11/24/2000 -Crafts with a Conscience by Janice Williams

For a preview of the Crafts at the Castle visit www.artfulgift.com/catc

On November 30 through December 3, Family Services of Greater Boston (FSGB) will present its fifteenth annual Crafts at the Castle (CATC). All proceeds are used to fund programs that offer a wide range of preventive, clinical, educational, home health care and supportive services designed by FSBG to maintain and strengthen home, family and community life. Crafts at the Castle is considered one of the top five craft shows in the country. For three days, artisans sell their meticulously handcrafted wares in hopes of raising funds for themselves. FSGB raises over $150,000 for their programs from the event. It seems that everyone is a winner with this show. According to a study published by Mr. Rossley, former Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, Boston, entitled "Arts in the Local Economy," in 1997 …"retail sales at CATC pumped $2,470,000 into the local economy of Boston. "This is huge—a major holiday event", he said. Last year over 8,000 people attended the four-day show. A look behind the scenes also reveals many others who benefit from the world of crafts.

Alan Goldfarb, a CATC 2000 exhibitor, is a master glass blower with a long list of awards and national exhibits. His work permanently resides in the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In 1998 Alan, took a trip that would not only change his life but the lives of many others. At that time Alan had ventured to the western highlands of Guatemala. While there he visited the Copavic glassblowing cooperative located in a volcanic mountain valley on the rural outskirts of Quetzaltenango, in the village of Cantel. At the village, Alan found Quiche Indian laborers producing Pier One-type glass for sale. The Quiche were working in relative poverty with very basic tools. The cooperative consists of about fifty laborers each of whom makes only $3 per day. After the workers are paid, any profit is put into the community for projects such as construction of cisterns, housing projects and grants to schools and churches. Within three days, Alan had given glass blowing demonstrations on a variety of basic decorative techniques and decided that he would find a way to provide assistance to the Quiche glass blowers to upgrade their skills and tools.

This past July, after months of fund-raising and promotion, Alan was able to bring two of the Quiche glass blowers to America where they were given 2 weeks of vocational training at the Corning Museum and spent 1 week touring private studios. The recipients of the scholarships from the Copavic Project were fascinated with the furnaces here in America and they were particularly interested in the production of paperweights and marbles, something they had never seen. Alan relates that when asked what was their favorite part of the trip, the Quiche Indians said, "We appreciate the love with which your family and friends have treated us". To Alan, this has made his goal of helping third world, disadvantaged artists truly meaningful. Anyone interested in learning more about the project or donating to the Copavic Project should contact Alan at (802) 865-9820.

Henry Fox, another CATC 2000 exhibitor, is a fine furniture maker from Newburyport. Fox loves exhibiting at CATC as he appreciates the mission of the show to help fund the critical services of FSGB. Fox personally understands critical services. In 1999 his son Orren was born premature and spent a harrowing month at Mass General Hospital. During that time, Fox observed that the nurses spent long hours rocking the infants in rocking chairs. This prompted Fox to create a special chair called the O2 chair to donate to the hospital. A grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council helped to fund the project. Along with the donated chair, the Foxes are also hoping to establish a fund to help provide additional professional development for the nurses in the neonatal care unit.

This appreciation for sharing and giving also prompts Fox to lend his studio to North of Boston Artists each year for a small venue of three-dimensional artists. This venue contributes 5% of gross sales to The Women’s Crisis Center of Greater Newburyport. The show runs Friday, December 8th from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, December 9th from 10 am to 6 p.m.; and Sunday, December 10th from 12 noon to 5 p.m. The studio is located at 39 Liberty Street Newburyport, MA 01950.

Sandra Bonazoli & Jim Dowd of Fall River, MA own Beehive Kitchenware Company that they founded in 1999. At CATC this year they will be exhibiting their line of kitchenware that turns ordinary kitchen items into utilitarian works of art. Beehive products are made with traditional copper-smithing techniques with rebuilt antique sheet metal tools rescued from the junk pile. Cups, coffee spoons, measuring spoons, colanders and spatulas are made from heavy gauge metal and individually cast parts. Starting and growing a business takes a lot of time and energy but Sandra has donated her skills to a great cause.

Sandra’s brother Robert helped to co-found the ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) Therapy Development Foundation with James Heywood of Newton Mass, whose younger brother was diagnosed with the disease. Beehive Kitchenware wanted to help in some way in order to convey the spirit of hope for a solution, a cure. So Sandra designed for the foundation some Christmas ornaments as well as some lapel pins to be used for outreach and fundraising. Sandra says it was a small effort but to those suffering from the disease, it means a lot. For information about the Foundation visit http://www.als-tdf.org

As you plan your holiday shopping, consider a stop at Crafts at the Castle. Your purchase will support and help a great many people.

15th Annual Crafts
at the Castle

Park Square Boston – Corner of
Arlington and Columbus Avenue

104 Exhibitors offering Baskets, Ceramics, Decorative Fiber, Furniture, Glass, Precious Jewelry, Non-Precious Jewelry, Leather, Metals, Mixed Media, Paper, Wearable Fiber, Wood.

Opening Gala – Wednesday, November 29, 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tickets $125

Honorary Chair is Liz Walker, television news anchor and joining Ms.Walker as Co-Chairs are Sarah Chapin Columbia, partner at Choate, Hall and Stewart, the corporate underwriter for Crafts at the Castle and collaborator with Family Service of Greater Boston providing free legal services to its clients.

General Admission

Thursday, November 30, 12 noon to 9 p.m.
Friday, December 1, 12 noon to 9 p.m.
Saturday, December 2, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday, December 3, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tickets $10; Seniors $8.00;
Children under 12 free
For information call (617) 523-6400 ext. 5991

3/4/2000 - Alternative Lifestyles
Newbury Street and Back Bay Guide

"Work is the refuge of people who have nothing better to do". Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

The hallmark of lifestyle today is choices. Technology and increasing life expectancy give us multiple resources and more time to craft lifestyles over and over - today a writer, tomorrow a rocket scientist. The average person now changes jobs 8.6 times between the ages of 18 and 32, according to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. More and more adults are exploring creative careers, crafting dual careers and embarking on skilled and meaningful leisure activities. Alternative once denoting weird now brings a renaissance of acceptance and gives new meaning to the adage, "What do you want to be when you grow up"? Explore some alternative lifestyles and you might just find your self with something better to do.

Learn Something New

According to Mary McTigue, Executive Director of the Boston Center for Adult Education (BCAE), "The BCAE offers 3,000 different classes a year in 35 subject areas. Last year we had 30,000 registrations which is double what we had three years ago. People are taking classes, learning new things for a variety of reasons. There seems to be a strong emphasis on enriching leisure time with fun and useful activities" In existence for 67 years, the BCAE started by offering classes in ballroom dance. Still popular today, the dance programs have expanded to include Swing, Tango, Belly and the hot Salsa dance. McTigue says, "People take the dance classes not only for the pleasure of dancing but to learn how to enter competitions where they can travel and perform." Bill McEntee, a thirty-one year old employee of State Street Global Advisors in Boston frequently takes classes at BCAE. The classes are a great way for McEntee to meet new people and expand his knowledge in new areas. "I particularly like the wine and cooking classes but I have also taken some finance classes that have helped me both personally and in my job", says McEntee.

Adult education centers offer the opportunity for convenient life long learning. Here you can test the waters to see if a particular subject is one you want to pursue. BCAE's McTigue says, ideas for our classes come from three sources: proposals from teachers, national trends and from talking to students." Currently BCAE is offering such dynamic and fascinating classes as "Exploring the World of Private Investigation", "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain", "New York Acting Marathon", Sailing and Walking in Spain", and "A Three-Day Immersion in E-Commerce" to name a few. For a complete listing of the 3,000 courses offered at BCAE visit their web site at www.bcae.org or call 617-267-4430 and ask for their catalog, which is an adventure unto itself. For an on-line resource for classes throughout the Boston area visit www.takeaclass.com. According to the site info "This is the web's finest site for continuing education and personal development. The site provides ultimate learning resource for adults, identifying opportunities and offerings for professional development, continuing education and learning and learning as a path to life enhancement and personal growth".

Career Assistance

The Women's Educational and Industrial Union (WEIU) can help you determine ways to find new career paths. Harriet Clisby, one of the first female physicians in the country founded WEIU in 1877. Joined by Louisa May Alcott, Julia Ward Howe and other dynamic women of that era, she created an organization to assist those in need and promote the advancement of women. Still active today, WEIU. Offers low income and underrepresented women with their "Boston Career Link" program and their "To Market" project that offers market access and technical assistance. In 1995, WEIU implemented a job-training program for employment advisors with the goal of equipping career changers, new entrants into the job market, and unemployed workers with the skill to provide job counseling to job changers. Located at 356 Boylston Street, Boston, WEIU can be reached at 617-536-5651.

Here in Boston those looking to consider the art field, a large selection of educational resources are readily available. The School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SFMA) is a premier arts school in Boston and is a division of the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) at 230 The Fenway and has been affiliated with Tufts University since 1945. The Massachusetts College of Art at 621 Huntington Avenue offers a broad curriculum of art subjects. The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley College at 700 Beacon Street offers programs designed to prepare students for professions as graphic designers, illustrators, animators, photographers and exhibiting artists. And for over 80 years the Butera School of Art at 111 Beacon Street has been training men and women in the art of commercial and sign painting. Other schools to consider are the North Bennet Street School located at 39 North Bennet Street, Boston for workshops in bookbinding, fine woodworking (hand skills and machine skills), jewelry making, piano technology, and preservation carpentry. If fashion is your passion then call the School of Fashion Design at 136 Newbury Street and the New England School of Photography 537 Commonwealth Avenue. Boston is not only the walking city but the learning city too!

Distance Learning

Currently, there are at least three million distant learners nationwide, attending one of the 54, 000 on line-education offered in 1998. Forty-four percent of higher- education institutions are offering distance learning classes, up from 33 percent in 1995, according to NCES. It is the rise of the Internet, which is widely popular and accessible and allows educational content to be posted and transmitted fairly easily that has launched the growth of distance learning. Most adults find distance learning an ideal way to earn college credits and try new venues. The most comprehensive web site for distance learning is right here in Boston at the International Center for Distance Learning at Ten Post Office Square. Their web site is www.CollegeLearning.com. The Boston Center for Adult Education is also offering a first-time on-line offering in the Boston area. You can join the BCAE virtual classroom and take the MBA in a Nutshell®.

Gaining Insight

For those not sure of which way to turn, a new profession has sprung up in a helpful way called "Personal Coaching". In a discussion with Deirdre DuFour of VIP Coaching she gave me examples of people she has helped with career transitions, "I am currently working with a 47 year old client who has been a high level executive assistant for 17 years. She is working with me to realize her dream of being self-employed as an importer of specialty items. I have also been working for quite a while with a 34-year-old former software executive who left the high-tech world a little over a year ago and has now built her own marketing consulting company from her home." Dufour says that according to her clients, coaching has helped clarify their thoughts, and most importantly, to start taking the actions toward their goals that they knew they should have taken years ago. To contact Dufour call 617-876-5309. To find out more about the coaching professions visit the International Coach Federation of New England web site at www.icfne.org.

Author's note: A few years ago I took a class at the BCAE on how to get published. Since then my writing has been published nationally and on a regular basis. I also worked with a personal coach, Nancy Levy, Vice President and Community and Member Service Committee Head for the International Coach Federation of New England who helped me to finally focus on my personal goals.

2/4/2000 - Valentine's Day at Home
Newbury Street and Back Bay Guide

Romance is the process—love is the goal. One of the reasons for being "romantic" according to Gregory J.P. Godek, author of "1001 Ways to Be Romantic" and a Quincy, MA native is that "You'll never again be panic stricken on Valentine's Day". Valentine's Day is the obligatory wake up call for the majority of people who are "romantically impaired". It is on this day that lovers (and would be lovers) scramble to put 365 days of thoughts and emotions into something tangible like chocolates, expensive dinners, champagne and flowers. It is easy to pick up the phone or dial into the Internet and order these tangibles to be sent to your sweetheart but even better why not be creative, avoid the crowds and make Valentine's Day special for both you and your partner. Celebrate Valentine's Day at home. Following are some ideas for home-style romance with something for every room in the house.

