Coming Attractions
Our expert critics supply a guide to film, visual art, theater, author readings, television, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.
The Arts Fuse Currents
Music
With Carlos Simon’s “Four Black American Dances,” the Pittsburgh Symphony offers a thoughtful and resonant recontextualization of Dvořák’s Ninth.
Visual Arts
Artists confront climate change by probing the intelligence, fragility, and resilience of trees.
Film
Carla Simón’s dreamlike family drama merges mother and daughter, past and present, in a moving search for identity.
Books
Veiled power in St. Louis –How a secret society turned class war into ritual and never let go.
Poetry at The Arts Fuse
The week’s poem: Tracey McTague’s “it’s a scarlet tanager kind of day”
Dance
Currently running at the Joyce Theater, “Trips” pairs classic Pilobolus works with new creations, reaffirming what has made the company one of dance’s most distinctive ensembles.
Theater
Arlekin’s high-energy adaptation underscores absurdism’s resonance in an age of conflict.
Television
Netflix’s raunchy comedy gives the comedian some room to flail, but there’s not enough weirdness to fully unleash his chaotic brilliance.
Podcasts
Host Elizabeth Howard moderates a conversation about whether the arts can provoke, reflect, and sustain cultural dialogue in a period of disruption and transformation.
Short Fuses
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
Spotlight
About the Arts Fuse
The Arts Fuse was established in June, 2007 as a curated, independent online arts magazine dedicated to publishing in-depth criticism, along with high quality previews, interviews, and commentaries. The publication's over 70 freelance critics (many of them with decades of experience) cover dance, film, food, literature, music, television, theater, video games, and visual arts. Support arts coverage that believes that culture matters.
Arts Commentary: The Kennedy Center and the Boston Symphony Orchestra — A Tale of Two Crises
A court-ordered reset in Washington and a self-inflicted rupture in Boston expose deeper failures of leadership, transparency, and trust.