A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...ROME REDUX

Last week we heard from Wake Forest professor and journalist Justin Catanoso who recently returned from a month of teaching in Rome.  This week we hear from one of his students, Taylor Curry.  I'll let Taylor take it from here!

For the past month, I have been living in Rome with thirteen of my fellow Wake Forest classmates. We were taking a travel journalism class where we not only talked to experienced travel writers, but also researched, investigated, and wrote our own travel stories. This experience was a once in a lifetime opportunity and here is one of my stories that came out of the class! 

One of my favorite things in this world is food; I love cooking, eating, anything to do with food and yesterday really fostered this passion. A food and lifestyle blogger, Eleanora Baldwin, came and talked to our class about her career, food writing, travel writing, and food in general. She gave us many great tips for finding restaurants and gave us quite a few restaurant recommendations that I am dying to try!

After Eleanora’s talk, we were all predictably hunger, so a couple of us headed to one of her suggestions- a family run, true Italian restaurant, that just happens to be spitting distance form the Pantheon. Despite it’s location, this restaurant is the opposite of touristic, probably because they require a reservation for most customers. Happily, we arrived right when it was opening so we were able to squeeze in without a reservation. The food was authentic Italian and my spaghetti all’aglio olio e peperocino was spicy and delicious.

My lunch and Eleanor inspired me to go on a Google adventure and find some of the best restaurants in Rome because despite the stereotype, you can definitely find bad food in Rome. My first mission on my Google adventure was to find real cannoli in Italy. I am spoiled at home because our local Italian market, Giacomo's,  is run by a Sicilian family (where cannoli are originally from) and our cannoli are always fresh and delicious. So, my cannoli standards are very high. After a little research, I found a Sicilian bakery, Ciuri Cuiri, here in Trastevere. Part two of the adventure was finding the bakery, which actually proved to be very easy. Upon arrival at the bakery, we pointed and asked for our cannoli with chocolate. They filled the shells right in front of us and then dipped the ends in chocolate chips. To say the least, these cannoli were incredibly fresh and just as delicious. My expectations were far surpassed and I am definitely going to become a regular by the end of the month! Thanks for the inspiration Eleanora!

CLICK HERE for more posts from Taylor and her fellow students sojourn in Italy.  Trust me.  

You'll feel like or there!

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...ROME With Guest Blogger JUSTIN CATANOSO

I feel lucky every time I have the chance to share my observations about cities. I feel far, far luckier every time a guest blogger is kind enough to agree to contribute a post; this week especially so. Justin Catanoso has agreed to contribute to 'A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...'  Not only is Justin a old and dear friend, he is a professional journalist who has traveled widely throughout the world, especially in Italy.  Who better to write about this week's city Rome?  Justin titled this piece 'Raining rose petals in the Pantheon'.  I just call it 'perfect'. 

It is quite natural, when standing inside the Pantheon in Rome, to stare transfixed at the ceiling. It is a marvel of advanced architectural achievement from an ancient world. It is a gorgeous honeycombed thing to behold. Five rows of concentric circles, each with 28 coffers, align in geometric perfection from the lower edge of the dome on up. The diameter is 142 feet – nearly as wide as the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, far wider than the dome of the U.S. Capitol, still the largest unreinforced concrete dome on earth.  Then there is the oculus, the eye, the hole in the ceiling, the portal for light and rain, the lens to view the heavens.

No matter how many times I visit Rome, and I have visited a lot, the Pantheon – this third iteration of what was once a pagan temple, rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian in 270 AD, reborn as a church in 609 AD -- is always my first stop. Once inside its tall copper doors -- the original doors on their original hinges -- I stare transfixed at the ceiling, at its precise roundness, its timeless beauty, its unblinking oculus. I think again and again that the experience is so powerful, so unique that it cannot be improved upon.

But it can. On my last visit to Rome, I stood with my wife, shoulder to shoulder with thousands of others, craning up at the ceiling as a torrent of blood-red rose petals floated down upon us, pouring through the oculus. It was June 8, Pentecost Sunday, the day each year that the Pantheon rains rose petals.

The Pentecost, which honors the Holy Spirit’s descent upon the Virgin Mary and the Apostles of Jesus, comes seven weeks after Easter. A special 90-minute Mass is held in the Pantheon, complete with a choir and communion, to mark this annual Christian event. We arrived at 10:30 a.m., just as the Mass was starting, long after the seats near the altar were filled. We stood and listened and stared. It was hot and often uncomfortable, but we only cared a little. We knew what was coming. We figured the climax of the Mass was drawing near as human shadows peered over the edge of the oculus from the outside. It was a strange sight for sure. Stranger still, the shadows high above held out cell phones to snap photos of us below as we did the same in the opposite direction. Those shadows were actually Roman firemen who each year have the adventuresome task of lugging bags and bags of rose petals onto the dome and up to the lip of the oculus.

