Roberta: Hi everyone, it’s Roberta.

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

Roberta: On Artblog Radio… The Delaware Art Museum. So, I’ll start here first if we’re plowing right into the news. I’m going to plow right into Delaware. The Delaware Art Museum has a new grant-funded project called “Drum Roll Del Art Cinema Presents.” They will bring all kinds of filming to… (they must have an auditorium in their building). And the films are in conjunction with their exhibits. So the first film programs are going to complement their jazz age illustration exhibition. The films are all the classics “Singing in the rain,”  “The Roaring Twenties, “Some like it Hot.” Then, for some reason they threw in this French art house film, “The Rules of the Game,” which is a great film, but I really was surprised to see that in the mix. And then there’s a kid’s film, “The Iron Giant.” In February, the theme is “Love in the Nineties,” and it’s a celebration of Black History Month.

Spike Lee’s “Crooklyn,” “The Original House Party,” a Valentine’s weekend screening of “Love Jones.” Ending the month is “Love and Basketball,” and the kids are going to see “Good Burger. ” It sounds like a good project and congratulations to the Del Art Mu, and I hope people show up. I hope it’s a success.

I don’t know who gave them the grant. Oh, I do know, (looking at press release) it says it is supported in part by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts. Good on you, state agency! And in partnership with the NEA. So that’s great. Pa, come on, Pennylvania, you can do better than you’re doing. Look at what Delaware is doing.

Okay, so that’s it for Delaware. And then I’m just going to march right into Brooklyn.The Brooklyn Public Library. Yay! The public library (Central Branch) has a show of photographs of James Baldwin, and it’s called Turkey Saved my Life, not as in let’s eat some turkey, but as in the country Turkey.

Turkey saved my life. I did not realize — I’m not a scholar of course, but James Baldwin lived in Turkey for quite a number of years, and I didn’t know that. He was at a point where he was very well known in America as a civil rights activist and was admired – but also vilified all over the place for that. So he lived in Istanbul from 1961 to 1971, and apparently, it was transformative for him.

He needed to get out of America. He said America was killing him. So I learned about this exhibit through a New Yorker article by Doreen St. Felix. So thank you Doreen, for letting me/all of us know, but I’m going to make it over to Brooklyn and see this show. Baldwin had a friend who was a photographer, the name is AK Paquet, did a lot of intimate photos of Baldwin and his friends and Baldwin on the street. There’s a lot of street photography. He apparently felt very comfortable there. I love James Baldwin’s writings and so I want to go see him in Turkey and learn more about this.

Then of course, the standard for me is I want to go to the Met Museum, which has the show Siena the Rise of Painting, 1300 to 1350 (through Jan. 26). And also something called The Flight into Egypt, (through Feb. 17, 2025) which I thought was really a nice biblical turn of phrase for a show title. The exhibit looks at Black artists and ancient Egypt, 1876 to now, that is, Egypt as an inspiration to Black artists.

Hopefully we won’t have to elbow our way through. I don’t know what the crowds are going to be like, but fingers crossed on that. Finally, the Jewish Museum, which I confess I’ve never been to, but has a good bunch of programs. They have a show with Philip Guston and Trenton Doyle Hancock. Hancock, who actually is a native Texan although I’m not sure that he lives there anymore, but he went to school at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. So he is got a Philadelphia connection. Which is neither here nor there, but I just mention that. And Hancock has been mulling over and thinking about the work of Philip Guston for quite a while, apparently, and that makes a lot of sense, since Hancock’s works are cartoon-y and deal with monsters. Hancock’s more recent paintings show some of the hooded KKK creatures that Guston is so famous for in his late paintings.

Ryan: Yeah, that sounds like a great, great show.

Roberta: It’ll keep us busy and we’re only there for — if you don’t count the travel days — two days, so it’s going to be a lot to pack in. So wish me luck.

Ryan: That’s usually the thing. How do you get it all in?

Roberta: Yeah exactly.

Ryan: Well, that sounds like a really good time. And you’re trying to hit Brooklyn as well?

Roberta: Oh, I’m going to try to go to that show at the library. Yes, if I can. The James Baldwin, it’s up till March 15th. So there is time to go. It just opened December 12th. The Met shows I think are up for a while also. The Jewish Museum show is up till March 30th, so that too is up a while. We’ll see what I can get to.

So that’s it for me. Sorry, Philadelphia. I just didn’t do my due diligence. I’ve been thinking about going to New York, so that’s on me. I always love Philadelphia though. That’s my home, that’s my heart. So what do you have, Ryan?

Ryan: Well, this week is obviously a pretty quiet week as far as art events go, but there’s plenty of things happening.

