The Art of Baseball , on view at the Concord Museum through Sept. 20
The Concord Museum is hoping for a home run with its spring exhibition, “The Art of Baseball,” which showcases memorabilia, folk art and well-known works that explore the development of the sport and personal connections to the game.
Baseball, it turns out, was a part of the American experience from the mid-1800s. It shows up in the register of a Northboro, Mass. family in 1855; it’s engraved on a late-1800s powder horn; and it’s even masquerading in the embellishments of an 1870 tortoise-shell comb.
The pictures date from a late 1800s William Merritt Chase sketch to a contemporary work by Robert Rauschenberg (seen above). And sculpture, playfully laid like a baseball diamond, intersects with history, like “The First Baseman” bronze that was behind Babe Ruth the day he was released from the Yankees.
In glass cases are the tools of giants, like Ted Williams’ glove, Jim Rice’s tarred-up baseball bat, Carl Yastrzemki’s cap and Carlton Fisk’s mask—not to mention a glittering array of Red Sox World Series rings.
And don't miss the summer's worth of games, lectures and movies the museum has organized to accompany the exhibition.
Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate , now open to the public
The brand new Edward M. Kennedy Institute, on Boston’s Columbia Point, is a monument to government and democracy, not to mention a memorial to a legendary senator. But it also reveals that the lion of the Senate was also a captain of the canvas.
Tucked into a back corner of the institute is a recreation of the senator’s office, where you’ll see Kennedy’s passion for painting, including countless renderings of his beloved sea and daffodils he painted for his wife, Victoria, as a wedding present.
“He studied art in school, but it was really in the 1950s that he rekindled his passion for painting,” she said. “His brother who was then Senator Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, was recuperating from back surgery, and started to paint, and Teddy would paint with his brother, and they would have paint-offs if you will, whose painting is better?”
Kennedy returned to painting throughout his life—for therapy after his 1964 plane crash and as a retreat from the intensity of Washington. Artists were drawn to him, too. For his 1980 presidential bid, heavy-hitters Andy Warhol and Jamie Wyeth both created campaign artwork.
In fact, one of the final elements installed at the Kennedy Institute was a painting of the senator by his longtime friend, Wyeth. It’s a fresh take of a now historic figure.
Women in Comedy Festival , in Boston and Cambridge venues through April 26
There are a lot of funny ladies in town for this year’s Women in Comedy Festival, which has 30 shows and almost 200 performers.
Jane Lynch is the headliner at The Wilbur Theater Friday night, and on Saturday, Lily Tomlin takes the stage. Along with these comedy legends are stand-up stars Mary Mack, Aparna Nancherla, and Kelly MacFarland, as well as up-and-comers and locals new to the circuit ( see the full schedule ).
A few comediennes started the festival in 2009 as a response to male-dominated shows they were performing at. Their mission, said co-producer Elyse Schuerman, is to get women on stage. But there are men in the mix, though they make up only about 20 percent of the acts.
“We joke a lot that we started the festival just so we could meet our favorite comedy legends,” Schuerman said, “just because over the years we’ve had so many.”
Ulysses on Bottles , playing at the Paramount Center through April 26
This is the last weekend to catch the first fully staged production by Israeli Stage, which is teaming with ArtsEmerson. “Ulysses on Bottles” won Israel Theater Prize’s Best Original Play in 2012. It’s about a poetic man nicknamed “Ulysses” who’s arrested for trying to deliver Russian literature to Gaza, which raises the question of whether his act was altruistic or nefarious.
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