HubArts.com

It's July 1, do you know what your arena is called?

OK, it's not official till tomorrow morning, but you get the idea. You have to admire the sense of  community that led TD Banknorth to give us back the Garden name, because it's got to be purely altruistic. They can't really believe we're going to say the TD Banknorth part. Can they?

Music: A fine Bordeaux for NEC quartet

The New England Conservatory's Parker Quartet won the 2005 Bordeaux International String Quartet competition, and in style. Daniel Chong and Karen Kim, violins, Jessica Bodner, viola, and Kee-Hyun Kim, cello, topped a dozen other ensembles, performing Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Hindemith and Bartok.

The kicker was a mandatory performance of a commissioned work, Six Moments Musicaux dédiés à mon fils, by Hungarian composer György Kurtág, a longtime Bordeaux resident. According to a local paper quoted by the NEC, the piece was so hellishly difficult that two of the original 15 ensembles in the competition may have dropped out to avoid it. But the Parkers mastered it so thoroughly, the NEC says, that they'll be playing it at New York City's Weill Recital Hall on Nov. 15 - a New York debut for the quartet, and a North American premiere for the work.

The Parkers' win brings them 20,000 Euros, a schedule of 20 performances in Europe and the chance to record a CD. Not bad. They also snared a 3,000-Euro prize for their performance of Mozart. And the oldest among them is 23.

Music: Seiji's goodnights in Vienna extended

Seiji Ozawa's contract with the Vienna State Opera has reportedly been renewed so he will hold the baton there through 2010. He started the job in 2003 after leaving the BSO. He returns to Massachusetts next month for a July 26 gala at Tanglewood, where he'll share the stage with successor James Levine.

HUBARTS FEATURE: 'Secret Ark' docks in Charlestown

Of all the craft that have sailed into the Charlestown Navy Yard over the decades, likely none has been as strange or as personal as “The Secret Ark of Icon Park,” now docked on a bucolic lawn overlooking the U.S.S. Constitution and Boston Harbor.

A translucent blue partition in the shape of a hull contains a giant pencil and the poem it has written, painted transforming animals, a giant bottle. Its clear plastic oars are filled with balls and rolled maps, shells and feathers and beads, rice and bones. A treasure chest grows flowers. A giant gun points toward the harbor – next to a real cannon.

It’s an odd cargo this ark hauls: the personal freight of artist Jerry Beck, who’s also the artistic director of the Revolving Museum in Lowell, where he lives.

Beck is an interesting, obsessive guy in the way artists tend to be. The stickers on his pickup truck namecheck Al Franken – and Jesus. He says, “I’ve been very interested in dry docks for a long time,” without noticing that it’s funny.

A year ago, having long put his art on hold in favor of museum work, Beck was commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art’s Vita Brevis public art program and the Boston National Historical Park to create a public art work at the facility, which has been designated a “national icon park” – i.e. a potential terrorist target – due to the presence of the Constitution and the World War II destroyer the U.S.S. Cassin.

“When I came here the first thing I noticed was the military presence … so I was sitting here and thinking a whole bunch of things, and one was I was very upset about the war and what was going on in the country,” Beck said Wednesday, sitting on the waterfront. “I started to be more political than I’ve ever been – very upset, and feeling anger and a lot of emotional catharsis happening. So I kind of felt I needed to create my own boat, you know?”

The marine/carnival iconography he chose was highly personal, from his work with kids at the museum – and the toll violence has taken on some of them – to his childhood memories.

“Growing up in South Florida near the water, it’s just like something that I always made when I was a kid. I was always going on boats, making boats, military boats, out of wood and nails,” Beck said. “Plus South Florida is the theme park capital of the world. Right down the street from me we had Pirate’s World, this fantasy park built in the middle of a swamp.”

The national park is a theme attraction too, he notes.

“I always thought when you were in a white-wall gallery you’re protected, it’s kind of a pristine space, there’s no spontaneity. There people know what to expect. But when you’re in a public space, it’s an adventure,” Beck said.

“First, people come here from all over the world, and secondly, you watch how people respond to these things, kids are running toward the guns and they’re acting out war, POW POW POW. That’s what I used to do as a kid, I spent hours and hours and hours playing war games, and I realized that’s how we are conditioned by this whole militaristic society and the media… desensitized to the violence.”

Already, even while the piece is being finished before its Saturday opening, one tourist has complained to a park ranger about its anti-war slant. Although Beck says that’s not exactly its intent, he smiles at the anecdote.

“If it’s not controversial, I’m not successful, right?”

The ark opens Saturday from 2-4 p.m. and is free to the public. It will be on display through Oct. 10. And here's a HubArt.com exclusive: Right-click this link and download beck_audio.WMA to hear Jerry Beck welcome you to“The Secret Ark of Icon Park.” The background sound  is the wind in advance of Wednesday’s thunderstorms.

 

Music: BGMC update

Welcome to all of you bouncing over here from the Boston Gay Men's Chorus site. The BGMC Euro-tour blog says things have cooled down in Prague after the tumult in Poland. And Executive Director Steven Smith gives high marks to our HubArts coverage of the trip. He writes that he wants to talk to Bay Windows too - way ahead of you, Steve.