A lot of those bigger shows are still happening all week. The big holiday events, the big Broadway-type shows I had mentioned, like Stomp. That’s a pretty interesting show, but there’s others, like I had mentioned Disney on Ice and those types of shows are still going on.

There are some shows coming up that I’m curious about. One specifically that I wanted to mention was Apple Picking With Eve a new poem/video from We Women series, at the Philadelphia Ethical Society that I thought looked interesting. I’ve gotten some news about that.

There’s a couple other shows that are happening for New Year’s Eve that could be a lot of fun as well to take a look at. We have a short list of those on Artblog Connect for New Year’s Eve going into New Year’s. As far as art openings and events, there’s pretty slim picks for this week.

Just a couple shows that are closing this week.

There’s still a lot of those fun shows. Like if you enjoy the classics, Hedgerow is doing It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s a live radio play. I love radio plays. I think they’re a lot of fun. People’s Light does a panto during the holiday season, and so Peter Panto is happening, and that’s running through the 4th of January.

My kids went to go see Kiss Me, Kate at Quintessence. That’s been ongoing for about a month and closes at the beginning of the year. And at Arden Theater, I haven’t seen Peter Pan yet, but Arden puts on amazing shows, and I think I’ve mentioned that one before too. So, kind of the things that are ongoing, they’re all going to start wrapping up at the be beginning of the month and things are going to switch over. There are a few shows that look really interesting that I’ll mention later because they’re not going to come out until the second or third week of January.

I’ll save those for next time since they’re, they’re currently available on the website.

Oh, and I heard about, but we should also, yeah,

Roberta: sorry. No, we should also mention that the museums are open and there’s some ongoing shows that are good. If you haven’t seen the Mickalene Thomas at Barnes Foundation (through Jan. 12, 2025), or The Time is Always Now at the PMA (through Feb. 9, 2025). Two Very good shows. I’m sure they have all kinds of holiday programming going on.

Check out the local arts scene. I don’t know whether they’re doing any openings on First Friday? We’re in between, but there is a first Friday this week. Jan. 3, do we think there’s any openings on January 3rd?

Ryan: It’ll just be open house times. It’s kind of a tough week to open something new.

Roberta: Or maybe celebrating first Friday the following Friday, the second Friday, Jan. 10,

Ryan: I imagine there’s going to be some openings. And that Mickalene Thomas show closes in just a couple weeks too–Jan. 12th.

Roberta: Good to know.

Ryan: But what I was going to mention was someone was saying their holiday film of choice this year is Nosferatu, which I thought was really funny. If you want to go see that, that’s also happening at the Film Society, amongst other places, a bunch of  AMC theaters and Landmarks have it.

Roberta: yeah. Well that goes along with the whole Krampus movement. You know, the Krampus?

He’s the anti-Christmas spirit, the boogeyman anti-Saint Nick. And that is celebrated in certain cultures at this time of year. So Nosferatu is a definite Krampus, so that would be good.

Ryan: There you go. And it has Willem Defoe as the Nosferatu…

Roberta: Must be a new version. The one I saw was a Werner Herzog film with Klaus Kinski.

Ryan: It’s the updated, it’s a brand new version. It came out on, on December 25th.

Ryan: But I know I’ve seen a few different versions.

Roberta: Right. The story of the Vampire, right?

Ryan: It’s a vampire story. So, if you haven’t seen it, it is a horror-ish film. Depending on how you score your horror films.

Ryan: What about… Roberta, I’m curious, 2024, any big highlights or things that surprised you or  key takeaways from the year?

Roberta: Well, apart from what we put in the Libertas, you mean? Everybody should read the Libertas. The biggest change/tragedy of course was U Arts closing. Abruptly without any advance notice. leaving students and faculty in the lurch, as in no paychecks, but tuition due.

That was a heartbreaking and soul-crushing, just to know that your arts institutions are so vulnerable, so ephemeral that they can just vaporize themselves in a week. I think we’re still sort of reeling from that. The whole arts community.

It took the plug out of the bath tub and everything is draining down and no one’s refilling the tub. Let’s say it’s been a heartbreaking year, 2024, I think it was really a bad year for a lot of people. Unpleasant to watch things dissolve in front of your eyes.

There was nothing you could do literally in the UArts fiasco. Then, shortly before that, PAFA announced it was stopping its master’s and undergrad degree program, MFA and BFA programs. And that too hit like a thunderbolt out of the blue. People did not expect it, and there’s a lot of soul-searching going on at PAFA right now and rebuilding, and restructuring, which is good.

And I mean, we wish them well.

But again, it was that instance of your bedrocks of the arts community, institutions being exploded or imploded in front of your eyes and you lose confidence. It was a terrible year. What do you think, Ryan? What were some of your, you know, high points, low points of the year?

