This week, WGBH News' Arts Editor Jared Bowen travels to Milton to tour the newly renovated Eustis Estate, reviews Lyric Stage Company's "Camelot," and speaks to Nari Ward at the Institute of Contemporary Art about his latest retrospective "Sun Splashed."
Eustis Estate Museum and Study Center , renovated by Historic New England in Milton, Massachusetts
Historic New England's Synopsis: "Designed by renowned Boston architect William Ralph Emerson and built in 1878, the Eustis Estate sits on eighty acres of picturesque landscape at the base of the Blue Hills. Full of stunning, intact architectural and design details, the Eustis Estate is a historic site unlike any other in the Greater Boston area. ... Learn about the elaborate architecture and interior design as well as the Eustis family, their domestic staff, and the farmhands who cultivated the surrounding fields and greenhouses."
Jared Says: "Bucolic and beautiful, it's a bounty of bliss."
Nari Ward: Sun Splashed , on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston through September 4
ICA's Synopsis: "Nari Ward: Sun Splashed is the largest survey of the artist’s work to date. Emerging alongside a notable group of black artists in New York City in the 1990s, Nari Ward (b. 1963 in St. Andrew Parish, Jamaica) actively engages with local sites—their histories, communities, and economies—to create spectacular, ambitiously scaled artworks out of unlikely materials. He derives inspiration from his immediate environment, incorporating found objects gathered in and around urban neighborhoods and embracing varied cultural references. Working in sculpture, collage, photography, video, installation, and performance, Ward captures the makeshift qualities of everyday life and imbues his production with a visceral relationship to history and the real world. The exhibition includes artworks made from soda pop, shoelaces, shopping carts, and a fire escape, materials that speak to the artist’s distinctive experimentation. Nari Ward: Sun Splashed focuses on vital points of reference for Ward, including his native Jamaica, citizenship, and migration, as well as African-American history and culture, to explore the dynamics of power and politics in society."
Jared Says: "Pieces that speak to who we are today."
"Camelot" , presented by Lyric Stage Company through June 25
Lyric Stage Company's Synopsis: "The romantic yet ultimately tragic tale of King Arthur, Guenevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table is brought into sharper focus with "Camelot." Bringing this beloved American musical to the intimate setting of the Lyric, 'Camelot' is bursting with some of the greatest songs written for the musical stage, including 'If Ever I Would Leave You,' 'I Loved You Once in Silence,' and the title song 'Camelot.'"
Jared Says: "It's like you've been dropped into a tight campfire story."
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This post has been updated.
