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Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring A Classic at the MFA

Earlier this week I took advantage of one of my membership privileges at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and checked out the Members Preivew of their new exhibit, “Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring A Classic”. The exhibit features over 200 works mostly from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London,  and has a variety of letters, original drawings, and photographs. This exhibit is UTTERLY charming, and I was glad to have a chance to see this early. I can’t wait to go back and see it again!

There’s a little bit of something for everyone in this show; you can see everything from examples of Pooh in Pop Culture to Ernest Shepard’s original drawing of the Map of the 100 Acre Wood.

There are photographs of the Milne family, including a particularly tender photo of a Christopher Milne with his teddy bear.

One of the most special items in the exhibit, in my opinion, is the recording of A.A. Milne reading an excerpt of Pooh and Piglet go hunting, and nearly catch a Woozle. It dates from 1929, and is the only known recording of Milne reading from his Winnie-the-Pooh books. To listen to the recording, you pick up the “telephone” installed on the wall and can sit in the comfortable window seat directly adjacent to enjoy this delightful piece of the exhibit.

There are areas of whimsy and fun that will appeal to children of all ages as well as the young at heart. Want to ring the bell at Pooh’s house? Go for it.

Pretend to throw Poohsticks at the Poohstick bridge? They’ve got you covered.

There’s a table for drawing, as well as comfy rugs and spots for reading, and my favorite, Christopher Robin’s stairs where he sits, “Halfway Down”.

There are Instagram-worthy photo-ops galore so don’t be afraid to live a little and let your inner child come out and play. (There’s even a small slide if you feel like you need some extra movement!)

I have to say this exhibit is full of heartwarming moments that make you harken back to childhood memories of frolic and play. Shepard’s images are so classic, so iconic…don’t be surprised to find yourself time and again standing in front of a drawing and saying “awwww…” It’s delightfully sweet!

Give yourself plenty of time to meander your way through this exhibit. I spent just about 90 minutes there and could have easily stayed longer. Because of the tickets’ timed entry (more on that below!) the crowds in the exhibit are kept to a minimum. There’s room to explore, to drink in and enjoy all the Winnie-the-Pooh magic.

Have I inspired you to visit? The MOST IMPORTANT THING to keep in mind when planning your visit is that entry to the exhibit is TIMED, and tickets are REQUIRED for entry. All the information you need on tickets can be found here: https://www.mfa.org/tickets/winnie-the-pooh/ticket-information

The MFA highly recommends purchasing your tickets in advance. (Are you a member? Members see the exhibit for free, but still need to reserve tickets.) When you purchase your ticket, it covers your admission to the Museum for the day as well as the ticket for your specific time window to see the Pooh exhibit.

Other things to note:

– Children under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult at all times while visiting the Museum.

– Strollers are permitted at the MFA,but due to the limited space and interactive nature of the exhibition, strollers will not be permitted in “Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic.”

– Photography is welcome and encouraged, but no flash photography is allowed.

This is a really fantastic exhibit, and one that’s worth taking the time to plan and purchase your tickets in advance. The MFA Signature Gift Shop, which is located across from the ticketing desks at the Huntington Avenue entrance, has the main collection of memorabilia and Pooh related gifts. If you’re looking for the Catalog from the show, you’ll have to head to the Signature Gift Shop. (It’s $39.95, members price is $35.95!)

And for my environmentally minded friends, the large blue balloons in the hallway outside of the Torf Gallery where the exhibit lives are made of fiberglas, and are not floating helium balloons. They are an art installation that hangs from the ceiling.

Looking for more info on Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic? Visit the exhibit’s page: https://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/winnie-the-pooh

If you aren’t a member, now may be a great time to consider membership at the MFA. In addition to seeing special exhibits like this one for free, members get discounts on parking, dining, and the gift shop. It’s easy to become a member! https://www.mfa.org/membership I love being a MFA member especially when it comes to seeing exhibits during the Member Preview week!

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TedxCambridge at the Boston Opera House- Tickets On Sale!

I think it’s safe to say that most people have heard of TED conferences and TED talks, and have watched at least one (or more!) YouTube videos of a speaker’s presentation. I love the idea behind gathering a wide array of society’s current thinkers and do-ers, and offering them space and time on a stage to present their ideas. Given a time constraint (typically less than 18 minutes), the speakers condense their thoughts into the most relevant, most concise, and often most entertaining form possible.

