Work in limbo, Pioneer Arts Center in Easthampton vows to continue

EASTHAMPTON - Hours after a jury declared Pioneer Arts Center of Easthampton co-founder David Fried Oppenheim guilty of statutory rape charges Monday, the organization's president said PACE will continue its work to provide a performance space for the arts.

Muse Flashes

Please send arts news items to MuseFlashes, in care of Kathleen Mellen, Box 299, Northampton, MA 01061, or email them to kmellen@gazettenet.com.

Song & Story Swap

Singer-songwriter Carrie Ferguson will perform at this month's Song & Story Swap at 7 p.m. on Feb. 4 at The Nacul Center, 592 Main St. in Amherst

Children’s writer, illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka explores secret lives

Back in 2001 Jarrett Krosoczka was visiting his old elementary school in Worcester to talk to students about his first book, "Good Night, Monkey Boy," which had just been published. While he was there, he ran into the school’s longtime "lunch lady," Jean Cargilia, who started chatting about her grandchildren. That chance encounter led to Krosoczka’s signature series: comic graphic novels about a school cafeteria worker who’s secretly a crime fighter, taking on rogue librarians, evil cyborg substitute teachers and a visiting children’s author with his own sinister agenda. The seventh “Lunch Lady” book will be released in March.

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Muse Flashes

'The Color Purple'

A musical version of "The Color Purple" will be presented Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m at the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Chesterfield sculptor aids Springfield revitalization

SPRINGFIELD - One afternoon last week, a man got up from his chair outside the downtown Springfield offices of the Internal Revenue Service, tucked his accordion-style file folder under his arm and walked a few feet to a large assemblage of rusted metal arranged on the wall, all tools and hardware arranged in a rough starburst pattern.

Muse Flashes

Please send arts news items to MuseFlashes, in care of Kathleen Mellen, Box 299, Northampton, MA 01061, or email them to kmellen@gazettenet.com.

Music at UMass

Jan. 24: A faculty violin concert with Elizabeth Chang on violin and Judith Gordon on piano begins at 8 p.m. at the Bezanson Recital Hall at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. On the program: Hindemith's Violin Sonata Op. 31, No. 2; Mozart's Violin & Piano Sonata K. 454 and Saint Saens' Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 75.

Artists invoke passage, mystery in show at Oxbow Gallery

Lydia Kann Nettler's trees speak ("Oh, so predictable," says one, "the weather of mothers"). Phil Lawrence's tubes go about their business (moving water and saving lives). B.Z. Reily's into leather (and yes, baseball's been very, very good to her).