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New England Today
The Smiley Face: More Famous Than Mona Lisa
Born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, the late Harvey Ball, a self-employed commercial artist, drew the first smiley face in December 1963 for a local insurance company that wanted happy buttons to raise employee morale. He said he received about $45 for the sketch, drawn with black felt-tip pen on yellow paper. Before his death in 2001 and after millions and millions uses of smiley faces later, Harvey said: “Smiley is one of the greatest pieces of art ever created, as simple as it is. It's got a very, very positive message. Anybody can use it and reproduce it and it reaches everybody ... I'm glad Smiley came from Worcester. The city should make more of it. Because no other city has this."
Maxfield Parrish's Work Gets a Home
Maxfield Parrish's Daybreak recently sold for $7.6 million. That's good news, because the seller's grant of $300,000 will help purchase a permanent home for the Cornish Colony Museum, in Windsor, Vermont, home to the largest collection of Parrish's work. The name of its current Parrish exhibition is, appropriately enough, Coming Home. Through October 29. 802-674-6008. cornishmuseum.com
Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art
This fall, the Red Sox will have to share the spotlight with a new player in town -- the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). The ICA, which has moved from its Boylston Street location to an ultramodern 65,000-square-foot building on Boston's harborfront, is the first art museum to be built in the city in nearly 100 years. Its eye-catching facade -- a dramatic cantilever extending over the water's edge -- already has architecture buffs buzzing.
Dating from 1936, the ICA played a key role in introducing Boston to leading contemporary artists, and it was one of the country's first museums to mount an Andy Warhol solo exhibition. One of the most anticipated inaugural exhibitions, the 2006 ICA Artist Prize (Sept. 17-Nov. 26) focuses on works by finalists (including Sheila Gallagher and Kelly Sherman) for this prestigious award given to an up-and-coming local artist. icaboston.org
Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne
When Nathaniel Hawthorne died in 1864, his wife and children moved to England. Years earlier, his wife, Sophia, had written him: "I once thought that no power on earth should ever induce me to live without thee, and especially thought that an ocean should never roll between us." Sophia and their eldest child, Una, died in England and were buried there.
In 2005, a hawthorn tree (yes, it's true) fell down in a storm and damaged their graves. This past summer, their bodies were returned to the United States and now reside beside Nathaniel in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.
Donald Hall: A Poet for All Ages
Donald Hall has long been one of New England's most gifted writers of poetry and prose. Writing from his farmhouse in the village of Wilmot, New Hampshire, Hall's images cut to the heart of anyone, anywhere. This month he begins his one-year appointment as poet laureate of the United States. To honor its local gift to literature, the town of Wilmot has joined the New Hampshire Writers' Project (NHWP) in celebrating Hall in a day of programs focused on Kearsarge poets. The public will meet Hall and other writers, listen to readings, and generally be immersed in the music of words that matter. The date: Saturday, October 7. The meeting place is Wilmot Community Center, 64 Village Road, Wilmot Flat. Event details, prices, and registration are available at nhwritersproject.org or by calling 603-314-7980.
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