Roberta: Hi everyone, it’s Roberta.

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

Roberta: On Artblog Radio, the Delaware Art Museum. So I’ll start here first if we’re plowing right into the news, I’m going to plow right into Delaware. The Delaware Art Museum has a new grant-funded project called Drum Roll del Art Cinema.

Presents. They have a grant funding opportunity here to allow them to bring all kinds of filming to, they must have an auditorium in their building anyway. They have, and it’s in conjunction with their exhibits. So the first programs, film programs are going to compliment their jazz age illustration, exhibition, all the classics singing in the rain, the Roaring Twenties.

Some like it hot. Then for some reason they threw in this French art house film, the Rules of the Game which is a great film, but I really was surprised to see that in the mix. And then there’s a kid’s film, the Iron Giant. Then in February, they have Love in the Nineties and they’re going to show it’s a celebration of Black History Month.

Spike Lees Crooklyn, the Original House Party, a Valentine’s Weekend screening of Love Jones. Ending the month was Love and Basketball and the kids are going to see Good Burger. Huh? There. It sounded like a good, good project and you know, congratulations and I hope people show up. I hope it’s a, a success.

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

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

Turkey saved my life. I did not realize I’m not a scholar of course, but James Baldwin lived in Turkey for quite a number of years, and I didn’t know that he was at a point where. He was very well known in America as a civil rights activist and was sort of vilified all over the place for that. So he lived in Istanbul from 61 to 71, and apparently, it was transformative for him.

He needed to get out of America. He says America was killing him. So I learned about this. There’s a New Yorker article by Doreen St. Felix explaining about this. So thank you Doreen, for letting me know, but I’m going to make it over to Brooklyn and see this show. He had a friend who was a photographer, the name is AK Paquet, did a lot of intimate photos of Baldwin and his friends and Baldwin on the street.

There’s a lot of street photography. He apparently. I felt very comfortable there. Huh. So I thought that was really a good show to go see. I would, I love James Baldwin’s writings and so I want to go see him in Turkey and learn more about this. Then of course, the standard is I want to go to the Met Museum, which has the show Sienna the Rise of Painting, 1300 to 13, 15 50 rather.

Five zero. And also something called the flight into Egypt, which I thought was really a nice biblical kind of turn of phrase, but it’s black artists and ancient Egypt, 1876 to now, so you know, Egypt as an inspiration to black artists. I thought those were go both really very good shows to try to see.

Hopefully we won’t have to elbow our way through. I don’t know what the crowds are going to be like, but. Fingers crossed on that. Finally, the Jewish Museum, which I confess I’ve never been to, but has a good bunch of programs. They have a show Philip Guston and Trenton Doyle Hancock and Trenton Doyle Hancock, who actually, he’s a Texas artist.

I’m not sure that he lives there anymore, but he went to school at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. So he is got a Philadelphia connection. Which is neither here nor there, but I just mentioned that. And he’s been dealing with Trenton Doyle Hancock for quite a while, apparently, and that makes a lot of sense.

And so his paintings show some of the hooded KKK creatures that Guston is so famous for in his late paintings. And I thought that would be a wonderful show to go see as well.

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

Roberta: It’ll keep us busy and we’re only there for, if you don’t count the travel day.

We’re only there for two days, so it’s going to be a lot to pack in. So wish me luck.

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

Roberta: Yeah exactly.

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

Roberta: Oh, I’m going to try to go to that show at the library. Yes, if I can. The James Baldwin, it’s up till March.

30th, I think so. Or 15th. So there is time to go back. Yes. March 15th. It closes. It just opened December 12th, so it’s, it’s brand new. Okay. The Met shows I think are up for a while also. The Jewish Museum Show is up till March 30th, so that too is up a while. We’ll see what I can get to. Great.

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

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

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

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

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

But that obviously makes sense, but there’s plenty of events coming up. Just a couple that are closing. There’s a couple theatrical shows that are closing this week. So if you, if you are looking for something very specific, there are, there are plenty of things that are closing or have closed.

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

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

That could be a of interest to a lot of our listeners and readers. So I’ll mention those. I’ll save those for next time since they’re, they’re currently available on the website, but just to keep them up to date on what’s happening. The listings stay current. I’ll mention those next week, but those are the big ones.

