how our physical presence and the natural and technological spaces we inhabit form a continuous stream of interaction. Lozano-Hemmer noted, “Presence is often associated with existence, continuity in time or material reality. The ‘unstable’ in the exhibition’s title refers to interaction, improvisation and performance. The instability brought by participation allows constant reinterpretation of the work, where many outcomes are co-present.”

The exhibition focuses on three major themes in Lozano-Hemmer’s work: observation and surveillance; text-based poetic work; and the instability of systems. Highlights of the presentation include the following installations, the majority of which encourage visitor participation:

(Left) Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Airborne Newscast, 2013 (installation view, Unstable Presence, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, 2019–20); courtesy the artist and bitforms gallery; © Rafael Lozano-Hemmer / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City; photo: Roberto Ortíz Giacomán
(Right) Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Sphere Packing: Bach, 2018 (installation view, Unstable Presence, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, 2018); Borusan Contemporary Art Collection; © Rafael Lozano-Hemmer / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico City; photo: Guy L’Heureux

Airborne Newscast (2013) projects live news feeds from prominent international news outlets, such as Reuters, Agencia EFE, Notimex, AlterNet and AP. When visitors enter the space, their shadows disrupt the projections and dissolve the projected words into smoke-like patterns, creating an unstable atmospheric effect.

Call on Water (2016) is a fountain from which words emerge as plumes of vapor, produced by hundreds of computer-controlled ultrasonic atomizers. Fragment by fragment, poems by the celebrated Mexican writer Octavio Paz briefly materialize in the mist before dissipating in turbulence.

Pulse Spiral (2008) consists of hundreds of incandescent lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling in a three-dimensional spiral. This participatory installation records and responds to the heart rates of visitors holding sensors, transforming their heartbeats into mesmerizing flashes of light.

Sphere Packing: Bach (2018), the largest in Lozano-Hemmer’s Sphere Packing series, is a three-meter spherical frame supporting 1,128 loudspeakers, each simultaneously playing a different composition by Johan Sebastian Bach. Visitors can enter the sphere and be surrounded by the cacophonous crescendo of Bach’s entire musical output.

Vicious Circular Breathing (2013) is a large sculptural installation featuring brown paper bags that inflate and deflate at human breathing rates; a set of motorized bellows and valves that control the bags; and a sealed glass room with a decompression chamber. Visitors are invited to enter the glass room to breathe the air that was previously breathed by earlier participants. The piece includes warnings about the risks of asphyxiation, contagion and panic, offering a statement on the limits of the planet’s resources as well as a commentary on participation, which in this case makes the air more toxic for future visitors.

Voz Alta [Out Loud] (2008)commemorates the 40th anniversary of the massacre of hundreds of students in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, on October 2, 1968. The original site-specific “anti-monument” is presented in the gallery as a functional prototype: participants are invited to step up to a megaphone and speak freely, their speech translated into light flashes via a miniature searchlight. An FM radio transmitter relays the sounds to which the light corresponds, and an archival recording of the 2008 memorial plays after a participant has finished speaking. In this way, the memory of the tragedy in Tlatelolco is mixed with live participation.

Zoom Pavilion (2015) is an interactive installation created in collaboration with artist Krzysztof Wodiczko. Consisting of projections fed by computerized surveillance footage, the work uses face recognition and other tracking algorithms to detect the presence of participants and record their spatial relationships. Independent cameras zoom in to amplify images with up to 35x magnification. The zooming sequences become disorienting as they change the image landscape from easily recognizable wide shots of the crowd to abstract close-ups.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was born in Mexico City in 1967, and lives and works in Montreal. He was the first artist to represent Mexico at the Venice Biennale, with an exhibition at the Palazzo Van Axel in 2007. He has also shown at biennials and triennials in Cuenca, Havana, Istanbul, Kōchi, Liverpool, Melbourne, Montreal, Moscow, New Orleans, New York, Seoul, Seville, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Wuzhen. Lozano-Hemmer’s works have been featured in solo exhibitions and performances in numerous institutions, including the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) in Mexico City (2015); SFMOMA (2012); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2011); the Manchester Art Gallery (2010); the Guggenheim Museum, New York (2009); and the Barbican Centre, London (2008).

