Manton Avenue Project (MAP) Founder and Artistic Director Jenny Peek and The Hive Archive Executive Director Alyssa Holland Short on collaborating for MAP’s “You’re Not The Boss Of Me! the empowerment plays”, on stage March 26 thru 28.

MAP teams up children living in Olneyville with adult theater artists, and together they create original theater; the vast majority of MAP’s plays are written by kids and acted and directed by adults. The Hive is women-run feminist arts organization with a mission to promote gender equality and a focus on empowerment through art, creative expression, and civic involvement. A bit of collaborative brainstorming last year led to this month’s homage to Women’s History Month, “YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME! the empowerment plays.“ Reps from The Hive will visit MAP’s playmaking classroom of young playwrights (all of them first-time playwrights, all in third grade, half of them boys) to talk about women’s issues and the feminist movement; the kids will then each write a short play all about Girl Power. Join Peek and Short for a conversation about collaboration, art, and empowerment.

For info on MAP and the 3/26-28 performances: mantonavenueproject.org; for info on The Hive Archive: hivearchive.org

5pm to 7pm, Friday at the Athenaeum, and Daily Dose readers are welcome to attend for free.

Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics for the musical West Side Story and I think I know all of them by heart. And that is the extent of my Sondheim knowledge. But he has been a dominant force in the American theater scene for decades and has legions of passionate fans. On Saturday New York Times columnist Frank Rich will moderate a conversation with Sondheim in an event sponsored by the Creative Arts Council at Brown University.

Actually, Frank Rich has a greater claim on my affection. I used to read his stuff even when he was the New York Times drama critic, not because I was ever going to go see a play, but because his writing is so damn good. Saturday’s event is open to the public — first come, first seated. Guests will have an opportunity to submit written questions for Mr. Sondheim at the event.

Saturday, 8pm to 10pm, Salomon Center, 69 Waterman Street, Room 101, info at 863.1934

Wooster Group Visits Brown/RISD

February 4, 7:30-9pm
Metcalf Auditorium at the Chase Center, RISD
20 N. Main St. Providence, RI
Free and Open to the Public

Influential multimedia theater troupe The Wooster Group visits Brown/RISD as part
of The Brown Multimedia and Electronic Music Experiments (MEME) department’s Visiting Artist Series, “Taking Stock: The Challenges and Opportunities of Interactive Technology in Performance and
Installation.”

Group members Kate Valk (performer and founding member), Scott Shepherd (performer), Andrew Schneider (video production) and Matt Schloss (audio production) will give a public presentation/panel discussion which will include a brief overview of their work mixing experimental theater and live mixed media production, as well as a panel discussion with audience Q+A.

Sponsored by the Watson Institute for International Studies, the Creative Arts Council, the Brown Music Dept., and the Rhode Island School of Design.

For more info, please visit: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Music/sites/meme/events_vas.html

In our grand tradition of only bringing you news at the last possible second, we’d like to draw your attention to the second annual New England Art Awards, voting for which ends tomorrow (Sunday).  Lots and lots and Providence artists and galleries got nominated for the awards, which are organized by Phoenix art critic Greg Cook, and this year’s ballot is a lot less unwieldy than last year’s, so you may want to check it out.

While, more than anything, the ballot just made me gloomy about all the shows I wanted to see but didn’t (ie. the ACT UP retrospective at Harvard), a couple of ones I actually saw made the cut.  Michael Bizon’s instillation at 5 Traverse was great, as was Joe Deal’s landscape photography at the RISD Museum.  Shepard Fairey also got two indirect nominations, sort of:  one for the Boston Police Department’s showy arrest, and another for the anonymous artist that spraypainted dollar signs at the AS220 Mercantile Block.  (On a more community-minded note, Lydia Stein’s giant mural on a Smith Hill home was nominated in that same category.)  And Maya Allison from 5 Traverse got a well-deserved nomination in the “local curator of local art” category.