Foreplay
Planning is essential for this romantic home-style Valentine's Day. Adequate preparation will allow for creative and uninhibited partnering and enjoyment. Send your sweetheart a mushy and intriguing Valentine message and invitation. A young Frenchman, Charles, Duke of Orleans, was one of the earliest creators of valentines, called "poetical or amorous addresses." From his confinement in the Tower of London after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, he sent several poems or rhymed love letters or "valentines" to his wife in France. Today sending a Valentine greeting is as easy as sitting at your computer and sending a virtual card. And for those who find it hard to express themselves in their own words, check out the Cyrano Server who will write the love letters and send them for you - visit www.nando.net/toys/cyrano.html.

Set the scene with candles and flowers, romantic music (throw the TV away) and the favored liquid. Wine served in fine crystal glasses is always romantic. Whatever your choice of liquid buy the best and buy it in abundance. Bob Shire of Back Bay Wine & Spirits, Inc. at 704 Boylston St. recommends "LaGrande Dame" champagne as the perfect gift to your lover. Liz McCutcheon of Sweet Peas Home at 216 Clarendon St. recommends Aunt Sadies Candlestix (made here in Boston) to light your lover's way. Using essentially the same technique used by candle guilds in Colonial times, each pair of candles is handcrafted, lightly scented and double twisted for slow burning and a perfectly tapered flame.

The Living Room

According to Blush Records at www.blushrecords.com, " Music affects body temperature. Music, especially music with a strong beat can raise body temperature because musical energy dissipates as heat. Romantic music can facilitate the rhythm of love. Play your lover's favorite or visit Blush Records for some sensuous music recommendations like "One Romantic Night". Move the coffee table and ask your lover to dance.

The living room is the perfect place to have the fragrant scent of fresh flowers. Roses of course have always been the choice for serious romantics. But did you know that the individual colors of roses have widely accepted meanings. Red says I love and respect you. Pink and peach denotes admiration and friendship. Yellow offers joy and gladness. Orange and coral say I desire you. Lavender is for love at first site. On Valentine's Day stay away from white roses as they denote purity and reverence - better to wait for the wedding or anniversary celebration. Mix the colors up and say it all at once.

The Kitchen

George Bernard Shaw said, "There is no love sincerer than the love of food." A specially prepared meal can accelerate the romantic libido. It is advisable though to stay away from rich foods that tend to make one sleepy. Think Valentine red and consider chilled tomato soup, red snapper, blood orange salad. Foods of love (aphrodisiacs) such as caviar and oysters increase male testosterone levels. For all you believers, buy a copy of InterCourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook by authors Martha A. Hopkins and Randall T. Lockridge (Terrace Publishing- available on Amazon.com). Book photographer Ben Fink sets the mood with the cover photo of a naked woman whose midsection is completely covered in luscious red strawberries If you hate to cook by all means do take-out. Move the meal into the living room and have a picnic. Picnics are cozy - place a lace tablecloth on the floor with some comfy red, heart shaped cushions. Use red paper plates and red plastic silverware. Stay away from heavy desserts. Definitely include chocolate as part of your romantic foray but save the elegant box of chocolates as a parting thank you gift. Do put a "Champagne Truffle" (sold in two's) from Teuscher Chocolates Of Switzerland at 230 Newbury St. on the pillows in the bedroom.

The Bathroom

"Scentuality" is the hallmark for this room in the house. The market has been flooded with multi-faceted bath products. They are meant to de-stress, smooth and sooth the body. And aromatherapy (the use of essential oils), once the domain of the ancients, is being incorporated into many products and is highly desirable for romance. Try essential oil "Rose Maroc Absolute" - for a nurturing heart, made from the love flower rose. Some interesting historical scent data - in the 1st century ad, Rome used 2,800 tons of imported frankincense and 550 tons of myrrh per year. Roman Emperor Nero fitted his dining room ceilings so that fragrant water misted onto the guests and then showered them with fresh rose petals. This extravagance cost him the equivalent of $100,000 in 54 ad. The Romans used solid unguents, scented oil and perfumed powders. They even referred to their sweethearts as "my myrrh" and "my cinnamon". So treat your sweetheart to some "scentuality". Bath & Body Works at 501 Boylston St. is offering a new line of aromatherapy products called "True Bliss". Available in body mist, bath bubbles, massage oils and shower creams, it is sure to heighten the romance of the evening long after you've left the bathroom.

The Bedroom

Hopefully by the time you make it to this room you will feel relaxed and romantic With truffles in hand (fed to each other) get ready for the deliverance of that promise of romance - LOVE. ENJOY!

1/21/2000 - A Winter Reading Journey
Newbury Street and Back Bay Guide

Boston finally had its first snow fall and Bostonians have gone into hibernating mode. Now is the perfect time to start reading that 600-page novel you've wanted to read. But just because the weather outside might be blustery and cold, don't hide in your house, reading alone. Boston, a book lover's haven has many wonderful bookstores and reading cafes where you can enjoy the ambience of fellow readers. So whether you are bookish (inclined to read and study) or a bibliophile (collector of books) or a bibliolater (excessive about books) or just looking for a great story to entertain yourself, I offer you some options.

Nowadays in our crazed retail technology mindset, we might mistake buying books on line as a luxury. Though, it is a convenience, there is nothing like browsing the books shelves of a well-stocked bookstore and visiting the library. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said it so appropriately, "The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books." We should not ignore on line book sales as a buying option. According to Jim Milliot in Publisher's Weekly on line (1/10/2000), "Early reports from traditional and nontraditional booksellers indicate that the holiday season was a good one for book sales. Amazon.com reported that revenues in the fourth quarter rose to more than $650 million, compared to $253 million in the last quarter of 1998. Retail sales at Barnes & Noble rose 10.2% in the nine-week period--October 31 to January 1--to $847.7 million. Revenues at barnesandnoble.com jumped 214% to $81.5 million for the fourth quarter. At Noodle Kidoodle, sales for the eight-week period running from October 31 through December 25 increased 32% to $57.3 million, compared to the same period in 1998." Use the convenience of on line book buying when time is limited and when you know what you want otherwise - spend your time reading in spectacular surroundings!

The first destination for your winter reading journey should be the main location for the Boston Public Library (BPL). Located in Copley Square, the BPL offers hours of relaxing, educational reading and browsing with 6.1 million books under its roof. The library boasts over 1.2 million rare books (like the personal library of John Adams) and manuscripts, a wealth of maps, musical scores and prints. You can pick a book and lounge among famous authors and artists (the library has some beautiful murals and rotating art exhibits) in Bates Hall. This recently renovated hall, named after Joshua Bates who was born in 1788 in Weymouth, MA, is 218 feet long, 42.5 feet wide, and 50 feet high. Mr. Bates, a "bookish" man himself donated $50,000 in 1852 for the purpose of purchasing books for the new library. The only condition was that "the building shall be such as to be an ornament to the City, that there shall be a room for one hundred to one hundred and fifty persons to sit at reading tables, and that it be perfectly free to all." The library fulfills the promise - the programs are free and there are plenty of seats for readers.

Another must see on your winter reading journey is the First Church of Christ, Scientist located at 175 Huntington Avenue, Boston. This magnificent to look at piece of architecture built in 1984 is the World Headquarters for the Church of Christ, Scientist, which includes approximately 2,000 branch churches in over 60 countries. The Church Center is situated on 14 acres in the Back Bay. The church is known for their Reading Rooms located all around the world. A Reading Room is a combination bookstore, library, and study room, where the public has free access to books and periodicals published or sold by The Christian Science Publishing Society, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper, "The Christian Science Monitor", and all of the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, including Science and Health. A Reading Room also maintains a wide selection of Bibles and Bible study books. Members of the local Christian Science church who can help those interested learn more about the Bible and Christian Science staff it. The Reading Room in Boston is located at 194 Massachusetts Avenue, adjacent to the Christian Science Publishing Society. The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston is also the perfect place in warm weather on your reading journey. A massive reflecting pool that makes for a serene setting surrounds the church. Of interest here also is the one of a kind "Mapparium" that is a thirty-foot stained-glass globe room which gives one an "inside view" of the world. The colors, Its translucent blues, orange, red, yellow, and green, framed in bronze panels of each of the 608 stained-glass panels mark political divisions (of 1935), land, and water. Each panel covers ten degrees of latitude and longitude. Clocks arranged on the equatorial meridian indicate time changes throughout the world. Because the glass surface does not absorb sound, sound waves travel along the walls and bounce back into the center of the room, giving the room unusual echoing sound effects.

For the hardier soul who doesn't mind a bit of cold, fresh air in between stops, then put on your snow boots, hat and gloves and walk Back Bay to discover more interesting winter reading spots. There is something for everyone along the way. The Swedenborgian Book Store at 79 Newbury St. is dedicated to promote the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, an eighteenth century scientist, philosopher, mystic and interpreter of the sacred scriptures. An added feature at this bookstore is an art gallery. For the armchair traveler who dreams of world adventures, stop by Willowbee & Kent Travel Co. at 519 Boylston St. The store has one of the largest selections of travel guidebooks. You can sit comfortably here, have an international coffee and travel the world. They also offer great bags for carrying your books. For the mystery lover, a stop at Spencer's Mystery Bookshop at 223 Newbury St. is a must. Your last stop on your winter reading journey should be at the Trident Booksellers & Café at 338 Newbury St. where you can eat, drink and be merry amongst fellow readers.

And last but not least for the bibliomaniac (crazy for collecting rare books), Boston offers many places to buy and browse rare books. Some of them include Lame Duck Books and Thomas G. Boss Fine Books at 355 Boylston St., 2^nd Floor, Buddenbooks Fine and Rare Books at 31 Newbury St. and Avenue Victor Hugo and John Usher Books at 339 Newbury St.

Contact Information

Avenue Victor Hugo - (617) 266-7746
Boston Public Library - (617) 536-5400
www.bpl.org
Buddenbooks Fine and Rare Books (617) 536-4433
First Church of Christ, Scientist - (617) 450-2000
www.tfccs.com
Lame Duck Books - (617) 421-1880
Spencer's Mystery Bookshop - (617) 262-0880
Thomas G. Boss Fine Books (617) 421-1880
Trident Booksellers & Café - (617) 267-8688
Willobee & Kent Travel Co. (617) 437-6700

1/7/2000 - Outdoor Activities
Newbury Street and Back Bay Guide
Cold weather has never been a deterrent for hardy Bostonians. And although, this winter has been relatively mild, we know that at any moment Mother Nature may deliver a wide variety of inclement weather. But there is no need to hibernate here in Boston during the winter season. Many outside activities are available to satisfy all ages.January and February are the months to get outside and partake of some winter fun.

Chinese New Year
Boston has the fourth largest Chinese community in the US. Chinatown located at lower Washington Street, is a cultural and historic journey through the past and a neighborhood undergoing tremendous change. Residential properties co-exist with family owned and operated businesses, local
institutions and, of course, some of the best Chinese restaurants in the country. Holding with tradition, Boston’s Chinatown will celebrate the Year of the Dragon which begins February 5, 2000 (Chinese lunar year 4698) with festivals and feasts. With the arrival of New Year’s Day, life is renewed and the New Year begins amidst a din of firecrackers. The Chinese begin the day by worshipping their ancestors. Then they fill the streets making New Year’s visits to friends and relatives. Then the merriment begins with the lively display of dragon dancing, tiger dancing, and other folk activities, on February 20, as Chinatown holds its annual New Year’s Parade down Washington Street. Bundle up and come!

Winterfest at the New England Aquarium

Celebrate winter in true New England style with fun family activities including an ice carving competition and a winter harbor cruise. You can also learn how the harbor seals in the plaza exhibit stay warm all winter and meet seal mascot, Sammy. The event takes place February 12 and 13. While at the New England Aquarium visit its newest exhibit "Sounds of the Sea"...listen to the calls of the migrating 53-foot long humpback whales and the thunder of underwater earthquakes. Instead of seeing the underwater world, you will hear it. By listening, you will find out how important sound is in the ocean and discover the many different ways marine animals and people make and use sound.

