Arts

With the buzz factor on the new Cindy Sherman retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art already at full decibels, aptly descriptive words such as malleable, prescient, and chameleon-like are already sounding like clichés.

    Yet, it is not just her seemingly shape-shifting originality that is so impressive in this epic collection of photographs from three decades of art making, but the evolving mastery of her medium in coaxing out the effects that allow these transformations to occur.

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   The Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center’s lineup for the spring includes a new Breakout Artist series that showcases young singer-songwriters and musicians, with tickets in the $20 range. This is in addition to the world-renowned artists of the Main Stage shows.

    Diego Garcia is up first, with a performance tomorrow at 8 p.m. that includes his new song “You Were Never There,” which is getting play on WEHM, a partner in the series. Mr. Garcia will display his Latin roots with a jazz and blues flavor.

Dwyer Does Cider

    Coming up next in the East Hampton Historical Society’s concert series, the Cider House Sessions, is Doug Dwyer, who will perform at the Clinton Academy on Saturday at 7 p.m. Mr. Dwyer made his musical debut in Southampton in 1964 and his repertory is wide ranging, covering country, classic rock, rhythm and blues, and jazz. Performing with him will be Mike Appel, who was Bruce Springsteen’s original manager and producer (e.g., on “Born to Run”). Mr. Dwyer will sing Mr. Appel’s new song “Pink Cotton Candy.”

    The Choral Society of the Hamptons will explore three centuries of music in its spring concert on March 18 at 5 p.m. at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church. Jesse Mark Peckham will conduct and three soprano soloists will participate.

    The 60-member Choral Society has chosen music by Mozart, Fauré, and Rutter, whose sacred music is marked by exquisite melody. Members of the South Fork Chamber Ensemble will accompany the chorus on harp, flute, oboe, glockenspiel, cello, and timpani. Thomas Bohlert, the music director of the church, will play the organ.

    With a rich and varied body of work and now in her 60s, these are the days when Laurie Anderson has become, not necessarily an éminence grise, but certainly an artist in maturity and accepting its rewards.

   The Hayground Forum at the Hayground School in Bridgehampton will present Groove Gumbo Super Band, a Nordic world jazz group, tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m.

The evening will include bread making and a local cheese and wine tasting. A $10 suggested donation will be collected at the door.

Artists Alliance Show

    Ashawagh Hall in Springs will become the temporary clubhouse of the Artists Alliance of East Hampton this weekend. The alliance, a nonprofit arts organization founded in 1984 in memory of Jimmy Ernst, will feature some 40 member artists in the show.

   What’s the recipe for a myth? There’s no one formula, of course, but it seems as though gods or super-motivated humans are usually involved. Someone keeps rolling a stone up a hill, or makes fire, kisses a frog into a prince, gets swallowed by a whale, procreates, dies, gets reborn. A good myth usually requires a powerful natural or supernatural force.

    The modern myth is trickier, especially in the supernatural department. It can be harder to recognize in the present, but they do exist and reveal themselves with time.

   Anyone following the national art scene last year was probably aware of a series of Southern California exhibits devoted to the area’s regional artists called Pacific Standard Time, which took over most museums and many galleries with related events and shows. The art ranged from works produced in 1945 up through 1980, and the series was initiated by the Getty Center, where some of its own exhibits continue to be on view through May.

   With a rich and varied body of work and now in her 60s, these are the days when Laurie Anderson has become, not necessarily an éminence grise, but certainly an artist in maturity and accepting its rewards.

On Sunday night, when the last of the envelopes are opened at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, one of East Hampton’s own could be making her way to the stage.

Verdi and Extreme

    Guild Hall’s next simulcast of the Met: Live in HD will feature Verdi’s early opera “Ernani” on Saturday at 1 p.m. Angela Meade sings the title role with Marcello Giordani as her mismatched lover, and Verdians Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ferruccio Furlanetto. The cost is $22 and $20 for members.

    The Long Island Winterfest is in full swing at wineries throughout the East End, and will continue through March 18. Since 2006, talented musicians and music enthusiasts have flooded the venues for six consecutive weekends, bringing welcome business to local restaurants, hotels, and shops during the slowest time of the year. Although most of the events are on the North Fork, there has been participation from Wolffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack as well. A full calendar can be found at liwinterfest.com.

Photo Show at Ashawagh

    Hampton Photo, Arts and Framing will present a photo exhibit at Ashawagh Hall this weekend, beginning on Saturday with a reception from 5:30 to 11 p.m. The show will feature more than 50 South Fork photographers.

    The images have been chosen and organized by Laurie Barone-Schaefer, a photographer. Among those included are Kate Petrone, Ellen Watson, Evelyn O’Doherty, Kristina Gale, Diana Frank, L. Marie Jones, Hailey Kohlus, Dan Ritzler, Lacy Jane, and many more. The show will close on Sunday at 4 p.m.

