Michelle “Mike” Ochonicky, Arts Editor
Keep Your Summer ARTsy!
The beloved Muny is in full swing and free outdoor concerts-in-the-park abound around town. Find a complete list of July ARTful Happenings at TheHealthyPlanet.com to keep your summer ARTsy!
What’s a village to do when a May Queen is needed and the purity of their young women is in question? Go against tradition and select the only virgin in the village: a boy, by the name of Albert Herring! Intrigued, right? And who says you don’t like opera?!
That’s right: Union Avenue Opera presents this delightful tale July 7-8 and 14-15 in an opera by Benjamin Britten, starring none other than soprano Christine Brewer as Lady Billows. A member of the prestigious Metropolitan Opera, Ms. Brewer is recognized worldwide for her magnificent voice and charming stage presence. But, did you know, that she’s a native and still-resident of our area? So, come dip your toe into opera! Performances at 8 p.m. at 433 N. Union Blvd.; tickets $32-55 with student rush tickets (student I.D. required) just $15 at 15 minutes prior to curtain time. For info, call 314-361-2881 or visit www.unionavenueopera.org.
Missouri Botanical Garden is always a place of incredible natural beauty. But now through August 12, the Climatron is the setting for Garden of Glass, featuring thirty fused-glass works by Craig Mitchell Smith. View the works during the day to discover colorful glass tucked under waterfalls or nestled in greenery. Even better, be wowed by their nighttime glow on Thursday through Saturday evenings when you can also sip an adult beverage and groove to live music in the garden. A great summer date night! Details at www.mobot.org.
I never include call-for-artists in my column because, at any given time, there are just so many. But I’m making an exception for this special, upcoming juried art exhibition at Art Saint Louis. “Maturity and Its Muse: Celebrating Artistic Excellence” will showcase the talents of artists aged 70+ as of January 1, 2018. According to info from Robin Hirsch-Steinhoff, Artistic Director of Art Saint Louis, these artists, “by making art, share their thoughts and ideas about the world and themselves with us.”
These are definitely not emerging artists—and that fact presents us with the importance of art for all generations. My own mother was notorious for cutting off her subjects’ heads or feet on pictures she snapped throughout my childhood. It wasn’t until she was well into her 80’s that my mother truly found “her medium” in digital photography. Her landscape photography made its way into several juried exhibitions.
Artwork in all media and styles considered; applications accepted through September 1; the exhibition is scheduled to open on April 14, 2018. Rules of entry and form at artsaintlouis.org.
The Luminary, at 2701 Cherokee Street, presents A Collection of Slow Events through July 20. According to exhibition info, the work “draws attention to the microscopic movements, subtle vibrations, and permutations in form within artworks across mediums, emphasizing the ways that our perception of things and things themselves change, blur, and recompose with time in order to reorient our assumptions that seeing is knowing. The artworks included contain a range of rhythms: from the cyclical to the corporeal, the organic, and the geologic. Through these nearly imperceptible markers of change, the exhibition reconsiders stillness as a highly charged register of movement as opposed to an absence of motion. As such, many of the works can be thought of as a durational performance – often performing even when no one is looking – while others are produced through temporally driven processes. As a whole, the exhibition itself can be understood as a prolonged event that operates within the very registers of moving and seeing offered by the works included, inviting the viewer to observe in motion and engage with different scales of time – from extended encounters to multiple visits – positioning the artwork as a participatory force within an active and reciprocal encounter.”
All of which makes perfect sense with Alexis Wilkinson as the curator. Wilkinson is a recognized “mover and curator,” working across dance, choreography and visual art, currently working at Knockdown Center in Queens, NY. For more information visit www.theluminaryarts.com.