>> In our city, we often ask arts organizations and institutions to give and to pay more than we are investing back in.
And so I hope to flip that framework.
>> JARED BOWEN: I'm Jared Bowen, coming up on Open Studio-- Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, at the piano.
Then improv, musical theater, and Hamilton.
What's not to love in the show Freestyle Love Supreme?
>> We're just sending that energy out, and we're sending those people out into the world, having experienced this beautiful thing and hoping that they take that and put it out there.
>> BOWEN: And we head toward the light.
It's all now on Open Studio.
♪ ♪ First up, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
She may not seem like the most likely Open Studio guest until you realize that she sees the arts as key to the city's post-pandemic recovery.
I recently sat down with her at Boston City Hall, at the piano which she had moved into her office just after inauguration.
(playing classical piece) Mayor Michelle Wu, thank you so much for being with us.
>> Welcome to my office.
>> BOWEN: We just heard you play the piano.
What's the role that piano and music have had in your life?
>> I am the oldest kid in an immigrant family, and when my parents first came to this country, they didn't speak English very well.
And in some ways, music was not only how they had met, but also how they could still feel connected to community here.
Despite language barriers, despite other cultural barriers, music transcended everything.
And so I remember being very little and my mom joining a community choir in Chicago.
And later, I found her score that they were singing from, and she had transliterated all the words from English into Chinese sounds so she could keep up.
But so since I can remember, I've been playing piano since probably four, five years old.
And it's been a source of comfort, a source of strength, a source of just finding myself.
>> BOWEN: You had this piano moved into your office right after inauguration.
I, I understand you played it before the debates.
>> Yup, a way to clear my head, and just be grounded.
>> BOWEN: What is the moment when you're playing the piano, you're looking out at the city of which you are now mayor... How does that all coalesce?
>> In some ways, it's shocking... (laughing) ...remembering what life felt like when I first started piano lessons.
That my parents felt excluded and shut out from so many of the systems, that we never could have imagined that one day I would be involved in government, much less politics.
I'm naturally introverted and much prefer listening than talking, and much prefer playing than, to anything else.
(playing classical piece) >> BOWEN: So I was struck walking in here this morning to see arts emblazoned the moment you walk in City Hall, drawing people's attention.
You have art behind you here, there are ceramics just outside your office.
How central are the arts to your administration?
>> This is not only how we hope that we can connect people and help heal after such a trying, difficult two years and beyond.
But this is really going to be central and key to our economic recovery, as well.
Cities can no longer depend on people to just have to be near where the companies or the jobs are.
We have the chance to show how Boston can really lead the way in this post-pandemic recovery and economy.
We're going to be the city where you can't miss out except being there in person to enjoy the shows, and see the public art, and enjoy our restaurants and cultural scene here.
That is critical to drawing people back in and making sure that we can continue building that foundation of what it means to be a creative, dense, welcoming, inclusive city.
>> BOWEN: So much of that is tied to money.
And I know from the conversations I've had over the last two years how hard-hit the arts organizations are.
How is the money going to get to them to be able to thrive in a post-- hopefully-- post-pandemic city.
>> We have tried, where possible, to use some of the federal relief funds to create that relief directly for our artists and creatives here in Boston.
But we need sustained long-term revenue, as well, for the arts.
And so that will take not just this one-time federal investment, but identifying and continuing to advocate at the state and federal level for ongoing, sustainable support.
>> BOWEN: You've done that already with the MBTA and free ridership.
Do you... Will some of the same mechanisms apply to how we fund the arts?
>> Absolutely.
And so we are still looking at the, what's called the ARPA funds, the American Rescue Plan funds, that have been made available.
There are several hundred million dollars that are just a precious opportunity for transformative change in the city.
And we intend to put a chunk of that into making sure that we can not only support arts organizations and artists who are in need of immediate relief now, but to really lay the foundation to show how this kind of systemic investment in the arts, large-scale support, could make a difference going forward.
>> BOWEN: I was really struck to learn that you were a board member of the Boston Gay Men's Chorus.
>> I'm their biggest groupie.
(both laughing) >> BOWEN: Well, my question about that is, it also allowed you to get a prism, a lens into what arts organizations face and what the need is, and, and how hard it is for nonprofits.
So how do you apply that to, to what you're doing right now?
>> When you host a concert, it is not only the beauty and joy of that moment and that set of audience members who gets to enjoy it.
