Happy Memorial Day! Thanks for checking out Art&Seek’s weekly look back at the biggest and most important stories in the North Texas arts scene. If you or your friends want to know more about what’s happening in the North Texas arts world, check out our weekly newsletter. Click here to sign up.

A Quick Look At Art&Seek’s Reporting

• The North Texas band Skinny Cooks may play jazz-funk fusion, but oddly enough, at its center is a classically-trained cellist. Brianne Sargent also plays bass and keyboards, she sings and co-writes the group’s music. Art&Seek’ Jerome Weeks profiled the Sargent for our Artist Spotlight series.
• Thirty pianists from around the world have arrived in Fort Worth, vying to win the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Art&Seek’s Anne Bothwell talks with KERA reporter Bill Zeeble about the competition. Check out all your opportunities to see the competition.
• John Coltrane is arguably the most revered saxophone player who ever lived. A new documentary called “Chasing Trane” looks at the jazz innovator’s short but inspired life. “The Big Screen” team talked with Brad Leali, who teaches jazz saxophone at the University of North Texas about the films relateability.

What You’ve Got To Know

• The City of Dallas Accepts $22 Million For AT&T PAC Debt, Small Arts Orgs (Art&Seek)
• Things To Do For Memorial Day in Dallas (D Magazine)
• Don’t Worry, Your MP3s Are Safe: A Frank Discussion On The Future Of A Format (NPR)
• Create an outdoor living space that’s worth sitting in the Texas heat for (Dallas Morning News)
• Better Call Tina Parker (Texas Monthly)
• Happy (Belated) National Tap Dance Day!!! (Art&Seek)

What We’re Reading

• A New Cultural Plan (Theatre Jones)
• Talent Development: Why Most Organizations Don’t Invest (Much) in It, and How the Investment Has Paid Off for California Symphony (Medium)
• City of Dreams: Music and Politics Meet in the Border Community of McAllen, Texas (Pitchfork)
• Growing from Within: Bruce Wood’s Legacy Alive in Journeys (Arts+Culture)
• Inside Kevin Moriarty’s daring take on ‘Inherit the Wind’ for DTC (Dallas Morning News)
• Growing up with violence, Dallas artist wants to inspire kids to persevere (Dallas Morning News)

What We’re Listening To

• KERA’s “Think with Krys Boyd” is always worth a listen, because of Boyd’s insightful questions and all-star lineup of guests booked each week, but the past seven days really had some gems. Here are the episodes we think you ought to be streaming:
  • “Inherit The Wind” – A conversation with the Dallas Theater Center‘s director Kevin Moriarty about the play  “Inherit the Wind.”
  • “Van Cliburn’s Cold War Victory” – a look back at the historical importance of Van Cliburn’s victory over the Russians at the 1958 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition with author Stuart Isacoff.
  •  “A Conversation With Chuck Klosterman” – Boyd sits down with Klosterman to discuss his best writing from the past decade, which he’s collected in “Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century.”
• First Listen: Dan Auerbach, ‘Waiting On A Song’ (NPR)
• By Any Name, Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda Was A Force (NPR)

What We’re Looking At

• The new PBS series “American Epic” continues to have our eye. Seeing modern bands record music using 1920s equipment like the recording lathe, is not only having an effect on eyes, but our ears. Learn how this technology changed music here and see it for yourself in the video below:

• If you haven’t heard about Kyle Steed’s new piece, here it is:

New work on full display // When thinking about this piece my struggle to find balance in life and work is most apparent // Living in such a success driven culture I am constantly looking for ways to relax and just breathe // These internal forces pushing and pulling and grappling for control // Yet the answer returns me each new morning… let go and enjoy this moment … #billboard #dallas #art

A post shared by Kyle Steed (@kylesteed) on May 19, 2017 at 10:02am PDT

• Get all the information you need to have about the Meadows Museum’s exhibition “Between Heaven and Hell: The Drawings of Jusepe de Ribera” from Art This Week’s interview with curator, Edward Payne.

• Dallas’ audiovisual collective These Machines Are Winning dropped an ambitious graphic novel called, “Slaves for Gods,” this weekend. Central Track wrote an insightful profile of the group and we cannot stop looking at the visuals in this comic.

The “slaves for gods” covers that were released on Saturday May 27th.

• Recently, Art&Seek’s Anne Bothwell sat down with the co-founder of Dallas Neo-Classical Ballet to discuss re-staging avant-garde dances from the early 20th century. See the work first hand, below.

Photo Of The Week

Congratulations to Steven Haal of Dallas, the winner of the Flickr Photo of the Week contest for his photo, “Star Trails Over Guadalupe Mountains National Park.” To learn how to enter the contest and to see past winners visit artandseek.org.

A post shared by art&seek (@artandseektx) on May 25, 2017 at 11:45am PDT

The Encore is written and compiled by Arts Reporter/Digital Editor and Calendar Wizard, Hady Mawajdeh. If you have feedback or questions, please email artandseek@kera.org.