Your Week Ahead: Nov. 21 to 27, 2023
Truth is illusory in the Boca Museum’s new exhibition, a folk-rock offspring honors his legendary father, and a gallery hosts a three-day tribute to Beat culture. Plus, Cirque Dreams Holidaze and more in your week ahead.
What: Scenes of New York City: The Elie and Sarah Hirschfeld Collection
When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: Society of the Four Arts, 102 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach
Cost: $10
Contact: 561/655-7226, fourarts.org
Far from the sleepless bustle we associate with New York City today, this assemblage of Big Apple-set works from two of the city’s most dedicated art collectors offers a multifaceted survey its many contours, from sparse winters of bare trees and smudge-brown skies to a William Merritt Chase vista of boats bobbing in a harbor. There are works of Americana and abstraction, humor and poignancy, nature and civilization. The 115 pieces on display stand as a testament to the city’s widespread allure to artists of astonishing breadth and variation. Expect to see New York City landmarks, buildings, bridges, skyscrapers and people through the paintbrushes, pencils and chisels of Marc Chagall, Georgia O’Keeffe, Willem de Kooning, David Hockney, Keith Haring, Fernand Leger, Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell and many more. The exhibition runs through Jan. 28.
What:“Smoke and Mirrors: Magical Thinking in Contemporary Art”
When: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
Cost: $10-$16
Contact: 561/392-2500, bocamuseum.org
The Boca Museum’s signature winter exhibition, which opened this past weekend, is perhaps equal parts whimsical fantasy and urgent wake-up call. Inspired by the life and activism of the late magician and South Florida resident the Amazing Randi, it explores magical thinking in dual contexts—as the fodder for ostensibly innocent stage illusionists and as the pernicious calling card of professional charlatans. In forging connections between the overt performance of tricks to the internet deep-fakes, alternative facts and disinformation designed to deceive us, “Smoke and Mirrors” asks us, rightly, to question everything. It runs through April 14.
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
What: Cirque Dreams Holidaze
When: 4 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
Cost: $29-$125
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
Astonishing high-wire acrobatics, seemingly impossible contortionism, roller-skate dance routines and a juggler performing atop a unicycle are just a few of the cirque-art theatrics that will dazzle audiences at this Kravis Center holiday tradition. Holidaze is one of the two signature programs from Cirque Dreams, which has been combining whimsical storytelling with incredible feats of circus showmanship since 1993. The company celebrates its 30th anniversary with this latest iteration, which includes new scenery, costumes and storylines, from dancing peppermint sticks to what appear to be bedazzled penguins in top hats, because why not?
What: AJ Croce: Croce Plays Croce
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: The Parker, 707 N.E. Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale
Cost: $44.50-$107
Contact: 954/462-0222, browardcenter.org
One of an absurdly high number of musicians to die at their peaks in fluky plane crashes, Jim Croce was well on his way to the folk-music record books when he perished at age 30. His son AJ Croce, a formidable singer-songwriter in his own right, never got to know his famous balladeer father, who died when AJ was only 2; two years later, AJ lost his sight. But he has transformed setbacks into creative gold as a vocalist, guitarist and pianist. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of his father’s passing, this special concert will feature AJ’s inspired interpretations of Jim’s most beloved material—including “Time in a Bottle,” written about AJ and released posthumously—as well as his original songs and covers by other folk and roots artists who have inspired him.
MONDAY, NOV. 27
What: Opening night of “Beatitude: The Beat Festival”
When: Begins at 11:30 a.m.
Where: Palm Beach Photographic Centre, 415 Clematis St., West Palm Beach
Cost: Free
Contact: 561/253-2600, workshop.org
This three-day festival celebrating the legacy and ongoing influence of the Beat Generation coincides with a compelling exhibition that its host venue, the Palm Beach Photo Centre, opened in October. “Beatitude” features more than 70 images of such Beat icons as Allen Ginsberg, Lenore Handel and Kenneth Rexroth photographed by fellow-poet and artist Joey Tranchina in the ‘60s and ‘70s—but never seen until 2018. In addition to the photos on display through Jan. 6, the Photo Centre is celebrating both the Beats and its own 35th anniversary with a Beat Festival beginning next Monday and promising “three free days and nights of the unexpected.” Each day includes morning, afternoon and evening programs, from gallery tours and conversations with Beat experts to poetry readings and live concerts, often with a multimedia flair. Visit the venue’s website for the complete schedule.
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