If you’re looking for a fun show, quite a few that are still happening. A few of the fun shows that opened late November into December, those are still ongoing, so grab those before they close, and usually they start closing third, fourth, 5th of January and get into the new, new season. Still some Barrymore-recommended theater, if you’re interested in that as well.

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

Roberta: sorry. No, we should also mention that the museums are open and there’s some ongoing shows that are good. If you haven’t seen the Mickaline Thomas at Barnes Foundation, the, the time is always now at the art music, PMA. Very good shows. I’m sure they have all kinds of holiday programming going on.

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

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

There’re probably someone doing some new stuff.

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

Ryan: the, they probably still have gallery openings, but I, I imagine there’s going to be some, but the, I imagine the galleries will all be open again, as usual. Just, just a different vibe.

And that Mickaline and Thomas show closes in just a couple weeks too. So if you do want to see that, that’s open just until the 12th. So have just a couple weeks left for that.

Roberta: Good to know.

Ryan: But what I was going to mention was someone was saying their, their holiday film of choice this year is Nosferatu.

Which I thought was really funny. So, and if you want to go see that, that’s also happening at the Film Society, as has shows of the, amongst other places, a bunch of a MC theaters and landmarks have it. But

Roberta: yeah. Well that goes along with the whole Krampus movement. You know, the Krampus? I don’t even know.

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

Ryan: Yeah. There you go. And it has Willem Defoe as the Nosferatu, which I think is, he’s an interesting character.

You’d probably be really good at that. That must

Roberta: be a new version, is that It is,

Ryan: It’s the updated, it’s a brand new version. Okay. Which I think is interesting. It came out on, on December 25th, so it’s, is it Werner

Roberta: Haw that did the older version That was, I. I don’t even remember. I think it was, but it may not be quite a

Ryan: few.

Roberta: Well, the one I remember seeing is that I, if it was Werner Herzog, that’s, that’s the one.

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

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

Ryan: It’s a vampire

Roberta: story,

Ryan: so if you haven’t seen it, it is a horror-ish film. Depending on how you score your horror films.

What about Roberta, I’m curious, 2024, any big highlights or things that surprised you or I. Key takeaways from the year?

Roberta: Well, apart from what we put in the LABAs, you mean Everybody should read the LABAs. Those are LABAs. The biggest Chano was U Arts closing. Abruptly without any advance notice leaving students and faculty in the lurch, as in no paychecks, but tuition due.

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

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

There was nothing you could do literally in the US fiasco. Shortly before that, PAA stopped. Or announced it was stopping its master’s program, MFA and BFA programs, and that too hit like a thunderbolt out of the blue. People did not expect it and there’s I think a lot of soul-searching going on at PA right now and rebuilding, and restructuring, which is good.

And I mean, we wish them well. Again, it was that instance of your bedrocks of the arts community, institutions being just exploded in front of your eyes and you lose confidence. It’s a really. It was a terrible year. What do you think, Ryan? What were some of your, you know, high points, low points of the year?

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

In 2025, I was excited that some of our big metrics and numbers for the Artblog increase and some of them substantially like our, our newsletter follow following and we’re approaching 300 podcasts on, on. Spotify and Apple. So I think there’s, there’s a lot of things that are moving positive for me. I’m certainly happy to be done with 24 and move on to something new again and again in, in leadership PO place positions like city government and whatever.

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

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

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

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

Ryan: It is.

Roberta: And that’s unfortunately being foisted upon the rest of us. And it’s going to do disastrous things to septa.

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

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

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

Do they fund their art making? 99.9% of them that should be celebrated, and that should always be celebrated and hoped for in the future. That 2024 was not soul killing for them, so that they’re going to close up their studio and say, I just can’t do it anymore. That is wrong.

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

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

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

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

Ryan: yes.

Absolutely. There’s a lot of things forthcoming. Did a lot. There’s a lot more to do. There’s a lot we covered and there’s a lot more to be covered. So yeah, I want to go out on a high note yes, and go into 20, 25 rare raring to go and yes, excited to for the next.

Roberta: All, all of that production, not consumption.

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

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

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

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

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

Ryan: Yes, absolutely.

Roberta: That’s it for me too.

Done preaching.

Ryan: Yeah. Sounds good.

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

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

Roberta: Yep. And Roberto saying bye-bye.

Ryan: Bye-bye.