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence is accompanied by a catalogue featuring full-color illustrations of works in the exhibition and contributions covering a range of topical approaches. It includes a curatorial introduction and four essays from Olivier Asselin, Sean Cubitt, Tatiana Flores and Gloria Sutton that explore the poetic and political dimensions of the artist’s work, along with in-depth examinations of four major works — Zoom Pavilion, Vicious Circular Breathing, Voz Alta and Pulse Room. Edited by Rudolf Frieling and François LeTourneux, the catalogue is published by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in association with Delmonico Books/Prestel.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence is co-organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. The exhibition is co-curated by Lesley Johnstone, curator and head of exhibitions and education, François LeTourneux, associate curator at the MAC and Rudolf Frieling, curator of media arts at SFMOMA.

Generous support for Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Unstable Presence is provided by Debbie and Andy Rachleff and Carlie Wilmans.

National Museum of African American History and Culture Presents Latest Exhibition “Now Showing”

Exhibition About African American Movie Posters On View Through Nov. 1, 2020

United States Student Association Poster for No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger 1968. lithographic ink on paper H x W: 35 x 22 in. (88.9 x 55.9 cm) Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

“Now Showing: Posters from African American Movies” opened at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, Nov. 22. The temporary exhibition will be on display until November 2020 and showcases how movie poster design has been used to frame ideas, create moods and stoke interest in films and characters. More than 40 objects and graphics celebrating black films, filmmakers and actors from the museum’s expansive poster collection will be on display in the Earl W. and Amanda Stafford Center for African American Media Arts (CAAMA) gallery.

Poster for The Black Moses of Soul, Isaac Hayes Special 1973. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Leith Adams

“Now Showing” is the first exhibition in the National Museum of African American History and Culture to feature augmented reality (AR). Through AR, visitors will have the unique opportunity to have an interactive experience with objects inside the gallery by using their mobile devices. Once inside the exhibition, visitors will go to hi.si.edu on their mobile web browser from their smart device and view exclusive content on various objects inside the exhibition.

Claire Trevor, 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. H x W (image): 38 1/4 × 25 1/2 in. (97.2 × 64.8 cm), H x W (sheet): 41 1/16 × 27 1/16 in. (104.3 × 68.7 cm) Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Many of the items featured in “Now Showing” are from the Larry Richards Collection, a poster collection acquired by the museum in 2013 that includes more than 700 objects. This exhibition features original posters, lobby cards and select ephemera highlighting more than 70 years of African American image making.

Poster for Pinky, 1949 ink on paper (fiber product), H x W (image): 39 × 25 1/2 in. (99.1 × 64.8 cm), H x W (sheet): 40 15/16 × 27 1/16 in. (104 × 68.7 cm) Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

The exhibition is divided into four sections: Film Pioneers, The Problem of the Color Line, A Star Is Born and Black Power & “Blaxploitation”. Each thematic category highlights the role African American films have played on the perception of African American culture and society as a whole.

Walker Art Center presents SQÜRL Live Performance to Silent Films by Man Ray

Director Jim Jarmusch and composer Carter Logan (aka avant-garde post-rock duo SQÜRL) perform live to four surrealist and dreamlike silent films by artist Man Ray. They’ll create the semi-improvisational scores onstage in Walker Cinema, with loops, synthesizers, and effected guitars that display the band’s experimental, ambient, and drone-like tendencies. Featuring Le retour à la raison (Return to Reason) (1923), Emak Bakia (1926), L’étoile de mer (The Starfish) (1928), and Les mystères du château de dé (The Mysteries of the Château de Dé) (1929). 68 min.

Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan of Sqürl, 2019. Photo courtesy Sara Driver.

SQÜRL is an enthusiastically marginal rock band from New York City who like big drums & distorted guitars, cassette recorders, loops, feedback, sad country songs, molten stoner core, chopped & screwed hip-hop, and imaginary movie scores. SQÜRL began in 2009 when Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan teamed with producer/engineer Shane Stoneback to record some original music for the film The Limits of Control.

