By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

Atlanta artist Arturo Lindsay will be packing his bags for Cairo in January as part of a new U.S. Department of State and Bronx Museum of the Arts initiative.

smARTpower will send 15 American artists or collaborative teams to 15 countries for up to 45 days to engage in people-to-people diplomacy through the visual arts. The Panama-born Lindsay, who immigrated to New York at age 12 and later became a U.S. citizen, is a Spelman College professor of art and art history.

“This international exchange initiative harnesses the power of the visual arts,” Assistant Secretary of State Ann Stock said in a statement. “smARTpower engages people, especially youth, through visual art to address key issues of the day important to all communities.”

“Lindsay will establish a contemporary art theory and practice workshop that will provide participants with skills to create collaborative and interactive installation and performance works of art based on …

Continue reading To Egypt, with art, for Atlanta artist Arturo Lindsay »

VISUAL ARTS
Memory painter at KSU
Northeast Georgia folk artist Linda Anderson is the rare painter with a waiting list of collectors. So it’s an unexpected twist that “An Artful Memory,” an exhibit of her memory paintings opening Oct. 18 at the Kennesaw State University Fine Arts Gallery, will include four new pieces for sale, ranging $5,000-$15,000. Anderson is donating 30 percent to KSU’s College of the Arts. Opening reception 5-8 p.m., with Anderson signing her book, “Flashes of Memory: An Appalachian Self-Portrait.” Free. 770-499-3223, www.kennesaw.edu. HOWARD POUSNER

ARTS
Rialto leader honored
Leslie Gordon, director of Georgia State University’s Rialto Center for the Arts since 2003, recently was named recipient of the Mary Beth Treen Award, recognizing her contributions to the performing arts presenting and touring industry. The downtown this season is presenting everything from Israeli and Turkish roots music to New Orleans funk to international dance — a mix aimed …

Continue reading Culture notes: Memory painter Linda Anderson exhibit (and sale) at KSU; Rialto’s Leslie Gordon honored »

THEATER
ART Station announces lineup
Stone Mountain’s ART Station, one of only a handful of professional theaters outside I-285, has released its theater slate for 2011-12.

Dec. 8-23: “The Christmas Report.” Artistic director David Thomas’ lighthearted holiday script follows nutty reporters and stoic anchors as they cover strange goings-on at Mount Stone.

Feb. 9-19: “Name That Show.” An improv show in the spirit of TV’s “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”

April 12-15: “Tip Tap Two” featuring dancers Taps and Tre.

June 7-17: “Southern Voices.” With a script by David Thomas and David Hirt, storyteller Hirt spins tales about the “just plain folks” of the South.

Aug. 2-19: “I Ought to Be in Pictures.” Neil Simon’s 1979 play about a screenwriter dad trying to get the real-life script of fatherhood right.

Tickets, $25 adults and $21 seniors/students, are on sale at 770-469-1105, www.artstation.org. HOWARD POUSNER

CRAFTS
Mugs for Jugs benefit …

Continue reading Culture notes: ART Station’s 2011-12 lineup; Mugs for Jugs benefit at MudFire »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has released a few more details about program that includes the U.S. premiere Esa-Pekka Salonen’s “Nyx,” that it will perform in Atlanta on Oct. 27 and 29 before heading to New York’s Carnegie Hall for a Nov. 5 concert.
Music director Robert Spano will lead the ASO in the concerts that feature “Nyx,” a work co-commissioned by the ASO, Finnish Radio Symphony, Radio France, Carnegie Hall and London’s Barbican Centre.
The Atlanta Symphony Hall program will also include Scriabin’s “Poem of Ecstasy” and Rachmaninov’s “The Bells.” Soprano Tatiana Monogarova, tenor Sergey Romanovsky, bass Denis Sedov and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus will join the ASO for “The Bells.”
In the Carnegie concert, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concert No. 3, featuring pianist Garrick Ohlsson, replaces “The Bells.” ASO Media, the orchestra’s new label, plans a fall release of Ohlsson playing the …

Continue reading ASO preparing for U.S. premiere of Salonen’s ‘Nyx’ in Atlanta, on to Carnegie Hall; new VP announced »

VISUAL ART

Contemporary opens two shows Friday
The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center  swings into fall 6-9 p.m. Friday with two exhibits opening (the group show “Sex Drive” and “Mike Howard: Good Ole Boy,” paintings by the Alabama artist who made his mark in New York’s East Village in the 1980s), open artist studios and a courtyard party with food and drink. $5; students and seniors, $3. 535 Means St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-688-1970, www.thecontemporary.org. HOWARD POUSNER

