Muse/News: Inside SAM, Sondheim’s Tempos, and Halsey’s Monument

SAM News

Seattle’s Child shares “The Definitive Guide to Inside Activities With Kids,” including a visit to the Seattle Art Museum.

Local News

The 20th annual Seattle Black Film Festival (SBFF) is now playing at Langston Hughes Art Center through April 30; South Seattle Emerald has the details on what’s screening

Are you keeping up with Nancy Guppy of Art Zone? In the latest episode, she visits the Frye Art Museum’s exhibition of Katherine Bradford paintings, on view through May 14. 

Misha Berson for Crosscut on how performers manage to “survive” Sondheim’s dizzying tempos in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, now playing at the 5th Avenue Theatre. 

“‘If you saw my score, which I always keep close at hand, you’d see I’ve written breathe! Breathe! Breathe! all over it,’ says [Anne] Allgood, who has studied and now teaches singing technique. ‘I use the inhalations as a chance to relax, reset, refuel, even if they are very quick.’”

Inter/National News

Have a listen to The Week in Art, The Art Newspaper’s podcast; this edition, they talk about Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life at the Tate Modern, a reconstructed Roman gateway, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map, which just opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art and heads to SAM in 2024. 

“We Need More Nuance When Talking About Repatriation”: Patricia Marroquin Norby pens an opinion piece for Hyperallergic reflecting on her last three years as the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first-ever curator of Native American art.

LA-based artist Lauren Halsey has debuted a new monument on the roof garden of the Met. Halsey was the winner of SAM’s 2021 Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize and the museum acquired her Untitled (2022), a work of hand-carved gypsum that resembles the new monument.

“Where the ancient Egyptians covered the walls of their tombs and shrines with illustrations from the Book of the Dead, Halsey and her team of artists and artisans have created an immersive Book of Everyday Life, one focused on, but by no means restricted to, contemporary Black urban existence, evoked and preserved in words and images carved into hundreds of concrete panels.”

And Finally

The Seattle Times’ Moira Macdonald guides you through Seattle Independent Bookstore Day on April 29. 

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: Chloe Collyer.

Muse/News: Rivers, short films, and the PS22 Chorus

SAM News

Flowing tears, drowning hands, purposeful denial, and a mandala sun: get lost and found in Kimisha Turner’s mural It Ain’t Just A River in Egypt. Commissioned by SAM and paid for by an anonymous donor, the mural is now on view on the plywood-covered facade of the downtown museum. Watch and read all about it from KING’s Evening Magazine and Crosscut.

Kai Curry for Northwest Asian Weekly on SAM’s Asia Talks series; the latest edition has gone virtual, partnering with Kazbar Media to feature three artists who immigrated to the US from Asia and the Middle East.

Local News

The Stranger’s Jasmyne Keimig on the “unwanted layer of sealant” applied to Capitol Hill’s Black Lives Matter mural. The mural’s artists, coming together as the Vivid Matter Collective, are discussing how to proceed and protect the mural.

The Seattle Times’ Brendan Kiley reports on an open letter to Artist Trust charging inequitable practices, spurred in part by a dispute over one of its awards.

Crosscut’s Brangien Davis recommends the many upcoming virtual film screenings, including the Seattle Black Film Festival, which features an emphasis on short films. Bonus popcorn flavoring tip (inquire within for Muse/News’ preferred method!).

“Like the best short stories, short films can pack a punch—sometimes more than a feature length movie. Plus these showcases allow you to experience a huge range of voices and styles, and find new filmmakers you want to follow.”

Inter/National News

Give a listen to Artnet’s podcast, The Art Angle; this episode features Hank Willis Thomas, artist and co-founder of For Freedoms, discussing how he’s “making politics an art form.”

Elizabeth Merritt, director of the Center for the Future of Museums, explores the question of what opportunities for effecting deep structural change in the museum field may now be possible.

As part of Artforum’s ongoing “Project” series, Ja’Tovia Gary selects five artists’ work to highlight; click through to explore the work of Eniola Dawodu, Oroma Elewa, Jazmine Hayes, Fatima Jamal, and Sydney Vernon. By the way: Gary has made her 2019 work, The Giverny Document: Single Channel, available to view.

“Oftentimes, Black women find ourselves at the vanguard whether or not that is our preferred position. Our ways of being, knowing, and seeing have shaped what we know of history and will be absolutely integral as we work to conceptualize and bring forth a more egalitarian future free from bondage and subjugation.”

And Finally

Playlist suggestion: The PS22 Chorus.

 Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Image: L.Fried
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