Roberta: Hi everyone. It’s Roberta.

Ryan: And this is Ryan and this is the Midweek News

Roberta: on Artblog Radio. Oh, my weekend. What did I do this weekend? Oh, I went to the half marathon because Max my son, Max, our son Max, ran the half marathon and he had a personal best. Max. I’m going to out you here at one hour, 50 minutes and 12 seconds.

That was his personal best. He’s done six or seven half marathons, a couple marathons, never again the marathons, but he likes the, the half marathons and the shorter races, and it’s always fun to be down there with that big crowd. Everybody’s so exuberant, you know? Yeah. Cheering their fellow humans on as they run across the finish line and all that stuff. And it was a brisk day. It was really cold and windy, but I guess it was great for running. I. As in Max’s personal best time.

So yeah, that was fun. And then I babysat on Sunday. That’s always a blast with an 18-month-old child. That’s fun. That’s, that’s about it for my weekend. So the tickets booth, you know, like Times Square tickets, where everybody goes to get their half price, 30% off tickets for plays.

It’s coming to Philly. And I thought they were only in New York, but apparently they’re in other cities as well, but not a lot. The Visit Visitor Center. Has been in talks with them for a while, nine months apparently, and they decided they’re going to come and the booth is going to be inside the visitor center or on, you know, adjacent to it on Independence Mall.

So the tickets will be 30 to 50% off and it’s going to be Philadelphia shows. So, Bravo, right. Kathleen, Catherine OT Lovett, who’s the president and CEO of the visitor Center. Said the, you know, there’s always tickets that are left over from every performance in Philadelphia. It’s just the way it is these days after the pandemic.

It didn’t use to be this bad before the pandemic. And so she sees this as filling houses and unnecessary thing to help the theater community recover. So this is going to happen. I’m not sure when. We can look this up. It’s I found this in the Enquirer and there’s a link and I think it’s a shareable link, so we can put that in and you can read more about it.

But it’s a really good thing for the theater community. I’m very, and music, I mean, I think you can get music tickets right at the tickets booth, like the symphony and the chamber

Ryan: and ballet.

Roberta: Oh, Nutcracker. Well, I hope they have tickets for all you Nutcracker lovers.

Ryan: The Philadelphia Orchestra is on here as well, and then also Penn Live Arts.

Roberta: Wonderful.

Ryan: That looks really good. That looks interesting.

Roberta: Yeah, totally.  And then I just have a couple other art things.

One is The Quilt Show is coming to the Kingsessing Rec tennis courts again on December 7th, 1-4:00 PM. We love the Quilt Show. This is a scrappy group of West Philadelphia young people who love quilts and make them together and individually. We told you about how they did a, well, I won’t call it a takeover…They didn’t take over, but they were at the Art Sanctuary at Fleisher Art Memorial for a 24 hour  Quilt-a-thon. These are very interesting, wonderful young artists and people. And anyway, if you haven’t been to the quilt show, this year, there are 65 quilters. So it’s going to be mega-quilting show and it’s only one day, weather permitting.

I guess they probably don’t have it if it’s raining. But 1:00 – 4:00 PM on Saturday, December 7th. So Bravo Quilt show. I’m going to try to go, I’ve gone a couple times. I really love it. It’s a community gathering. It’s very nice.

Then, I want to congratulate all the Leeway Foundation Art and Change Grantees. Leeway just announced they’ve distributed $62,500 to 30 women artists, trans artists and gender nonconforming artists. They’ve been doing this for 20 years under this grant. So congratulations, Leeway, and congratulations, grantees. See link above for all the awardees.

Finally, I wanted to talk about the Eco Social Series. This is an series of events started by Daniel Tucker. Daniel Tucker is an artist and educator and writer who led the Social Practice Arts Master’s program at Moore College, and then transitioned over to University of the Arts shortly before it closed.

Daniel has done a few Eco Social Series events which have popped up around town, and now through January 28th at the Arts Lounge inside Penn Live Arts Annenberg Center there’s an exhibition that Daniel and his cohort pulled together out of the University of Pennsylvania art collection. Penn has an art collection. Most universities have their own art collections. They were allowed to go into the collection and select things to show, and they’re now on display.

The art selected has to do with Ecology and eco themes. The exhibit is titled We are Nature. Then on January 22nd, they’re going to allow the audience to “confabulate” stories about what they’re seeing now. I don’t know about you, but I’m all about confabulation. I think that sounds like a great audience participation idea. More information here.

It sounds like something that I may actually go, to confabulate about art, because you look at art and there may be a story that the artist had in mind, but every mind brings its own story to a piece of art, and I have found many, many stories in many pieces of art that I don’t think the artist intended, but I found it and it gave me pleasure and joy.

I don’t know what time of day this event is. I don’t have that information yet, but as soon as we get it, we’ll put, put it out there. Maybe get them to put it on the ArtblogConnect.org calendar. Be a good thing.

So that wraps it up for me.

Ryan: Those are good things.

Roberta: Yeah, I’m excited.

