Jin-Sook So, Flower Blue Bowls, steel mesh, electroplated silver, gold leaf, acrylic, steel thread (optional floating wood shelf) 2023. Photo by Tom Grotta

We wish all of you moments of comfort and joy in the New Year. We hope, too, for some glimmers of peace worldwide. Below are some suggestions for getting bursts of beauty, inspiration and entertainment throughout 2024.

• Immerse yourself in art.
Check out these exciting exhibitions before they close.

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction
Los Angeles Contemporary Art Museum, CA, through January 21, 2024

A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes
Cooper Hewitt, New York, NY, through February 4, 2024

Threaded Visions: Contemporary Weavings from the Collection
Art Institute of Chicago, IL, through August 26, 2024 

Inside Other Spaces. Environments by Women Artists 1956-1976
Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany, through March 10, 2024

Circe: A Goddess for Our Time
Eastern University Connecticut University, Wlllamantic, through April 15, 2024

Making Their Mark
Shah Garg Foundation, New York, NY, though January 24, 2024

Double Weave: Bourne and Allen’s Modernist Textiles
Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft, East Sussex, UK, through April 14, 2024

• Read an inspiring art book. 

Books

From Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction, which The New York Times called a “best art book” of 2023, to Gyöngy Laky’s thoughts on poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Wendy Wahl’s on Adam Gopnik’s The Real Work: The Mystery of Mastery, find a profusion of artist recommendations and ours on arttextstyle, “Books Make Great Gifts, Part 1 and Part 2.”

• Prepare for an art-filled Spring. 

Irina Kolesnikova, Polly Sutton, Mariette Rousseau-Vermette and Mary Merkel-Hess
Discourse: art across generations: art across continents: Left to right: Irina Kolesnikova, Polly Sutton, Mariette Rousseau-Vermette and Mary Merkel-Hess. Photo by Tom Grotta

Plan ahead to visit upcoming exhibitions at browngrotta arts, including: Discourse: art across generations: art across continents, Wilton. CT, May 3 -12, 2024;  Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, May 31, 2024 -January 5, 2025, Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within, Noguchi Museum, Long Island, NY, March 20 – July 29, 2024 and  Lubaina Hamid: Lost Threads, The Holbourne Museum, Bath, UK, from January 19 – April 24, 2024.

• Cheer the New Year with a curated cocktail. 

Max holding prepared cocktail
Max Fanwick holding one of this year’s prepared cocktails. Photo by Michael Propersi

Wandering in Okayama, was created by Max Fanwick for the browngrotta arts’ exhibition Vignettes: one venue, three exhibitions. Okayama is the Peach Prefecture in Japan. The drink is a hat-tip to our fall exhibition of Glen Kaufman’s work. Kaufman headed the fiber design program at the University of Georgia, and spent much of his career in Japan at the university’s study abroad program. 

Wandering in Okayama
2oz Shochu
1oz Ginger Liquor
2oz Peach Nectar
1oz Lemon Juice
2oz Carbonated Water
Mix and Carbonate. Serve over Ice. 
Note: Only fill a soda stream 1/3 of the way and release from device VERY, VERY slowly. Substitute sparkling water if you’ve got no  carbonation equipment on hand.                                                         
Garnish with melon-balled pieces of peach soaked in a mixture of equal parts simple syrup, lemon juice and peach vodka for 24 hours.

Best Wishes for 2024!

Tom & Rhonda