It is the community that's built in creating the, the chorus, and all the practices, and rehearsals.
It's the businesses that benefit from that event spilling over into the local neighborhoods.
It is the ability for those singers to be ambassadors abroad.
And yet in our city, we often ask arts organizations and institutions to give and to pay more than we are investing back in.
And so I hope to flip that framework.
We're in a city where there's a tremendous amount of generosity, and so much of the funding for the arts community comes through philanthropy or through private donations and contributions.
We need to see some demonstrated public support backing that up, as well.
>> BOWEN: I assume you're talking about the PILOT program.
Payment in lieu of taxes.
>> That's right.
>> BOWEN: So larger organizations wouldn't have to pay like other, for-profit organizations, but you want something from them in exchange.
>> Yeah, I think these are institutions that shouldn't have to depend on the revenues from ticket sales to fund all of their operations.
Every person who gets to enjoy the aquarium, or the I.C.A., or our, some of our grassroots local galleries is contributing that much more back to our sense of Boston being a welcoming, vibrant home to all.
And so we should see public support for that and we also can use that to help open up the doors.
I remember stories of how when my parents were first living in Chicago, and they couldn't afford hardly anything, but once a week, the Chicago Art Institute would have a free day open to all.
And so that's where my mom would be with me as, in the stroller.
And to get the chance to be in that world-class space enjoying beauty was truly remarkable and foundational for my family.
>> BOWEN: The biggest issue I have heard from artists, and performing artists, and theater groups is the lack of space.
Artists are having to leave the city because they can't work here.
Theater companies find it too expensive to be able to rehearse here.
How can you address that?
>> We are a city that is growing, but not often growing according to a holistic plan.
And when we make decisions one by one by one, the trade-offs that we are passing on for future generations between housing, or open space, or commercial buildings, or live-work spaces, those have generational impact.
And so from a larger perspective, we need to have a planning process that really incorporates our creative economy into it.
And in the immediate term, it is really providing the stability for artists to be able to afford homes in Boston, to have space, to be intentional about where our studios can stay and, and thrive.
>> BOWEN: And, finally, when I used to visit Chicago, I would think, I wished Boston could be Chicago in terms of being a public art city.
And I think we are...
If we're not there, we're almost there at this point, because we have so much that's happening.
How do you define what public art is and what it should be in this city?
>> Public art, to me, is wonder and surprise and community.
There are murals going up all across the city now created by local artists, often produced also by young people in our city.
And if we can help spark that sense of connectedness, of the larger world that we are a part of, and seeing each other's lives and well-being as connected to our own, then we'll be well on our way, you know, on our recovery and well on our way to being one of the leading city for the arts and, and for families.
>> BOWEN: Well, Mayor Wu, thank you so much again for, for talking about the arts with us today.
>> Thank you.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ♪ It's Freestyle Love Supreme ♪ ♪ Yeah, we make (muted) up on stage ♪ ♪ We're gonna read your book, turn it with the page ♪ >> BOWEN: Anything goes in the show Freestyle Love Supreme, which is a blend of improv, hip-hop, and musical theater.
Three of the cast crowded into a recent Zoom session to join me just as the show opens at the Emerson Colonial Theatre.
We began where the show did, when it was co-founded by none other than a pre-Hamilton Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Chris Sullivan, Aneesa Folds, Andrew Bancroft, thank you so much for being on the show.
>> Yeah, thanks for having us.
>> Thanks.
Appreciate it.
>> BOWEN: So Chris, what was it like in those early days when it seems that something really magical was coming together here?
>> Yeah, I'm Chris Sullivan, A.K.A.
Shockwave.
You'll hear me called that both ways.
It's my stage name.
And I've been in the group since probably their second, second or third show.
It's funny, because the magic continues to happen.
But in the very beginning, it started through the rehearsal process of In the Heights, where Lin-Manuel Miranda was taking it to New York, and they were workshopping it with the Backhouse Productions in the basement of the Drama Book Shop.
And part of Backhouse Productions was Anthony Veneziale and Tommy Kail.
And they were just kind of playing.
So in between rehearsals, they would just freestyle around a piano, and just kind of make things up there and then, just to kind of get loose and to have some fun.
And then they decided to put it on its feet in front of a, in front of a crowd.
>> The last word is fracking.