Following these scoring sessions Jarmusch, Stoneback, and Carter continued to record new originals while also exploring the back-alleys of American country, noise, and psychedelia. In 2014, SQÜRL collaborated with Dutch lutenist Jozef Van Wissem to compose and perform the score for the film Only Lovers Left Alive. Bridging ancient and modern sounds, the score serves as a reflection of the distinct textures of Detroit and Tangier. Following their work on Only Lovers Left Alive, Jarmusch and Logan began a new live sonic exploration: scoring four silent films by American Dada and Surrealist artist Man Ray. The performance had its live debut in NYC in 2015 and SQÜRL have continue to tour with the films to this day. With their 2016 score for the film Paterson, SQÜRL dove deeper into the ocean of ambient electronic music on a quest for new ecstatic sounds to enrich the poetry of the film. The following year, the band released EP #260 on Sacred Bones Records, embracing their darker approach to density, tension, elation and release.

Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan of Sqürl. Photo courtesy the artists.

The band’s most recently released recording—the score to the The Dead Don’t Die—is a true expression of where SQÜRL stand at the center of a decade of sonic exploration. It is the culmination of their passion for analog synthesis and guitar violence. It is at once a tribute to the classic sounds of horror and sci-fi, as well as a decapitation of traditional film scores. It is naturally supernatural.

2020 will find SQÜRL back on the road and in support of their upcoming release: a tribute to the legendary cinematographer Robby Müller.

Films by Man Ray, Music by SQÜRL takes place Friday, February 7 at 7 pm in the Walker Cinema. Tickets are $25 ($20 Walker members, students, and seniors). Visit walkerart.org/cinema for tickets and info.

These titles by Man Ray are also in the Walker Art Center’s Ruben/Bentson Moving Image collection. Major support to preserve, digitize, and present the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection is generously provided by the Bentson Foundation.

Read more

Website
Tiny Mixtapes interview
New York Times Magazine interview

Culture Watch: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation Announces Short List for the 2020 Hugo Boss Prize

Six artists have been short-listed for the Hugo Boss Prize 2020, the biennial award for significant achievement in contemporary art. The short list is selected by a panel of international curators and critics in recognition of artists whose work is transforming the field. Since its inception in 1996, the prize has consistently functioned as a platform for the most relevant and influential art of the present, and has become a cornerstone of the Guggenheim’s contemporary programming.

“On the occasion of the thirteenth Hugo Boss Prize, I’m delighted to announce the finalists for the 2020 cycle,” said Nancy Spector, Artistic Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, and jury chair. “After a rigorous examination of today’s artistic landscape, the jury identified a group of artists whose practices are beacons of cultural impact. While diverse in their approaches and themes, they each exemplify the spirit of experimentation and innovation that the prize has always championed.”

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York logo

The Hugo Boss Prize recognizes the achievements of both emerging and established artists, and sets no restrictions in terms of age, gender, nationality, or medium. The winner, who will receive a $100,000 honorarium, will be announced in the fall of 2020 and will present a solo exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in spring 2021.

Since its inception in 1996, the Hugo Boss Prize has been awarded to twelve influential contemporary artists: American artist Matthew Barney (1996); Scottish artist Douglas Gordon (1998); Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrč (2000); French artist Pierre Huyghe (2002); Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija (2004); English artist Tacita Dean (2006); Palestinian artist Emily Jacir (2008); German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann (2010); Danish artist Danh Vo (2012); American artist Paul Chan (2014); American artist Anicka Yi (2016); and American artist Simone Leigh (2018). The related exhibitions have constituted some of the most compelling presentations in the museum’s history.

Previous finalists include Laurie Anderson, Janine Antoni, Cai Guo-Qiang, Stan Douglas, and Yasumasa Morimura in 1996; Huang Yong Ping, William Kentridge, Lee Bul, Pipilotti Rist, and Lorna Simpson in 1998; Vito Acconci, Maurizio Cattelan, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, Tom Friedman, Barry Le Va, and Tunga in 2000; Francis Alÿs, Olafur Eliasson, Hachiya Kazuhiko, Koo Jeong-A, and Anri Sala in 2002; Franz Ackermann, Rivane Neuenschwander, Jeroen de Rijke and Willem de Rooij, Simon Starling, and Yang Fudong in 2004; Allora & Calzadilla, John Bock, Damián Ortega, Aïda Ruilova, and Tino Sehgal in 2006; Christoph Büchel, Patty Chang, Sam Durant, Joachim Koester, and Roman Signer in 2008; Cao Fei, Roman Ondák,Walid Raad, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul in 2010; Trisha Donnelly, Rashid Johnson, Qiu Zhijie, Monika Sosnowska, and Tris Vonna-Michell in 2012; Sheela Gowda, Camille Henrot, Hassan Khan, and Charline von Heyl in 2014; Tania Bruguera, Mark Leckey, Ralph Lemon, Laura Owens, and Wael Shawky in 2016; and Bouchra Khalili, Teresa Margolles, Emeka Ogboh, Frances Stark, and Wu Tsang in 2018.

