PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER DUGGAN.
“There’s a whole new energy going on at Art League,” a fellow writer said to me. “We’re on to it,” I replied.
When I moved here over two decades ago, it took me about a year to find my art cohorts, and another year to find DiverseWorks. I will never forget meeting Michael Peranteau, the then DW chief. He welcomed me to the city, not just as a citizen, but as a artist. We chatted about my dance-making career. When I returned home, I told my husband, “OK, I’ll unpack.”
Peranteau has had an extraordinary history of arts activity and activism in Houston. So it follows that we should end our year of honoring those who toil in the trenches with Peranteau, now leading Arts League Houston, in the final Culture Warrior spot.
Word that the Dallas Museum of Art will offer free general admission prompted Devon Britt-Darby to ask, why not the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston? Read director Gary Tinterow’s thoughts on the subject are here; and stay tuned for more from Britt-Darby’s interview with Tinterow in the February issue.
John DeMers looks back and ahead in his two theater features: TUTS’s take on two vintage musicals and his profile of Black Lab Theatre, a small troupe with big plans.
There’s more bubbling to the top in Nicole Zaza’s story on David Tomas Martinez, her first installment on Houston’s up and coming writers. Misha Penton also focuses on the lives of artists in her feature on three singers making their marks on the classical music scene.
Also on the move, quite literally, is Rice University’s Chris Sperandio with Cargo Space, and Annie Strader of The Bridge Club performance collective with The Trailer. Nancy Zastudil gives us a ride on these mobile art projects, along with her insights on The Progress of Love at The Menil Collection.
More serious motion can be found in all the dance events coming down the 2013 pike, from Stephen Petronio’s relentless epic Underland set to Nick Cave’s songs, through Society for the Performing Arts to Dance Month at the The Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston.
Our final Art/Ad Bomb of the year is Product Placement (2012) by Houston artist Coy Hunger. You can reach him at chiselmark@gmail.com.
This is one feature-packed issue designed to take you through to the new year. As we cross over to 2013, we wish you all the good things, artful and otherwise.
-Nancy
Nancy@artsandculturetx.com
@artsculturehou