   Leonardo Gala, a pianist, composer, and audio artist, will be the artist in residence for the East End Arts Council at its Riverhead grounds, through May 19. A variety of events are planned throughout his residency, all of which are free and open to the public.

   Although art therapy is a well-known professional practice, a Sag Harbor woman who suffered for more than a decade from a panic disorder has discovered that art can be self-healing.

     Linda Edkins Wyatt, a mixed-media artist, paints, does collage, and makes jewelry and decorative boxes, among other artwork. But her art quilts have gained the most attention. “The Eye of Panic,” for example, a mixed-media quilt, was recognized in the magazine Machine Quilting Unlimited and also in a book by Karen Musgrave, “Quilts in the Attic.”

    The Pamela Williams gallery on Main Street in Amagansett will close its doors at the end of the month.

    Ms. Williams, who opened the gallery on Feb. 12, 2005, after being a director at Lizan Tops in East Hampton for 10 years, until it closed, was followed by many artists to her new space.

   Feb. 7 marked the bicentennial of Charles Dickens’s birth and the world is celebrating, including here in East Hampton, where the Hamptons International Film Festival will screen David Lean’s “Oliver Twist” on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Guild Hall.

    The event will be hosted by Alec Baldwin, a festival board member, and he will be joined in conversation after the film by Jon Robin Baitz, a playwright whose acclaimed “Other Desert Cities” is now on Broadway. He is also the creator of the television show “Brothers and Sisters.” They will discuss literary adaptations.

John Iversen, a jeweler and goldsmith, balks at being called an artist, but it’s impossible to look at the cuff-like bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and brooches he has made over the last 30 years and not see them as wearable sculptures. Apparently the curators of the Drawing Room agree, as they are showing his elegantly wrought jewelry and works on paper in the same gallery that has shown the artists Jennifer Bartlett, Robert Harms, and Costantino Nivola, among others.

Baroque Music

    The Southampton Cultural Center will present “The Colors of Persuasion,” a concert by Flying Forms, on Saturday at 7 p.m. as part of the Southampton Cultural Center Chamber Music series. 

    While many may spend the summer of 2012 waiting for the end of the world, those on the South Fork might remember it instead as the beginning of a renaissance in outdoor Shakespearean theater. Not one but two theatrical groups plan to stage productions, and both are taking their cues from the outdoors to leave a very small environmental footprint.

Booth Dreams of Summer

    The Tulla Booth Gallery is “Dreaming of Summer” this week, with photography featuring seascapes and images of the summer lifestyle by Anne Gabriele, Daniel Jones, John Margarites, Blair Seagram, and Bob Tabor. A reception will be held on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

Ashawagh Heats Up

    Karyn Mannix Contemporary will present the seventh annual iteration of its “Love and Passion” series at Asha­wagh Hall in Springs this weekend. Opening on Saturday, the show this year has the theme “sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll.” More than 60 national and regional artists working in a variety of mediums will participate.

    At the Saturday evening reception from 5 to 8, Alfredo Merat will provide music, and the Neo-Political Cowgirls will make an appearance. The evening also features a 50-50 raffle to benefit Ashawagh Hall.

   Up a creaky flight of stairs in a brightly painted orange room, Scott Chaskey, director of the Peconic Land Trust’s Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett, sat down two weeks ago behind his orderly desk for an interview about the farm and its winter share. “I just cleaned a week ago,” Mr. Chaskey joked, explaining his tidy desk, on which he had a jar of pens and a long, elegant feather, and a bowl of small pinecones.

    The new year has brought new gifts to the Parrish Art Museum in South­ampton, with both significant contributions to its capital campaign and boosts to its permanent collection.

Story Slam at the Goat

    The Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre in Sag Harbor has invited adults to step away from their computer and television screens and connect with one another offline during a “story slam” beginning tomorrow night at 8.

    With her first storytelling event, Liz Joyce, the theater’s founder, will offer what she feels is a “new wave happening” with props stripped away and stories told simply.

    In addition to a number of recorded and simulcast offerings of opera-related performances this year, the Southampton Cultural Center will present a live performance of “La Tragedie de Carmen” by the Stony Brook Opera next Thursday at 7 p.m.

Madoo Benefit Photo Show

    Diana Frank will share her photography at Pierre’s restaurant in Bridgehampton beginning with a reception on Saturday afternoon from 3 to 6 p.m.

    Ms. Frank, a former model, is a mostly self-taught photographer, although she has taken classes at the International Center for Photography. She has a business photographing children in New York City, but will be showing her fine art photography at Pierre’s, a series called “Study in Water.” It will be on view through Feb. 29.

   On a day in early January, a crew of five dedicated technicians worked painstakingly in a large, unheated, vacant church building to dismantle and save a historic pipe organ and, they hope, eventually find a new location for it.

    The former Sag Harbor Methodist Church on Madison Street was the home of a pipe organ built in 1902. The instrument had served well for nearly a century, but perhaps about 10 years ago fell into disrepair.