Ryan: So this week, obviously with Thanksgiving coming up, we’ll say Happy Thanksgiving! It’s coming up on the 28th, really late this year. It’s kind of unusual. So there are a few things I want to mention. Obviously with that holiday, a lot of people take that day off (and the next). They’re expecting this to be the busiest traveling Thanksgiving ever.

Yeah. Be…if you’re not aware of that, be aware of that.

Roberta: Right. Stay home is the message. Stay home.

Ryan: So, but there are plenty of shows that are coming up. Beginning next week or that are one-time shows or shows that are ending. We’re getting into the holiday season and that usually means there’s a lot of fun, exciting, interesting shows that are happening.

My sister is a big Elf fan, so Elf is running on at Walnut Street Theater through the end of December. It’s a funny show. It’s not my show, but she loves it. So I will mention it for that. Something else that’s coming up on December 3rd is the Mission Story Slam. I know a lot of people that are interested in those stories and slam events.

This one is a family specific one. It’s coming up December 3, that’s Tuesday. That show is at 7:00pm, and that’s at National Mechanics. That’s 22 South 3rd Street, if you’re interested in those kinds of events. But really, the important news that also happens on December 3rd in Philadelphia is Rocky Day, December 3rd, that is the release of the original film, and everybody gets super excited about that.

Roberta: So, okay, I need to back you back to Mission Story Slam. What is the mission? Why is it called Mission Story Slam? Do you have to have a mission to participate?

Ryan: It is part of Video With a Mission, and so it’s competitive storytelling for the nonprofit sustainable business communities.

And so the storytellers tell 5-minute stories and they’re competing for $250 judges’ awards, and then there’s a $100 crowd favorite award. All of that money goes towards the winner’s favorite nonprofit.

Roberta: Got it.

Ryan: So, yeah. So think of Artblog if you go out there and vote it your favorite nonprofit.

Roberta: Okay. Another question. The Rocky thing. Where is the movie being shown? Or do you have to screen it on your own devices.

Ryan: I’m sure people are going to be doing it on their own devices, but there are of course Rocky Fest events. I think the Visitors Center itself is doing some events.

I’m not sure if they’re showing the film. Sometimes the art museum has shown it. But it will be available at the Philadelphia Film Society. They are going to have…I think I was seeing one of the days coming up, they’re going to screen all of them.

Roberta: Oh my goodness.

Ryan: Secondly…Yeah, I’ll have to look up the exact date, but I remember I was looking at it and thinking, you know, it’s one of those fun things, like someone says, ‘I would like to do a tour of all the baseball stadiums in the country, or football stadiums,’ or something like that. This is like, ‘I’m going to sit through all the Rocky films.’

Yeah, here it is. You can see Rocky 1 and 2 on Friday, December 6th at Philadelphia Film Society. You can go to filmadelphia.org and see their schedule, and they will be showing them and there’ll be quite a few different things going on. But yeah, I think you can see them all in a theater.

And if you are interested in cinema, one show that they’re showing that my son really enjoys — did you ever see RRR Roberta? —

Roberta: No, I missed it. What is it?

Ryan: It is a epic Indian Bollywood film. It’s three hours. But it’s really a fun show. It’s RRR three letters, and it was released a couple years ago and I haven’t seen it in theater or in the cinema.

I think that’d be a lot of fun. That’s coming Black Friday, 11/29. So November 29th at the Film Society.  If you’re interested in that. Just a couple reminders. The Christmas Village is open and running and will be open and running throughout the season for those who are interested.

I know my kids are interested. They love going to see the Macy’s displays, so that’s always fun too. In Center City

Roberta: in the windows. The window displays.

Ryan: They do enjoy the decorations, and there’s miscellaneous zoos as well that are also having their lights up starting this Thanksgiving through the holiday season.

Roberta: Yeah, I’ve noticed some lights on houses in my neighborhood, so people are getting into the spirit. I guess they do it before Thanksgiving. I don’t remember in other years when the lights pop on, but I think everything is speeded up now. You just got to do your thing, fast. Yeah. Get it out there.

Ryan: Stay competitive with the lights.

Roberta: Yeah, maybe. I’m sure there are competitions. Oh, I know there are. Yes. In New Jersey, there’s — I think in the suburbs of Cherry Hill, maybe — there’s all kinds of competitions for the lights and people go crazy wild over there.

Ryan: Yeah, I’ve actually gotten to a couple of those. They’re pretty intense. Yes. Well, my kids love those kind of things. It’s sort of like, okay, let’s go see. Sure. And people are out there like redecorating while you’re watching. It’s intense. Yeah. They’re really into it. So you know, that’s more the merrier. Have a good time with it.

Roberta: Oh, subcultures. Don’t you love the subcultures of the world? They are just…there are so many of them.

Ryan: There are a lot of different things. Speaking of subcultures, I’ll talk about it in a couple weeks again, but John Waters is coming to town.

Roberta: Oh, I love John Waters! Where’s he going to be?

Ryan: December 17th. He’s going to be at Union Transfer.

Roberta: Really?