Old Sturbridge Village

Nothing can make you appreciate our modern world with such conveniences as central heat and electricity, than stepping back in time. Explore the sights and sounds of the 1830s at Sturbridge Village on Route 20 in Sturbridge, MA (one hour from Boston). Costumed "interpreters" plow Village fields, stitch leather into shoes, and keep strict discipline in the one-room schoolhouse. Members of the Ladies Charitable Society gather — for a bee in their bonnets — while the cooper crafts another barrel out of hardy oak. Winter traditions bring the village wonderland to life, as costumed Villagers mend fences, repair tools and equipment for spring planting, and perform their seasonal chores both indoors and out. Special events for the winter months include a Family Fun Day during school vacation, February 22-27. During that time you can enjoy lively activities for all
ages, including musical performances, storytelling, and sleigh rides (weather permitting). Watch candlemaking and learn how families made a supply to light their homes through the winter months.

Outdoors and Close to Home

Tropical Cruise
Take a tropical island escape in Boston Harbor on the Spirit of Boston starting February 18. Set sail this winter in your own backyard and cruise the Caribbean in Boston Harbor. Enjoy Island food, live entertainment and fun-filled deck activities. Don’t miss the boat, the gently swaying palm trees or the scent of coconuts. Available for both lunch and dinner cruises.

Ice Skating

Grab your skates (or rent pair for $5) and go to Boston Common Frog Pond. Ice skating available seven days a week for $3 (14 and over). You can warm up in the Frog Pond Cottage and get steaming mugs of hot chocolate.

Skiing/Snowboarding

The Blue Hills Ski Area is located just 15,minutes from Boston in Milton, Mass. With
eight trails on 60 skiable acres, Blue Hills has four lifts, including a double chair lift, a J-bar and two pony lifts. Blue Hills is the Eastern Massachusetts center for snowboarding and rentals are available. One of the best times to ski Blue Hills is at night. Ride the double chairlift and enjoy the lights of Boston. Staffed with more than 80 experienced instructors, more than 425,000 people have learned how to ski on this hill. The area is ideal for beginners to learn the fundamentals of the sport. Special classes for children 4 to 6 are held seven days a week, and junior programs for ages 7 to 16 normally start after school and go until 4 - 5:30 p.m. Full facilities are available, including rentals, ski shop and restaurant.

Go Shopping and Warm up with Tea

And last but not least, if your winter interests don’t lean towards sporty events then by all means get out and do some shopping on Newbury Street. Your exposure to the winter cold will be momentary between each delightful and unusual shop. Here you can buy stylish clothing and accessories to take away the winter chill. And when you grow weary of shopping stop in TeaLuxe, Newbury Street’s newest warming emporium and have a relaxing and soothing cup of tea. With over 100 teas from around the world to choose from, the winter outside will look very cozy.

Contact Information

New England Aquarium - 617-973-5200 http://www.neaq.org/

Old Sturbridge Village - 508-347-3362 - http://www.osv.org

Spirit of Boston - 617-748-1499

Boston Common Frog Pond - 617-635-2197

Blue Hills Ski Area - 617-828-8171

TeaLuxe - 617-927-0400 - www.tealuxe.com

12/22/99 - First Night, Boston 2000

Culture Shakeup
According to Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, California, "There are two millennium bugs lurking in our future -- one in our computers and the other in our culture." Saffo's premise is "The greater the number of zeros in a year to come, the sooner we get nervous and the longer it lasts. Decades make us twitch, and century-ends can change the trajectory of popular culture." In true, artistic fashion, Boston will usher in the year 2000 with a three-day culture party that will be historic. Geri Guardino, Executive Director of First Night says in her welcome, "To reveal and celebrate the diversity of Boston using art as a catalyst to unify the community through creativity, imagination and participation, has been First Night's mission since its founding in 1976." Boston's culture shakeup will include over 1,200 artists and 500 performances at over 60 venues throughout Boston. Whatever your passion, First Night Boston 2000 offers sensory overload with visual art, music, dance, spectacular light shows, massive ice sculptures, puppetry, fireworks, poetry and film.

How to Throw a Big Multi-Media Party
Preparations for First Night are a yearlong continuum of local workshops that support and fill the event. Called the "First Night Neighborhood Network", the program is a community outreach project. The Neighborhood Network is a unique, year-round series of performance and visual arts collaborations among artists, community groups, young people and their families. Established in 1994, First Night's Neighborhood Network links professional artists with arts organizations, youth and social service agencies and schools and community development corporations for workshops and community arts projects throughout the months prior to each year's First Night celebration. This past year activities included Don Knaack, "The Junkman" who has scoured local Boston neighborhoods with community children for the perfect pieces of percussion garbage. Five "Play Stations" will be fully operational at First Night Boston 2000 and the public can participate in the "Junk Jam Session". Then there will be a "moveable" mural created by Boston's favorite mural artist Heidi Schork and the Mayor's Youth Fund Mural Crew. Heidi and her team have been producing oversized panels that are a representation of neighborhood murals. At Steve Rose's studio, a sub-zero, walk in freezer, 15 tons of ice is being sculptured in a big way. Don't miss Stargate 2000 at the Boston Common's Frog Pond. Weighing more than 300,000 pounds, this monumental ice sculpture at Boston is one of the largest ice sculptures ever built in North America and the largest single ice sculpture First Night has ever commissioned. Come marvel at the mammoth ice gate stretching across the frosty ground and Father Time in his chariot as his powerful team of horses carries him through the gate and into the new millennium. Artistically lit and skillfully crafted, this ice sculpture is one the most astonishing sights at First Night 2000. There will also be two hundred large-scale ice candles on City Hall Plaza.

Images That Invade Space
Holograms blur the lines of reality, perception, and fantasy. It is truly fitting that the First Night Boston 2000 button has been designed by world-renowned visual artist and Boston native, Harriet Casdin-Silver. Casdin-Silver, a pioneer in holographic art has created a dazzling photo-polymer hologram collector's button that depicts the Boston skyline with bursting fireworks. First Night Boston 2000 is truly a fantasy come true. Casdin-Silva often showcased at Newbury Street's Gallery Naga and the Decordova Museum, will also exhibit a holographic masterpiece called "A Celebration of Aging" that will portray seniors of diverse backgrounds and life experiences. These larger than life holographic projections will be accompanied by an "audio box" created by Kevin Brown of Brown Innovations where the honorees will touch upon the milestones they have encountered in the 20^th century and their hopes for the 21st. Another way that images will be manipulated is with LIGHTmotif2000. Boston becomes an artist's canvas as First Night 2000 transforms the city with vivid colors and lights. An array of striking effects including large-scale projections, skytrackers and robotic lighting illuminate the buildings and streets of downtown and bring a visual richness to the city. Take a tour of these brilliant lighting designs at the Boston Public Library, the Waterfront, The Christian Science Center and the Skybridge connecting Copley Place and the Prudential Center. Add four dazzling firework displays - a 7 p.m. New Year's eve display on the Boston Common, a midnight finale over Boston Harbor and again at 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday - and visions of sugarplums will dance in your head.

Family Fun Festivals
First Night is a perfect venue for families. An alcohol-free festival, First Night offers special discounts to families with small children. From 1-6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday children under ten receive free admission to the Hynes Convention Center courtesy of BankBoston. Events are planned for all three days and include musicians, clowns, bands, puppets, storytellers, visual art and dance. There will be amazing things to watch, listen to and interact with. If you would rather be inside keeping warm than outside braving the cold as the Year 2000 finally arrives, Hynes Convention Center is the place to be. Thrilling laser shows, interactive countdowns and swing, world and popular music set the stage for an unforgettable climax to 1999. If you prefer an alternative, drum in the Year 2000 and lift your spirits as part of the Healing Drum and Dance Circle in the Hynes Auditorium.

Millennium Music in Motion
The annual concert of the world-famous Boston Pops will be presented live from Symphony Hall on two gigantic Jumbotron screens at FleetBoston Financial City Hall Plaza on Friday evening. First Night revelers have the unique opportunity to hear and see the exceptional musical artistry of one of the world's most renowned orchestras as they play their final performance of the year. At the climax of the concert, Conductor Keith Lockhart and Mayor Thomas M. Menino lead audiences in an interactive countdown to the Year 2000. From classical sounds with the Bach/2000 Ensemble to a capella harmony to saxaphone jams, music will usher in the millennium with sweet sounds. Hear and see such music greats as Lenahan, Southern Rail, the Gloucester Hornpipe and Clog Society, Weepin Willie, Seth Yacovone Blues Band, Acousticity and Fireworks IV. Even music will not be immune from the Y2K bug. Check out the Y2K Pops, an unusual installation of 101 personal computers of various types and vintages that play classical, popular and sci-fi themed music. This electronic symphony is led - of course! - by a robotic "Semi-Conductor." In an entertaining test of the Y2K bug, some or all of the musical computers may, or may not, crash right before the audience as 1999 makes way for 2000. An electronic score board keeps track of which computers fail and which continue to play into the New Year. This amusing experiment gives revelers a first hand look (and listen!) at the Y2K phenomenon!

Let the Party Begin and Never End
It may be difficult for you to take in all that is offered at First Night Boston 2000. If you need to pick one activity that will charge you with millennium fever, than plan to start at the beginning. On Friday, December 31 at 5 p.m. at the Hynes Convention Center, the "Grand Procession" will start the festivities in Mardi Gras style. Led by Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the procession includes: marching bands (Hot Tamale, Made in the Shade, New Liberty Dixieland Jazz Band); Giant puppets courtesy of the Malden High School Puppeteers and the Ark for the New Millennium by the Hawthorne Youth and Community Center; twenty-five OpenAir Circus stilters towering over the crowd, walking dinosaurs by Dinoman and dragons, masks and stars to name just a few of the participants. The spectacular procession will proceed down Boylston Street to the Boston Common. The finale to the three-day extravaganza will be fireworks at 7:15 p.m. in Boston Harbor. But your celebration does not have to end here, with the purchase of your First Night Boston 2000 button ($20) you can get discounts through March 2000 from many Boston hotels, museums, cultural partners, restaurants and retail shops.

First Night Boston 2000 will be the largest event in Boston's history. The three-day celebration begins on Friday, December 31, 1999 and runs through Sunday, January 2, 2000. Over three million people are anticipated to attend. First Night Boston was established in 1976 and is the model for over 200 similar celebrations throughout the world. Revelers of all ages are welcome! Pick up your button at locations throughout Greater Boston that will admit you to all events or online at www.firstnight.org. Visit the web site also to get a complete listing of events, artist profiles and post celebration button bonus participants.

First Night Boston 2000
20 Park Plaza, Suite 1000
Boston, MA 02116
617-524-1399
www.firstnight.org

10/15/99 - Boston International Fine Art Show
Newbury Street and Back Bay Guide

Having just finished the Arts Festival of Boston '99 and Art Newbury Street, you might think that Boston has showcased all its available art for awhile. But that is definitely not the case. On November 11-14^th Boston once again will feature 5,000 works of art as the 3^rd Annual Boston International Fine Art Show (BIFAS) comes to the Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts. Forty-five outstanding galleries will exhibit American, British, Eastern European, French, Japanese, Korean and New England artists. There will be a striking array of six centuries of fine art: Old Master drawings, 17th-20th century American and European paintings, vintage posters, fine prints, works by both internationally-recognized and emerging contemporary artists, unique glass sculpture, studio furniture, photography and more.

Of particular interest at the BIFAS year is the introduction of Studio Furniture as a category for the first time. Studio furniture is gaining visibility in art and craft galleries, museum exhibitions, and homes and with collectors. The term Studio Furniture refers to handcrafted furniture made by individual furniture makers whose interest is in linking concept, materials, and technique; and who work in small shops. Studio furniture makers most often do not follow traditional furniture making careers. They learn design and construction in specialized college programs or they are self-taught.

New England is rich in history with handcrafted furniture and educational programs. There is the 100 year old North Bennett Street School in the North End of Boston. There is the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) that has a newly developed furniture master's program and there is the Worcester Center for Crafts, The School of Professional Crafts. Galleries in the Boston area that feature Studio Furniture include Gallery NAGA on Newbury St. and Clark Gallery in Lincoln, MA. The Arts & Crafts Society on Newbury features Studio Furniture once a year in their exhibit space.

