Passion Points: Arts/Culture

Cultural Calendar December Text Size A A A
This month, if you’re traveling to these destinations, don’t miss the following events.
DENVER: The Denver Art Museum (www.denverartmuseum.org), which inaugurated a major expansion by star architect Daniel Libeskind last year, is showing works by contemporary sculptor George Carlson (opens December 15). It’s also your last chance to catch Artisans & Kings: Selected Treasures from the Louvre, the anticipated first show the museum is doing in partnership with Paris’ most famous cultural institution. The show features more than 125 paintings, sculptures and decorative arts representing, works from the reigns of Louis XIV, XV, and XVI. It closes January 6.
OAHU: A little-known fact in the ballet world is that some of its brightest stars travel to guest in different Nutcracker productions across the United States and a most popular venue is Hawaii. This year, New York City Ballet principal dancers Megan Fairchild and Joaquin De Luz are performing the leads with Ballet Hawaii (www.ballethawaii.org) at Honolulu’s Blaisdell Concert Hall (December 22 & 23). There are additional performance dates at the Arts & Cultural Center (December 1 & 2) on Maui.
LONDON: The anticipated production of Othello at the Donmar Warehouse (www.donmarwarehouse.com), starring Ewan McGregor (of Star Wars and Moulin Rouge fame) as Iago and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Othello is sold out, but there are ten tickets available every day going on sale at 10:30 a.m. the morning of the show. Two tickets per person. The Almeida (www.almeida.co.uk ), meanwhile, is showcasing its first family holiday production: Marianne Dreams, based on the imaginative novel by Catherine Storr that was published in 1958 (recommended for children over the age of seven).
MIAMI: If you’re visiting Art Basel Miami Beach, don’t miss the exciting exhibits at local museums and galleries timed to coincide with the fair: The Museum of Contemporary Art (www.mocanomi.org) presents Jorge Pardo: House, a major mid-career survey of the Cuban artist; Miami Art Museum is showing Work in Progress, a preview of Herzog & de Meuron’s still-evolving design for the new Miami Art Museum; at the Bass Museum of Art (www.bassmuseum.org) the city takes centerstage in Promises of Paradise: Staging Mid-Century Miami, an exhibition showcasing the architecture, urban planning, design and decorative arts of mid-century Miami; a special show called Miami Contemporary Artists: Creating a Scene, curated by artist Gean Moreno is on view at the ArtCenter/South Florida (artcentersf.org), the Vizcaya Museum & Gardens (www.co.miami-dade.fl.us/vizcaya) will host site-specific installations by contemporary artists Catherine Sullivan and Cristina Lei Rodriguez; and from Dec. 7-9, don’t miss Design Miami (www.designmiami.com), a platform for historical and contemporary exhibitions curated by the world’s leading design galleries.
To read the Miami Destination report, click here.
To read about the favorites of Design Miami founder Ambra Medda, click here.
MILAN Now that the La Scala (www.teatroallascala.org) staff strike that threatened the December 7 opening night gala has been resolved, the season kicks off with Tristan une Isolde, conducted by Daniel Barenboim (it’s almost entirely sold out) and continues with Swan Lake , with Italian star dancer Roberto Bolle, and the Bolshoi Orchestra and Chorus performing a program of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev.
MUNICH: A comprehensive selection of drawings by Philip Guston, a contemporary of Pollock and de Kooning goes on view at the Pinakothek der Moderne (www.pinakothek.de) on December 13. The exhibit, which includes nearly one hundred works on paper, dating from the mid-1940s to Guston’s death in 1980, will travel to New York’s Morgan Library after is closes in Munich next March.
NEW YORK: The ambitious New Museum opened December 1. Its first exhibit titled “Unmonumental: The Object in the 21st Century” is focused on sculptural assemblage and includes such artists as Isa Genzken, Tobias Buche and Claire Fontaine. Through January 31, New York-based artist Sharon Hayes’ performance art piece “I march in the parade of liberty, but as long as I love you I’m not free” will also be shown.
SAN FRANCISCO: Marie Antoinette fans will be interested in the recently opened exhibit at the Legion of Honor (www.famsf.org) that focuses on the queen’s private retreat, the Petit Trianon. It’s the first time that the content of this historic palace—including furniture, objet and paintings—has been shown together in an exhibition outside of France (the Trianon is being restored and remodeled at the moment).
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