As the Mass ended and the music swelled, the fireman began to empty their bags to a collective gasp of excitement. A thick shaft of light angled inside. Rose petals shimmered and fluttered through the light. People reached to grab as many petals as they could. We were weary of standing, but thrilled to be there.

All by itself, any day of the week, the Pantheon is one of Rome’s most incredible sights. But in one burst of color and magic that lasts a few minutes just once a year, the Pantheon and its glorious ceiling are rendered even more incredible.

Justin Catanoso is director of journalism at Wake Forest University and the author of My Cousin the Saint, a Story of Love, Miracles and an Italian Family Reunited (Harper Perennial).

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...MARFA, TEXAS

The kind folks at the Chinati Foundation have had a technical hitch today and so have been unable to send their planned contribution on Marfa, Texas.  In the absence of their insider's knowledge, let me weigh in with just a few thoughts on Marfa.

Marfa is both a true destination and quite literally not near anything.  Unless one has access to a private plane, there are no easy ways to get to there.  Travelers must either fly into El Paso and then drive east for three hours or fly into Midland and drive southwest for three hours. It has a population of less than 2000 people, few accommodations, restaurants or other amenities.  After relative boom years as first a railroad town then as the site of an airbase during World War II, its population ‘stalled in the later half of the 20^th century’.  How is this different than a 1000, 10,000 --or maybe even 100,000--towns scattered across the country?

Any answer has to start with the art and the art starts with minimalist sculptor Donald Judd.  In the early 1970’s, Judd, bought two then derelict airfield hangars.  Other artists began to follow and continue to do so to this day and in ever-increasing numbers.  Even so, it is still largely a town that Judd found and nurtured.  Both the Chinati and Judd Foundations support his legacy and display his work.  

I find myself still somewhat baffled, however, when it comes to explaining the draw of such an out of the way place.  The power of the art is undeniable.  The grandeur and monumental qualities of both landscape and sculpture do seem to be fashioned to exist together.  Even so art--including Judd's art--can be seen in many, many other places. Yet the draw is undeniable.  Marfa has become a powerful cultural magnet over the last few decades.  My guess is it has an appeal so profoundly it's own that it cannot be imagined in the absence of a visit.
If your appetite has been whetted for this particular brand of Western adventure then we hope you will come along this fall when Nancy Doll,  Weatherspoon Art Museum Director, offers a rare opportunity for a guided visit to Marfa, October 28th to 30th.  Following this optional stop, we'll spend four days in the Dallas/Ft Worth area, October 30th to November 2nd.  If it's easy to make the case that Marfa has the highest art to population ratio in the world---then it seems equally true that Dallas/Ft Worth has the corner on world-class private collections and museums.  Our time in Dallas/Ft Worth area will focus on these very special collections and museums including The Warehouse, the Dallas Art Museum, Museum of Ft. Worth, Nasher Sculpture Garden and Amon Carter Museum.


FULL ITINERARY TO FOLLOW 

To ensure your place, please make a deposit of $250. $350 with the Marfa add-on.  

[SIGN UP NOW]

The trip is limited to 20 people.

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...HONOLULU With Guest Blogger TIM WARMATH

A visit to Honolulu and the stunning Doris Duke home: Shangri-La

“Modernisation” (i.e., the mass development of Honolulu and its famous beach, Waikiki) has not been particularly kind to the beautiful island of Oahu. From grinding traffic (purportedly the worst in all fifty states) to mass over-development of high-rise hotels and condominiums, many visitors are under-whelmed when they are greeted by Honolulu as their first taste of Hawaii. But don’t let surface appearances fool you – Honolulu has several gems worth visiting.

Let’s start with the reason many folks visit Oahu: the magnificent golden strand of Waikiki. While crowded with tourists from all corners of the globe (especially “hen & stag do’s”  - revelers from Down Under celebrating before their pending nuptials) a visit and stay in the colonial Moana Surfrider is worth the journey. Built in 1901, it maintains the colonial grandeur of days gone by. Reserve a room in the historic wing  - floors 4, 5 and 6 with room numbers ending in 14, 16 + 18 are highly recommended. Though smaller than rooms in the new towers, these rooms are especially lovely and one can admire the views over the beach and Diamond Head….you will be transported back in time….or think you are on the set of an Elvis Presley film!

