Since 1994, Dance Theatre of Arlington’s I AM! program has given elementary school students the opportunity to interact with arts professionals. The VIBE talked with Rebecca Boles, Persis Ann Forster, and others to learn more about it. Our video features their interview, as well as highlights from last year’s show, which took place at UTA’s Texas Hall.

This year’s show is coming up Wednesday, May 18th,   and  Thursday the 19th at Texas Hall.

 For more info call 817.860.1327

The Hundred Dresses

- a story about bullying, taking responsibility, and living with the consequences of our actions
adapted by Mary Hall Surface from the endearing Newbery Honor Book by Eleanor Estes.

The play, set in 1930s small-town America, tells the story of elementary school students and their treatment of a new girl, Wanda Petronski, fresh from Poland with her one plain dress and easily mocked accent. The taunting of the children forces the new girl’s father to pack up and move, and it forces the children to face the consequences of their behavior.

The director of the play, Joe Chapa, an Associate Theatre Professor at UT Arlington, says this about the play: “Every time we rehearse The Hundred Dresses, I get chills. I know that the children who will be in the audience are the children that need to see it the most. It’s a touching story, full of hope.”

The Hundred Dresses opens March 25, with evening performances on Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and afternoon shows on Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. through April 3. Call now for information on daytime shows for school groups on Thursday, March 31. Tickets are only $8 for adults; $6 for students (ages 4+), military, and seniors (ages 55+); and $2 for a lap pass for ages 3 yrs. and younger.

Creative Arts Theatre & School is located at 1100 West Randol Mill Road, 76012.
For more info: contact CATS at 817-861-2287 or visit the website at  www.creativearts.org

The Gallery at The University of Texas at Arlington is pleased to present Introductions: Seiji Ikeda, Ya’Ke Smith & Tore Terrasi, as part of an ongoing series of exhibitions featuring recent additions to the UT Arlington Art & Art History Department Faculty. This exhibition introduces the work of three tenure-track assistant professors who are also active exhibiting artists, designers and filmmakers.

Seiji Ikeda was raised in Manhattan, KS where “Growing  up as a Japanese-American in mid-Kansas offered  interesting life experiences and perspectives to say the  least.” He spent a good portion of his education studying to  be a medical doctor, enrolling in art classes to fulfill his  electives; but he eventually decided to pursue the arts full-  time. Ikeda received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Visual  Communications from Kansas State University in 2008. His  work centers around the concept of the web as a mini-  cosmos that is reflective of our real world culture. He works  both in digital prints and the emerging field of web art and continues to research new technologies and the digital age as related to the web, digital ethnography, gaming and world cultures.

Ya’Ke Smith received his MFA in film production and  direction from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006.  The founder and CEO of Exodus Filmworks, he has  received worldwide acclaim for his films, screening and  winning awards at more than 40 film festivals, including The Cannes International Film Festival and The American Black Film Festival. They have also been screened on HBO, Showtime and BET J. Smith states, “In my work, I find those characters that are constantly marginalized in Hollywood cinema and flesh them out – creating vivid images of the people I know… People who are just trying to make it from day to day and better themselves, even if their way of going about it is sometimes flawed.”

Tore Terrasi likens his approach to the creative  process to that of a benign mad scientist. He  explores the evolutionary nature of meaning through  typography, and personal identity through self  portraiture. He draws from a wide range of  disciplines including motion graphics, digital art,  typography, graphic design, photography, sound and music, creative writing, interactive media, and 3D animation, as well as the traditional fine art disciplines. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Visual Design in 2005 from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and his work and performances have been nationally and internationally exhibited.

Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday 10A.M. – 5 P.M., Saturday 12 – 5P.M.

LOCATION: on first floor in room 169 at the north end of the Fine Arts Building, UTA Campus, 502 S. Cooper St.

All artist information and thumbnails taken from Gallery website.

Oct. 1 – 30, 2010

Area artists have responded to the AMA’s Second Annual Artist Showcase call for entries, and the museum is full of a lively display of local artistic talent. 143 artists have contributed a total of 263 works of art that will be on display October 1 – 30, 2010. Whatever your taste in art, we have it.

The reception for the Artist Showcase is Friday, October 8, from 6 to 9 pm. Come by and see this outstanding exhibit.

Art Pick-up: Saturday, October 30, 2010, 10 am – 5 pm

LOCATION: 201 W. Main St., 76010

MUSEUM HOURS:

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; 1 pm to 5 pm

Saturday: 10 am to 5 pm

Sunday: 12 pm to 5 pm

PRICE: Admission is free, but donations are welcome.

TEXAS GUITAR SHOW

Arlington Convention Center

The guitar expo includes chances to buy, sell and trade guitars and guitar-related items, plus performances by Larry Briggs, John Brinkmann, Dave Crocker, and Eugene Robertson.

At 2 p.m. Saturday, visitors can bring their guitars to participate in an attempt to set a world record for the most guitarists playing the same song at the same time in the same venue. The song is “Louie Louie.”

Children 11 and younger admitted free if accompanied by an adult.

LOCATION: 1200 Ballpark Way, 76011

PRICE: $15

We went behind the scenes with Director Kim LaFontaine to bring you an intimate look at this exciting production!

