By Glenda Rice Collins, For Bartlesville Magazine, Winter 2020.* Updated 3-18-20.
Bartlesville, Okla., USA– “Part of the worldwide availability of service that comes with being a diplomat is being able to adapt to new scenarios, to quickly learn new skills, and to work with all kinds of people. These are all things I first learned from CMT.” —Clint Shoemake, foreign service officer at U. S. Department of State. Continue reading
By Glenda Rice Collins
Tulsa, Okla. USA–Contemporary updates to set designs and lighting brought enhanced relevance to the timeless story of commitment and deceit contained within the 1904 Giacomo Puccini opera classic, Madama Butterfly, and its sumptuous score. A stellar cast, with several Tulsa Opera debuts, prevailed at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center last weekend.
By Glenda Rice Collins (Updated February 28, 2020)
Bentonville, Arkansas, USA — While a continuing celebration of community and diversity 
swirled around Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (CB) last weekend, as The Momentary, a new satellite museum venue for contemporary art debuted, –political themes loomed large within State of the Art 2020, the new venue’s inaugural exhibition, currently housed within both CB museum locations. Time Being named the theme for diverse performances at the newly re-purposed Kraft cheese factory, located near the popular 8th Street Market food hub, hangout destination. The synergy now expands!
By Glenda Rice Collins (Updated 2-20-20)
Oklahoma City, Okla. USA — From the recent production of Federico Garcia Lorca’s Spanish classic, Blood Wedding, at the University of Oklahoma (OU) arts district in Norman –(see a related 2-13-20 article, Renegades…, on this website) –to last weekend’s Oklahoma City Ballet staging of William Shakespeare’s tragic Romeo & Juliet love story at Civic Center Music Hall, reminders loom forth of the fragility of life, and how frequently death is courted as the permanent solution to a temporary situation. Continue reading
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman
By Glenda Rice Collins (Updated 2-16-20)
Norman, Okla. — Definitions of ‘renegade’ run the gamut from rebel, traitor, and betrayer to the more appropriate concepts for my recent University of Oklahoma arts district observations: revolutionary, radical, and runaway, to define artists, architects, and dramatists, along with musical theater themes and characters. Continue reading
By Glenda Rice Collins, Updated 1-3-20
Bartlesville, Okla., USA — As media and culture analyst, author Marshall McLuhan said decades ago, “The medium is the massage…it does something to people. It takes hold of them. It rubs them off, it massages them and bumps them around, chiropractically, as it were…The poet, the artist, the sleuth – whoever sharpens our perception tends to be antisocial; rarely “well-adjusted,” he cannot go along with currents and trends…There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening.” Continue reading
By Glenda Rice Collins (Updated October 13, 2019)
Bartlesville, Okla., USA — The journey back from illness, physical injuries, and any of life’s temporary setbacks, can be overwhelming with new demands and limitations; or at times, uplifting, if we remember to ‘stop and smell (and perhaps re-arrange) the roses,’ despite the thorns! Frida Kahlo’s Garden, on view at the Price Tower Arts Center through October 20, 2019, provides new inspiration for a life well-lived with nature, and focus beyond pain. Continue reading
By Glenda Rice Collins (Updated September 27, 2019)
Bartlesville, Okla., USA — Personal injury along with physical and mental duress can derail the best of intentions for a fulfilling life. To restore a semblance of “balance,” — Get thee to a beach, and get back to the arts! Continue reading
By Glenda Rice Collins Updated 2-14-18
TULSA, Okla. USA — This past weekend’s North American premiere of Derek Deane’s Strictly Gershwin ballet extravaganza, presented by Tulsa Ballet, proved to be a fitting and well-received homage to the genius and versatility of American composer George Gershwin and the staying-power of his music. Continue reading
By Glenda Rice Collins
TULSA, Okla. USA — In celebration of artistic director Steve Liggett’s 26 years of leadership at Living Arts of Tulsa, a dazzling celebratory retirement party Friday night marked both the ‘end of an era’ and new beginnings at the Brady Arts District contemporary arts anchor gallery. Continue reading
Glenda Rice Collins 