Artists creating art on the street
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra is a big, new addition to the Arts District Pride Block Party on Friday, June 20, in the museums along Flora Street and on the street itself.
Enrico Lopez-Yañez conducts the orchestra, with vocalists Maiya Sykes and Christian Dante White and the Turtle Creek Chorale. The 70-minute performance at the Meyerson Symphony Center features Broadway hits, movie classics and disco favorites.
Enrico Lopez-Yañez is the principal pops conductor of the Detroit, Nashville and Pacific Symphonies as well as the principal conductor of the Dallas Symphony Presents, the Dallas pops orchestra.
Maiya Sykes is a classically trained vocalist, producer, vocal arranger and entrepreneur. She studied independently with Nina Simone and Betty Carter. Sykes has provided back-up vocals for The Black-Eyed Peas, Macy Gray, Fantasia, Joss Stone, Michael Buble, Leona Lewis and Rita Ora. She was a featured backup singer in Macy Gray’s live show for more than five years, and she recently provided backgrounds and was featured in the Oscar Award-winning film La La Land.
Christian Dante White has appeared on Broadway in My Fair Lady, Hello, Dolly!, Shuffle Along…, The Book of Mormon and The Scottsboro Boys and was part of the national tours of The Book of Mormon, Motown and Hairspray.
And to top off the performance, The Turtle Creek Chorale, which has grown to 250 members, will fill the chorale tier in the Meyerson, making this a perfect way to celebrate Pride.
Tickets start at $20. Food and drinks will be available for purchase.
Outside, vendors booths will fill Flora Street, from Olive to Harwood. At the corner of Harwood and Flora, the community stage will be set up with performances from 6-11 p.m.
The evening begins with Story Time with Cassie Nova.
Uptown Players and Bruce Wood Dance have collaborated on a piece and also will perform pieces on their own. New to the block party will be the Round-Up Saloon house dancers with performance and line dancing. Dezi 5 Entertainment will perform. And Bleach & Friends present a fashion finale.
Ebony Lewis, community muralist will engage the crowd with a work in progress.
Food trucks will be set up along Harwood Street, and all three of the street’s museums will be participating.
On exhibit at the Crow Museum of Asian Art are The Shogun’s World: Japanese Maps from the MacLean Collection, Anila Quayyum Agha: Let One Bird Sing and Celia Chiang: Don’t Tell Me What To Do.
Here’s how the museum describes what will be going on in the Cut Paper Design Studio in Gallery 3: “Paper, scissors, glue — and you! Step into the light (literally) as you create a glowing design inspired by Anila Quayyum Agha: Let One Bird Sing. This stunning exhibition uses the destruction of the environment as a powerful metaphor for how marginalized voices are pushed to the shadows. Now’s your chance to flip the switch and make your voice seen and heard!”
At the Nasher Sculpture Center, there will be music, a movie and exhibitions. Music will be provided by Cure for Paranoia, DJ Natural High and Bleach & Friends. That will be followed by an outdoor movie screening in the gardens of Love Simon.
The exhibitions on view are Generations: 150 Years of Sculpture and Otobong Nkanga: Each Seed a Body. Wolfgang Puck Catering offers bar service, food for purchase, and grab & go snacks the night of the event.
And at the Dallas Museum of Art, events will be going on throughout the building. United Black Ellument hosts a Kiki Ball, and there will be more line dancing and music from The Round-Up Saloon.
For those who want to show off their artistic skill or just want to have some fun drawing, there’s sketching in the galleries. For those who’d like an introduction to the museum, there will be tours of the galleries. And in the auditoriums, there will be film screenings.
Currently on exhibit are Marisol: A Retrospective, Return to Infinity: Yayoi Kusama and Nature and Artifice: Works on Paper from Durer to Rembrandt. The museum describes Marisol as the most enigmatic of the pop artists. And Nature and Artifice shows rarely seen works from the museum’s collection of pastoral scenes of country life from the 15th to 17th centuries.
A favorite activity each year is the treasure hunt — find the LGBTQ artists’ work included in the DMA’s collection and learn more about them.
Each of the indoor venues will be inspecting bags and other items coming into their buildings. Cameras are fine. Large camera bags are not. No duffle bags, backpacks or large totes. You’ll be asked to return them to your car.
Despite pressure from the governor over firearms at Fair Park during the State Fair, there are no guns in the art museums or on the street around the museums. No spray paints or permanent markers, are allowed either; they’re just not good for the art. And no selfie sticks, skateboards, rollerblades, scooters, bicycles or helmets are allowed.
Parking is available under the Dallas Museum of Art and under the performing arts buildings. DART has an Arts District stop about three blocks from Flora Street. All four lines stop there.