After you check in at the Moana Surfrider, don’t miss a full day visit to the USS Arizona Memorial and Pearl Harbor national park & monument.  With the visitor center and special exhibition wings recently expanded and enlarged, the story of December 7, 1941 is a compelling one.

After a long day of history and remembrance, you will be ready for a final gem: a visit to the Doris Duke home of Shangri-La. You will start and end your visit at the Honolulu Museum of Art (http://honolulumuseum.org) (The museum is well-worth a minimum of 3-4 hours - an extraordinary collecting museum in the heart of the Pacific) as entrance to Shangri-La is by pre-booked tour only and you are shuttled from the museum to the home.  In 1935, Doris Duke and her husband, James Cromwell, discovered the Hawaiian Islands on their round-the-world honeymoon.  Doris was immediately captivated and in 1936, purchased the stunning property on the back-side of Diamond Head that would become Shangri-La. From the moment you arrive you will be captivated! The architecture, history and extraordinary passion of Doris Duke are evident in every room and across the grounds. There is so much to see and learn, that the three-hour visit allocated by the Foundation will hardly suffice. 

A visit to all three of these Honolulu sites will be sure to bring out the “Aloha” spirit in everyone!

(To whet your appetite, you can get a taste of the collection by visiting the current tour with stops across the US mainland (including a stop at Duke’s Nasher Museum of Art in 2013 – perhaps you were lucky to have seen the show?)

Doris Duke’s Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and Islamic Art http://www.shangrilahawaii.org/Programs/Exhibitions/)

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...CHARLESTON by Guest Blogger LYNN TINLEY

I met Lynn last summer on a trip to Venice for the Biennale.  During our time together, her questions and observations reminded me once again of the value of fresh eyes. Lynn has Ph.D in American Studies with a primary academic focus on early Southern American textiles and embroidery.  With this background, she brought a practiced eye and a lively curiosity but no preconceived notions about the merits of what we saw during our week at this premiere contemporary art world event.   This freshness of prospective in turn has led me to want to become better acquainted with her visual world which is as new to me as the contemporary art world was to Lynn last summer.  With that in mind, I have asked her to take us on a brief virtual tour of the art and architecture scene in Charleston, South Carolina.

Charleston, South Carolina boasts of having over 90 art galleries, which offer a broad diversity of genres from modern art to eighteenth-century paintings and sculpture to wearable art.  The city has evolved into quite the art scene, with much to offer a variety of collectors and connoisseurs from tranquil marsh scenes to thought-provoking portraits and modern interpretive art.

The two primary museums in the city are The Charleston Museum (360 Meeting Street) and  The Gibbes Museum (135 Meeting Street).  The Charleston Museum is American’s first museum, having been founded in 1773.  Its mission is to preserve and interpret the cultural and natural history of Charleston.  The Gibbes Museum houses a premier collection of over 10,000 works of fine art, principally American works, many of which have a connection to Charleston or the South.

One of the premier galleries of the American Southern art is the Renaissance Gallery.  It is located in the city’s historic district at 103 Church Street.  In fact, Renaissance is so well–located in relation to historic Charleston that time should be made to also visit a number of nearby historic homes and churches.  These include:

Joseph Manigault House (ca. 1800), 350 Meeting Street,

Nathaniel Russell House (ca. 1800), 51 Meeting Street,

St. Michael’s Church (ca. 1752), 71 Broad Street,

St. Philip’s Church (est. 1682, built 1836), 142 Church Street and

Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Jewish Synagogue (est. 1740, built 1840), 90 Hasell Street.

For advance planning in anticipation of a Charleston sojourn, you may want to check out one or more of the following online resources.  Charleston Fine Art Dealers Association(CFADA), a consortium of galleries that have collaborated to bring attention to the contemporary local art scene.  Their website is also a great resource for current art happenings in the city. Other sites include The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Redux Contemporary Art Center and Ann Long Fine Art.

And finally, a tour that you simply must include if you have the ability to get out from town is a visit to Drayton Hall, which can be fairly said to be one of the country’s great architectural momnuments.  This historic home (ca. 1738) is the earliest fully executed Palladian structure in America.  Amazingly, the house remains unaltered with original architectural accents and no modern additions such as electricity and plumbing.  The house and surrounding estate provide a truly rewarding experience, whether you’re looking for a glimpse into our cultural history or inspiration for modern interpretations!

