November 25, 2020
reader,
If you're new here, well howdy! Welcome to my weekly blog about Houston arts and culture, plus whatever else I wish to share from my brain. Scroll to the very bottom for more about it.
I'm having a blast doing two weekly Facebook Live chats on my Facebook page: MONDAY MEDITATION CHATS at 10am (the latest one is here) and WEDNESDAY NIGHT LIVE arts & culture chats at 9pm (the latest one from last week is here, I'm not doing one this week since I'll be on the road on this lovely Thanksgiving eve).
Tune in every week!
A special note if you're a parent or caregiver: be sure to follow my GISH PICKS page for not only my KID PICKS but also my CAMP PICKS (holiday day camps). Special for the pandemic, I'm also publishing EXPLORE PICKS (school year enrichment programs). If the Thanksgiving holidays are making you quake in your cowboy boots because you need a break from your little darlings, don't worry: just check out my latest round-up of EXPLORE PICKS and Thanksgiving CAMP PICKS! The Artz, Discover Gymnastics, Main Street Theater, and others are ready for loads of fun with your kiddos.
As you read, please note that all the words in purple are linked to websites.
WHAT'S ON MY MIND THIS WEEK? Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll! It's a strange year: our gatherings will be smaller and COVID-safe and the City of Houston has had to cancel the annual H-E-B Thanksgiving Day Parade for the first time in 71 years. I'm taking this time to focus on gratitude as I always do, but with a twist: reflecting on my thanks for the surprising gifts the pandemic has brought us, such as more time with family, slowing down at work, the re-boot of our planet, and de-cluttering my house (since I'm now staring at the piles all the time!). And I'm thinking about the history of Thanksgiving, with the tales of pleasant shared meals alongside the stories of brutality. Like this global virus crisis, it's complicated!
Black Friday is around the corner and, as a counter to that, so is "Giving Tuesday," which is next Tuesday, December 1. The day was created in 2012 to simply encourage people to do good. It's now a global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity. You can participate any way you wish: write thank you notes, help a neighbor, volunteer for a nonprofit...the sky is the limit! If you need some ideas, click here and make your plan.
December 1 is also World Aids Day, and Aids Foundation Houston is doing a fantastic virtual event that evening starting at 6pm. My dear friend Ernie Manouse is the host and there will be "Houston Shout-Outs" from the likes of Lance Bass and performances and talks by people such as vocalist Christina Wells and Steve Jones, founder of the NAMES Project National AIDS Memorial Quilt. Tickets start at $5.
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LET'S CONNECT! If you are wondering wassup with me, my offerings are below. If you'd like to keep up with all my doings, please click here to get a sorta monthly newsletter from me full of info about my events and more, including my IGNITE YOUR LIFE! art project. Be sure to follow my Facebook pages too -- Gish Picks Kids and Gish Picks Adults. I'm always throwing words and pictures around somewhere!
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⬆️CLICK ON IMAGES TO ACCESS KINDER BUILDING WEBSITE⬆️
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My ⭐️ARTS PICKS Spotlight⭐️ this week is the brand-new Nancy and Rich Kinder building that recently opened and is the newest building on The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's incredible campus. The beautiful building is named for MFAH patrons Nancy and Rich Kinder and is devoted to the display of the Museum’s international collections of modern and contemporary art. Designed by Stephen Holl Architects, the building features 3 floors, 13 spacious galleries encircling a central atrium, a 215-seat Lynn Wyatt Theater, a restaurant and café, as well as 7 gardens and 6 reflecting pools inset along the building’s perimeter. The building has increased the Museum's exhibition space by 75% so expect to see many new works of art, or pieces that have not been on display for years. Click here for a partial list of articles about the building.
The Museum is bustling everywhere else too. The exhibition The Marzio Years: Transforming the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1982–2010 is perfectly timed since that beloved director's legacy continues to hover over today's developments: he expanded the Museum's permanent collection from 14,000 to 62,000 works of art, and developed the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden and the Audrey Jones Beck Building. He also oversaw the land purchase for the site of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building. There are several other special exhibitions on the walls, alongside the permanent collection.
The Museum is open with COVID-safe protocols that include reduced audience size as well as required masks and spacing procedures. If you'd prefer a virtual experience, check out their #MFAHatHOME page.
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And now -- the two virtual events I am PICK-ing this week. Please note that even my VIRTUAL PICKS are always Houston-based because I am very committed to Houston arts & culture.
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➡️ Virtual for ADULTS: Lionwoman Productions is presenting two nights of a special production "Stories from the Space Between Us" this Sunday, November 29 at 3pm and next Monday, November 30 at 7pm. The show features 2 casts of local theater artists who will entertain and converse on topics such as equal access and the state of art before, during, and after this pandemic. The goal is listening and healing. Tickets to the livestream show are $12 and can be purchased here.
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➡️ Virtual for KIDS: this week I've got another museum-related PICK -- the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is still closed to the public, but they have a robust virtual program, here. And they are offering monthly virtual special events for families -- this Saturday, November 28 from 1-4pm, they'll drop onto their website a "Virtual Scavenger Hunt for Colors" for you to do in the comfort of your home or any surroundings. Have fun for free!
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HIRE ME! If you want help getting centered -- or for focusing your life -- here's how I can help (I'm available for groups too):
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One-on-one or small group labyrinth walks or nature mandala-making sessions (or both!), all done with masks and physical distancing. The fee varies based on what we are doing.
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Stay tuned for virtual labyrinth walks I'll be doing for the Spectrum Center on first Saturdays starting Saturday, February 6. You'll get all the details in this blog, or via my monthly newsletter (subscribe to that here).
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Virtual Life Path Sessions; see more about those here. It's $50 for 45 minutes during COVID.
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Virtual meditation lessons for up to 30 minutes. I've been doing weekly Monday Meditation Chats and was interviewed on Great Day Houston about fun ways to make sounds for meditation (see that here). The fee varies based on what we are doing, and all ages are welcome.
To book me for anything, please call me at 713.492.1173 or email me. I'd love to help you find PEACE in this crazy time.
In non-pandemic times, and since I started publishing my blog in 2004, it has been a space to promote my curated list of unique live Houston area cultural events (PICKS) on the weekend for adults and kids. Because of COVID-19, those haven't happened since mid-March so I originally re-worked the format to focus on 5 Houston-based arts & culture organizations in my (Almost) Daily Dose of ARTS PICKS blog each of the NINE weeks of quarantine. You can see each edition - and read about 45 arts groups! - here.
And now I'm bringing you an ⭐️ARTS PICKS Spotlight⭐️ each week -- featuring an arts & culture space that is open -- and you'll get info about all of their activities and sometimes a video to bring them to life. Alongside that, I'll also be PICK-ing one local virtual event each for ADULTS and KIDS.
I'll keep doing all of that until public events start happening again on a larger scale and I can start curating live event PICKS again.
In the meantime: please enjoy my weekly Spotlights and VIRTUAL PICKS, and please stay healthy!
Sincerely,
Sarah Gish
713.492.1173
P.S. If you want to IGNITE YOUR LIFE now or anytime, check out my list of "12 Ways to Ignite Your Life Daily" -- and watch the 12 videos I made about each Way here. I'm very proud of that list and my work and I hope it will help you live a fully creative life. Meditation, taking care of yourself, enjoying life, and laughing -- plus more! -- is what will get us through this global pandemic.
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