Art of abolition at AUC’s Woodruff Library
The Atlanta University Center’s Robert W. Woodruff Library has opened the exhibition “Jacob Lawrence and the Legend of John Brown.”
It puts into an art historical context Lawrence’s 1941 series “The Legend of John Brown,” a suite of 22 silkscreens inspired by abolitionist Brown’s historic raid on Harpers Ferry, Va., in 1859 that many historians believe led to secession and the Civil War.
The display panels provide a descriptive overview of …

Continue reading Culture notes: New exhibits at Contemporary, AUC’s Woodruff Library, Ga. Museum in Athens »

ATTRACTION
Fernbank exhibit merges art, science
In conjunction with its new “Darwin” exhibit, Fernbank Museum of Natural History has opened “Selections,” a show that explores the relationship between science and art by eight Atlanta and Athens artists.

“In Darwin’s day, people who were curious about the world were considered both scientists and artists,” artist Nancy Lowe said. “This exhibition brings the two back together.” The eight artists include Lowe, Berry Brosi, Woody Hickcox, Anthony Martin, Allen Perterson, Lore Ruttan, Ruth Schowalter and Robey Tapp. A meet-the-artists event is planned 6:30-7:30 p.m. Friday at the start of Martinis & Imax.

Through Jan. 1. 404-929-6300, www.fernbankmuseum.org. HOWARD POUSNER

ATTRACTION
Children’s Museum challenge grant
The Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation has given a $75,000 matching challenge grant toward Imagine It: The Children’s Museum of Atlanta’s annual fund-raising campaign. The goal is to …

Continue reading Culture notes: Art evolves with science in Fernbank exhibit; Imagine It gets $75,000 challenge grant »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

Not content with directing two plays making Broadway bows this fall, Atlantan Kenny Leon has signed on to direct an all-black version of “Steel Magnolias” for the cable network Lifetime.

In an e-mail to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday afternoon, Leon wrote, “Casting soon … shooting somewhere in the South though I would love to see it happen in Atlanta.”

Like the 1989 hit film that featured an all-star cast including Dolly Parton, Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine and Julia Roberts, the update will be set in Louisiana and will explore the bond among a group of strong, Southern-accented women. Sally Robinson’s new script is based on the original movie.

The TV movie is to be produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and Sony Pictures TV, where the duo’s Storyline Entertainment has an exclusive deal for long-form programming, according to deadline.com. Leon directed Storyline and Sony Pictures TV’s previous collaboration, the 2008 ABC …

Continue reading Atlanta’s Kenny Leon to direct ‘Steel Magnolias’ remake »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

Atlanta director Kenny Leon didn’t have to look too far to find his composer for “Stick Fly.”

Alicia Keys, a producer of the Lydia R. Diamond play that begins previews at Broadway’s Cort Theater on Nov. 18, also will compose its music.

“As someone who walked up and down this boulevard as a young girl, I cannot describe the thrill of having the opportunity of composing songs for a Broadway show,” Keys said in a statement.

“Stick Fly,” opening Dec. 8, stars Dulé Hill, Mekhi Phifer, Tracie Thoms, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Rosie Benton and Condola Rashad. The play explores race, class and familial relationships among an extended well-to-do African-American clan on Martha’s Vineyard.

Leon is set to go into full rehearsals later this month, after his other Broadway play, Katori Hall’s already-in-previews “The Mountaintop,” opens Oct. 13 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.

“It’s honestly been a dream come true,” Keys added about her …

Continue reading Alicia Keys to compose music for Kenny Leon-directed ‘Stick Fly’ »

THEATER
Puppetry center membership, Christmas show sale
The Center for Puppetry Arts is holding a one-day, call-in sale Tuesday on family memberships and tickets to its holiday show. Normally $90, family memberships have been reduced to $75, and current or new members can buy opening-week (Nov. 3-6) tickets to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” for $4.63, which is half-off the already-discounted member price. Purchase from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. 404-873-3391, www.puppet.org. HOWARD POUSNER

VISUAL ART
Art of abolition at AUC’s Woodruff Library
The Atlanta University Center’s Robert W. Woodruff Library has opened the exhibition “Jacob Lawrence and the Legend of John Brown” through Oct. 31.

The exhibit puts into an art historical context Lawrence’s 1941 series “The Legend of John Brown,” a suite of 22 silkscreens (represented in digital images here) inspired by abolitionist Brown’s historic raid on Harpers Ferry, Va., in 1859 that many historians believe led to secession and the Civil …

Continue reading Culture notes: Puppetry center deal on Tuesday; art of abolition at AUC’s Woodruff Library »