Image courtesy of The Charleston Renaissance Gallery

JOSEPH RUSLING MEEKER (1827-1889)

Near the Atchafalaya, 1881

Oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...NEW YORK by Guest Blogger PATRICK MCGETTIGAN

This week's guest blogger,  Patrick McGettigan, is a man with a lively and curious mind. A graduate of the University of Virginia who originally hails from New Hampshire, Patrick and I first met in 2010 through his job at CITYterm in Dobbs Ferry, New York.   Now working in NYC, he writes this week about his abiding love for Central Park, a place he knows well. I learned a lot. I think you will, too.   

 As a former resident of the Hudson River Valley, I’ve spent long afternoons taking in the all-encompassing beauty of the region. There were certain spots where I could turn 360 degrees and see nothing but rolling hills and babbling streams, and I felt that I had been transported into a Thomas Cole painting. So when I moved to New York City this April, I assumed that I would have to trade in my Hudson River School views for the vibrancy and creativity of urban life. Little did I know that I’d be able to access all that the City has to offer without giving up gorgeous views reminiscent of upstate New York, all without leaving Central Park.

The casual visitor to Central Park might not realize the connection between the Park and the Hudson River School.  Yet, the artistic desire to idealize nature and promote the benefits of life in America’s great outdoors was one of the driving forces behind Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s design of Central Park.  To them, Central Park was not simply a place to relax in the midst of the City. It was a living piece of artwork that gave residents the chance to peel back the frame from the canvas and step into a magical world that had previously existed only in paintings.  And thanks to the exemplary work that the Central Park Conservancy has completed over the years, New Yorkers today have the same chance to step inside and experience the classic rustic landscapes for themselves.

The Environmental Art movement of the 1960’s consistently honored Central Park as a work of art and Robert Smithson even called Frederick Law Olmsted “America’s first ‘earthwork artist’” in his piece Spiral Jetty. Olmsted had declared this same sentiment a century earlier in saying

The Park throughout is a single work of art, and as subject to the primary law of every work of art, namely that it shall be framed upon a single, noble motive, to which the design of its parts, in some more or less subtle way, shall be confluent and helpful.

In other words, Central Park is a carefully planned tapestry whose elements interact with one another and their surrounding area. It is a series of landscapes and views, designed as one continual sequence, that is meant to give the viewer a very specific experience, all planned by earthwork artists. And instead of using oil on canvas, they used water, earth and foliage to create a natural tapestry that provides an out of body (or at least out of borough) experience for the viewer. 

The sequence within this installation that I most enjoy is the walk through the Ravine, from the Harlem Meer to the Pool.  (Located within the North Woods, Mid Park, 106^th-110^th Streets) At the Meer, you’ll find waterfowl strutting among the reeds and see children catch-and-release fishing along the shores. Walking inwards toward the heart of the Park’s North End, you’ll notice the honking traffic of Harlem fade away as the trees grow thicker and the path winds to and fro. If you can ignore the Lasker Rink, an interruption of the sequence built at the end of the Robert Moses era, you are swept up in a series of cascading waterfalls, rustic stone arches and a variety of native plantings.

The first Arch to greet you is Huddlestone, an appropriate name for a bridge that used no mortar in its construction. The large stones huddle together, carefully balanced upon one another, held in place only by the pressure and compression of the neighboring rocks. Like the Park itself, the Arch exists in a delicate balance, always stronger en masse than the sum of its parts. 

Through the Arch, it is impossible not to gasp upon seeing the gorgeous waterfall coming from the Loch. Boulders artistically disguise a concrete wall, and New York City drinking water flows softly over the edge.  It is an Adirondack view that I could stare at for hours, and a perfect example of the art that Olmsted and Vaux created in this place.

Next up, you’ll find the Loch, the Glen Span Arch and the Pool, a beautiful and intimate body of water. This portion of the Park’s sequence is a gorgeous example of Olmsted and Vaux’s visionary design, with the added benefit of being “off the beaten path” of the Park’s main attractions. While nowhere in Central Park is rarely visited anymore (the Park now welcomes 40 million annual visitors!), fewer patrons and tourists extend their Park experience to include the North Woods.

Across the Park, the landscapes and views that the artists deliberately placed in their living painting are not only highly planned, but highly dialogic. The elements are in dialogue; they are speaking to one another and to the visitor. Great art talks to you, asks you questions, and invites you to talk back.

So when you visit New York this summer, take a step off the beaten path of the art tour and get into Central Park. Explore the North Woods, or the Ramble. Imagine how each tree was placed deliberately and wonder what it might be saying to the elements surrounding it.  Even if you think you know Central Park, there is always something new to discover in New York City’s greatest work of art, Central Park.