Ryan: So, yep. So if you’re interested in that kind of thing, mark your calendar

Roberta: Does he have a new book out or something? I wonder? Or does he just do a circuit with a performance?

Ryan: I’m not sure what kind of show it is. But it is, it is specifically aimed as a Christmas show.

Roberta: I saw him at the Annenberg Center in the auditorium.  The ICA was honoring him. There was some, I forget the exact tie in, but it was a number of years ago, and we got some comp tickets to sit and see John Waters. He’s an amazing performer. He’s a storyteller. Just a, a lovely, lovely sense of the world, you know? The human comedy.

Ryan: Yeah.

Roberta: Yeah, he’s great. He’s great. Oh, cool. John Waters very nice. I like to hear that. (NOTE: John Waters had an exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art and our friend and contributor Chuck Patch was there to cover it. Read it here – with Chuck’s great pictures.

I want to shout out Libby and I went to the Barnes Foundation and to the PMA two Fridays ago, and we saw the Mickalene Thomas: All About Love show at the Barnes. Definitely worth going people if you haven’t seen it already. It’s powerful. The work is drop dead gorgeous — multimedia paintings. It’s a painting show. She’s a painter and photographer, but collage paintings and very provocative. She riffs on art history. There’s a lot of art historical references and a fascinating abstraction with broken space that skews cubist, with lines that cut through the piece, like they’re almost sword strokes that cut through and diagonal and up and down and even over some of the beautiful face. Beautifully done and provocative. It made them mosaic-like in a way and also electric. It conveyed the sense of electricity.  The images would’ve had electricity without those lines, but the lines really did it for me.

It’s a beautifully hung show and there’s not too much work. There’s just enough work. It’s great.

Then up at the PMA, we saw the Afro-futurist show. The Time Is Always Now that had a cast of 28 African American and African diasporic artists and is a phenomenal painting show. There was one piece of sculpture, I think, and the rest is painting.

Henry Taylor, Kerry James Marshall, Amy Sherald, all the portrait painters that you know, plus a bunch of them that you don’t know. Fantastic imagery of African-Americans through commenting back on slavery, and futuristic, sort of all over the place in terms of the time, which I guess the show title tells you thats what it’s about.

The Time Is Always Now. I want to say these are really important paintings to see and really important artists to know. A lot of the names I did not know, it’s a large show. There’s 28 artists in it from all over the United States. It’s important to go. Work by African American artists hasn’t been enough in the art history cannon and we need to know these artists and need to know their works. It’s beautiful work. It’s provocative work. It’s a haunting show. It’s a haunted show. Very well done. It’s very large, very large show. Unlike the Mickalene Thomas at the Barnes, which was not so large. This show at the PMA is very large, so it, it bears a second viewing, actually. I want to say both of them do.

I want to go back and see them both a second time, so I’ll, we’ll put the dates in. (Mickalene Thomas is until Jan. 12, 2025, at the Barnes; The Time Is Always Now is through Feb. 9, 2025.) So get up and see them, if you haven’t.

Ryan: that sounds great.

Roberta: I hope everybody has a really good Thanksgiving. If you celebrate, I was at an event at the Senior Citizen Center last week. We did a workshop, a collage workshop with the seniors. It was wonderful. I met some good people. It was a terrific time. Anyway, someone said. ‘If you celebrate Thanksgiving,’ and it reminded me that not everybody does celebrate Thanksgiving.

Some people don’t like it as a holiday. Some people love it as a holiday. It’s just the way the holiday has been presented to us through the years and how you came up with it in your family. But some people break away from that tradition. So if you celebrate the holiday, have a good celebration with your family and friends, and if you don’t, have a good alternative celebration with your family and friends. And everybody just remember family and friends.

Those are the key words.

Ryan: Absolutely.

Roberta: Well, is that it, Ryan? Any outtakes for us?

Ryan: You know, it’s a light week, so it’s a Thanksgiving week. So when we come back, we’re going to get into First Friday. So we’re going to get, we’re going to get right into everybody’s new openings for December. Things that are wrapping up. This is just a little lull of a week.

Roberta: It is. It’s a funny week when you have a holiday on a Thursday, and the schools are closed on Wednesday and Friday, and all of the parents have the kids all over their house and can’t get anything done and can’t focus. And if you’re listening to this podcast, God bless you.

Thank you for listening. We understand you’re having a week. Absolutely. We’re having a week too. We all are having a week.

Ryan: Yeah. And this one, you know, you’re busy for other reasons. So next week you’ll have things to see and do. This week is making food and hanging out, and

Roberta: Yes, eating food,

Ryan: enjoying and or surviving family time.

Roberta: Both of that,

Ryan: your results may vary.

Roberta: Yes. From community to community.

Ryan: That’s right. So find yourself some space as needed.

Roberta: Alright, well that’s it for me everybody. Thank you for listening. Love you so much and we’ll see you next week.

Ryan: See you next week everyone. This is Ryan and this has been Artblog’s Midweek News.

See you next time.

Roberta: Bye.