Besides viewing and purchasing Studio Furniture at BIFAS there are a number of shows and exhibits coming up so you can see for yourself the elegance and style of Studio Furniture. On November 19 - December 22, 1999 Gallery NAGA / Clark Gallery will present Boudoir: Intimate Furniture at Gallery NAGA, 67 Newbury Street, Boston, MA Opening Reception: November 19, 1999. The Fine Art Furnishings Show will take place from November 5-7 in Providence, Rhode Island. Featured at the BIFAS and Fine Art Furnishings will be Roslindale resident, Mark Del Guidice. Mark has a Studio Furniture piece in the "Please be Seated Collection" at Yale University. He is also featured in the new Furniture Society book, "Furniture Studio: The Heart of the Functional Arts". This fabulous book that is the current definitive overview of contemporary Studio Furniture can be ordered through the Society's web page at www.avenue.org/Arts/Furniture. Sitta Fine Art at BIFAS will represent Mark De Guidice. Another local Studio Furniture artist, Richard Dunbrack will exhibit with other furniture artists at the upcoming Crafts at the Castle show December 1-5 in Park Square. For information about Crafts at the Castle, visit www.artfulgift.com/catc.

The artful weekend at BIFAS will kick off with a Gala Preview on Thursday November 11, 1999 - 6pm - 10pm. Admission is $60 per person and includes refreshments, musical entertainment, a complimentary show catalog, and re-admission throughout the weekend. Participating galleries at BIFAS are: Alpha Gallery, Barton-Ryan Gallery, Brown Corbin Fine Art, Chappell Gallery, Childs Gallery, Ltd., Cricket Hill Associates, Jeanne Davidson Fine Prints, Forum Gallery, Cooley Gallery, Fusco & Four, Gallery Alina, Gladwell & Company, Gleason Fine Art, Greenwich Gallery, Greggie Fine Art, International Poster Gallery, Gallery at Langer Place, McGowan Fine Art, The Mixografia Workshop, Remba Gallery, Gallery NAGA, Nielsen Gallery, Nissman, Abromson, Ltd., Claire Oliver Fine Art, Pentimenti Gallery, Pepper Gallery, Port 'n Starboard, Questroyal Fine Art, Richardson-Clarke Gallery, Sitta Fine Art, Slava Fine Art, Leila Taghinia-Milani, Anya Tish Gallery, Tobai International, Tom Veilleux Gallery, Alfred J. Walker Fine Art, Melissa Williams Fine Art.

Boston International Fine Art Show

Show Hours: Friday & Saturday, 11 - 8, Sunday 11- 6.
Admission: $10 at the door, Children under 12 free.
The Cyclorama At The Boston Center for The Arts
539 Tremont Street, Boston
(617) 787-2637
www.bifas.org

10/5/99 - The Greatest Year of Performing Arts
Newbury Street and Back Bay Guide

Inscribed on the wall of the tomb of the Egyptian Pharaoh, Ay, Akhet-Aten (Akhenaten) is a hymn. Some of the words are as follows: "The Two Lands (night and day) are in festivity. Awake they stand on their feet, You have roused them." When Derek Lee Ragin, counter-tenor performs in "Akhnaten" at the Boston Lyric Opera in January 2000, he will most likely rouse the audience and bring them to their feet. The Boston Lyric Opera is one of the many performing art venues in Boston that will awaken the greatest year of the performing arts. Adding to the festivity is a stunning collaboration among Boston's cultural organizations with a thematic 1999/2000 season that looks back to the beginning of recorded history even as we enter a new century. So whether your tastes run with opera, symphony music, ballet or theatre, Boston's cultural organizations won't disappoint you.

Boston Lyric Opera

Founded in 1976, the Boston Lyric Opera presents new and emerging opera singers, directors and designers with the opportunity to work in or with a staged operatic performance. The Boston Lyric Opera is committed to providing the next generation of opera stars. They have successfully staged productions for twenty years with such favorites as Faust, La bohème, Carmen, and Madama Butterfly. All performances take place at the Shubert Theatre

All of the performances in the Boston Lyric Opera line up for the 1999/2000 season have Egyptian themes. The season will open on November 10 with a production of Aida. The story takes place in ancient tells of the doomed love of an enslaved Ethiopian princess during a war. In January the Boston Lyric Opera and co-producer Chicago Opera Theatre will present the above mentioned Akhnaten, an episodic portrait which portrays the life of Egypt’s first monotheistic ruler. The season will conclude in March with a performance of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) which is a magical Mozart fantasy set in a mythological land reminiscent of ancient Egypt. This opera is produced in collaboration with Royal Danish Opera.

If you want to learn more about opera buy a ticket to one of these performances and go to the free lecture offered. One hour before every curtain, Boston Lyric Opera provides a free half-hour lecture at the Tremont House Hotel, next door to The Shubert Theatre. Open to all ticket holders, this sneak preview is sure to pique your interest and add valuable insight to the opera.

Boston Ballet

Artists have painted her likeness. Countless books have been written about her. Now there will be a majestic ballet performance about her. The subject is Cleopatra, daughter of Pharaoh Ptolemy XII (58BC). Cleopatra the philandering and fighting queen of Egypt will come to life in Houston Ballet Artistic Director Ben Stevenson's newest work, Cleopatra which premiers on May 4, 2000 at the Wang Theatre.

Bostonians are so honored to have their own world class ballet troupe. Founded in 1963 by E. Virginia Williams, the Boston Ballet has not only performed classic ballets such as Swan Lake and Giselle for Boston Audiences but is world-renowned and is in demand internationally. The Boston Ballet's annual, month long (December), The Nutcracker attracts more than 140,000 people. The troupe boasts 41 dancers and 7 full-time apprentices, including some of the most exciting talents in the dance world today: Patrick Armand, Lazlo Berdo, Aleksandra Koltun, Jennifer Gelfand, Larissa Ponomarenko, Viktor Plotnikov, Pollyana Ribeiro, Kyra Strasberg, Adriana Suarez, and Paul Thrussell.

As though all of the above is not enough to get you to the Wang Theatre this season, the Boston Ballet opened its season with two loveable fairytale ballets that will entertain and delight you. New York City Ballet soloist, Christopher Wheeldon has created a new one-act version of the Russian classic, Firebird. Wheeldon's work tells the tale of a magical firebird and a heroic hunter who rescue a beautiful maiden from sinister forces of evil. And who can forget the delightful and educational tale of The Princess and the Pea. Choreographer Daniel Pelzig transforms Hans Christian Anderson's beloved tale into a humorous and imaginative ballet that stars a dozen dancing mattresses, a slew of wacky royals and one pesky vegetable. The fairytale ballets continue through October 24, 1999. Check out the full season schedule at the Boston Ballet web site at www.boston.com/bostonballet.

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Boston Symphony Orchestra had its inaugural concert on October 22, 1881 under the inspiration of philanthropist, Civil War veteran and amateur musician Henry Lee Higginson. Now more than a century later, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the world's largest orchestral organization continues to innovate and entertain audiences. Presenting over 250 concerts a year with the BSO, Tanglewood, Boston Pops, and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, classical music lovers of all ages can enjoy a satisfying night or day out at the symphony. The 1999/2000 season highlights include world premieres by Lieberson and Sheng, performances of Messiaen's "Turangalila-Symphonie," Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony, Britten's "War Requiem," Dutilleux's Symphony No. 2, "Le Double," and Music of Beethoven, Copland, Debussy, Dvoiak, Mozart, Strauss, and Tchaikovsky.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra, under the leadership of music director Seiji Ozawa, performs in historic Symphony Hall from October through April. Seiji Ozawa, the thirteenth BSO music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, marked his twentieth-fifth anniversary with the orchestra in the 1998-99 season. Mr. Ozawa has achieved the longest tenure of any conductor currently active with an American symphony orchestra. On October 13, 1999 Seiji Ozawa was awarded the "International Citizen of the Year" award. In the spring of 2000, Seiji Ozawa will lead the Boston Symphony in performances of Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony and Messiaen's "Turangalîla-symphonie" in Paris and Cologne. He will also perform a free concert at the foot of the Eiffel Tower featuring the BSO and the Orchestre National de France as part of the city of Paris' Millennium Celebration.

The Boston Pops Orchestra, under conductor Keith Lockhart, performs in Symphony Hall during May and June. The inimitable Pops style comprises light classical repertory and American popular music. Capping each Pops season are free performances on the Esplanade, highlighted by the nationally televised Fourth-of-July concert. There is also an annual series of Holiday Pops concerts in December. In July and August the orchestra performs at Tanglewood, its summer home in the magnificent Berkshires of western Massachusetts. Twelve of the first-chair players in the Boston Symphony Orchestra combine their talents as the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. The ensemble was founded in 1964, during Erich Leinsdorf's tenure as BSO Music Director, and is the only chamber group in the world made up of principal players from a major orchestra. The group makes recordings and gives an annual series of three Sunday-afternoon concerts at Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory. The Chamber Players tour extensively, having made several transcontinental tours as well as tours to Europe, Japan, and South America.

Emerson Majestic Theatre

The Emerson Majestic Theatre resides in a 1903 opera house located in Boston's historic theatre district. Fourteen of New England's finest not-for-profit performance groups call the Emerson Majestic Theatre home. Emerson College pays nearly 40% of the Theatre's operating costs. At the Emerson Majestic Theatre you can choose from over 200 performances of about 60 unique programs such as Dance Umbrella, BankBoston Celebrity Series, Ballet Theatre of Boston, operas from Boston Academy of Music, or a world premier play on the Emerson Stage.

The 1999/2000 season at the Emerson Majestic Theatre will include such wonders as: Romeo and Juliet by Boston Theatre Works; Trial By Jury and The Sorcerer by Gilbert and Sullivan with Boston Academy of Music; The Nutcracker by José Mateo's Ballet Theatre of Boston; Boston Moves by Dance Umbrella and Noche Flamenca by World Music.

Revels, Inc.

And last but not least, Revels, Inc. returns in its 29^th annual "Celebration of the Winter Solstice" with traditional and ritual dances, carols, processionals and drama. The 1999 Christmas Revels begins a 3 week/16-performance run at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre on Friday, December 10^th. Founded in 1971 by musician John Langstaff and his daughter Carol, Revels, Inc., a non-profit, charitable organization presents performances of traditional and ritual material marking spring, summer and fall throughout the country.

In Collaboration - Egyptian Fever

The 1999/2000 Boston performance season is a cornucopia of choices. Of special interest is the collaboration of: Boston Lyric Opera (Aïda, Akhnaten, Die Zauberflöte), Boston Ballet (Cleopatra), The Museum of Fine Arts Boston (Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen), Museum of Science (Omni film, Mysteries of Egypt) and The Wang Center for the Performing Arts (Young at Arts programming will be Egyptian-based). For information about the collaboration visit www.boston.com/egypt.

Boston Lyric Opera
Shubert Theatre
Tremont St., Boston

www.blo.org

General info: 617-542-4912

Ticket info: 617-542-OPRA (6772)

Boston Ballet

19 Clarendon St., Boston

617-695-6950

Box Office 617-695-6955

www.boston.com/bostonballet

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Hall

301 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, MA 02115

(617) 266-1492

www.bso.org

Emerson Majestic Theatre

219 Tremont Street

Boston, MA 02116-4717

617/824-8000

www.maj.org

Revels, Inc.

80 Mount Auburn Street

Watertown, MA 02472-3930

617-972-8300

www.revels.org

9/3/99 - Museum on a Street - The Newbury Street Galleries
Newbury Street and Back Bay Guide

The art galleries on Newbury Street are a vast continuum that offers an ever-changing array of art and visual pleasure. The "Museum on a Street" is comprised of over 40 unique galleries each with its own personality and ambience. Amazingly and delightfully no two are alike. Each gallery holds the promise of discovery and enlightenment. Here you will see contemporary artists, art from masters, sculpture, photography, portraits and more. If you have never made the Newbury Street gallery pilgrimage, plan to do so now. For a preview of the wonders that wait you, sit back while I give you a devotee tour.

The Newbury Street Galleries are as much about people as they are about art. Arthur Dion, an art dealer and owner of Gallery NAGA at 67 Newbury Street has been working on Newbury Street for 16 years. He is the President of the Boston Art Dealers Association (BADA). BADA was formed in 1989 to foster cooperation among Boston's contemporary art galleries and to create a unified voice of advocacy for contemporary art in Boston. BADA established the 1999: Celebrating Boston Artists, a yearlong festival that includes as participants all major Massachusetts museums, area galleries and many alternative venues - a month long series of gallery talks is planned for October. For information about upcoming events call 617-427-1999.

