Each week, GBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen brings his arts and culture picks beyond Open Studio and into the GBH News sphere. This week, Bowen joins Boston Public Radio hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan to talk arts news alongside the latest in performing and visual arts.
"The Art of Burning" by Kate Snodgrass
Playing at the Huntington Theatre through Feb. 12
Full of allusions to the ancient Greek play "Medea" and inspired by the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, “The Art of Burning” is an exploration by playwright and longtime Boston theater leader Kate Snodgrass into the dissolution of a marriage and gender politics. Bowen says that “people find a lot of themselves in [the play] [...] as hard as some of the subject matter be — and it’s theater so it’s heightened — there’s a lot to relate to.”
"Sargent, Whistler, & Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano"
On view at the Mystic Seaport Museum through Feb. 27
While Venice is currently seen as a “destination” for tourists and arts aficionados, that hasn’t historically been the case. Following Napoleon’s invasion of the area and until the 1800s, Venice and Murano — and the region’s artisanal glass blowers — were often ignored. Resurgence came courtesy of writer John Ruskin, who documented Murano’s “return to craft” and inspired the likes of John Singer Sargent and James McNeill to become deeply invested in Venice. Now 200 years later, an exhibit at the Mystic Seaport Museum explores the “Magic of Murano,” featuring glass work alongside paintings inspired by the region.
"The Floating World: Japanese Prints from the Bancroft Collection"
On view at the Worcester Art Museum through March 5
This show explores 400 years of Japanese cultural history from across the Edo period, featuring “enchanting” prints from a variety of artists. “As the centuries progress,” Bowen explains, the artworks “get more and more vibrant.” The exhibit’s title, “The Floating World,” is a nod to higher society and the world that many “strive[d] to be a part of, or at least to emulate.” Popular artists featured in the exhibit include Katsushika Hokusai, whose “Great Wave” is now universally recognizable but who was equally famous during his lifetime.
Etc.
Bowen, Braude, and Eagan also discussed the story of The Sound Museum, a space in Brighton known for offering an affordable location for local musicians that was sold to a developer in late 2022. The Sound Museum’s demise is just part of a larger trend in greater Boston, where older buildings — often artist residences — are being bought out, raising the question of what the artists are to do “in a city where everything is changing.”
And when it comes to pop culture, no conversation with Braude and Eagan is complete without a discussion of one of their TV favorites, HBO’s “The White Lotus.” The finale of its second season aired at the end of 2022, but many are still talking about (and catching up on) the hit show. Its enduring presence in the popular consciousness has led to the show’s “insanely catchy theme song,” written by Chilean-Canadian composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer, being remixed by popular DJs and played in clubs.