Ryan: Well, I saw some really interesting theater. There was a lot of really interesting art that happened this year. I met a lot of interesting people, made a lot of fun connections. I think there’s definitely a lot of positives that happened for me this year and a lot of things I was interested in. I already have a growing list of people I want to talk to in 2025.

I was excited that some of our big metrics and numbers for the Artblog increased and some of them substantially like our, our newsletter following. And we’re approaching 300 podcasts on Spotify and Apple. So I think there’s a lot of things that are moving positive for me. I’m certainly happy to be done with 2024 and move on to something new.

I’m still left with giant question marks and quizzical faces, wondering what people are thinking and what they’re aiming for. I’m a believer that It’s by Design and I don’t quite understand what people are aiming for. So a lot of it for me has been a bit confusing.

Like this year was the hottest year on record in Philadelphia and the planet, but also in the city itself. And there’s no master plan we seem to be focused on. Creating an arena and fighting for the arena. That just leaves me with a quizzical face, like what are we aiming for?

And what are we trying to build for? For the future? Because an arena isn’t going to fix the real problems. It’s not even a stopgap, it’s just…

Roberta: It’s a passion project of a few people.

Ryan: It is.

Roberta: And that’s unfortunately being foisted upon the rest of us. And it’s going to do disastrous things to Septa, to Chinatown, Jefferson Hospital, Wash West.

I mean, we could go on and on down this negative hole.

But I think you’re right, Ryan, to spotlight things that gave you joy this year. And I’d like to say the art market that we hosted at Moore College gave me a lot of joy. Just knowing that the community came out for us and for themselves and for each other, and bought each other’s art.

A lot of what happens when you go to a local art show is that the artists buy up each other’s work. That just makes you feel good about the people that live in this city. Make art and support each other, and I want to thank all the artists for putting their work out there this year and having the shows, not only the Art MKT, I’m talking everybody globally in Philly.

All the little galleries, all the bigger galleries, all the artists that worked hard and taught the students, and they should be celebrated. They don’t get enough celebration. The city needs to step up the celebration of the artists, the individual entrepreneurs, small business owners who don’t get support, they have to do it on their own, out of their own pockets.

They fund their art making. They should be celebrated, and that should always be celebrated and hoped for in the future. That 2024 was not soul killing for them, so that they didn’t close up their studio and say, ‘I just can’t do it anymore.’ That is outstanding.

Ryan: Yeah. Our MKT was a very positive thing for me as well.

We interviewed a lot of the artists who participated and it was really fascinating. There’s stories about their work and what they’re interested in. I find it really hopeful and positive. We have two interns from Penn that have been just wonderful this year. Anjali and Chi have participated in the Artblog and helped us significantly and we’ve really enjoyed having them as well.

And we look forward to working with them and other artists, with fun, creative ideas for 2025 for the Artblog. And I don’t know if we’ll do another art MKT, but it was a lot of fun. It was different. It was interesting.

Roberta: And we’re going to get some of those videos up soon, right?

Ryan: Yes.

Absolutely. There’s a lot of things forthcoming. Did a lot. There’s a lot more to do. There’s a lot we covered and there’s a lot more to be covered. So yeah, I want to go out on a high note and go into 2025 raring to go and excited to for what’s next.

Roberta: All of that production, not consumption.

I’m all for production. If I have a day that goes by and I haven’t produced something, I feel bad. Sure. I think that’s an artist thing. You know, artists like to produce, they like to consume too. Everybody does. You know, you like your ice cream, you like your beer and wine, you like to buy sweaters and whatever it is you buy.

Yeah. But you need to produce, produce something, whatever it is, you know, makers, creators, they have this impulse to not just sit back and consume. They can consume, but then they also have to produce. And I just love that and, and that is something that people should… Oh God, they should teach that in school!

You know, the fact that they don’t teach art in school — they’re not teaching people to be producers. They’re teaching them to be regurgitators of facts and things of that nature. And that’s the wrong spirit to  go forward with. God damn, I think I’m preaching here,haha.

Ryan: Ah, gets a little dark there at the end,

Roberta: Sorry about that! But we’ll be back in 2025. It’s going to be a big, big year for Artblog. We’ll see what we can do, and we need your help and we’ll be there for you. So let’s stick together in 2025. That’s my words to end on. Let’s stick together.

Ryan: Yes, absolutely.

Roberta: That’s it for me too.

Done preaching.

Ryan: Yeah. Sounds good.

Roberta: Come back in 2025. Everybody, we’ll be here.

Ryan: Yeah, thanks everyone. This is Ryan and this has been Artblog’s, Midweek News, the last one for 2024.

Roberta: Yep.  Bye-bye.

Ryan: Bye-bye.