Judi Rotenburg, an artist and gallery owner has been at 130 Newbury Street for 27 years. Judi's support and love for Newbury Street follows in the footsteps of her mother Fay Rotenburg who founded the Newbury Street League many years ago. Fay Rotenburg is one of the diners depicted in the "trompe l'oeil" mural on the outside wall of the DuBarry Restaurant - she is seated with such luminaries as Babe Ruth, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Alexander Graham Bell. Judi's father Harold Rotenburg is also an artist and taught at the Museum School in Boston. Today the Judi Rotenburg Gallery offers art devotees color and expressiveness and represents a core of 10 established artists including Charles Movalli, Zygmund Jankowski, Marianna Pineada and Jason Berger.

Newbury Street also boasts the first gallery to establish a significant national reputation and patronage and to stake claim as the oldest family-owned art gallery. Vose Galleries, a Boston tradition since 1897 was born of humble beginnings as a small artists' supply store by Ransom Hicks in 1841. Robert C. Vose opened the first Boston branch and today, 102 years later, the fifth generation continues the forebearers' legacy at 238 Newbury Street. Vose Galleries specializes in American Paintings of the 18^th, 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Speaking of the oldest, Newbury Street also boasts the oldest non-profit art association in America, The Copley Society of Boston with over 500 members, was established in 1879 by the graduates of Boston's Museum School. Located at 158 Newbury Street, The Copley Society of Boston provides young artists with an entry into the mainstream art world and acclaimed artists with a platform for exhibiting their work in Boston. Another institution at 175 Newbury Street incorporated in 1897, The Society of Arts and Crafts has been at the forefront of the American craft movement, fostering the development, sales, recognition and education of crafts for one hundred years. The Society sponsors exhibitions, the Excellence in Crafts Award Programs, educational programming and documentary videos. The Society also promotes the work of over 400 craft artists in the galleries (Newbury Street and Arch Street) on an ongoing basis.

From the oldest to the newest, Newbury Street offers art in creative abundance. Newbury Street is the place to open a gallery and some interesting ones have opened up in the last year. The Visual Arts Gallery at 79 Newbury Street is an outreach program of the Swedenborg Bookstore The bookstore is dedicated to promote the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, an eighteenth century scientist, philosopher, mystic and interpreter of the sacred scriptures. The Gallery hosts lectures and slide shows by exhibiting artists who are in the stream of visionary experience. At 228 Newbury Street, Camelot Gallery offers the artwork of Thomas Kinkade. Kinkade creates paintings that illuminate and inspire. Called "The Painter of Light" because of his masterful use of color and manipulation of light, Mr. Kinkade turns a bounty of subject matters into pleasurable and lasting memories. Besides the beauty of the work, cost is one reason why Mr. Kinkade's art is in demand. Limited edition, signed and numbered canvas lithographs create collectible canvas art that is within all art lovers' budgets. Creative Allies the International Shared Interests Club at 179 Newbury Street has established a gallery for Boston's emerging artists at 228 Newbury Street. They are currently showing Armenian Artist Month.

Visit the "Museum on a Street" today, tomorrow or next week. Make a pilgrimage to Newbury Street Art Galleries. Satisfy your quest for art in all its glorious forms. You won't be disappointed!

The Newbury Street Galleries

Alfred J Walker & Fine Arts
158 Newbury St
(617) 247-1319

Alianza Contemporary Crafts
154 Newbury St.
(617) 262-2385
American contemporary crafts

Alpha Gallery Inc.*
14 Newbury St.
(617) 536-4465
Contemporary American painting, sculpture and works on paper

Andrea Marquit Fine Arts*
38 Newbury St.
(617) 859-0190
Contemporary and Modern Art

Arden Gallery
129 Newbury St
(617) 247-0610
Modern and contemporary artwork by prominent and emerging artists

Barbara Krakow Gallery*
10 Newbury St Fl 5
(617) 262-4490
Contemporary artists

Barton-Ryan Gallery
38 Newbury St.
(617) 867-0662
20^th century and contemporary American and European works

Beth Urdang Gallery*
14 Newbury St
(617) 424-8468
American art by established artists from the early 20th century to the present specializing in the period 1915-1945.

Camelot Gallery of Thomas Kinkade
221 Newbury Street
800 956-5618.
Thomas Kinkade the "Painter of Light"

Chappell Gallery
14 Newbury St.
(617) 236-2255
www.fineartsunlimited.com/chappell/chappell.htm
Represents International artists who work in glass

Chase Gallery*
129 Newbury St.
(617) 859-7222
http://www.chasegallery.com/
Work by prominent American and European artists

Childs Gallery
169 Newbury St
(617) 266-1108

Comenos Fine Arts
9 Newbury St Fl 2
(617) 262-9365

Copley Society
158 Newbury St
(617) 536-5049
Oldest non-profit art association with 500 members

Creative Allies
228 Newbury St.
(617) 236-6996
Showcasing Boston's emerging artists

Creiger-Dane Gallery*
36 Newbury St
(617) 536-6658
www.creiger-dane.com
Contemporary work by emerging and established artists

Dyansen Gallery of Boston
132 Newbury St # A
(617) 262-4800

Galerie Europeenne
123 Newbury St
(617) 859-7062

Gallery Naga*
67 Newbury St
(617) 267-9060
http://www.gallerynaga.com/
Contemporary painting, studio furniture, works on paper, photography, holography & sculpture

Guild of Boston Artists
162 Newbury St
(617) 536-7660

Haley & Steele
91 Newbury St
(617) 536-6339
18^th & 19^th century prints

Howard Yezerski Gallery*
14 Newbury St Fl 3
(617) 262-0550
http://www.hyg.com/
Contemporary art in all media

International Poster Gallery
205 Newbury St
(617) 266-1818
www.internationalposter.com
Largest collection of Italian, Swiss & Bolshevik posters in the United States - also French, German, American & Polish Posters

James R Bakker Gallery
236 Newbury St
(617) 262-8020
19^th and 20^th century Marine, Hudson River School, American Impressionists, Early Modernist paintings

Judi Rotenberg Gallery
130 Newbury St
(617) 437-1518
http://www.fine-arts-unlimited.com/g4.htm
Gallery for people who love color and expressiveness - established and emerging artists

Judy Ann Goldman Fine Arts*
14 Newbury Street
(617) 424-8468
Contemporary work by emerging and established artists

Kelly Barrette Fine Art
123 Newbury St
(617) 266-2475
Emerging artists and contemporary master prints

Mercury Gallery*
8 Newbury St
(617) 859-0054
http://www.mercurygallery.com/
Specializing in American figurative expressionism from the 1930's to the present

Michalopoulos Gallery
166 Newbury St
(617) 267-0202
www.michalopoulos.com
Renowned artist James Michalopoulos - kinetic architectural renderings

Miller Block Gallery*
11 Newbury St
(617) 536-4650

MPG
285 Newbury St.
(617) 437-1596
Internationally known contemporary artists and emerging Boston artists

Nielsen Gallery*
179 Newbury St
(617) 266-4835
http://www.nielsengallery.com/
Contemporary painting, drawing, prints, and sculpture by emerging and established artists

Newbury Fine Arts
29 Newbury St
(617) 536-0210

Pepper Gallery*
38 Newbury St
(617) 236-4497
Representational paintings, prints, drawings, photographs by mid-career and emerging artists

Pucker Gallery*
171 Newbury St
(617) 267-9473
Contemporary painting, pastel, photography, ceramics and sculpture

Richardson-Clarke Gallery Inc
38 Newbury St
(617) 266-3321
18^th, 19^th and 20^th century American and European paintings

Robert Klein Gallery*
38 Newbury St Fl 4
(617) 267-7997
http://www.robertkleingallery.com/
Fine art photography - contemporary and established

Society of Arts & Crafts
175 Newbury St
(617) 266-1810
www.societyofcrafts.com
Oldest non profit craft organization in the United States

Visual Art Gallery / Swedenborg Book Store
79 Newbury St.
(617) 262-5918
Contemporary Art, American and European Tradition

Vose Galleries of Boston Inc
238 Newbury St
(617) 536-6176
American paintings of the 18^th and 19^th and early 20^th century specializing in Hudson River School and American Impressionisms

*Member of Boston Art Dealer's Association - www.bostonart.com

9/3/99 - Be Art, Do Art, Hear Art, See Art, Eat Art - Arts Festival of Boston '99
Newbury Street and Back Bay Guide

You are cordially invited to an arts affair of unusual magnitude. September 9 - 12^th is the weekend to experience art in all its creative escapades as Boston hosts the 3^rd Annual Arts Festival of Boston '99. Everywhere you turn in Boston's Back Bay, art will meet you and treat you.

Be Art

Last year it was "The Eye Ball: A Feast for the Eyes". This year it is "The Grande Illusion: A Ball for the Arts". Great names for an art event that is high energy and one for sure that will push your creative aspirations to new heights. "The Grande Illusion" will take place in one of the grandest places in Boston, The Wang Center for the Performing Arts. The Grand Lobby, with its one hundred foot domed ceiling, grand staircase, fifteen-foot chandeliers and opulent décor is modeled after the Palace of Versailles. "The Grand Illusion" will be a royal affair. Here magicians and mimes will mystify and amuse you. The sounds of "Lucky Strike" a 22-piece orchestra of Berkley Music School's students will have you dancing through the night. Models from Model Works wearing the latest designer fashions of today will delight your eyes as they pay tribute to Sonja B. Loew.

The evening at the Wang Center will also include brief preview performances from various groups such as Boston Dance Company, Scooby Doo, Boston Academy of Music, Tango Society of Boston, Inc., Irish Singer Hugh McGowan, Ramone des los Reyes Spanish Dance Theatre and Phunk Phenomenon. And in the great Boston tradition of charitable giving, there will be an auction of local artists' work to benefit "Public Action for the Arts". The part about "Be Art" - the decor and attire is of an "artsy" genre. Dress as your grandest illusion. Black tie required.

Do Art

There is an artist inside all of us and the Arts Festival of Boston '99 gives us ample opportunity to express ourselves and share the creativity of others. Over 40 juried Boston artists will present and sell their works to the public for four days at the Arts & Crafts Pavilion under tents in Copley Square in front of the historic Trinity Church. Start your holiday shopping early and pick up high quality paintings, photographs, jewelry, and art to wear. A stage will offer up daily performances that will fill the air with music, song and poetry. A free, interactive art tent will offer activities for people of all ages. Art activities will also be available during Sunday's "Art Newbury Street".

Hear Art

Boston loves its musicians and they will be a welcome part of the Arts Festival of Boston '99. On Sunday, Newbury Street will be closed to traffic and three stages set up to accommodate the bands that will keep the strolling crowds in tune. Hear the melodious sounds of Black Tie Affair, Herbs Head, Mind Flow, Ball in the House, Urban Renewal, Blue Route, and Super Hyper Most. Bands playing at Copley Square include Laura Siersema, Pat Burtis Section, Kate Mannying, Black Sea Salsa, Nero, Taproot, and Issi Rozen Trio. Dancing in the streets is highly encouraged.

Area theaters offer up great performances during the festivities. While in town enjoying the festival, pick up some theater tickets for such goodies as Blue Man Group at the Charles Playhouse, or We Won't Pay, We Won't Pay at the American Repertory Theater. Be sure and check out BosTix while you are at the Arts & Crafts Pavilion in Copley Square. BosTix offers ticket purchases for over 165 Greater Boston cultural organizations and best of all offers half price, day of performance tickets.

See Art

Fifteen years ago, the gallery owner's of Newbury Street planned an event that would offer the public easy access to art. They envisioned a giant open house affair where people could spend a day visiting and viewing the art of masters new and old. The event, sponsored by the Newbury Street League became known as Art Newbury Street and a Boston tradition was born. During the Arts Festival of Boston '99, Newbury Street galleries invite and welcome you to an amazing array of art. On Thursday evening the art of gallery hopping takes on new dimensions as the "Progressive Gallery Tour and Wine Tasting" takes place. With the purchase of an all-inclusive ticket, guests may visit as many of the twenty participating galleries as they like within the tour's 3-hour duration, while tasting the fine cuisine from local restaurants and wines donated by Schieffelin & Somerset, importers of Moet Chandon brand champagne. Participating restaurants include Anago, Charley's, Davio's, Kashmir, Carla's, Yve's Veggie Cuisine, Abe & Louie's and Pappa Razzi.