Funniest story from Smith's blog: "We were more than two hours at the Polish border crossing as they painstakingly collected every passport and disappeared for what seemed like an eternity. The first bus to go through was led by our courier Alina, a native Polish speaker. The border guard asked her why three buses of men and no women? Were we a soccer team? 'Yes' was Alina's immediate reply, 'and they are late for a match so do hurry.' "

Arts: These books are made for walking

The Freedom Trail Foundation and Bunker Hill Publishing will be meeting Boston Public Library officials and the press over Mimosas at the Fairmont Copley Plaza on Friday morning. The reason for this happy occasion is the publication of "The Freedom Trail: An Artist's View," a 54-page hardcover with 50 original watercolors by Leonard Weber.  The two organizations will donate 100 copies of the book to the BPL. Weber, born in 1918, painted every panoramic image on the spot, too, not from pix. The $19.95 book is available in stores and supposedly at the foundation's web site, although the foundation's online store doesn't seem to be have been launched yet.

The morning papers

In the Globe, Names & Faces reports "The Departed" isn't the only movie filming in town. There's also a low-budget indie called "Black Irish," starring the fine actor Brendan Gleeson, who admits to hoisting a few at one of our favorite bars, The Burren in Davis Square. ... Geoff Edgers reports that top Institute of Contemporary Art fundraiser Paul Bessire is leaving the museum for a post at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The ICA has piled up $34 million toward its new home under contruction on the waterfront, but still has $28 million to go.

The Herald, meanwhile, is all about Saturday's giant Live 8 concerts, Bob Geldof's followup to Live Aid 20 years later. In particular, Sean McCarthy asks the good but embarrassing question, do they know it's Live 8? And a man-on-street sampling of Bostonians proved that even tech-savvy, politically connected younger people are pretty much clueless about the all-star festivities intended to draw attention to African poverty. Why? Well, one key reason is that the shows are timed to put pressure on next week's summit of the G8 nations, which is something that Americans know not about. Meanwhile, Sarah Rodman has a package of stories - start here - that will tell you everything you need to know.

In the Phoenix, Jon Garelick puts the current comic-book-art display at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum into perspective, calling the artist-in-residence program "a sharp end run" around Gardner's ban on changing museum exhibits that has brought "a continuous buzz of contemporary artmaking." "The irony," he notes, "is that this tricky transformation is most in keeping with the spirit" the adventurous Gardner espoused.

Also in the Phoenix, Matt Ashare writes about the enduring legacy of "three geeks from Northampton" -- aka  Dinosaur Jr. , who'll pass through Avalon next month on a reunion tour.

In the Berkshire Eagle, Richard Houdek enthuses about the premiere of Mark Morris' "Cargo" in Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood and gets the Description of the Day award: "Katherine McDowell's brief costumes, suggesting a kind of rhapsody in underwear..."

Music: Live 8 is Destiny

Add Destiny's Child to the more than 80 acts offering $18 tickets to their summer concerts at Clear Channel venues, in support of this weekend's Live 8 global anti-poverty concerts. The special tickets are only onsale July 2-4, and each purchase includes a Live 8 donation, a Live 8 wristband and a chance to sign The One declaration against global poverty. Destiny's Child plays the Fleet Center -- excuse me, the TD Bank North Garden -- on Aug. 6. Tix at Ticketmaster.

Museums: Science of hiring

Looking for a museum gig? The Museum of Science yesterday posted 17 JOBS on HireCulture.org, from security officer to event operations coordinator. Purge? Expansion? Wild coincidence? Anyone?

The morning papers

In the Herald, Terry Byrne previews the Publick Theatre's production of "Arcadia." ... Ted Medrek talks to POPSearch winner Frances Botelho-Hoeg. ... Sarah Rodman says there are still tickets available for  James Taylor's show tonight at the Tweeter Center, and you should go, because last night's show was a sublime "cure for the summertime blues." 

Poke around both papers' gossip columns and you'll find different tales on the maneuvering around getting a big yacht for "The Departed." The Inside Track also covers Bronson Arroyo's CD release party.

The Globe's Names & Faces says former Del Fuego turned family rocker Dan Zanes is going to have a gig on the Disney Channel this fall. ... Also, says Lance Armstrong says Cambridge's own member of the "Departed" cast, Matt Damon, is interested in playing him in a movie. ... Christine Temin gives a mixed review to a batik show at Mass. College of Art. But Lawrence Johnson enthuses about Sunday's Pops Gospel Night.

The Herald's Mark Perigard has an hilarious review of the reality series about Roxbury's unfavorite son, "Being Bobby Brown," debuting Thursday at 10 on Bravo. "A window on a nightmare" -- namely marriage to Whitney Houston. Ouch. ... Names & Faces meanwhile complains that Brown decided it was his prerogative -- Get it? Get it? -- not to talk to the Globe.

In the Berkshire Eagle, reviewer Jeffrey Borak is no fan of Stephen Sondheim's "Follies," but he says Barrington Stage's production is "riveting." ... In the Patriot Ledger, Jody Feinberg tells Cohasset residents to keep an eye out for Garrison Keillor, who's performing at the South Shore Music Circus Thursday.