The following artists are finalists for the Hugo Boss Prize 2020:

• Nairy Baghramian (b. 1971, Isfahan, Iran)
• Kevin Beasley (b. 1985, Lynchburg, Va.)
• Deana Lawson (b. 1979, Rochester, N.Y.)
• Elias Sime (b. 1968, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
• Cecilia Vicuña (b. 1948, Santiago, Chile)
• Adrián Villar Rojas (b. 1980, Rosario, Argentina)

“The Hugo Boss Prize is our most prestigious engagement in the field of arts,” said Mark Langer, CEO and Chairman of HUGO BOSS AG. “We are excited about this diverse and distinguished short list for 2020 and looking forward to the announcement of the winner next fall.”

HUGO BOSS PRIZE 2020 SHORT LIST

Nairy Baghramian (b. 1971, Isfahan, Iran) lives and works in Berlin. In an oeuvre that probes the boundaries between the decorative, the utilitarian, and the art object, Baghramian has illuminated new possibilities for sculpture. The artist’s disarming biomorphic forms, made with a range of materials including steel, silicon, resin, and leather, elicit various unexpected art-historical and sociopolitical references, reimagining the workings of the body, gender, and public and private space.

Nairy Baghramian, Stay Downers: Nerd, Fidgety Philip, Dripper, Truant, Backrower and Grubby Urchin, 2017. Various media, dimensions variable
Installation view: Déformation Professionnelle, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2017–18. Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery. Photo: Timo Ohler

Baghramian’s work has been presented in solo exhibitions such as Privileged Points, Mudam Luxembourg—Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (2019), Breathing Spell (Un respire), Palacio de Cristal del Retiro, Madrid (2018); Déformation Professionnelle, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2017); S.M.A.K. Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent (2016); Nairy Baghramian: Scruff of the Neck (Supplements), Zurich Art Prize, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2016); Hand Me Down, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2015); Fluffing the Pillows, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Mass. (2013), and Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany (2012); and Class Reunion, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2012).

Kevin Beasley (b. 1985, Lynchburg, Va.) lives and works in New York. Working at the intersection of sculpture, installation, and performance, Beasley constructs revelatory formal and sonic experiences. In works that embed found objects in substances such as resin, foam, and tar, or incorporate unconventionally manipulated audio equipment, he amplifies the cultural resonances of his materials to excavate personal and shared histories of class, race, and institutional power.

Kevin Beasley, Your face is / is not enough, 2016. Performance view: Liverpool Biennial, July 14, 2018. © Kevin Beasley. Photo: Pete Carr, courtesy Casey Kaplan, New York

Beasley has presented and performed in solo exhibitions such as ASSEMBLY, The Kitchen, New York (2019); a view of a landscape, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2018); Kevin Beasley, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2018); Movement V: Ballroom, CounterCurrent Festival, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, Houston (2017); Hammer Projects: Kevin Beasley, Hammer Museum at Art + Practice, Los Angeles (2017); Rubbings, Kim? Contemporary Art Center, Riga, Latvia (2017); and inHarlem: Kevin Beasley, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2016).

Deana Lawson (b. 1979, Rochester, N.Y.) lives and works in New York. Her large-format photographs channel vernacular, art-historical, and documentary traditions within the medium, in compositions that valorize black diasporic culture. Picturing individuals she encounters over the course of her everyday life within carefully staged domestic settings, Lawson choreographs every nuance of scenery, lighting, and pose to create tableaux that powerfully evoke the agency of her subjects.

Deana Lawson, Mama Goma, Gemena, DR Congo, 2014. Pigment print
35 x 44.125 inches (88.9 x 112.1 cm). © Deana Lawson, courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, and Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago

Lawson’s work has been presented in solo exhibitions including Deana Lawson, Huis Marseille, Museum voor Fotografie, Amsterdam (2019); Deana Lawson: Planes, The Underground Museum, Los Angeles (2018); Deana Lawson, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2018); Deana Lawson, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2017); Deana Lawson, The Art Institute of Chicago (2015); and Corporeal, Light Work, Syracuse, N.Y. (2009).