Each participating gallery has planned exciting and interesting exhibits. Expand your artistic horizons with such exhibits as: City Scapes: Boston & New York- paintings the Judi Rotenburg Gallery, "Seascapes" - Along the shore from Atlantic City to Mt. Desert Island at Vose Gallery or Clockworks - sculptural clocks in mixed media at Alianza. According to Jessica Burke of Chappell Gallery about its glass exhibit, "The works of Martin Blank and James Watkins stand out in the diverse panorama of contemporary studio glass art, by virtue of a singular focus on classical artistic subject matter and a 'painterly' approach to glass. Blank focuses on the Human Body, and Watkins on the Still Life. Their shared 'painterly' style refers to the process of forming their work. Blank works with bits of molten glass and Watkins with bits of soft wax which are added bit by bit, like brush strokes, to create the rich, tactile forms." A pre-reception for the Progressive Gallery Tour will take place at Country Road, while a post-reception will be held at Creative Allies Gallery, both located on Newbury Street.

Art Newbury Street will also host a day of art viewing on Sunday as art galleries will be open and delightfully accessible due to the street closing. Walk the "World on a Street" and saturate your senses with stops at unique shops, yummy food establishments and the interesting art galleries. Enjoy the "Boston Fashion Walk" that takes place at 2 p.m. Models (selected from a local model search by the Newbury Street League) will turn Newbury Street into the world's longest runway. Ceremonial lions and exotic sports cars will accompany them on their fashionable route. Various sponsors will be handing out samples of goodies.

Eat Art

Local restaurants also get artsy and will offer artful brunch menus during Art Newbury Street on Sunday. They will fashion their menus from art themes. Some restaurants like 29 Newbury Street include their own gallery space.

Each year this festival grows and expands under the able tutelage of Millennium Events Corporation, the festival producers, to make art visible and accessible to the public. There is something for everyone and this event is sure to please. For additional information about the event call 617-451-ARTS or visit www.boston.com/artsfest.

Arts Festival of Boston '99 - Schedule of Events

7/9/99 - Creatures Great and Small
Zoo New England - Conservator of Endangered Species
Newbury Street and Back Bay Guide

Gorillas, warthogs, tapirs and bats greet you with curious disdain at the Tropical Forest. Lions rule and roar at the Kalahari Kingdom. Zebra and ostrich strut majestically in the grasslands of Bongo Congo. Kangaroo, wallaby, EMU and cockatoo surprise you at every turn on the Outback Trail. Giraffes peer down at you from lofty heights in the Savannah. Butterflies by the hundreds delicately swirl around you at the Landing. Are you on a world tour, watching a travel video or in some foreign land? No, you are at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, MA. Here creatures great and small magically transport us to other parts of the world for a glimpse of that which is beyond our everyday civilized existence.

The mission of Zoo New England, a non-profit corporation that operates the Franklin Park, Boston, MA and Stone Zoo, Stoneham, MA is to be a pre-eminent conservator of endangered species and to provide world class resources for conservation education. This commitment was recently affirmed when the Franklin Park Zoo became the first zoo in North America to see the successful hatching of a Siberian crane. There are only 39 know Siberian cranes in captivity worldwide and no more than 3,000 in the wild. "Siberian cranes are extremely difficult to breed in captivity," says Fred Beall, Curator of Birds and Reptiles at Zoo New England. "The global impact of this successful breeding is tremendous."

Franklin Park Zoo occupies 75 acres in one of Boston’s large community green spaces, known collectively as the Emerald Necklace, originally designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. Today, the Franklin Park Zoo is undergoing rapid, unprecedented development for world class distinction. In the past two years, visitation at the Zoos (Franklin Park and Stone) has increased more than 50 percent from 235,000 visits in 1996 to 352,000 visits in 1998. Zoo memberships are more than five times what they were in September 1996. Zoo New England is finally realizing the promise for Franklin Park Zoo to be the crowning jewel in the Necklace with a major renewal that will create natural surroundings for a vast array of wildlife in a beautiful park setting featuring two lakes. Already, 850 animals from some 233 species are on exhibit.

Among the many new exhibits and programs planned for Franklin Park Zoo will be its centerpiece, the world’s most advanced Children’s Zoo, "Our House" that will feature a wide variety of unmatched interactive, immersive exhibits. The Zoo will also expand its Tropical Rainforest Pavilion -an impressive facility that opened in 1989 and is already one of the largest indoors animal exhibits in North America. Zookeepers lead educational programs for kids of all ages at various zoo exhibits. These programs are offered hourly from 10am-4pm on weekends and holidays throughout the summer.

The Stone Memorial Zoo was founded in 1905 as a North American nature preserve. It is located on 26 scenic acres in the town of Stoneham adjacent to Spot Pond. At the Stone Zoo you can see "Major" the polar bear, reindeer, flamingos (with flamingo chicks!), llamas, ring-tailed lemurs, river otters, capybaras and coatimundi. Stone Zoo is being completely rebuilt to become the world’s first Earth Park. The Zoo’s design will provide insights into how animals and humans share the environment - and how they’ve successfully coexisted in the past. Stone Zoo will become a place offering experiences that are available nowhere else - a place where animals invite us into their own environment and teach us about the world we share. This past holiday season, 80,000 visitors were attracted to Stone Zoo’s annual light show.

Massachusetts Audubon Society
Protecting the Nature of Massachusetts

Two women on Beacon Hill who fought to stop the killing of birds for women's fashions founded the Massachusetts Audubon Society 100 years ago. Today the Massachusetts Audubon Society protects more than 28,000 acres of conservation land in Massachusetts, conducts educational programs for nearly 150,000 schoolchildren each year, and advocates for sound environmental policies at the local, state, and federal levels. They maintain 37 wildlife sanctuaries that are open to the public and that serve as a land base for education and conservation programs.

These facts become quite significant when you consider that approximately 16,000 acres of open space are developed each year in Massachusetts. "Losing Ground is a wake-up call for Massachusetts residents," said Laura Johnson, president of Massachusetts Audubon Society. "We hope more citizens will get involved in efforts to protect open space. The decisions we make today will have impacts for future generations. Let’s leave our grandchildren a rich legacy of wildlife, clean water, and landscapes that enrich the human spirit."

There is much to see and hear at the Massachusetts Audubon’s wildlife sanctuaries. Massachusetts Audubon’s Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary at 414 Massasoit Road, Worcester, MA has an "all person’s" trail, which provides easy and safe access to the sanctuary for physically challenged people, young children, and seniors. Broadmoor’s "all person’s trail" is a 1/4-mile trail that’s connected to the main trail, which starts at the nature center, and runs along the bank of Indian Brook and through the marsh. The trail is gently graded and includes a 450-foot boardwalk with platforms and benches to enjoy wildlife including turtles, fish, muskrats, water lilies, and wood ducks.

At Drumlin Farm, South Great Road Lincoln, MA you can experience life on a working New England farm, complete with pigs, horses, cows, and more. You can take a hayride along the farmyard trail and enjoy the sights and sounds of farm animals. This 256-acre retreat is a great place to take the kids.

Closer to the city, the Blue Hills Trailside Museum at Canton Avenue Milton, MA is the interpretive center for the Metropolitan District Commission’s 7,000-acre Blue Hills Reservation and is managed by the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Indoor exhibits feature wildlife you may see while exploring the reservation’s 150 miles of trails. Outside the museum, stroll through exhibits featuring white-tailed deer, otters, red foxes, and bobcats. Climb to the top of Great Blue Hill for a panoramic view of surrounding Boston, as well as to look for hawks, turkey vultures, and other wildlife.

The Massachusetts Audubon Society is creating a 66-acre wildlife sanctuary on the site of the former Boston State Hospital in Mattapan, MA. The sanctuary, which is expected to be open to the public in 1999, will feature two miles of scenic trails and a boardwalk. A nature center is scheduled to be built in the year 2000. The sanctuary will serve as a base for education programs, for the 25,000 children who go to school within two miles of the site. The Society is also collaborating with community gardeners, who’ve been working on the site for the past 27 years, to enhance their plots and conduct workshops.

For the art lover, The Massachusetts Audubon Society's Visual Arts Center presents its newest exhibition, On the Wing: The Massachusetts Audubon Society Celebrates the Bird in Art, from June 19 through August 22 at the Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton. Complementing the Audubon exhibition currently on display in the Visual Arts Center gallery, this exhibition focuses exclusively on birds, with works of art spanning two centuries and a variety of media: paintings, prints, sculpture, and photography. Curated by James Baird and Amy Montague of the Massachusetts Audubon Society Visual Arts Center, the works of art are drawn primarily from the Society's extensive collections. The namesake of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, John James Audubon (1785-1851), is featured in the first gallery, with magnificent double-elephant folio prints from his Birds of America.

Organizations like Zoo New England and the Massachusetts Audubon Society play an important role in our lives. They offer us the ability to learn about wildlife and environmental preservation, they entertain and provide us with recreation, they teach us diversity and they broaden our horizons. Visit today!

Franklin Park Zoo
One Franklin Park Road
Boston, MA
(617) 541-LION
www.zoonewengland.com

Admission Prices
Adults: $6, Children (2-15): $3, Under 2: Free, Seniors: $5
Butterfly Landing: $1.00 per person in addition to regular admission

Summer Hours:
April 1- September 30
Weekdays: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Weekends/Holidays: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Stone Zoo
149 Pond Street
Stoneham, MA 02180
(781) 438-510
www.zoonewengland.com
Re-opening July 10

Admission Prices
Adults: $3, Children (2-15): $2. Under 2: Free, Seniors: $2.50

Summer Hours:
April 1- September 30
Weekdays: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Weekends/Holidays: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Massachusetts Audubon Society
208 South Great Road
Lincoln, MA 01773
1-800-AUDUBON
www.massaudubon.org

6/28/99 - Sargent: A Summer Sensation -
Boston Pays Homage to John Singer Sargent
The Newbury Street and Back Bay Guide

Boston has always embraced the work of John Singer Sargent and in return Sargent considered Boston his American home. In 1880 at the age of 24, Sargent first exhibited his work in Boston at the St. Botolph Club. Today, Boston once again welcomes the celebrated artist with citywide exhibits that truly show the breadth and masterpiece of his lifetime artistic contributions. On exhibit will be over 140 oils and watercolors at the Museum of Fine Arts, 14 paintings and watercolors of landscapes at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, drawings, sketchbooks and oil sketches at the Fogg Art Museum. Included in this homage are the restored murals that grace the Upper Rotunda and Grand Staircase at the Museum of Fine Arts, a pair of World War I murals at the Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University and the "Triumph of Religion" murals at the Boston Public Library.

An Artistic Journey

Sargent was born in Florence in 1856 to American parents who had settled in Europe. His mother was an amateur artist and his father a doctor. The young Sargent exposed to a cosmopolitan and itinerant lifestyle quickly exhibited a passion for painting. At the age of eighteen, Sargent went to Paris to study art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under the tutelage of Carolus-Duran, a fashionable portrait painter. There he quickly began to make a name for himself as an innovator challenging the conventions while not overturning them. He won an Honorable Mention in 1879 for his portrait of Carolus-Duran and a second class medal in 1881 for his Madame Ramon Subercaseaux. Sargent exhibited a careful balance of portraits and subject matter at the Salon that included his "El Jaleo", a seven foot-high portrait known as "Lady with Rose" now part of the permanent collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum. This painting along with others painted from travels to Spain to copy works by Valazquez, as had his teacher Carolus-Duran, were touted by author Henry James in a" Harper's" article in 1887, "the slightly uncanny spectacle of a talent which on the very threshold of its career has nothing more to learn".