Winners will be announced on February 8 at the New England Art Awards Ball, which will take place at an Irish bar in Somerville.  Er…

[image via One Photo Every Day]

Go inside and see real live artists in their natural habitat (quiet please, mating season).

Ever wonder what’s happening on on the other floors of AS220? Curious about AS220’s history? Come on down and take a free tour of AS220 with artistic director and founder Bert Crenca! Meet in the Bar & Restaurant area at 115 Empire St. to join in.

Like what you see? There are currently two live/work studio vacancies at this location. Contact Susan Clausen at 831.9327.

6pm to 7pm, free, Thursday, AS220, 115 Empire Street

Three things happening tonight, all of which are conveniently located on the same corner:

Local filmmaker Faythe Levine curated the show opening at Craftland, which features work by Merrilee Challiss and Margaret Oomen.  From the press release:

Merrilee brings her gouache and ink images of a darkly humorous view of natural history all the way from Birmingham, Alabama. Hailing from Aurora, Ontario, Margaret makes work that combines her fascination with science as a medical doctor with her love of nature to create crochet covered stones featuring fractal patterns and Fibonacci sequences.*

Also from the press release:

This show is not to be missed.

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WaterFire Providence would like you to see some photos from their New Year’s Eve 2009 Masquerade Party (held at the Old Stone Bank on S. Main, a beautiful building inside and out). The party celebrated not only the end of another brilliant year for WaterFire it kicked off their 15th year of public art in Downtown Providence.

Attention starving artists — the deadline for submissions is January 15th for a juried show at the Providence Art Club.

The Providence Art Club invites New England artists to submit recent, original works to the 12th Annual Fidelity Investments “Extreme Scale” All Media Juried Art Exhibition. Deadline is January 15.

More than $1,700 in cash prizes will be awarded by a panel of community jurors including Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council and Rhode Island Senate Majority Leader Dan Connors. U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) will be the honorary chair for the show.  In addition to three cash prizes, Fidelity will purchase one work for its permanent collection. Submissions will be exhibited at the Providence Art Club from February 28 to March 19.

For more more information, call the Providence Art Club at 401.331.1114.

Okay. . . politicians and art. . . there’s a natural combination. But the Art Club will run things properly I’m sure, and there’s actual money!

Admission to the musem is free all day Christmas eve. This gallery has couches and chairs in it so you can take a load off. People often nap here. And there is a gift shop.

Thursday, 10am to 5pm, RISD Museum, 224 Benefit Street, 454.6500

From Damian Ewens:

This Thursday night, Firehouse13 founder and burgeoning fashion designer Nick Bauta, collaborates with Mike Rinaldi and Joan Wyand for a first time show of Nick’s wild new pieces.

Think sexy industrial leather dominatrix, meets lace infusion with Olneyville punk knitting.

Music by DJs Dave Allyn and Damian Ewens, aka Unkle Thirsty and Lively Experiment.
Dub dub dub, 8pm, $5, Thursday, preceded by a holiday art sale.

It’s the 25th Anniversary of AS220!

AS220 is turning 25 and, like anyone hell-bent on a respectable-quarter life crisis, we’re unleashing a stream of oh-so-visible festivities to make sure the town knows.

The front of AS220’s Mercantile Block building, currently under construction on downtown Washington Street, has been transformed into an ever-changing public art gallery. Saturated projections of local art, events, and shows of the past can be seen from sundown to sunrise over the next two weeks, celebrating AS220’s 25 years of history and Rhode Island’s frenetic
music scene and renowned arts community.

This art happening kicks off a year-long spiral of debauchery into uncharted depths of birthday indulgence, and is meant to highlight AS220’s 25th Anniversary Annual Fund Drive.

AS220 needs individual donations of any size to help us meet our annual budget. Keep rock alive! Donate at as220.org! (I’ll sing “We Built This City” on your voicemail.) Thank you!

Hedonistic? Sure. Dionysian? Possibly. Narcissistic? No comment. You only turn 25 once.

