Elizabeth Blair

Plans For Smithsonian Museum 'Bubble' May Have Burst

Elizabeth Blair — Tue, 28 May 2013 07:39:00 +0000

Call it the Smithsonian's bubble problem. One of the Smithsonian museums — the Hirshhorn museum for contemporary art — came up with an ambitious new design to add more space: Why not build a giant, inflatable structure that would be big enough for people to walk around in?

But some of the Smithsonian's trustees in Washington, D.C., haven't been blown away by the bubble.

Some say the windowless Hirshhorn museum on the National Mall looks like a concrete bunker.

'Venus and Serena': An Extraordinary Story, Told On Film

Elizabeth Blair — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:36:00 +0000

It's Cinderella plus Jackie Robinson times two. When Venus and Serena Williams burst onto the lily-white world of tennis, they changed the game and made history: They were sisters. From a poor neighborhood. Who brought unprecedented power to the game. And both reached No. 1.

Their journey is the subject of a new documentary called Venus and Serena, showing in select theaters around the country.

"It's not just about sports," says co-director Maiken Baird. "I think of it as the great American story. It's rich with family, sisterhood, race, hard work and tenaciousness."

In D.C., Art Program Turns Boys' Lives Into 'Masterpieces'

Elizabeth Blair — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 18:41:00 +0000

This is the third in a three-part series about the intersection of education and the arts.

Life Pieces to Masterpieces is an arts program that's not entirely about the art. It's an after-school program based in a struggling neighborhood in Washington, D.C., that teaches black boys and young men what they call "the four C's": "Connect, create, contribute, celebrate." From ages 3-25, they learn to express themselves by conceiving their paintings together. And those paintings will often reflect what's going on in their lives.

Maurice Kie, 26, is a mentor with Life Pieces.

More Than 50 Years Of Putting Kids' Creativity To The Test

Elizabeth Blair — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:07:00 +0000

This is the second in a three-part series about the intersection of education and the arts.

Let's start with a question from a standardized test: "How would the world be different if we all had a third eye in the back of our heads?"

It's not a typical standardized question, but as part of the Next Generation Creativity Survey, it's used to help measure creativity a bit like an IQ test measures intelligence. And it's not the only creativity test out there.

So why bother measuring creativity?

Familiar Folks Make Up A Play's 'Good People'

Elizabeth Blair — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:48:00 +0000

How we end up in life has a lot to do with where we came from. That theory gets a good workout in the play Good People, from Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lindsay-Abaire. When the show was on Broadway two years ago, the trade magazine Variety proclaimed that "If Good People isn't a hit, there is no justice in the land."

As it turns out, justice has been served: Good People is the most produced play in America this theatrical season.