This new found attention though was to dissipate quickly when Sargent became obsessed with painting a portrait of 25 year old Virginie Gautreau, an American from Louisiana. Madame G as she was known was married to a French banker and shipowner. She was known for her beauty and low-cut bodices. Sargent painted Madame G in bare shoulders, overflowing bosom and with the most unpardonable offense of having one of the shoulder straps slipping down the arm. Women gathered around the painting to jeer. Madame G's mother marched on Sargent's studio and demanded that the painting be withdrawn. The portrait later to become known as Madame X scandalized the Salon and subsequently caused Sargent to flee to England in 1886.The painting was sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1916 having been "righted" by putting the errant strap back in place.

While in England, Sargent's work was considered avant-garde. He devoted himself to landscapes and experiments with impressionism. Between 1885 and 1889 he produced a significant number of open air studies painted in the English countryside - landscapes, figure studies, river scenes and still lifes. It was here in 1887 that Sargent painted "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose" which was met with astonishing success at the Royal Academy and acquired for the nation under the terms of Chantrey Bequest. Like "El Jaleo", "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose" was a singular venture. He painted nothing like it again.

Portraitist of an International Elite

Traveling to New York in 1887, Sargent was commissioned to paint the wife of prominent Banker Henry G. Marquand. Here Sargent was overwhelmingly welcomed and in 1890 he painted over forty portraits in nine months. These portraits included Isabella Stewart Gardner, the daughters of artist friend Edward Bolt and Robert Louis Stevenson. In England Sargent's portrait of Lady Agnew of Lochnaw was met with excitement and catapulted the artist at the age of 37 to the highest rank of portrait painters.

Portraits now became Sargent's mainstay. In 1894, supported by Lord Leighton he was elected to the Royal Academy, a prestigious appointment that solidified his talent. By the mid 1890's he was painting up to three sitters a day and demanding up to a thousand English guineas, the equivalent of $100,000 today. Sargent painted over 800 portraits in his lifetime. By the 1900's he was being commissioned to do portraits by the aristocracy whose forebears had been painted by Kneller, Lely, Reynolds, Lawrence and Van Dyck.

A New Beginning

After ten years of painting portraits Sargent decided to move away from the drudgery of his work. In 1907 he announced that he would no longer paint portraits. His new art emphasis was shifted into two distinct areas. He began painting landscapes in Switzerland, Italy and Spain, producing works in both oil and watercolors. He did a series of Alpine figure studies, architectural paintings of parks and gardens, fountains and statues, scenes of local, life, boats and animals, streams and waterfalls, rocks and boulders, only a few of them ever exhibited or sold during his lifetime.

World War I ended Sargent's travels in Europe and he spent two years in America (1916-1918) painting landscapes in Florida and the Canadian Rockies. Upon his return to Europe after the war, Sargent began the work on the murals for the Boston Public Library in Copley Square. Sargent painted the murals on canvas in his studios in England and Boston craftsman would attach them permanently to the walls. The project called "Triumph of Religion" took almost thirty years to complete. Located on the third floor hall leading to the Special Collection room, the mural tells the story of the development of Western religion. Hailed a grand masterpiece, one mural evoked some controversy with his portrayal of a symbolic figure called "synagogue" collapsing and losing her crown. Jewish organizations protested.

In 1916 Sargent was commissioned to paint the rotunda over the staircase to the entrance of the Museum of Fine Arts. These twenty murals (and 18 sculptures) were to occupy him until the end of his life in 1925. Sargent considered these murals and sculpture to be the most important of his works. The murals are derived from Greek mythology and depict gods and goddesses in scenes related to art. The murals have recently been restored in preparation for this celebration of Sargent.

A Hero Returns

After his death, Sargent's reputation declined rapidly as he was labeled a mere society painter. Today, the tolerance, brilliance and beauty of the paintings of Sargent are given their due in a city that never lost hope. The John Singer Sargent exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts is the first comprehensive retrospective of this artist's work since the memorial exhibitions that followed his death over 75 years ago. The exhibit has been organized as collaboration among the Tate Gallery, London, The National Gallery of Art, Washington and the Museum of Fine Arts. The presentation is sponsored by BankBoston. The media sponsor in Boston is WCVB-TV.

The Boston Connection

In 1880, at the age of 24, Sargent first exhibited his work in Boston at the St. Botolph Club; this was the Club's first exhibit.

In 1882, Sargent's Salon hit "El Jaleo" was shown in Boston galleries. It is now part of the permanent collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Boston gave Sargent his first solo exhibition, held at the St. Botolph Club in early 1888.

Sargent's portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner was shown in the 1888 St. Botolph Club exhibition, and drew many comments due to the forthright pose and revealingly tight dress worn by Boston's most avid patron of the arts. Her husband mortified by the attention the portrait was getting, never allowed the work to be shown in public during his lifetime.

Sargent became an important art consultant for not only Isabella Stewart Gardner, but also the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He recommended many purchases to the MFA, including El Greco's "Fray Hortensio Felix Paravicino" acquired by the museum in 1904.

While visiting Boston, Sargent stayed with friends, including Isabella Stewart Gardner, Mrs. Sears and the Fairchilds (all of whom he painted). When not with friends he stayed at the Boston's best hotels including the Hotel Vendome and the Copley Plaza.

When in Boston, Sargent often borrowed studio space from friends. He painted portraits in fellow-artist Frederic Vinton's studio on Newbury Street and in the Gothic Room of Ms. Gardner's Fenway Court. Or the MFA murals, however, he needed a much larger space, and so rented a studio in the Pope building in the South End.

John Singer Sargent - Museum of Fine Arts

June 27 - September 26, 1999

Prices for non-members: (includes Museum admission)

Adults (weekday, weekend) $15 / $17.5, Senior Citizens, Students (weekday, weekend) $13 / $15, Children ages 6-17 $5, Children 5 and under free. Antenna audio tour is available for $5

Complimentary admission to "John Singer Sargent" on Wednesday evenings is made possible by Ford Motor Company and The New England Ford and Lincoln Mercury dealers.

For information call 617-267-9300 or visit www.mfa.org

Sargent: The Late Landscapes - Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

May 21 - September 26
Tuesday-Sunday 11 a.m.-5 p.m. (Galleries begin closing at 4:45 p.m.)

$10 adults ($11 weekends), $7 seniors, $5 college students with current ID, and $3 college students on Wednesdays. Members and children under 18 admitted free.

For information call 617 566-1401 or visit www.boston.com/gardner

Boston Public Library - Copley Square

Beginning on June 26 and continuing each Saturday through September the BPL will present tours of Sargent's murals. For information call 617-536-5400 ext. 238.

Sargent in the Studio: Drawings, Sketchbooks and Oil Sketches - Harvard University Art Museums

From June 10 to September 5, the Fogg Art museum will exhibit an extensive collection of works donated by Sargent's sisters including thirty-three of his rarely shown sketchbooks revealing his preparations for his mural projects. For information call 617-495-9400.

6/11/99 - Jazzy Boston
The 26^th Boston Globe Jazz and Blues Festival
The Newbury Street and Back Bay Guide

Mention Storyville to a jazz lover and most likely they will respond, New Orleans, LA not Boston, MA. The Storyville of New Orleans is where prostitution and jazz flourished from 1896 to 1917 This was the place where Louis Armstrong learned to play the trumpet. Storyville got its name from Alderman Sidney Story, who was responsible for a measure setting aside a section of the French Quarter as an area where prostitution was to be tolerated but not legalized.

The Storyville of Boston had its hey day in the 1950's, was located in Kenmore Square and played just as important a part in the continually evolving jazz scene as did New Orleans, Chicago and New York. Duke Ellington was a regular there and so were Count Basie and Sarah Vaughn. As a matter of fact Boston was littered with jazz clubs like The High Hat Club in Roxbury and Wally's on Massachusetts Ave (where Miles Davis was a frequent quest). The jazz history books may have left out Boston, but Boston has never wavered in its devotion to showcasing jazz music. Today, jazz reigns supreme in clubs like Ryles and the Charles Hotel in Cambridge. And the evolution continues for jazz lovers and all music lovers as we welcome the 1999 Boston Globe Jazz and Blues Festival that will take place from June 20-27.

And so it is fitting that this 26^th Boston Globe Jazz Festival will honor whom some consider the greatest jazz musician, Duke Ellington who would have been 100years old this year. There will be a special tribute entitled, "The Sacred Music of Duke Ellington" at the Emmanuel Church at 15 Newbury Street on June 20. Again, this is Boston's affirmation to jazz as in 1966, the rector of Emmanuel Church played host to the first Boston Globe Jazz and Blues Festival at the Veterans War Memorial Auditorium (now the Hynes Civic Auditorium). Reverend Alvin L. Kershaw a respected jazz authority had the honor to introduce such jazz "Greats" as Sonny Stitt, Zoot Sims, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Alan Dawson, Steve Swallow, Newport All-Stars, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Dizzie Gillespie Quintet, Joe Williams, Benny Goodman Quintet, Herbie Mann Octet and of course the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Wow!

The origins of jazz (1850-1900) came from a variety of cultures and musical influences. The influences seemed to come from all directions, the spirituals and work songs of African origin and the white music of Western Europe with Stephen Foster and the operas of Wagner. At this same time, four million slaves became American citizens. The four million, mixing their African background with the popular and church music around them, were to be the nucleus of jazz. The cakewalk, which originated in the Caribbean, was a music form based on a march, the polka and a two-step gave way to Ragtime. This ushered in mall orchestras, military bands and piano-banjo combos and so emerged the unquiet musical form, jazz.

Since 1850 up to the present time, jazz revealed itself in many exciting and legendary forms. The transgression is as follows: Dixieland, Tin Pan Alley, Boogie Woogie, Swing, Big Bands, Scat, BeHop, Cool, Hard Bop, West Coast Jazz, Free Jazz, Bossa Nova, Jazz Rock, NeoBop, Soul Jazz, Afro-Latin, Acid Jazz, World Fusion, Neoclassical and Modern. Now as we approach the year 2,000, modern jazz continues the tradition of spewing forward more legendary jazz "Greats".

Chick Corea and Gary Burton are celebrating their 25-year collaboration and will perform at the free opening event at the Hatch Shell on June 20. Their union came in 1972 at the Munich Jazz Festival where they participated in an unplanned improvisation billed as "he Art of the Solo". Since then they have delighted audiences around the world and were the first jazz performers to visit the Soviet Union.

Cubanismo who will headline with Chick Corea and Gary Burton at the June 20^th Hatch Shell concert brings his 15-piece Cuban orchestra to Boston fans. Bandleader Jesus Alemany's fiery, intricate arrangements will offer up soaring horn charts, blistering solos and an expanded dimension of exciting vocals. This band is Havana's hottest export and one that will excite the crowd to beg for more.

The Art Ensemble of Chicago will perform at the Berlee Performance Center on June 23. With over 30 years of collaboration, Lester Bowie, trumpet, Don Moye, percussion, Roascoe Mitchell, woodwinds and Malachi Favors, bass and percussion continue to be a daring and influential group. They will perform from their latest album, "Coming Home Jamaica".

Rebecca Paris will delight the audience with her gifted voice both at the Duke Ellington tribute on June 20 and in a Copley Square free afternoon performance with Terence Blanchard on June 26. A Newton native and resident of Duxbury, Rebecca is a jazz singer in the true sense of the word and has received accolades from Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennet and Keith Lockhart.

The John Stein Trio with special guests David "Fathead" Newman and Jack McDuff will perform a free concert in Copley Square on June 23. John Stein hailing from The Berklee College of Music list of credits include on stage performances with some of the world's finest jazz musicians, including Lou Donaldson, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Idris Muhammid.

Carlinhos Brown brings African polyrhythms, Brazilian Candomble chants and Loop Technology to harmony at an evening performance on June 23 at the Roxie. Born in Salvador, Carlinhos took his stage name from the godfather of American Soul Music, James Brown. Twenty-six of Brown's compositions became number one hits in Brazil before he turned his attention to musical bridges with Africa, Brazil, Europe and the USA through collaborations with Lee Ritenour, Bill Laswell, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Sergio Mendes.

Jazz Newbury Street

For seven days Boston will be alive with musical performances both free and ticketed. There is something for everyone. The crowning event will be Globe Jazz on Newbury Street. On Sunday, June 27^th, Newbury Street will become a "cakewalk" closed to traffic and sporting three stages. Performers will be Four Piece Suit, Toni Lynn Washington, Either Orchestra, Ceclia Smith Quartet, Myranna, Ron Bosse & Persuance, Mango Blues, Dan Moretti Brazilia and Cosmos Factor.

