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Laura Quackenbush, High 5 Staff

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Saturday afternoon myself and two totally AWESOME High 5 Teen Reviewers and Critics ran a teen workshop at the Joan Mitchell Foundation and Noguchi Museum’s Careers in the Arts Fair, 2011.  The day was full of workshops with everything from comic book artists to fashion designers and even filmmakers!

In our workshop we spoke a bit about the High 5 Tickets to the Arts program and my two assistants, Joe Strong and Maya Whalen, spoke about how they have grown in the New York City arts scene as a result of starting their journey with the High 5 program.

As the workshop went on, we talked a lot about discussing art as a community.  As we did a mock-TRaC writing exercise the discussion took flight!  I was so impressed and moved by the participants’ interpretations that I wanted to share it here and pose the same questions to you.

The two pieces of work we focused on were Isamu Noguchi’s Policeman and Sun at Noon (both pictured below).  Here are some of the questions we asked about the pieces:

The Policeman, 1950

1.    What do you think the titles of these two pieces are?

“The Martian”
“Black Hole”
The Moon”
2.    How does each piece make you feel?

“It reminds me of the circle of life”
“Confused”
“Hypnotized”
“Like I can jump through to another dimension”

Sun at Noon, 1969

3.    Pick one word from the inside of your Noguchi tablet to describe each piece.
“Unique and Harmonious”

“Creative and Tranquil”

“Bold and Serenity”

It’s like he has a hard shell on the outside to hide the emptiness on the inside, only filled by his billy club.” Student comment on The Policeman

The use of different materials represents the ups and downs, rough and smooth spots you might face throughout your life.” Student comment on Sun at Noon

 

What are your thoughts about these works?

Post in the comments below!!

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Last week was one where the stars aligned and somehow each day I had an arts experience worth writing about.  So instead of picking just one, I’d like to pay homage to each of them in what I’d like to call “Laura’s Week in the Arts”.

Monday: From March 25th-30th the American Folk Art Museum presented: Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts at the Park Avenue Armory.  Luckily, I had a two-hour chunk in the middle of my day to go check it out.  I wouldn’t necessarily label myself a “quilt person”, but the spectacle of this exhibit was completely worth the trip.

It’s unbelievable that one person, Joanna S. Rose, has collected over 1,000 red and white quilts through the years (650 of them on display in this particular exhibit), yet to see the vast, gravity-defying display guest curator Elizabeth V. Warren has fashioned is transforming.  As you enter, the quilts – like fanned out playing cards across the 55,00-square-foot hall- poetically lead you through a wonderland of infinite red and white immersion.  An arts experience both visually and physically gratifying in its magnitude.

Laura’s Review: Two thumbs up, possibly suspended in air!

 

Tuesday: Cactus Flower at the Westside Theatre, directed by Michael Bush, definitely let me down this week.  One of the lead roles, Toni, is a character I’ve always wanted to play but had never seen performed live.  In the 1969 version, Goldie Hawn won an Oscar for her spunky, naïve, pixie-haired delivery of Toni.   I’m not sure if in this adaptation Ms. Barber thought she could win an Oscar or not, but, her almost perfect mimic of Hawn’s performance is obvious and annoying, right down the same exact pixie hairdo.

Lois Robbins, who played the nurse, eventually brought the play back to life in the second act with her glamorous blooming and newfound no-nonsense attitude.  However, the plea of one cast member during curtain call for us to use our electronic devices to help them fill the seats of the theatre was completely unprofessional and left a bad taste in my mouth.  All in all, it was great to finally see the play performed live for character research reasons alone. [click to continue….]

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Nathan Lane? Ehh…not after The Adam’s Family. Stephen Sondheim?… Lately, it just might seem so. Hmm…David Mamet?

Good guesses my friends! Those might have been my top 3 picks for the most powerful man on Broadway, if not for the incredible authority one man in our topsy, turvy, consistently weight shifting world of Broadway expressed this past weekend. Yes, I speak of none other than Chief Theater Critic for the New York Times, the one, the only: Ben Brantley.

This subtle, yet rocking display of muscle might have gone unnoticed by the average NYC theatergoer. However, my position as a part-time box office employee at the Duke on 42nd Street forced me to witness the hurricane forces that one man’s pen can employ. [click to continue….]

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