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A Quick Look At Art&Seek’s Reporting

• Ambreen Butt is a leader in revitalizing the centuries-old form of Islamic art known as miniature painting. Recently, she moved to North Texas. And she’s begun using her techniques to create giant installations. In this week’s Artist Spotlight, we learned how she confronts gargantuan issues, by starting small.

Virtual reality at “Stories Seldom Told.” Photo: Say Si

• The San Antonio organization Say Sí works to help students dive deep into theater, game design or visual arts — and ensures that they graduate from high school. In this week’s State of the Arts, Anne Bothwell speaks with the org’s Executive Director Jon Hinojosa about how North Texas can help its students find their voice.

• Spike Lee’s 1989 film “Do The Right Thing” captured a day in the life in a historically black Brooklyn neighborhood. And his story of racial tension and gentrification is just as relevant nearly 30 years after its debut. “The Big Screen” team revisits the film with Brandon Harris, author of “Making Rent in Bed-Stuy: A Memoir of Trying to Make It in New York City.”

Cora Cardona

• The North Texas arts scene was rocked when the news broke that Cora Cardono – co-founder of  Teatro Dallas – was stepping down. Cardona is the director who created our first professional Latino company and who regularly brought in theater artists from all over the world. Art&Seek’s Jerome Weeks sat down with Cardona and she says she’s not really going away.

Christopher Jackson giving a young fan his autograph. Photo: Junior Players

• This weekend, the youth acting troupe, the Junior Players, hosted a panel discussion about what equity in the arts means for young people — how they can be catalysts for change (watch here). Recently, Junior Players brought Christopher Jackson – star of Broadway’s “Hamilton” – to town. He told Art&Seek that he believes that early exposure to the arts can expand young Dallasites’ possibilities.

What Else You’ve Got To Know

Donald and Melania Trump
Photo: Mark Reinstein / Shutterstock.com

• President Trump To Skip Kennedy Center Honors, Highlighting Rift With Artists (NPR)
  • 3 of 5 Kennedy Center Honorees Refusing to Attend White House Ceremony (Broadway World)
• Entire White House Arts Committee Resigns in Protest (Glasstire)
• Pomegranate Underground Is An Art Gallery For The Underdog (D Magazine)
• Dallas Architecture Forum Hosts Chinati and MASS MoCA (Glasstire)
• The Guerrilla Girls Descend On Dallas To Explore The Politics Of Art (Culture Map)
• Dallas Mayor Suggests 90-Day Confederate Monument Task Force Study (NBC DFW)
• Comedian And Civil Rights Activist Dick Gregory Dies At 84 (NPR)
• Jerry Lewis, Comic Icon And Titan Of Telethons, Dies At 91 (NPR)

What We’re Reading

Oscar Isaac as the titular character in Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis”. Photo: Alison Rosa.

• Artists, Self-Sabotage, Integrity, and Selling Out (Glasstire)
• Batter Up: Here’s Where To Snag A Norman Rockwell Painting, Rare Mickey Mantle Card (Dallas Morning News)
• Meet Doc Wright, a Former Geologist Who Quit His Job to Make Furniture From Scratch (Dallas Observer)
• Kimbell Hopes Casanova Arouses Art Lovers’ Ardor (Arts+Culture)
• Not Just Stories: Six Children’s Books For Fighting Fascism (D Magazine)

What We’re Listening To

Here’s what Paraguayans did with a statue of dictator Alfredo Stroessner (1954-89). It’s an interesting compromise. pic.twitter.com/gEtUPLseDz

— Laurence Blair (@LABlair1492) August 16, 2017

• Here’s What Paraguayans Did With A Statue Commemorating A Longtime Dictator (PRI’s The World)

• ‘Good Booty’: Backing Up How Music And Sex Helped Shape American Culture (NPR)

What We’re Looking At

• Review: ‘The Minotaur’ At Theatre Three (Art&Seek)

• Dallas Dancers Celebrate Life Of Slain Choreographer (Dallas Morning News)

• The Beat Of A Different Krum (Fort Worth Weekly)

• Tiny Desk:  DJ Premier & The Badder Band (NPR Music)

Photo Of The Week

Congratulations to Michael Kebede of Garland, the winner of the Flickr Photo of the Week contest for his photo, ‘St. Gabriel Day Celebration.’ To learn how to enter the contest and to see past winners visit artandseek.org.

A post shared by art&seek (@artandseektx) on Aug 17, 2017 at 2:22pm PDT