Weekend reading: January 29 edition

Around Ohio

• Marcy Mays is handing her beloved local music venue Ace of Cups to promoter (and Ace regular) Conor Stratton.
• The club has MethMatics streaming from its stage Saturday night.
• Also Saturday, the Columbus Museum of Art is throwing Virtual Wonderball, the online version of its annual fundraiser. Cohosts this year are Nina West and Hakim Callwood.
• The Riffe Gallery opens Build It: Artists Creating Community in Ohio this weekend with a virtual tour on its FB page. 
• The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum has a new show on the political satire in Walt Kelly’s legendary strip Pogo. 
• OSU's Creative Pathfinders series has a Zoom convo about ACCAD on Tuesday that includes input from Beth Albright, an alum now working as a character supervisor for Pixar.
• Ohio History Connection begins a discussion series Wednesday around the writings of the formerly enslaved.
• King Arts Complex and Columbus Metropolitan Library have a virtual panel Thursday centered on the vintage photographs of Columbus in KAC’s collection.
• Also Thursday, CCAD continues its Visiting Artists series from a distance with Nell Irvin Painter on Zoom.
• Tyra Patterson, a contributor to the Pens to Pictures program, has launched an open call for artwork spotlighting women in prison-issued uniforms for an upcoming exhibition at Cincinnati's Freedom Center.
• Congratulations to regular Wex guest Roger Beebe and Cinetracts ’20 filmmaker Sheilah ReStack, who are among the 75 artists to receive Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council.
• Columbus Alive has a piece on local portrait artist Evan Williams.
• And Columbus treasure Pheoris West, who taught art at Ohio State for 40 years,  passed away at the age of 70.

Around the globe

• All day Sunday, Wex virtual residency artist Awilda Rodriguez Lora will join Twyla Tharp and other dance luminaries for an interview marathon to benefit the Chicago Dance History Project.
• Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar’s latest documentary, 9to5: The Story of a Movement (pictured at top of page), makes its PBS debut online Monday. It’ll air locally on WOSU-TV February 7.
• In other exciting PBS news, American Masters has released thousands of hours of previously unheard interviews with artists such as Maya Angelou, David Bowie, and Nan Goldin.
• Thursday, the Smithsonian presents a virtual screening and conversation with filmmaker Joan Jonas.
• Artist Noah Fischer illustrated as well as wrote this widely read essay on “why the art world needs populism."
• Mayors from 10 cities have called on the Biden administration for a federal response to the Covid-fueled crisis in the arts economy.
• Okwui Okpokwasili and Nevada Diggs are among the seven women artists of color to collaborate on a video celebrating the historic inauguration of Vice President Kamala Harris.
• What’s happened to art world whistleblowers after they’ve gone public?
• Writer Jasmine Sanders took a look at the typically overlooked Black Romantic school of painting for Artforum.
• Sculptor Anthony Gormley has asked all Britons to make and publicly display an artwork at home to create the biggest art exhibition ever.
• It’s meant for kids, but we love this Louise Nevelson-inspired art project, too.
• Here are five dance film projects to look out for in the next month.
• Amazon is launching a new music-focused streaming channel with rare concerts and documentaries.
• Athlete A filmmakers Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk talked to Aaron Sorkin about honoring truth in filmmaking.
• Independent Spirit nominations are out. Kleber Mendonça Filho's Bacurau; Unorthodocs selection Collective by Alexander Nanau; and Cecilia Aldarondo, the director of another Unorthodocs pick for 2020, Landfall, made the cut.
• Walter Bernstein, the once-blacklisted screenwriter of The Front and Fail Safe, died at 101.
• And actor Cloris Leachman, whose extraordinary work included The Last Picture Show and Young Frankenstein, has also left us.
• As has the groundbreaking performer Cicely Tyson at the age of 96.