By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

The General, one of the largest artifacts of the Civil War and a prized piece in the collection of Kennesaw’s Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History, will be the centerpiece of an April celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Great Locomotive Chase.

The Southern Museum, a Smithsonian Institution affiliate, has announced a day full of events on the sesquicentennial of the chase, April 12,  in which Union spies crept behind enemy lines in Big Shanty (present day Kennesaw) with a plan to commandeer the General. Andrews’ Raiders intended to force an end to the war by cutting off the Confederate strategic railroad supply line between Atlanta and Chattanooga, tearing up track, destroying bridges and cutting telegraph wires along their way.

Highlights of the April 12 celebration:

• After a 6 a.m. breakfast at the Trackside Grill in downtown Kennesaw ($20), a 150th anniversary proclamation will be presented at the historic Kennesaw …

Continue reading Kennesaw museum to celebrate Great Locomotive Chase’s 150th in April »

MUSIC
ASO replaces Hamlisch
With composer-conductor Marvin Hamlisch ill and unable to travel, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has switched its 8 p.m. March 16-17 pops series concerts to “Bond and Beyond.” Principal pops conductor Michael Krajewski will lead the ASO, featuring guest vocalist Debbie Gravitte, in a program of James Bond themes (including “From Russia with Love” and “Goldfinger”) and songs from other spy films. Hamlisch walked off stage mid-performance during a Pittsburgh Symphony pops concert on Jan. 29 complaining of dizziness and was briefly hospitalized. 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org. HOWARD POUSNER

FILM
33
–Number of screenings sold out in advance for the 12th Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, which opens at 7:30 tonight at the Fox Theatre with “My Best Enemy,” a World War II-set dramedy about Viennese art dealers, Nazis, impersonation and double-crossing. Tickets are still available for tonight’s festival debut, but the remaining 117 …

Continue reading Culture notes: James Bond replaces Hamlisch at ASO; Jewish Film fest opens tonight »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

Atlanta artist Radcliffe Bailey, whose High Museum of Art exhibit “Memory as Medicine” was one of the city’s visual arts highlights last year, will be honored by the Atlanta Hawks as part of the team’s Black History Month salute on Wednesday night.

 The still-touring exhibit included a 108-inch-tall baseball bat sculpture, and Bailey, who played sports as a kid in Atlanta, with Hank Aaron a hero, said, “I always felt ballplayers were so large to me.”

 He’ll be recognized with a video tribute at the 7:30 p.m. Philips Arena game against the Indiana Pacers, one of seven African-American trailblazers being honored by the Hawks at every home game this month.

Remaining honorees:

Monday (vs. Phoenix): Monique Rivarde, founder of BFAM, which educates about teen violence.

Wednesday (vs. Indiana): artist Radcliffe Bailey.

Feb. 12 (vs. Miami Heat): Earl Lloyd, who broke the NBA’s color barrier in 1950.

Feb. 23 (vs. Orlando Magic): civil rights …

Continue reading Artful tribute: Hawks honor Atlanta artist Radcliffe Bailey on Wednesday »

VISUAL ARTS
WWII Japanese-American art at Breman Museum
In Japanese, gaman means to bear the seemingly unbearable with dignity and patience.

Those qualities are readily evident in the Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum exhibition opening Sunday, “The Art of Gaman: Arts & Crafts from Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946.”

The exhibit showcases more than 100 objects crafted by Japanese-Americans in U.S. internment camps during World War II — tools, teapots, furniture, toys and games, musical instruments, pendants and pins, purses, ornamental displays and more.

In the 10 inland camps where all ethnic Japanese on the West Coast were ordered to move following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the internees used scraps and found materials to make furniture and other objects to beautify their surroundings. Beyond the creature comforts they provided, arts and crafts formed a salve of emotional survival.

The Breman is the only Southeast stop for “The Art …

Continue reading Culture notes: WWII Japanese-American art at Breman Museum; Gwinnett arts leaders honored »

VISUAL ART
Art of graffiti at Callanwolde starting Friday
Graffiti forms one of those dividing lines in contemporary American life, much like presidential elections.

Some people view it as nothing more than vandalism, while others see it as street art. For evidence of the latter, just witness the number of coffee-table books focused on the topic and the growing number of graffiti artists, as well as those inspired by the painting style, who have been shown at private galleries and public museums.