To plan your visit to Central Park, or to learn more about the history, art and design of the Park, please visit www.centralparknyc.org.

Want to know more:

Miller, Sara Cedar. Central Park: An American Masterpiece. New York: Harry N. Abrams in Association with the Central Park Conservancy, 2003. Print.

Miller, Sara Cedar. Seeing Central Park: The Official Guide to the World's Greatest Urban Park. New York: Abrams in Association with the Central Park Conservancy, 2009. Print.

Photos courtesy of the Central Park Conservancy

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...DALLAS by Guest Blogger NANCY DOLL

It’s a cliché to say that Texas likes to do things in a big way! When the 400-foot-tall Magnolia Petroleum building opened in 1922, it was the city’s first skyscraper, the tallest building in Texas and west of the Mississippi and taller than anything in Europe. With 29 floors and seven elevators and at a cost of $4 million to build, the Magnolia was the first high rise in the United States to have air conditioning, according to the management company that acquired the building in 1997. In 1925, Standard Oil of New York acquired Magnolia Petroleum Company, and in 1934, the iconic11-foot enamel neon Pegasus was installed on the roof, towering 450 feet above the street.  While the oil industry contributed enormously to the development of Dallas, Fort Worth, called “the most typically Texan of all Texas cities,” became a cattle town. Its meatpacking industry generated an economic boom for the city in the late 1800s, with the oil industry supplanting its famous stockyards in the 20^th century.  Today, both cities are thriving metropolises, with award winning restaurants, shopping galore, historic sites, and natural beauty.  A new Pegasus graces the roof of what is now the  Magnolia Hotel and, while surrounded by taller structures, its red glow can still be seen downtown.  Today it is joined by other iconic structures that house museums designed by a who’s who of modern and contemporary architects: Louis Kahn, Edward Larrabee Barnes, Philip Johnson, Tadao Ando, and Renzo Piano. From the original Louis Kahn building of the Kimbell Art Museum and its recent Renzo Piano Pavilion to the Nasher Sculpture Garden and Dallas Museum

of Fine Arts, all are fitting structures for extraordinary collections.  Big oil has truly been joined by big culture!

CLICK HERE for info on Weatherspoon's late October trip
to Dallas/ Ft Worth with an optional junket to Marfa 

Nancy Doll, Director, Weatherspoon Art Museum

'PEGASUS' by Carolyn Brown
 CAROLYN BROWN PHOTOGRAPHY

A CITY AWEEK AND WHY...LOS ANGELES

This is little more than a snapshot and not a terrible flattering one at that but nonetheless it is one

 of my treasures.  It was taken during a tour of the iconic Stahl House. The house felt deeply familiar as an image and icon of California style and mid-century elegance long before this first and only visit.  Designed in the late 1950's by architect Pierre Koenig in the collaboration with homeowner Buck Stahl, the house was originally known simply as Case Study House 22.  As with all Case Study Houses, this was intended to be not an architectural statement but a family's home and a relatively modest one at that. The Case Study House Program, begun in 1945 by Arts and Architecture magazine, was dedicated to the use of modernist design principles to address the pressing need for low cost housing, made all the more urgent by the end of WWII and a generation's return to civilian life.  In the Stahl House, the footprint is small with only two bedrooms and what is essentially one large living space.  There is a pool but it was only added to the original plans as a concession to a mortgage banker who would not otherwise approve financing for the needed $37,000. (He was worried about resale, believing that the property would need at least one conventional feature to secure its value.)  Even the structure's most innovative element, the living room cantilevered out over the Los Angeles basin, was the result, at least indirectly, of the Stahls' constrained budget. The couple could afford to buy the almost vertical lot because its low price reflected the fact that it was considered unbuildable. The solution of the cantilever came to Buck Stahl two years before he found in Pierre Koenig an architect willing to fully realize its design.   

The house was finished in 1960, the same year that it was used as the location for a photo shoot by the great architectural photographer Julius Schulman. These are the images that remain so strongly associated with the house.  They--and the house--have lost no power in the intervening years.  Even so, it has been a long time since 1960.  Buck and his wife, Carlotta, have passed away.  The Stahl children are now well into middle age, and though none lives onsite, they do retain ownership of their childhood home.  Photo shoots still take place and now provide an important source of revenue in support of the upkeep of the house.  The Stahls also personally conduct small group tours which are both casual and richly informative and during which there is a palpable sense that this was and is their home.  To sit on the sofa in that extraordinary living room and gaze out into the space above the city of Los Angeles is to breath in the magic of the house--and the magic of the optimistic moment from which it sprang.  No doubt there will come a time when this extraordinary structure becomes more museum than home but that has not yet happened.  I suggest a visit before it does.  Fair warning, though, it is a splurge but one that I think you will find well worth the price. 