Walker Art Center Presents the 33rd British Arrows Awards this Holiday Season

BRITISH ARROWS AWARDS 2019
Friday, November 29–Sunday, December 29
Walker Cinema
Program length: 72 Minutes
Total screenings: 95

Celebrate the UK’s most innovative and daring commercials from the creative world of British advertising. One of the Walker’s most popular traditions back for the 33rd year, the British Arrows Awards showcases an eclectic mix of riveting mini-dramas, high-tech extravaganzas, wacky comedy, and vital public service announcements.

The British Arrows is a much-loved program in the Twin Cities with many people attending year after year. The audiences are moved by the program, which can be a unique cross-cultural experience, as they try to figure out brands and products that are not available in the U.S., but are cleverly conveyed. It’s a unique experience for American audiences to view ads that are not invested in the hard sell; rather, gaining interest in products and services through humor, pathos and a dynamic cinematography. Although there are 95 screenings this year, they are sure to sell out quickly.

Megaforce’s Nothing Beats a Londoner for Nike. Photo courtesy British Arrows 2019.

BRITS NIGHT, Friday, December 6, 7 and 9 pm

Come early and celebrate with a cash bar, plus music by DJ Simon Husbands of KFAI’s True Brit Radio. Introduced by Clare Donald and Jani Guest, British Arrows board co-chairs, and Lisa Lavender, operations director.

Megaforce’s Nothing Beats a Londoner for Nike. Photo courtesy of British Arrows 2019.

SCREENING SCHEDULE

• Friday, November 29: 3, 5, and 7 pm
• Saturday, November 30: 3, 5, and 7:30 pm
• Sunday, December 1: 3, 5, and 7 pm
• Friday, December 6: 7 and 9 pm: Brits Night. Introduced by Clare Donald and Jani Guest, British Arrows board co-chairs, and Lisa Lavender, operations director.
• Saturday, December 7: 5 and 7 pm
• Sunday, December 8: 1, 3, and 5 pm
• Thursday, December 12: 6, 7, and 8 pm
• Friday, December 13: 6, 7, and 8 pm
• Saturday, December 14: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
• Sunday, December 15: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 pm
• Tuesday, December 17: 6, 7, and 8 pm
• Wednesday, December 18: 6, 7, and 8 pm
• Thursday, December 19: 6, 7, and 8 pm
• Friday, December 20: 6, 7, and 8 pm
• Saturday, December 21: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
• Sunday, December 22: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 pm
• Thursday, December 26: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
• Friday, December 27: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
• Saturday, December 28: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
• Sunday, December 29: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm

Sam Brown and Tom Barbor’s The Dragon Challenge for Jaguar Land Rover. Photo courtesy of British Arrows 2019.

Walker Art Center Presents a Dialogue and Retrospective, Julia Reichert: 50 Years in Film

Independent documentary filmmaker Julia Reichert has been asking defining questions about workers’ rights, gender roles, taboos, and social change in America since the early 1970s. The pioneering Emmy Award–winner and three-time Academy Award–nominee comes to the Walker Arts Center for a retrospective of her distinguished body of work, Julia Reichert: 50 Years in Film, Feb 1–29, 2020 (at the Walker’s Bentson Mediatheque). Reichert will be on-site February 28 and 29, 2020 to discuss her career and her two recent, widely celebrated documentaries, American Factory and 9 to 5: The Story of a Movement.

Julia Reichert. Image courtesy the artist.

Indiewire on Julia Reichert
Women and Hollywood on Julia Reichert

Schedule of Events

Double Feature: Growing Up Female and Union Maids

Julia Reichert’s Growing Up Female, 1971. Image courtesy the artist.

Julia Reichert’s Growing Up Female, 1971. Image courtesy the artist.

