Take a break from leaf peeping to enjoy the bounty of cultural programming this month has to offer, including a range of new exhibitions opening across the country at institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora; and the Denver Art Museum. In Washington, D.C., a reimagining of the Statue of Liberty will be erected on the National Mall, while the Philadelphia Orchestra is set to resume its online concert series filmed at diverse locations across the City of Brotherly Love. With New York art openings and fall dance seasons also on the roster, your October calendar is shaping up to be jam-packed.
1. Our City, Your Orchestra at The Philadelphia Orchestra
October 1 and 15
Returning for a second season, Our City, Your Orchestra is a series of online concerts performed by small ensembles from the Philadelphia Orchestra at Black-owned businesses, nonprofit institutions, and important cultural spaces throughout Philadelphia. Available to stream free online, the October programs will be filmed at multidisciplinary arts center Asian Arts Initiative, located in the city’s Chinatown North, and will incorporate song, percussion instruments, and dance, performed with the help of the organization’s staff.
Courtesy of the Philadelphia Orchestra
2. Fire Shut Up in My Bones at The Metropolitan Opera
October 1, 4, 8, 13, 16, 19, and 23
New York’s Metropolitan Opera has made a triumphant return with renown jazz musician and film composer Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, which marks the company’s first presentation of a work by a Black composer. An adaptation of journalist Charles M. Blow’s memoir, which addresses racism, class, and sexual abuse, the production stars Will Liverman, Angel Blue, and Latonia Moore, and features a libretto by filmmaker Kasi Lemmons.
Eric Woolsey/Opera Theatre of St. Louis
3. Performa Biennial
October 12–31
For the first time in its 16-year history, the entire Performa Biennial will be open to the public free of charge and livestreamed. The performance art festival, featuring newly commissioned performance pieces by seven artists, including Kevin Beasley, Sara Cwynar, and Madeline Hollander, will take place almost entirely outdoors at venues across New York City at sites ranging from the former Topshop in Midtown to Brooklyn Bridge Park and Rockaway Beach. Tschabalala Self will present her first live performance on a sculpture-esque stage she’s building in the bandstand of Jackie Robinson Park in Harlem, with two actors reciting dialogue that explores themes of domesticity, race, and gender familiar from her richly layered mixed-media works.
4. Abigail DeVille’s Light of Freedom at the Hirshhorn
Opening October 15
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, performance artist and sculptor Abigail DeVille built a replica of the Statue of Liberty’s torch surrounded by mannequin arms and golden scaffolding as a critique of the promise of American liberty and justice for all. The piece will be situated prominently on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., beginning this month, at the Hirshhorn Museum’s Sculpture Garden. The artwork’s arrival will be marked at sunrise on October 15 with the debut performance of DeVille’s WAKE UP: Liberation Call at Dawn (2021).
5. ABT Fall Season
October 20–31
American Ballet Theatre will return to Lincoln Center this month with a jam-packed lineup that includes Giselle; the world premiere of Jessica Lang’s ZigZag; and the stage premieres of Alexei Ratmansky’s Bernstein in a Bubble and Christopher Rudd’s Touché, two works that had their virtual debuts during the pandemic. Set to 11 Tony Bennett standards and Cole Porter’s “It’s De-Lovely” performed by Bennett and Lady Gaga, ZigZag takes its name from Bennett’s adage, “When they zig, I zag.” The ballet features costumes by Carolina Herrera creative director Wes Gordon and a set design by Derek McLane that features backdrops of Bennett’s own paintings of the New York City skyline and big band musicians.
Courtesy of American Ballet Theatre
6. Museum of the African Diaspora Reopening
October 21
The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco will reopen its doors for the first time since the start of the pandemic with solo exhibitions by two of Africa’s most important contemporary artists, Ghanian painter Amoako Boafo and Malawi-born, Johannesburg-based artist Billie Zangewa, whose intricate tapestries explore women’s undervalued domestic life. The museum will also be showing works by San Francisco–based artists Sam Vernon and Sydney Cain, as well as a selection of short films by contemporary African filmmakers curated by Leila Weefur.
7. “Afro-Atlantic Histories” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Opening October 24
Featuring more than 130 works by artists from 24 countries, a new exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston reexamines the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade and celebrates the ongoing influence of the African diaspora in the West. Comprising paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, photographs, and ephemera, the show will include historical pieces by artists such as Jean-Baptiste Debret, Frans Post, and Dirk Valkenburg, as well as contemporary works by the likes of Melvin Edwards, Ibrahim Mahama, Samuel Fosso, and Kara Walker.
8. Denver Art Museum Reimagined Campus
Opening October 24
To celebrate the completion of its $150 million campus transformation, the Denver Art Museum is offering a free general admission day. As part of the renovation, the seven floors within the museum’s main Martin Building have been completely reinstalled and curated through a more inclusive lens. Works from the Architecture and Design, Asian Art, Indigenous Arts of North America, Northwest Coast and Alaska Native, European and American Art Before 1900, Latin American and Art of the Ancient Americas, Photography, Textile Art and Fashion, and Western American Art departments will be on display, selected to highlight a diverse range of voices including local community members and artists. A new gallery on the first floor will also open with a new exhibition titled “ReVisión: Art in the Americas,” featuring 180 works spanning 100 B.C. to present day.
9. Martha Graham Dance Company Fall Season
October 26–31
Returning to The Joyce Theater in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, the Martha Graham Dance Company will present its fall season across six days. Split into two programs, it will feature classic Graham works including Appalachian Spring, Steps in the Street, Diversion of Angels, and Immediate Tragedy, as well as a world premiere by Andrea Miller, Pam Tanowitz’s Untitled (Souvenir), and more. A special matinee program on October 30 presented in collaboration with the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center will also spotlight short works by a selection of emerging choreographers.
10. New Museum Triennial
Opening October 28
“Soft Water Hard Stone,” the fifth New Museum Triennial, brings together works by 40 artists and collectives in 23 countries whose art explores our moment of profound social and environmental change. The exhibition’s co-curators Margot Norton and Jamillah James took the exhibition’s title from a Brazilian proverb, Água mole em pedra dura, tanto bate até que fura (which translates to “soft water on hard stone hits until it bores a hole”). Clay Theory (2019), a stereoscopic 3D film by Danish artist Amalie Smith, delves into the profound connections that exist between humans and Earth—a central theme for a number of the participants.
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The Culture Lover’s October Guide
Source: Filipino Journal Articles
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