“Cabaret” show times are 8 p.m. on Oct. 15, 16, 21, 22 and 23, and 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 24.

For tickets or more information, call the box office at (817) 272-2669.

Registration begins 10:30 am October 9

Presented by Christopher R. Coppola’s (the older brother of Nicolas Cage) PAH Nation and the Arlington Museum of Art
Free and open to the public. Families are encouraged to participate together.

Project Objectives
Through a four-day digital media festival, participants in miniPAH will experience digital technology education, skills development and community engagement, while acquiring cultural awareness and having fun through artistic expression.

Festival Activities
Festival participants visit the local PAH-FEST “hub” and are provided with video- enabled cell phones and a professional “helping hand,” enabling them to create their own short digital films. The finished work is posted on the PAH Nation online theater at www.pahnation.org, where it is reviewed by the public and a pool of PAH celebrity judges. The awards ceremony, held locally at the conclusion of the festival, is web cast live on the PAH Nation website, and winners receive recognition at the ceremony, a certificate and monetary award. All submissions are posted to the PAH Nation wesite and remain there indefinitely for viewing. Categories include:

Arlington Museum of Art    201 West Main St, 76010

7th Annual — September 25, 2010  

In anticipation of this year’s Front Street Festival, Arlington Historical Society Director, Geraldine Mills, takes us on a video tour of some of the most happening places in Arlington — Fielder House, the newly-renovated Arlington Music Hall, Levitt Pavilion Arlington, Theatre Arlington, and Knapp Park.

Front Street Fesitval is an exciting and affordable weekend celebration. Watch this video to learn about all of the weekend events you can attend in addition to the fun at Front Street!

Tumbling Tumbleweeds - 16 x 20
on MDF board Acrylic paper collage

For this native Texan, each new project is like the first day of a journey, bringing surprise and joy from the “detours” of endless amounts of information on new methods and techniques. Nancy’s paintings capture a moment in time during her life experiences at home in Texas or in travel. Her daily inspirations might be Parker County peaches, or a gecko in the bathtub. The journey in Art Journaling is the reward with each new friend and each new travel destination, for which she has incredible enthusiasm.

Summer Friends - 11 x 15 Watercolor

“There is a constant race against time, some risks, and so much to learn in the search for the beauty and joy in paints, water, paper and canvas,” Nancy believes. “All that I see and experience has the potential for a painting or a journal entry.”

Coming up in November, Nancy will be teaching a class on “Art Journaling” at Arlington’s Upstairs Gallery. You can find out more details on her blog. Works from previous Art Journaling classes and retreats can be seen on her blog.

Nancy loves “jumping around” on her painting styles, she says, because she likes to experiment. Her art is a means of self-expression that is constantly evolving and taking a new direction. She tends to use intuitive colors and is comfortable with representational and non-objective subjects. Nancy says, “I don’t strive for a photographic reproduction of an image as I feel like a camera can do a better job. Art has an emotional dimension and I’d like to leave something for the viewer’s imagination.”

Since retiring from being an elementary school librarian in 2000, Nancy has been able to put more and more time into her art. With degrees and certifications from Texas Woman’s University and University of North Texas, Nancy is an active member in the Arlington Visual Arts Association, the Society of Watercolor Artists of Fort Worth, and the International Society of Experimental Artists, among other groups.

Nancy’s work can be seen at local shows and galleries such as F6 and Upstairs Gallery, as well as on her website and her blog. There, she also features other artists and talks about various workshops and seminars that she attends. Nancy is a founding member of the Canvas by Canvas collaborative art group of Arlington, TX. In this group, each artist paints a gallery-wrapped canvas which is then assembled and framed into a finished piece of fine art.

“Painting has enriched my life and creative spirit. I enjoy the process because it’s fun, energizing, challenging, and it provides a beautiful and pleasing journey of new places and new friends.”

To learn more about Nancy Standlee, visit her websites and blog:
http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com
http://canvasbycanvas.com
http://nancystandlee.com

This post, highlighting an Arlington woman, is part of a series commemorating Women’s Equality Day.

IMAX is a digital projection system with two digital projectors plus image enhancers and custom lenses that make the images on screen appear clearer and with greater brightness and contrast. The digital sound is exclusive to IMAX and there’s special acoustic paneling inside the theater.

Upcoming Hollywood movies which will be released in IMAX include:

- Inception (Aug 13th)
- Hubble (Aug 20th)
- Avatar (Aug 27th…. one week only!!!!)
- Resident Evil: Afterlife (Sept 10th)
- Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (Sept 24th)
- Megamind (Nov 5th)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 (Nov 19th)
- Tron: Legacy (Dec 17th)

For more information, visit http://www.amcentertainment.com/Theatres/AMC_The_Parks_At_Arlington_18_Dallas/Ft__Worth/

Phone: 1-888-AMC-4FUN (movie times); 817-505-4517 (guest services)

Have you been to an IMAX movie before? What’s your favorite?

The Peddler Show takes place from 10am to 4pm on August 13th-15th.

Location: Arlington Convention Center, 1200 Ballpark Way 76011

More info: http://www.peddlershow.com/