CLICK HERE for the Stahl House website and information on tours


CLICK HERE for images from the original Julius Schulman photo shoot

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...LONDON by Guest Blogger TIM WARMATH

Why a visit to London? Why not??

The “Big Smoke” is a world capital by every definition. Culture, Arts, Enterprise, Politics and Entertainment all collaborate and collide here on a daily basis. Every year there are extraordinary new shows to see and exhibits to experience in the great venues like the V&A, the Royal Opera House and the Tate Museums – to name but a few. But to know (and love) London is to explore the madcap and innovative in her cafes, bars and nightspots.

One of the exploding arts forms (both fresh and new but also re-vitalised & re-imagined) in London this spring and summer is cabaret. In only its second year, the London Festival of Cabaret, a “Celebration of the Great American and European Songbooks”, is playing in downstairs speak-easy’s, studios and small stages across the Capital. Don’t miss the opportunity to hear and experience first-hand the eclectic mix of artists and musical styles in some stages that are off the beaten path. Start with the studio space at the St. James’s Theatre (www.stjamestheatre.co.uk) conveniently located in Victoria. Here you will find the best in cabaret and jazz performers supported by stunning ensembles of horns, bass and drums to set your evening alight. If you find yourself in the thick of the action at Piccadilly Circus, don’t miss Crazy Coqs Cabaret & Jazz (www.brasseriezedel.com ) at the recently renovated Bar Americain in Brasserie Zedel (see pictures). Brasserie Zedel is the latest restaurant offering by Jeremy King, one of the hottest restaurant gurus of the new millennium (his other restaurants include, the Wolseley, Café Colbert and The Delaunay.) The lounge is a stunning throw-back to the 1930’s.  To quote Architecture Today magazine “probably the best and most authentic series of 1930’s interiors in the UK” and you will love the musical offerings on the menu.

Two other great stages to explore include Theatre 503 (www.theatre503.com) and The Unicorn Theatre (www.unicorntheatre.com.) If you take in a show at the Unicorn, make it an art afternoon and a theatre evening. The Unicorn is just a short walk away from Tate Modern where the landmark exhibition of the Matisse Cut-Outs is on display until 7 September, 2014 ( www.tate.org.uk )

London calling??

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...QUEBEC CITY

Originally not more than a hazy dot on a hazy map, Quebec began as a trading outpost in a vast wilderness, 800 hundred miles from open ocean and icebound for up to 6 months of the year. Nonetheless, over the course of these past 400 hundred years the city has evolved into a place of great visual charm and sophistication. This can be considered the result at least in part of geopolitical struggles between far distant Britain and France. Both colonial powers expended not only military time and treasure but also cultural energy in their centuries long struggle for dominance in the region. To take but one example, in 1804 the British chose Quebec as the site of the first Anglican cathedral in the Americas. The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity was and is no rough or hasty effort, however, but one closely modeled on Christopher Wrenn’s masterpiece St Martin’s in the Fields on Trafalgar Square in London. The French responded by adding a massive gilt baldachin to the Notre-Dame de Quebec Cathedral, inspired in turn by Bernini’s masterpiece in St. Peters Basilica in Rome. And so it went, back and forth, a competition between empires that existed all the way up to the creation of the Federal Dominion of Canada in 1867.  The motivations at play may have been less than pure but the result is now pure visual delight—a compact and walkable walled city with a charming vista around seemingly every corner.  And while the architecture may be a gorgeous hybrid, the culture otherwise skews heavily--and happily--toward the French; a heritage perhaps most satisfyingly experienced through the city’s passionate attachment to truly excellent food.   In restaurants, in marches, epiceries and boulangeries--in short, everywhere--the terrific food is French-inflected, creative, innovative, and disciplined all at the same time.

No doubt we’ll be posting again on this magical city later this year when Studio Traveler leads a trip to Quebec City.   In the meantime, for a few more photos taken during our recent look-see,  please CLICK HERE.

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...DETROIT

Yes, that Detroit...which is, perhaps, a surprise. 

We'll get to the 'why' in just a bit but first a little of context for this week's choice.

