February is for doers

“If January is the month of change, February is the month of lasting change. January is for dreamers… February is for doers.”
— Marc Parent

Charles Englehard Court, The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Photo by Rebecca Reed

Here’s a few suggestions for arts & culture lovers:

Gwendolyn Brooks: A Poet’s Work in Community Jan 28—June 5

I first discovered Gwendolyn Brooks when I was assigned to present on her poem Kitchenette Building in my university literature class. Since then I’ve really enjoyed exploring her other work and purchased this collection in a little used bookstore when I was visiting New Haven, Connecticut. I’m excited to catch this exhibit addressing her political and social impact at the beautiful Morgan Library.

En Foco: The New York City Puerto Rican Experience, El Museo De Barrio until Feb 27

The Mandala Lab at the Rubin Museum Open till October 1, 2031

Watch the video after following the link to get a sense of what the experience is like. From the museum website: “Inspired by powerful Buddhist principles, the Mandala Lab features five thought-provoking, playful experiences—including videos, scents, sculpture, and curated percussion instruments—that guide you along an inner journey focused on self-awareness and awareness of others. See, smell, touch, and breathe your way through the space, designed to inspire connection, empathy, and learning.”

Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art

There’s a Walt Disney exhibit at the Met for the first time ever. Learn more about it here.

The Color of a Flea’s Eye, New York Public Library

From the NY Public Library website:

“Intrigued by the Picture Collection since childhood, the artist Taryn Simon embarked in 2012 on an overarching study of the Collection itself. Starting with subject folders from the Collection’s open stacks—Handshaking, Police, Oxygen, Broken Objects, Abandoned Buildings & Towns, and Financial Panics, among others—she arranged and documented their physical contents in large-format photographs, overlapping loosely associated images into tableaux that suggest abstract color fields, neural networks, or tiled search results. For Simon, the act of photography also suspended the Collection in its flux, making explicit the unexpected meaning often derived from its accidental juxtapositions. Simon’s photographs reveal the Collection to be an inadvertent recorder of changing mores, and discloses latent fault lines of power, race, and gender. At the same time, the works point to the invisible hands behind seemingly neutral systems of image-gathering, locating an unlikely futurity in the past.”

If you have any additional recommendations feel free to leave them in the comments.

Have a great weekend!