Growing Up Female Directed by Julia Reichert and Jim Klein

Thursday, February 20, 7 pm Free

“I wish every high school kid in America could see this film.” —Susan Sontag on Growing Up Female

Growing Up Female is the very first feature-length film of the modern women’s movement. Considered controversial and exhilarating on its release, the film examines female socialization through a personal look into the lives of six women, ages four to 35, and the forces that shape them—teachers, counselors, advertisements, music, and the institution of marriage. A time capsule of a generation’s feminist issues, sometimes intersecting with race and class, the film illuminates a complex system of institutions upholding internal and external oppression. Selected to the National Film Registry in 2011. 1971, DCP, 52 min.

Julia Reichert’s Union Maids, 1976. Image courtesy the artist.

Julia Reichert’s Union Maids, 1976. Image courtesy the artist.

Union Maids, Directed by Julia Reichert, Jim Klein, and Miles Mogulescu

Reichert interviews three “Union Maids” on their experiences as organizing women of the Labor movement. Fighting for humanitarian rights, these radical workers reflect on their lives filled with purpose and struggle. Frustrated by the privileged class’ participation in the women’s movement and caught up in race and gender discrimination within class warfare, their voices echo and contextualize many social justice issues today. 1976, DCP, 48 min.

Julia Reichert at her film editing table in 1973. Image courtesy the artist.

Seeing Red: Stories of American Communists, Directed by Julia Reichert and Jim Klein

Julia Reichert’s Seeing Red, 1983. Image courtesy the artist.

Friday, February 21, 7 pm; $10 ($8 Walker members, students, and seniors)

Reichert brings to light the forgotten history of Americans who joined the Communist Party and the high price many of them paid for their beliefs. Boldly countering traditional myths, the film presents engaging interviews and personal accounts that take on a new resonance in today’s charged political climate. 1983, DCP, 100 min.

20th Annual SOUND UNSEEN | FILM + MUSIC FESTIVAL Announces 2019 Full Film Lineup

The Sound Unseen Film + Music Festival (November 12-17) announced the film lineup for this year’s 20th Anniversary edition of the film festival.

Highlights include a special appearance of John Doe with the screening of W.T. Morgan’s documentary X: THE UNHEARD MUSIC, award-winning filmmaker Ondi Timoner coming to Sound Unseen with a 15th Anniversary screening of her film, DIG!, as well as a special presentation of the MAPPLETHORPE Director’s Cut. Sound Unseen also announced that Scott Crawford’s BOY HOWDY: THE STORY OF CREEM MAGAZINE, would be the Closing Night selection.

In the fall of 1999, Sound Unseen introduced itself as a unique, cutting edge “films-on-music” festival in Minneapolis. Formulated as a cultural organization dedicated to the role of film and music as a conduit of powerful ideas and diverse viewpoints. Its mission is to foster a greater appreciation of cinema, to bridge cultures, create and expand community, provide cultural exchange, networking opportunities and educational outreach through regular interaction with great films, filmmakers, musicians and artists.

Since its inception, It has established itself as one of the premiere niche festivals in the country, but more importantly as a vital part of the regional cultural scene. Now in its 19th year, the festival has expanded to include year-round programming, unique pop-up events, and special screenings including world and regional premieres.

Mystify: Michael Hutchence will have its Minnesota Premiere at the 20th Annual SOUND UNSEEN | FILM + MUSIC FESTIVAL

Named “One of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals In The World” by Moviemaker Magazine in 2016, the “Best Winter Film Festival” by the Star Tribune 2012, and the “Best of the Fests 2010” from Mpls/St Paul Magazine, Sound Unseen continues its tenure as the region’s premiere films-on-music festival. While bringing the best in documentaries, short films, and music videos it also showcases rare concert footage, interactive panels, and live music events. As part of its year-round presence, Sound Unseen offers a successful monthly screening series and special events throughout the Twin Cities. This diversity in content is one of the things that separates Sound Unseen from the typical outdoor mega concerts and film festivals.

Sound Unseen Festival Director Jim Brunzell and Producer/Co-Programmer Rich Gill, said, “Our lineup this year is a wonderful mix of films hot on the film festival circuit, classics, and screenings that include appearances by wonderful filmmakers and musicians. We are really excited about this group of films and events built around them that should make our 20th Anniversary edition truly memorable.”