My job has a terrific fringe benefit.  In addition to the wonderfully interesting places I go, I get to meet wonderfully interesting people. Take, for example, Alexis Tragos.  Formerly of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Alexis now works at the Mattress Factory, a contemporary art space on Pittsburgh’s North Side.  We met last fall when I toured the Mattress Factory's extensive exhibition of Detroit-based artists.  It was a terrific show bursting with seemingly unlimited creative energy. This led me to wonder what else I might be missing about Detroit, a city which is currently far better known for its challenges than for its cultural vitality.  With that in mind, I recently asked Alexis if she would do a guest post for 'A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...' She graciously responded with the reflection below on 'WHY DETROIT...'

I have a soft spot in my heart for Detroit. Yes—Detroit, Michigan.

My fondness for the Motor City began as a child when I would visit my great-grandmother and spend hot summer days chasing sea gulls along the shore of Lake Michigan while eating a Sanders hot fudge sundae.

By the time I was twelve, my father was living in Detroit full time and my memories are filled with visiting the Detroit Institute of Arts, going to old Tigers stadium, lazily swinging in a hammock at Hubbel Pond in Milford, and never getting enough of Dearborn’s Middle Eastern cuisine.

Skip ahead twenty years and my love affair with Detroit remains. I can’t escape this gritty, yet magical American city.  I’m about to marry a Detroit native (in 4 weeks!) and have spent the last year giddily exploring the city’s arts community in preparation for the Mattress Factory current exhibition Detroit Artists in Residence which is on view until summer 2014.

Despite its less than glowing reputation, Detroit is a city—like Pittsburgh—that is reinventing itself. And is doing so, in part, because of its vibrant arts community.

The city is a hotbed for working artists. They can easily afford studio space, and in the case of Design 99, are transforming entire communities by purchasing homes for $500.  There is the College for Creative Studies, Wayne State University and just outside the city, the prestigious Cranbrook Academy.  An interesting fact is that every artist in the Mattress Factory exhibition is either a graduate or professor at one of these institutions.

Artists are often the first to respond when there is a change in society and the Mattress Factory was drawn to a group of artists whose work is influenced by, and directly affected by their communities. Design 99, Jessica Frelinghuysen, Scott Hocking, Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller, Russ Orlando and Frank Pahl are all connected by their environment, yet their reaction to the swift socioeconomic changes happening in Detroit are vastly different and intensely powerful.

I could go on and on about Detroit, but take my advice and experience it for yourself. If you go---stay: Westin Book Cadillac; eat: Green Dot Stables, Astro Coffee, Royal Kabob, Avalon, Roast; visit: MOCAD, Belle Isle, Eastern Market; shop: Nora, Shinola, Signal Return, Detroit Antiques Mall.

                                                                                 Alexis Tragos

CLICK HERE for a few more pics, all courtesy of Alexis!

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...POTSDAM, GERMANY

                                        

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...POTSDAM, GERMANY

For the simplest reason of all.  For beauty.

 Until a recent visit, Potsdam had one primary association for me.  I knew it as the site of Potsdam Conference at which leaders of the victorious Allies--Truman, Stalin and both Churchill and Atlee--met in the summer of 1945 to determine the fate of post-war Germany and ultimately the fate of much of the post-war world.

Potsdam was chosen as the site for this now long ago conference not only for its proximity to Berlin but also for what Potsdam has in staggering abundance--that is, for its beauty.  Long the summer residence of Prussian kings and noblemen, Potsdam almost overflows with palaces of a particularly serene and soulful beauty.

The greatest of these is Sanssouci, the summer residence of Frederick the Great. While it is often compared to Versailles, it is just as often noted that Sanssouci’s appeal is more intimate and more personal.  Something of this perhaps shows through in this week’s photograph of a gilt figure decorating Chinese House, one of the Sanssouci’s many park pavilions. Its ornate playfulness seems scaled for human delight rather than for a colder, more static sense of grandeur.

A day in Potsdam is on our Berlin itinerary.  Space is limited and demand is expected to be high.  Please CLICK HERE for more information on the trip including deposit instructions.

…and CLICK HERE for a few more pictures of Sansscouci.

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS

A visit to Bentonville, Arkansas is surprisingly satisfying--or perhaps it is more accurate to say it is satisfying in surprising ways.  One expects to be impressed by Crystal Bridges, which after all has become something of a phenomenon since opening in November of 2011. One also anticipates or at least hopes to find small town charm in Bentonville.  Walmart fortunes notwithstanding, it is still a town of less than 30,000 people in the northwest corner of a lightly populated state. The surprise comes from the fact that Bentonville is a place where not one, but two, very large cultural visions meet.