In true Newbury Street style, the Newbury Street League will host the Jazz Street Premiere on Thursday, June 17^th. This event marks the 17th annual Newbury Street League Fundraiser while also serving as the kick off event for The Boston Globe Jazz & Blues Festival.

The Jazz Street Premiere will include a VIP reception, an international buffet, live jazz music, and an auction and will be sponsored in part by The Boston Globe and 7 NBC WHDH-TV. The June 17th Fundraiser will benefit the Newbury Street League, a non-profit business association, which helps to maintain, beautify, market and promote Newbury Street and its environs.

"We are taking the best of our previous fundraising traditions and adding them to a splendid new concept", explains Ellen Sibley, Fundraiser Chair and Newbury Street League Board Member, " The new twists have generated a lot of excitement and anticipation for our event."

Jazz Street Premiere promises to be a grand evening. There will be something for everyone from great music to splendid auction items. Some of the items include your own art gallery show at the Judi Rotenberg Gallery on Newbury Street, dinner with the mayor, a wedding beauty package from Giuliano Day Spa, fine dining and accommodations packages, art and antiques and more. Items total over $50,000 in merchandise from one of the nation’s hottest shopping districts, Newbury Street.

The evening begins at 6pm with a VIP reception at Willowbee & Kent, which includes hors d’oeuvres, complimentary beverages, light jazz, and specially designed VIP gift bags. It then moves onto the main event at 7:30pm located in a tented pavilion at 80 Newbury Street with an international buffet, silent and live auction, and live jazz music. Sara Edwards of 7 NBC WHDH-TV will host the event and Skinner, Inc. will run the live auction. Jazz Street Premiere tickets are $45 in advance/ $55 at the door and $85 for VIP tickets that include a special VIP Reception. To purchase tickets or for more information, call the Newbury Street League at (617) 267-2224 or email us at newburystL@aol.com.

Jazz Street Premiere has brought together many different artists and members of the community. Artist Misha Lenn has again demonstrated his great talent and distinctive style in creating the Jazz Street Premiere illustration named "Skip". For Jazz Street Premiere, Misha has generously donated several signed limited edition watercolors for the auction.

The use of watercolor and pen and ink is a favorite of Misha's for he feels it best captures the emotional essence of the subject. The quick strokes create movement and life. His illustrations literally dance off the page and invite you to enter their richly textured world. "I see my work as a celebration. Why do people like my work? Because I take them there, into the world I create."

For further information call the Boston Globe Jazz and Blues hot line at 617-267-4301 or visit www.boston.com/jazzfest. The festival is sponsored by the Boston Globe in association with Marshalls and Saab and is produced by Blackstone Entertainment.

5/28/99 - Hair Apparent - Newbury Street and Back Bay Guide

People are passionate about their hairdressers and no where is it more apparent than on Newbury Street, Boston, MA. With over 50 hair salons gracing an eight-block area you know that hairstyling is happening in a fashionable way. Most of the salons on Newbury Street are less visible than the department stores, galleries, shops and restaurants. The salons reside mostly on the upper and lower levels of buildings. They are a rejuvenating retreat where discerning clients emerge coiffured to blend with the elegance of the "World on a Street". The hair salon role in this community although not flaunted is an integral economic factor. People come in droves on a regular basis creating foot traffic and shoppers. Why would someone plunk down up to $150 for a haircut and what makes the hair salons of Newbury Street so unique?

One reason that people come to Newbury Street for their hair care needs is style. Each and every hair stylist is highly trained and able to offer the latest trends in precision cuts and coloring that meet the needs of the individual. Every person I spoke to in my research for this article spoke of undying devotion to his or her Newbury Street stylist. Each and every client had only accolades to tell. Another area that Newbury Street hair salons reign supreme is in their attention to detail and customer service. Everyone agreed that hair care is a very competitive business and that the most important aspect of survival is customer retention. According to Beth Kurtin, a Back Bay resident and a devoted client of Marco a stylist at I Soci Salon at 8 Newbury Street, "I was so pleased to find Marco and the staff at I Soci. I am very fussy about my hair and at I Soci I am always pleased with the results. More importantly I like the warm reception I get and the generous and caring attention that is always there. For that reason my husband and daughter also get their hair care at I Soci. We have built a family relationship and we are very satisfied."

It's easy to understand this devotion, I Soci Salon, a relative newcomer to the street of two years has a friendly staff that not only provides the essence of the contemporary to their clients but also gives back to the community. The salon does a great deal of charitable work as part of their day to day operations. Marco donates his time to giving haircuts at Children's Hospital and the salon always has a donation bin for such things as food drives, etc. Read I Soci's mission statement at their web site at www.isocisalon.com.

For 30 years, Diego at 143 Newbury Street has been a bustling emporium offering every aspect of expert hair care. As an L'oreal World Council Member, they specialize in color adaptation and correction. Suebelle Robbins, a Back Bay resident and model says, "People stop me on the street and ask about my hair. Nestor at Diego makes me look my best and provides the ultimate in service. I have a busy lifestyle and Diego offers efficiency and comfort. I never feel rushed yet I am never kept waiting. I will never change shops. Nestor has made me a true blonde." Diego also specializes in styling including blow drying and special occasion hair, perm relaxing, pedicures and manicures.

My next stop on my tour of Newbury Street hair salons took me to Salon Mario Russo, a very popular salon now in its 12^th year. With two locations, one at 9 Newbury Street and the other at Louis, Boston at 234 Berkeley Street, Salon Mario Russo offers a wide range of services that are in high demand. Services include expert hair cuts/styling, hair color, hair treatments, updos and skin care. Salon Mario Russo is a favorite for brides looking for that special treatment for hair and makeup for themselves and the bridal party. Ida Faber from the salon says, "We take the anxiety away for the bride. We provide style that is appropriate and we provide exceptional client service." Always looking to provide clients with a wide range of services and convenience, Salon Mario Russo has added a nail technician to their salon at Louis, Boston.

Stephan Coiffeur at 257 Newbury Street says they have spent 14 fabulous years on Newbury Street. As hair color specialists, they have amassed a vast and faithful clientele as well as having retained the best stylists for years. They believe that their success comes from a high level of professionalism and the offering of the most up to date technologies and products. Eleanor Chin a long time client says, At Stephan Coiffeur I feel pampered. The staff is caring and very down to earth. They work with me as an individual to give me exactly the look I want." Stephan Coiffeur is going through a major renovation to bring them into the next millennium.

To return to a statement made in the beginning of my story, the "World on a Street", I must tell you about Konjo at 276 Newbury Street. Sidrah Jackson of BankBoston and a faithful client of Konjo told me about them. I had the most delightful conversation with Tadious one of the seven partners who established Konjo over 2-1/2 years ago. Tadious who comes from Ethiopia told me that the group saved their money for years in order to open the salon on Newbury Street. The idea behind the business was to establish a salon that was international in scope offering full service hair care to peoples of all nationalities. The staff reflects this dedication to the international. They include stylists from Paris, Italy, Ethiopia, Morocco and Poland. Anyone with any hair type can get expert hair styling at Konjo which last April opened a second salon at 35 Newbury Street. Tadious says that the name of the salon evokes many inquiries. The word konjo has many meanings in many languages but in Ethiopian it means beautiful which is what you will experience after a visit to this contemporary and interesting salon. Unique to the business, Konjo operates seven days a week to accommodate today's busy client.

Newbury Street is a haven for body and hair luxuries. The best of the best are recruited to work their magic tirelessly so we can look and feel our best. If you are looking for a new style or for old fashioned customer service, visit a Newbury Street salon today.

Writers Note: I was so impressed by the quality and quantity of accolades for Newbury Street hair stylists that we have decided to find the most popular hair stylist and profile them in a future issue. Please vote for your favorite stylist on the ballot provided.

5/28/99 - Breezing to Nantucket Island on Cape Air - Newbury Street and Back Bay Guide

There once was a man from Nantucket,
Who kept all of his cash in a bucket,
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man,
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.
-Princeton Tiger

Bostonians are lucky in that they have many options for escaping the hustle and bustle of the city. We can leave the city behind and within a few hours deposit our stressed bodies and minds into much calmer environments such as breezy Cape Cod and the Islands, the majestic mountains of New Hampshire or the cooling beaches of Maine. As a native Bostonian who lives the "Type A" lifestyle, I have journeyed to all these Mecca's frequently searching for rest and relaxation. The only place I had not visited was Nantucket Island. For some reason Nantucket Island seemed a hassle. The Island seemed too far away. I thought that the stress of getting there was more than I needed to add to my harried life. Recently I found a wonderful solution to the problem and in the meantime added a delightful destination to my R & R repertoire.

Short of time and patience, I decided to make my Nantucket island retreat happen quickly. I was not in the mood to idle in highway traffic for hours. I did not want to deal with ferry parking and huge crowds. Instead I took a short, delightful; ride on a Cape Air plane. Upon arriving at Logan Airport, I boarded a small ten-passenger plane and within 40 minutes was on Nantucket Island. My very first reaction was "Why didn't I think of this before?" The experience was pleasant and efficient. The blue and white planes with their distinctive sea gull logo are my new preferred mode of transportation.

Nantucket, a tiny island 30 miles out to sea south from Cape Cod is a quaint place to visit. Established in 1672, wealth came to the island in the 1700's through whaling. Upon the decline of the whaling industry in the 1870's, the island made a transition to the resort industry and continues to cater to this industry today. It is a true vacationer's paradise offering a bevy of activities along with relaxation. Nantucket Island offers boating, fishing, swimming, bicycling, golfing, nature walks, shopping and dining. It is important to note that for an Island with a landmass of only 48 miles, 35 percent of the island is held in conservation. It is a great place to experience nature and solitude far away from the maddening crowd.

My favorite activity and one that Nantucket offers in abundance is art. The island hosts many fine artists and craftsmen. Galleries, shops and organizations welcome visitors and offer up a wide variety of mediums - paintings, jewelry, hand made furniture, antiques, theater, music, film and photography. I took particular delight in noticing the multiple motifs used by artists for the famous Nantucket Lightship Baskets. Nantucket Light Baskets are one of the most widely recognized regional basketry styles in the country today. They had their humble beginnings during the whaling era and evolved to the distinctive form created in the 1940's by Jose Reyes when he added a lid to the basket and made purses. The purses, which are highly prized collectibles often, incorporate carved ivory or scrimshaw as a decoration for the lid. Nantucket Lightship Baskets have developed such a following that you can find the motif used in note cards, fine china, Christmas ornaments, lamps and jewelry.

Nantucket Island also has many museums and historic sites to visit. You can immerse yourself in the history of the island at the Whaling Museum and the Nantucket Life Saving Museum. You can learn about the life and times of America's first woman astronomer at the Maria Mitchell Library. Or visit Moors End, one of Nantucket's most magnificent historic houses built between 1829 and 1834 by Jared Coffin a wealthy whaling merchant. Not to be missed is Sankaty Lighthouse on the bluff near Siasconset. This beacon has warned ships of Nantucket's dangerous shoals for 137 years.

My visit to Nantucket Island was brief but dense enough to have me clamoring for more. I hated the thought of returning to the city but the flight back was magnificent as it afforded me a spectacular aerial view of the land that I claim as home. There is no prettier site than flying into Logan Airport. This land offers it all - a place to both work and play. I plan on returning to Nantucket Island frequently to take advantage of all that the island has to offer for that much needed rest and relaxation. And of course that desire to return is sweetened at the thought of being able to get there quickly and without hassle on Cape Air. As an added incentive, Cape Air offers frequent flyers a discount coupon book.

I was delighted to find out that Cape Air has convenient connections to other get away destinations as well. They service Cape Cod and the Islands (Hyannis, Provincetown, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket) and also fly to Providence, Bedford, Outer Banks of North Carolina, the Florida Keys and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For information about Cape Air call 1-800-352-0714 or visit www.flycapeair.com

For a complete calendar of events visit www.yesterdaysisland.com/events.shtml or call 508-228-9165.

5/14/99 - A World of Discovery in Your Own Back Yard
May is Museum Goers Month - Newbury Street and Back Bay Guide

One of my favorite ways to spend time entertaining myself is to visit a