TEDxCambridge is happening at the Boston Opera House in Boston, MA on Thursday, May 3rd at 7:00pm. Tickets are now on sale through the TEDxCambridge website: http://www.tedxcambridge.com/ (FYI- If you go to the Boston Opera House official website, it looks like you can’t buy tickets yet, but if you click on the “Coming Soon” button it redirects you to the TEDxCambridge website, where tickets are available)

Do you know what TED stands for? It’s Technology, Entertainment, and Design. The first TED conference was held in 1984, and featured up and coming ideas such as the compact disc, the ebook, and 3D graphics from Lucasfilm. The event wasn’t as successful as the organizer’s had hoped, and they didn’t run another TED conference until 1990. This time the idea took off, and became a yearly conference held in Monterrey, California. In 2006, realizing the power and global reach of the internet, the first six TED talks ever were posted online. In three months, they’d reached more than one million views. In 2008, TED reorganized their website to meet the growing demand for access to the videos of TED talks. By 2009, the number of views on TED talks had grown to 100 million.

In case you’re curious, here’s the link to the TED website and the first six TED talks: https://www.ted.com/playlists/168/the_first_6_ted_talks_ever

2009 was the year the organizers launched TEDx , opening up the program to  local, independently organized events. The TEDxCambridge evening is one of these events! Follow this link to the TEDxCambridge website to see information about the speakers for this year’s event: http://www.tedxcambridge.com/speakers/

Speaking at the 2018 TEDxCambridge are: Andrea Lauer, Symbiotic Designer; Andrew McAfee, Digital Economist; Erez Yoeli, Behavioral Scientist; Joel Salinas, Sensory Neurologist; Lisa Feldman Barrett, Cognitive Psychologist; Sebastian Buckup, Global Convener; and Tony Luciani, Documentary Caregiver. In addition to these seven diverse presenters, the TEDxCambridge audience will also be entertained by a performance by the Boston Ballet! All in all it sounds like an incredible evening, and excellent seats are still available!

Here are a few of my favorite TED talks…

 

 

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Thoughts on The White Card

Walking into the amazing set of The White Card, staged at The Paramount Theatre’s Robert J. Orchard Stage, is an incredible experience. The stark whiteness that surrounds you is at once soothing and disconcerting. This blank slate of a space has the right balance of elegance and sparseness to accommodate Claudia Rankine’s play, The White Card.

First, before I share my thoughts, I want to make sure you know this show is only running for another two weeks, through April 1st. An extremely limited number of tickets are still available! The advice from ArtsEmerson to score tickets to a performance is as follows:

  • Check online or call the box office 1-2 days before the date you wish to attend; we regularly see tickets become available in this window due to cancelations.
  • Show up at the box office 1-2 hrs before curtain. We may have last minute openings that aren’t available online. If nothing is available, we can put you on the waitlist which starts 1 hr prior to each curtain.

Your best chance at seats is likely the Sunday March 18th show at 7:30PM, which was just added this week. For more information about the play, visit the ArtsEmerson website at:

http://bit.ly/artsemersonwhitecard

I went into this show hoping and expecting to be challenged. I wanted to be a little bit uncomfortable. I wanted this show to make me think! And it certainly did. My whole ride home I kept re-hashing bits and pieces of dialog and considering the interactions between these 5 characters (six, if you count the art).

The main character in this play is Charlotte; an up and coming African American artist whose work has piqued the interest of rich, white socialites Charles and Virginia. They aspire to collect socially relevant works of art both by and about African Americans. But is their desire for this art truly well-intentioned, or merely a way to look racially aware? I felt like Charles’ desire to purchase these racially charged pieces of art were a way for him to appear to seek absolution from his complicity in the American Penal system. He’s working to build jails that in some cases are filled predominantly with African Americans. Charles wants to be relevant; he wants to look outwardly like he’s purchasing the right art, reading the right books, knowing the right issues, but I think he wears ALL of that as a cloak. It’s not who he truly is. I’m not saying he’s a closet KKK member, just that Charles isn’t really connecting with the issues surrounding racism in America today; he only ends up looking like he is.

Even Charles and Virginia’s son Alex, who is very involved in Black Lives matter and wants to be an aware citizen, still struggles in a conversation with Charlotte when he referred to other African Americans as, “your people”. Charlotte points out he could have just said, “people”. Alex still feels that ingrained difference. How does one acknowledge the perception of that difference and then move past it?

The final image of the show has really stuck with me. The image of the photograph that Charlotte takes: Charles, shirtless, facing away from her. Charlotte herself, standing in mock chains, facing him. I’ve been considering Charles’ pose. He’s turned away from her. At first I’d just assumed he’d turned his back because there’s more smooth skin exposed for her to photograph. But the more I think about this, the more it occurs to me that his choice to turn away is representative of his inability to face the issue of race that is between Charles and Charlotte. Even in that moment when he submits to being the subject of her art, he is turning away from the realities of her life as a black woman. He could have faced her, he could have looked her in the eye, but in the end he still chose to turn away.

“Can American Society progress if whiteness stays invisible?” is what The White Card asks. Diane Paulus, Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater, asks in her Welcome in the playbill, “In difficult conversations about race, how do we stay in the room?” Both these questions are stirring, and stimulating, and I hope this play will help further the discussion of race in America today. I really enjoyed what the entire ArtsEmerson team did here with The White Card, and I’m glad the thoughts and questions are still percolating in my mind.