The 105th Annual Little Pictures Show & Sale continues at the Providence Art Club. (Read the history of the club — the founding artists and collectors sound like the 1880 version of AS220, with a little Trinity mug club mixed in.)

The galleries will be home to an array of diverse multi-media works, all for $250 or less.
The Club’s newly renovated spaces will feature pieces by more than 100 of its artist members. Blending together a collection of timeless landscapes and still lifes with intricate glass works and mixed media assemblages, this medley of mediums and styles are sure to satisfy every art aficionado. Purchases can be picked up immediately, an ideal opportunity to give the gift of art to someone special for the holidays.
Deacon Taylor House at the Providence Art Club will also host open artist studios on Saturday and Sunday, December 12th and 13th, from 10am to 4pm.

Providence Art Club, 11 Thomas Street, sale through December 24, 331.1114

Approximately 99% of all the species that have ever existed are now extinct, and man had nothing to do with most of that. But the passenger pigeon? This one’s on us.  And we didn’t do it by slowly destroying their habitat — we actually blasted every last one of them out of the sky. Although in truth, the very last one one died in captivity. According to the Encyclopedia Smithsonian,

The last known individual of the passenger pigeon species was “Martha” (named after Martha Washington). She died at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden, and was donated to the Smithsonian Institution, where her body was once mounted in a display case with this notation:

MARTHA — Last of her species, died at 1pm, 1 September 1914, age 29, in the Cincinnati Zoological Garden — EXTINCT

This feat of annihilation is all the more remarkable when you consider its scope — firsthand accounts of their migrations describe enormous flocks darkening the skies for days. (What would it be like if this was still happening in modern America?) The extinction of species, avian migration, and memory have inspired a new exhibition at the Bell Gallery by artist Rachel Berwick — Zugunruhe*. The ‘birds’ are in the second room, but stop and read at least some of the text (eyewitness reports) on the walls in the first room. It prepares your mind.

David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, 64 College Street, 863.2932, through February 14

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Wanted to let folks know about the Westminster Stories project which opened this week.  (Am I right that the opening reception is tomorrow night?)

Westminster Stories is a collection of facts, memories, and stories about two blocks of a single street in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. It is a creation of The Museum On Site.

The centerpiece of Westminster Stories is an exhibit on public display in an empty storefront at 191 Westminster Street, running from December 2, 2009 to March 12, 2010, with themed labels that change weekly.

This website documents some of the stories we’ve been told, and facts we have uncovered in our research. Click here to tell us what you know about the street.

I meant to post this earlier, but still time. Check out Doris to Darlene, the new show at the Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Department at Brown. the next show to go up for the Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Dept at Brown University. This show a Senior Showcase Performance — it’s directed by a student (Chris Tyler ‘10), and completely student-created, with only budget, space, and mentoring from staff and faculty.

A beautifully brainy valentine to the transformative potential of music, Jordan Harrison MFA 03’s Doris to Darlene is a soulfully crafted trio of love stories that follows the transpositions of one timeless song across the ages. In the candy-colored 1960s, biracial schoolgirl Doris is molded into pop star Darlene by a whiz-kid record producer who culls a top-ten hit out of Richard Wagner’s “Liebestod.”

Tickets are $7 for students, $12 for staff/faculty/seniors, and $17 for everybody else, and are available at 401.863.2838 or brown.edu/tickets.

Four shows at 8pm Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 2pm, Leeds Theatre, Waterman Street

Craftland’s year-round now, but there’s still the big holiday a-do this Friday, along with a ton of other holiday happenings:

* Craftland Show Opening Party: December 4, 5-9pm. The first 300 shoppers will receive the highly-coveted goodie bags.
* Girls Rock RI Party: December 9, 6-9pm
* Buy Art Reception: December 10, 5-8pm
* Hive O’Clock Happy Hour Workshop: Dec. 15th, 5:30-7pm! $10
* Meet the Artists Evening: December 17th, 5-8pm