One vision, of course, belongs to Alice Walton.  Crystal Bridges is the result of her vision for a major new museum of American art to be housed in an extraordinary building designed by architect Moshe Safdie and situated in the semi-wild parklands adjacent to Walton's childhood home.  

The other vision originated in 2006, when preservationists and art collectors Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson decided to rehabilitate a series of connected buildings in their hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.  This resulted in the first 21C, a seemingly improbable combination of hotel and art museum.  There are now three 21C's with several more in the works including one opening next year in Durham in my home state of North Carolina. 

 21 C is a very good hotel, recently rated one of the best in the world by Travel and Leisure.  It is an even better museum.  The 21C in Bentonville sits on the edge of the Crystal Bridges' parkland.  A simple walkway through the woods connects these two great and original visions.  

It feels very complete--and very worth a visit.

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...NEW YORK

 A CITY A WEEK AND WHY… NEW YORK

What  do we love about New York?  A million and one things--maybe even two 

million and two things...and on any given visit we, like everyone else, may 

head off in this or that direction--theater, music, dance, art, dining, shopping, 

etc., etc, etc. and so on and so forth, for forever and for always--

the opportunities are, of course, endless.  Inevitably though, to this ever 

growing list of activities, unifying impressions do emerge.  I am

 struck by how many of my enduring impressions of New York begin 

at street level. In fact, I've come to think of the street as a kind of urban 

horizon line, serving to orient us all to what goes on above and below it.

    Which brings me to a particularly intriguing set of new and temporary 'markers' on 

New York's urban horizon line--Alice Aycock's recently installed sculptures 

on Park Avenue, collectively known as Paper Chase.  The street level swirl of 

the sculptures is delightful while their very presence throws off a bit of visual tonic.  

In this week's photo, that's the venerable Seagram Building 

in the background, looking positively alive with warmth and gravity 

against the ice cold curls of Paperchase's 'Maelstrom'. 

Aycock's sculptures are up through July so down before our August trip.  Trust us 

though, there'll be plenty else to see and do.  CLICK HERE for our 

CITYWeekend itinerary.

CLICK HERE to go our Facebook page for more images of Paper Chase. 

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...PHILADELPHIA

 A CITY A WEEK AND WHY… PHILADELPHIA

This one's simple--the answer is art.  Even condensed, the list of great Philadelphia artists and architects is long.  It begins with Charles Wilson Peale and goes on to include Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt, Frank Furness, John Sloan, William Glackens, three generations of Calders, Louis Kahn, Alice Neel, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.  The city's major cultural institutions are equally impressive and include the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the newly relocated Barnes Foundation. 

This rich and extensive legacy has ushered in a unique and very vital present.  The thriving contemporary art scene in Philadelphia has a quirky intimacy and energy all its own.   Where collectives such as Traction work in new idioms; local institutions like the Fabric Workshop host special exhibitions by artists of international stature.  In fact, this week's photo was taken at Sarah Sze's expansive yet personal installation at the Fabric Workshop.  Gorgeous work.

CLICK HERE for photos from a recent North Carolina Museum of Art trip to Philadelphia.  Great fun!

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...BERLIN

 A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...

BERLIN

There are many ways to answer the question of 'WHY BERLIN'.  

Indeed, Berlin may 

be one of the world's most 

layered cities--

its many incarnations scraped away 

and 

continually 

added to over a 700 year history.  

The current mix is very rich--contemporary art, 

modern 

architecture, 

evidences of 

the 

Cold War and 

of 

the 

dark, dark

legacies of 

World War I and II…

a

nd then there is Museum Island.  

This UNESCO World Heritage 

Site 

is quite

 literally an island of museums surrounded by 

the River Spree

.  

Together these five museums present 

a gorgeous, almost 

dizzying paean to classical notions of 

beauty.  

The collections include the Pergamon Altar and the Ishtar Gate at the 

Pergamon 

and and Nefertiti at the Neues Museum.

We'll be traveling to Berlin this fall, September 14th to 20th.  The itinerary is not quite set  but we can tell you this--it will include Museum Island and much, much more. Please stay tuned and watch for 'Featured Trip' announcements.  

We think this is going

to be a lot of fun.

****

A CITY A WEEK AND WHY...

Studio Traveler says 'yes' to social media with the launch of a new series.  One city, one observation, one photograph, one weekly post.  Simple as that.  We will begin with a focus on the cities we'll visit in 2014--Berlin; Los Angeles; New York; Philadelphia: Portland, Maine; Quebec; Santa Fe; Seattle and Washington, D.C.  But let's face it--we just love cities so there may some surprises along the way!  

We hope you'll come along…we think it's going to be a lot of fun.