If you do attend a performance of The White Card, I recommend you stick around for the Act II facilitated discussion about the play. It felt good to have some space for the audience to publicly digest what we’d just seen.

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Need to Escape From Winter? Visit The Butterfly Place

New England is being hit by the second big winter storm in less than a week.  It’s hard to believe that Spring is only one week away when there’s more than a foot of snow outside (and more falling as I type!) Are you feeling those late winter blues? A great place to escape from this dismal weather is The Butterfly Place in Westford, MA. Just minutes off of Exit 34 on Route 3, The Butterfly Place is the perfect cure for winter fatigue.

If you’ve never been, The Butterfly Place is an indoor garden with hundreds of free flying butterflies. The temperatures inside are set at a balmy 80-85 degrees to keep the butterflies happy! (It keeps me pretty happy too!) It’s such a treat to leave a cold, wintry day behind for a little while and pretend like you’re somewhere tropical.

All areas are handicapped accessible and strollers are encouraged. According to their website, most visitors spend about an hour on an average visit. In addition to the large indoor garden space, they have displays about the life cycle of butterflies, including a 15-minute video.

The Butterfly Place is open daily from Valentines Day through Columbus Day; the hours are 10:00am – 4:00pm. For more information including admission prices and special offers, visit their website at: https://butterflyplace-ma.com/

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Visiting the deCordova Museum

The snow is falling outside as a type, and it’s hard to believe that last Wednesday was so beautiful and unseasonably warm! The combination of school break and fantastic weather had Townies 1, 2, and 3 and I heading to the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, MA. It had been a few years since our last visit so they were excited to check out the outdoor sculpture park.

The deCordova Museum has a rich and interesting history. The museum has been open since 1950, and is situated on the former estate of Julian deCordova. The sculpture park has 30 acres of woodlands and grassy lawns, as well as a short sculpture trail, and is the largest park of its kind in New England. There are over 60 works located throughout the outdoor park area, and many are on loan.  The museum building itself focuses on modern and contemporary art, with an emphasis on supporting local New England artists. I always enjoy seeing what’s on display at the deCordova, because my subconscious preconceptions of what defines Art are always challenged when I visit.

Don’t let the current snowstorm turn you off from the idea of a visit! The deCordova is a wonderful place to see any time of year. They offer a wide variety of programs and workshops, including snowshoe tours of the sculpture park.  In fact, there is a snowshoe tour coming up this Saturday, March 10th, that should be very successful with all this newly falling snow!

For more information on the deCordova including admission prices, directions, and current exhbitions, visit their website at: https://decordova.org/

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Boston Flower Show 2018

March can be a tough month; we’ve started to taste some milder weather, but in reality Winter still has us in its grasp. This is the perfect time to be dreaming of sunny warm days and green growing things. What better way to fulfill the desire for dreams of springtime warmth than by visiting the Boston Flower Show! It’s been a few years since I’ve been myself and I’m looking forward to attending again (the photos I shared here are from 2015).

The Boston Flower Show takes place every year in the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston, MA. This year’s show is happening from Wednesday, March 14th through Sunday, March 18th. The hours of operation are as follows:

Wednesday, March 14: 10:00AM-8:00PM
Thursday, March 15: 10:00AM-8:00PM
Friday, March 16: 10:00AM-9:00PM
Saturday, March 17: 10:00AM-9:00PM
Sunday, March 18: 10:00AM-6:00PM

The Box Office closes one hour prior to the end of the Show each day. The best hours to attend the Show for ease of parking and smaller crowds is in the late afternoon and early evening. (And in fact, you can get $5 off your admission if you attend after 5:00 pm on any day of the show!- see the tickets page for more info.)

If you aren’t interested or able to attend after 5:00 pm, you can still get a $2 discount on admission by using the promo code FLOWER18. This discount code is only valid through 3/13.

There’s a little something for everyone at the Flower Show. You can get inspiration for your garden plantings, landscape design,  and edible gardens; as well as experiencing some fabulous examples of floral arrangements. There are numerous vendors on site selling everything from Adirondack chairs to felted floral hats and everything in between. There are concession stands with food available for purchase, but you are also allowed to bring your own drinks and snacks, if desired.

For more information about the show including directions, parking, and to purchase tickets, visit the Boston Flower Show website at: http://bostonflowershow.com/

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Something Rotten at the Hanover Theatre

Two years ago, a friend of mine went to Broadwaycon, and told me about a funny, clever show she happened to see called Something Rotten!. Shortly after that I found the cast album on Amazon and fell in love with this show’s wit. I missed the chance to see Something Rotten! when it came through Boston last year, so I’m really excited to see it this weekend in Worcester!