Scott Crawford’s BOY HOWDY: THE STORY OF CREEM MAGAZINE joins the previously announced Seamus Murphy’s A DOG CALLED MONEY (Opening Night), and Brandon Vedder’s STRANGE NEGOTIATIONS (Centerpiece) to complete an impressive trio of Gala screenings. BOY HOWDY: THE STORY OF CREEM MAGAZINE looks at the seminal Creem Magazine‘s humble beginnings to becoming one of the publications of record for rock n’ roll. Fifty years after publishing its first issue, “America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine” remains a seditious spirit in music and culture. The film features interviews with Cameron Crowe, Alice Cooper, Kirk Hammett, Joan Jett, Michael Stipe, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Chad Smith, Peter Wolf and Wayne Kramer.

The one and only John Doe of X will come to Sound Unseen as part of a presentation of W.T. Morgan’s X: THE UNHEARD MUSIC. Screened on 35mm, the film is one of the best music films of the punk era. Shot over the course of five years, this documentary presents spectacular live performances interspersed with interviews with the band members and associates.

The only filmmaker to be a two-time Sundance Film Festival Grand Prize Jury Winner, Ondi Timoner comes to Minnesota with two of her films. The first is the 15th Anniversary screening of DIG!. The 2004 documentary looked at the collision of art and commerce through the eyes of The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. The film was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art for their permanent collection. Timoner will also be on hand for her Director’s Cut of MAPPLETHORPE. Led by a devastating performance by Matt Smith in the title role, the stylish and well-crafted biopic covers the full life of its subject, world renowned and controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, most frequently providing an alluring view of New York in its grittiest era.

Other highlights include; ALL I CAN SAY, a film created from hours of home video footage shot by tragic Blind Melon front man Shannon Hoon; Martha Kehoe and Joan Tosoni‘s GORDON LIGHTFOOT: IF YOU COULD READ MY MIND, a portrait of Canada’s most famous singer-songwriter; Tyler Measom’s I WANT MY MTV, which traces the beginnings and exploding influence of the music video channel; Steven Gaddis’ LIVE FROM THE ASTROTURF: ALICE COOPER, about a super-secret concert event at a record store in Dallas, featuring the legendary shock rocker; the North American premiere of Simon David’s TIME AND PLACE, about cult favorite Atlanta R&B artist Lee Moses; and Brent Hodges’ WHO LET THE DOGS OUT, which explores the history, influence, and story behind the famous (or infamous) song.

For more information about Sound Unseen, as well as how to purchase tickets, go to: http://www.soundunseen.com.

The 2019 Sound Unseen Film Festival official selections:

Opening Night Selection

A DOG CALLED MONEY MIDWEST PREMIERE

Director: Seamus Murphy

Countries: Ireland/UK, Running Time: 90 min

Alternative-music icon PJ Harvey’s ninth studio album, 2016’s “The Hope Six Demolition Project,” was created through a unique process that blended travelogue, photography, performance art, and now a documentary feature. It began when Harvey, looking to develop a new set of politically tinged songs that would also evoke a tangible sense of place, decided to accompany award-winning photojournalist and filmmaker Seamus Murphy as he travelled on assignments to war-torn regions in Afghanistan and Kosovo, as well as to the poor, mostly black neighborhoods of Washington, D.C.

CENTERPIECE SELECTION

STRANGE NEGOTIATIONS MINNESOTA PREMIERE

Director: Brandon Vedder

Countries: USA, Running Time: 91 min

After renouncing his long-held Christian beliefs and walking away from his critically-acclaimed band, Pedro the Lion, musician David Bazan retreated into a solitary life of touring solo, struggling to rebuild his worldview and career from the ground-up, and to support his family of four. STRANGE NEGOTIATIONS finds David a decade into his journey, during which he has become a sort of reluctant prophet to Americans reeling from their country’s own crisis of faith highlighted during the 2016 presidential election.

CLOSING NIGHT SELECTION

BOY HOWDY: THE STORY OF CREEM MAGAZINE MINNESOTA PREMIERE

Director: Scott Crawford

Country: USA, Running Time: 75 min

Capturing the messy upheaval of the ’70s just as rock was re-inventing itself, the film explores Creem Magazine’s humble beginnings in post-riot Detroit, follows its upward trajectory from underground paper to national powerhouse, then bears witness to its imminent demise following the tragic and untimely deaths of its visionary publisher, Barry Kramer, and its most famous alum and genius clown prince, Lester Bangs, a year later.