For her exhibit, “Urban Works,” opening Friday at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center Gallery, Tucker artist Christina Bray said she wanted to explore that conflict. But the 11 highly representational paintings themselves, some of which can be previewed on her website (www.christinabray.com), don’t make obvious which side of the divide the artist is on. Though the painterly skill with which she executes them certainly suggests some sort of emotional connection to these altered urban …

Continue reading Culture notes: Art of graffiti at Callanwolde starting Friday; Orchids runneth over at Botanical Garden starting Saturday »

DANCE
Gwinnett Ballet names new leader
Gwinnett Ballet Theatre has announced Wade Walthall, whose resume includes stints as a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Holland, National Ballet of Spain and Pacific Northwest Ballet, as artistic director.

Walthall also been a featured guest artist with numerous national and international companies, touring with Rudolph Nureyev and Alexander Gudanov and performing the principal male role in “Nutcracker: The Motion Picture” (1986).

He replaces Lisa Sheppard Robson, a former company mate at Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Walthall is getting right into the mix with GBT, a pre-professional troupe founded in 1977. He has choreographed its next program, “Cinderella,” to be staged at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. March 3 at Gwinnett Performing Arts Center. www.gwinnettballet.org. HOWARD POUSNER

THEATER
Theatre in the Square update
By the end of 2011, Marietta’s Theatre in Square raised $297,931 against a $350,000 emergency fund-raising goal …

Continue reading Culture notes: Gwinnett Ballet names new leader; Theatre in the Square fund-raising update »

VISUAL ART
695
Number of artists the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia has shown over a decade of presenting exhibitions (97 total), a milestone being marked Thursday. MOCA GA’s permanent collection has grown from 250 to 791 pieces during that decade. HOWARD POUSNER

Nominees sought
The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center is making a public call out for its 2012 Nexus Award, recognizing individuals who have made a significant contribution to contemporary visual art in Atlanta and beyond. The deadline is Feb. 10. Criteria and nomination form: www.thecontemporary.org/nexusaward. HOWARD POUSNER

Continue reading Culture notes: MOCA GA’s decade of exhibiting adds up; call out for 2012 Nexus Award »

The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum has a new leader, Aaron Berger, whose experience includes running the the Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art and the Albany Museum of Art. For the last six years, the Atlantan has worked as a consultant with museums nationally in the areas of fund-raising and management. Berger replaces Jane Leavey, the Midtown museum’s founding executive director, who retired in December after 28 years. Info on Breman events: www.thebreman.org. HOWARD POUSNER

Continue reading Aaron Berger named new leader of Breman Jewish Museum »

THEATER
Theatre du Reve’s ‘Balloon’ flies again
After a sold-out run a year ago, Atlanta’s French drama troupe Theatre du Reve is bringing back “The Red Balloon,” the story of a young boy and a magical balloon with a mind of its own, based on the beloved 1956 French film. The adaption that opens Friday at Back Stage Theatre at 7 Stages has been tweaked to focus more on the topical theme of bullying. Through Feb. 12. 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. $27, students $16.20, ages 65 and up $21.60 (plus ticketing fee). 1105 Euclid Ave. N.E., Atlanta. 404-875-3829, www.theatredureve.com. HOWARD POUSNER

VISUAL ART
Saturday reception for civil rights mural, video
Atlanta artist B. Kendall wanted to commemorate a lesser-known chapter of the civil rights movement, how children participated in Birmingham protest marches in 1963, with her 12-foot-long mural “And the Children Marched,” now on view at the Buckhead Branch Library. Her attempts to educate continue on …

Continue reading Culture notes: An encore for Theatre du Reve’s ‘Red Balloon’; Saturday reception for civil rights mural, video »

Book Review
Fiction
“A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty”
By Joshilyn Jackson
Grand Central Publishing 336 pages, $27.99

Meet the author

7 p.m. Thursday, Janaury 26, 2012. Launch party. Free, but RSVP required. FoxTale Book Shoppe, 105 E. Main St., Woodstock. 770-516-9989, www.foxtalebookshoppe.com.

By Gina Webb

Forty-five-year-old Ginny Slocumb and her 30-year-old daughter, Liza, remember exactly what it was like to be unwed and pregnant by the age of 15. They’ve both paid the price for hiding dirty secrets no teenager should have to keep, including date rape, pedophilia and drug addiction.

Their memories of those years, which come to light during the course of “A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, ” would leave you brokenhearted if you could stop laughing long enough. But in a Joshilyn Jackson book, that will never happen.

If you’re new to Jackson, you’ll discover her knack for hitching misfortune to wicked humor within the first few pages, where Ginny, recalling her miserable failure at …

Continue reading ‘A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty’ By Joshilyn Jackson »