This show is funny. *Really* funny! Imagine William Shakespeare as a rock and roll star. Two up and coming playwrights, Nick and Nigel Bottom, aspire to be the next big thing, but Will keeps getting all the glory. The play may indeed be the thing for Shakespeare, but the Bottom brothers are going out on a limb to try this new thing called, “A Musical”! Chaos and humor ensues.

With songs like, “God I Hate Shakespeare”, “The Black Death”, and “Hard to Be The Bard”, you’ll be laughing laughing from start to finish. Much ado has been made in particular about the song called “A Musical”. There are references to 20 popular Broadway musicals. This video from the official Something Rotten! Broadway channel on YouTube highlights some of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KFNcy9VjQI
You can also watch this video of Something Rotten! co-creators Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick as they sing their way through “A Musical” and each reference is noted. There were a few I hadn’t even caught before, like Cats and Sweeney Todd! http://www.wsj.com/video/the-secrets-of-omething-rotten-biggest-number/6B93C01D-7974-4A9D-8FCB-CBEAF178B778.html

Something Rotten! opens tonight at The Hanover Theatre in Worcester, Ma, and runs through Sunday Feb. 25. For more information, and to purchase tickets, go to the Hanover Theatre’s website: http://www.thehanovertheatre.org/somethingrotten 

If you’re hoping to catch Adam Pascal as Shakespeare (he was Roger in the OBC of Rent), make sure you get tickets for Sunday evening’s performance or Sunday’s matinee. Alas, my tickets were a Christmas gift, and the giver didn’t know that detail. I’m still psyched to see the show!

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Lottery Alert: Love Never Dies at Boston Opera House

The online lottery to win the opportunity to purchase discounted tickets to see Love Never Dies at the Boston Opera House is open right now! You’ve got less than 24 hours left to enter, as the lottery is only open until noon on Monday January 29th. If you win, you’ll be able to purchase up to 4 tickets at $49 each. These are typically premium seats! You can only win the lottery once, so choose only the performances you can attend.

Enter the drawing here:
http://www.luckyseat.com/loveneverdies-boston/

Want to know more about the show? Check out the official Boston Opera House – Broadway in Boston website:
https://boston.broadway.com/shows/andrew-lloyd-webbers-love-never-dies-phantom-returns/

Good luck!

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Ticket Alert: The White Card – A New Play by Claudia Rankine

Claudia Rankine’s new play, The White Card,  is set to open at the Emerson Paramount Center in Boston, MA on February 24, 2018. The production will run through April 1, 2018, and tickets are selling fast! Many performances are already sold out.

From the ArtsEmerson website:
At a dinner party thrown by an influential Manhattan couple for an up-and-coming artist, questions arise about what—and who—is actually on display. Claudia Rankine’s 2014 New York Times best-selling book, Citizen: An American Lyric, unpacked the insidious ways in which racism manifests itself in everyday situations. Now, this world-premiere play poses the question, “Can American society progress if whiteness stays invisible?”

I’ve got my ticket purchased, and I’m excited to experience what this play has to offer. I’m very intrigued by the note on the ArtsEmerson website which states, “The White Card will utilize non-traditional seating at the Emerson Paramount Center’s Robert J. Orchard Stage. Patrons will be assigned specific seating locations at a later date.” I’m curious to see if we’ll all be part of the fictional dinner party, seated cabaret style, a la Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812? However we are seated, these tickets are HOT and this production promises to be engaging and thought provoking.

ArtsEmerson has added several performances, and they continue to sell quickly. If you think this show sounds like something you’d like to experience for yourself, get your tickets sooner than later, because I’m convinced this will sell out completely! Tickets can be purchased at the ArtsEmerson website:

http://bit.ly/artsemersonwhitecard

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Ticket Alert: Gloria Steinem at New Bedford’s Zeiterion Theatre On May 19th

The New Bedford Lyceum is hosting A Conversation With Gloria Steinem on Saturday, May 19th at 8:00pm at The Zeiterion Theatre in New Bedford, Mass.

From the Zeiterion’s website: “In the 45 years since co-founding Ms. Magazine, Gloria Steinem has propelled into national consciousness as a respected and lauded writer, editor, and activist. She travels the globe as an organizer and lecturer and is a frequent media spokeswoman on issues of equality. The recently revived New Bedford Lyceum, a New England tradition of learning through intellectual debate, is thrilled to welcome Ms. Steinem to address the range of issues of which she’s most passionate for a conversation sure to stimulate dialogue beyond the legendary activist’s New Bedford debut.”

Saturday May 19th feels far away, and indeed it is; 126 days to be exact! But if you’re interested in getting tickets to see Gloria Steinem, don’t put it off- tickets are going fast!

Tickets start at $25, and are available on the Zeiterion Theatre website:

https://zeiterion.org/gloria-steinem/