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Weekend Reading: December 13 Edition

Melissa Starker, Creative Content & PR Manager

Dec 13, 2024

A woman in a red dress looks up and smiles in the middle of a gallery with walls holding framed photographs.

Top of page: Ming Smith, with photographs in her exhibition Wind Chime at the Wexner Center for the Arts

Around Ohio

An older man with a full, white beard speaks into a microphone during an onstage interview.

Filmmaker Mike Leigh at the Wex in 2019.

We’re happy to share that the Wex placed in Columbus Underground’s Best of CU poll in the Arts Organization and Cultural Institution categories. Thanks, voters!
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum curator Caitlin McGurk, author of the new book Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins, joined scifi legend Harlan Ellison and photographer Peter Hujar on Slate’s list of the best literary reprints of 2024.
Columbus-based film critic Chris Feil cowrote this Vulture guide to the films of Mike Leigh, prompted by the release of Leigh’s powerful new comedy-drama Hard Truths.
The New Yorker visited a Thurber House workshop dedicated to writing like Taylor Swift.
This Saturday, Wild Goose Creative hosts the incubator showcase Better Together.
Wex Performing Arts Producer Elena Perantoni has joined the cast of the latest from Available Light Theatre.
The Dispatch covered XCEPTIONAL Teen Magazine, which provides an outlet for young writers.
The paper also offered a primer on Kwanzaa.
Hammond Harkins Galleries will be resurrected downtown.
Findlay artist space The Neon Heater is accepting proposals through January 1 for solo and group exhibitions in 2025.
Comic and nonprofit fundraiser “Wonder Doug” Cuckler discussed his move away from comedy with Matter.
Matter also dropped its list of the best local albums of 2024, including new discs by Golomb and Micah Schnabel.
A new EP features an epic collaboration between poet Barbara Fant and musician P. Blakk.
For some late holiday shopping, you can turn to Darkest Night! Friday at Witchlab or the Procrastinator’s Holiday Sale Saturday at Little Wild in Westerville.
Next Saturday, 934 Gallery opens a show of David Denniston work inspired by local character Ricky “Ice Cream” Jackson.
Also Saturday, the monthly dance party Candy Rain has a Ludacrismas edition.

Around the Globe

A multicolored, geometric piece of sculptural furniture sitting outside, captured in long exposure so streaks of color mark the image.

Outpost Office, Color Block No. 2, installation view at the Wexner Center for the Arts, 2023–24

Outpost Office's colorful intervention in the Wex's in-between spaces caught the attention of The Architect's Newspaper.
Ming Smith tops Artnet's list of artists dominating museums right now, due in part to our presentation of Wind Chime and concurrent shows at Columbus Museum of Art and The Gund at Kenyon College.
Ohio-born rock legend Chrissie Hynde talked about her move into painting, prompted by a gallery show of her work in London.
It’s that time of year again: the moment when we look to what creative assets lose copyright protection in the coming year. For 2025, that includes Popeye and artworks by Salvador Dalí and Wassily Kandinsky.
Here's how things are going with Seattle's special sales tax to raise public funds for the arts.
Why all the hate for Mocha Mousse, the warm, velvety hue that Pantone chose for its color of the year?
The Notre Dame cathedral had its official reopening.
Curator Adrienne Edwards discussed her work on the multidisciplinary Alvin Ailey exhibition now on view at the Whitney.
Recent Wex guest Ayodele Casel spoke to Dance Magazine about her new show, which premiered this week in Boston.
H/t to Wex Store and Visitor Experience staffer and DJ about town Dorian Ham for an alert that DJ Riko has released the 2024 edition of his world-renowned holiday mixes.
Here’s an argument for how music can be the best way to effect social change.
Zimbabwean-American actor Danai Gurira returned to the country of her family with a new conference to support aspiring dramatists.
The Writers Guild of America called on studios to stop letting tech companies use its members’ work to train AI.
Numerous films shown at the Wex or coming soon made the Film Comment lists of the best of 2024, including Dahomey, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, and Jean-Luc Godard’s Scenario.
The Golden Globe nominations were announced, with Netflix’s nonbinary musical Emilia Perez leading the film nominees.
Conclave and Wicked top the 2025 Critics Choice Awards nominees.
The Washington Post mulled over how the US presidential election could impact this year’s Oscars race.
Tuesday evening, the Library of America is doing a virtual program about film adaptations with a multigenerational group of critics including Farran Smith Nehme and Mike Sragow.
Chicago is investing in a huge complex dedicated to making music for films.
Actor/director Olivia Wilde spoke up about the way in which youthful filmmaking ambition is channeled depending on gender.
The creator economy is booming.
But public broadcasting might have to fight for its life in 2025.
Workers at New York's iconic Strand Books went on strike.
T: The New York Times Style Magazine considered the rise of lesbian pulp fiction during the culturally buttoned-down period of the 1950s.
"Polarization" is Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year.
Fandom reined as the biggest trend in social media this year.
Hugely influential poet Nikki Giovanni passed this week at the age of 81.
Mexican film star Silvia Pinal died last week.
And American Theatre reported the November 12 passing of dramaturg and activist Morgan Jenness.