Every Tuesday, GBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen joins Boston Public Radio to break down the latest in arts headlines and share highlights from Boston's arts and culture scene. This week, learn more about nationwide stories, local theater productions, and new museum exhibitions.
Michelangelo and Dolly Parton face censorship
For years, sixth graders at the Tallahassee Classical School in Florida have learned about the work of Michelangelo, which includes being shown the picture of his David statue. But last week the principal was fired after parents deemed the image of David as pornographic. Now, the mayor of Florence, Italy has invited the principal to visit the city and see the statue for herself. Bowen points out that calling the work pornographic is an example of the art “being bastardized, because what does David represent? [...] This is all about purity. This is the story of David and Goliath, a young man who’s taking on a giant.”
But this is just one instance in a larger “new generation of the culture wars,” wherein innocuous pieces of media are being scrutinized. In Waukesha, Wisconsin, Heyer Elementary School came under fire for allowing students to sing “Rainbow Land” by Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton — its implied support for the LGBTQ community was deemed “politically controversial” and thus students were no longer permitted to perform it. Even here in Massachusetts, David Leonard, head of the Boston Public Library, has reflected on an alarming increase in book banning, where books that discuss every topic from gender to segregation have been barred from classrooms.
"Into the Woods"
Now playing at the Emerson Colonial Theatre through Apr. 2
Many become familiar with “Into the Woods” through high school and community productions of this accessible Sondheim musical, but a professional production is now on stage at Emerson Colonial Theatre through Sunday. Featuring a rare instance of the Broadway cast going on tour, the musical is inspired by “The Wizard of Oz” and incorporates well-known fairy tales, but “it’s really ultimately stories about families and children [... a] gorgeous meditation from Sondheim, who didn’t have his own kids, about family.”
Harvard Art Museums
Two new exhibits are on display at Harvard Art Museums, and both can be seen during the museum’s monthly “free nights” on the last Thursday of each month. These free nights, with the next happening March 30, feature DJs, snacks, and “basically a fun party environment” where visitors can celebrate and enjoy the museum.
In the first exhibit, Mexican sculptor Bosco Sodi has created a series of massive spheres — some earthen, some covered in gold — placed in an outdoor gallery. Visitors are able to get close to the sculptures and even touch them, with Sodi encouraging a connection between the art, the viewer, and the earth. Sodi even told Bowen that “he creates barefoot because he himself wants to be connected to the earth.”
Also at the Harvard Art Museums is a show called “ From the Andes to the Caribbean: American Art from the Spanish Empire.” It’s among the first of its kind to closely look at how Spanish colonization in modern-day Bolivia, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, and Venezuela combined with indigenous practices and “the hybridity that happened for it to create” a new artistic tradition.