>> ♪ The last word is fracking and I am attacking this beat ♪ ♪ Because it's sweet to be back on this street ♪ ♪ Broadway ♪ ♪ Ever since I was a little kid, this was my only dream ♪ ♪ The only (bleep) I ever wanted to did ♪ ♪ Or do I mean do ♪ ♪ I don't know, I like it ♪ ♪ Jesus, guys, I am so fracking excited ♪ (cheers and applause) >> BOWEN: Aneesa, what has it been like for you?
I mean, because there are so many elements here.
There is the musical theater, there is improv.
So there's all the, the actor history training that you bring to bear here.
How does it all coalesce?
>> Yeah, it's, it's really cool.
I'm from a musical theater background-- singer first.
I would freestyle kind of as a joke in high school and I never really took it seriously.
I mean, we're still just playing around and making our friends laugh on stage, so it, it tracks.
But it's awesome to have all of these experiences and to bring it to the show.
And I think that's what really, what's really cool about the show is that we all have these different perspectives, and different talents, and different generations, and different knowledge of different things.
And there, there is that person in the audience that's going to get that one joke or the person in the audience that understands that one musical theater reference.
And we are able to throw all of that in there.
And so the show is very well-rounded because we're all coming from different backgrounds.
We all have different things to add to it.
>> BOWEN: So, Andrew, how fresh is this every night?
Is there any formula?
Is there anything you, every night on stage you're building from, or even playing field every night?
>> Yeah, it's a great question.
We have a structure that we work with, because we do, you know... All of the lyrics, all of the music, all of the beats, all of that is made up and inspired by the audience.
But to make sure that the audience has a good experience and it's not just all one note, there is an architecture that has been built over the years.
And then also just taking each person's talents in the group, giving moments for, "Oh, what happens if we give the beatboxer a word and let them solo with it for a while?"
"What happens when we meet our two people playing keys and let them explore?"
>> ♪ R... ♪ >> ♪ Rawr, dungeon, dragon ♪ ♪ Hang with your girl when your pants are saggin' ♪ ♪ Know when you see I'd like to do with this time ♪ ♪ I'm not busta, I'm thrusta when I rhyme ♪ >> BOWEN: Chris, I'm wondering from you what the athleticism is involved for beatboxing.
I know you've been doing it for a very long time, but do you have to... What do you do to be able to keep doing this?
>> There's a lot of technical stuff that goes on, really, in here and in here.
A lot of that is also practice.
That takes a long time to accomplish.
A lot of it also is instilled in my, my musical training.
I grew up in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and Stephen Massey was our music director there.
The Foxborough music program is fantastic.
In fact, any arts program in any school is fantastic and should be very well-funded, because, look at, here we are.
(all laughing) But, you know, there's a lot of, everything from, like, maintaining the saliva in your mouth and, like...
Sometimes you use it as a tool and sometimes you got to get rid of it.
There's keeping your lips wet, there's breathing.
There's sometimes using an inhale breath-- (makes percussive sound)-- as a sound while you're actually breathing to, to maintain your being alive on stage at the same time.
>> So it's a lot grosser than we thought.
>> Seriously.
>> A lot grosser.
>> And beyond being our entire percussion section, essentially, you, you are also creating the landscape, the soundscape.
You know, he's improvising the sounds that add to the stories that we're building.
>> (beatboxing rapid rhythm) >> BOWEN: Okay, so, I have a lot of questions about process.
So now let me just toss out the questions, everybody can jump in.
Obviously, you're good at all doing that.
So number one, the scary factor, is there still a scary factor?
Or do you...
There is?
>> Yes.
>> Yeah.
>> Absolutely.
>> Yeah, totally.
It's, you know, it's stepping out into the unknown.
It's tightrope walking, to a degree, but I think there is a certain point for me...
I used to enter rap battles in Oakland, which were terrifying, because you were doing this cr... You have to make everything up and you're in a battle with somebody, and somebody is just going to make fun of you.
At least, on this stage, we are just there to help each other and lift each other up.
That's the thing that makes it... Takes it from fear and makes it exciting.
>> Safe.
>> I'm, like, "Oh, I get to play with my friends."
It's safe.
All we're trying to do is build something great for people in the audience to, like, live out their wildest theater dreams.
>> We really do have each other's backs.
And if someone falls, we're going to pick you up or we'll make it the through-line of the show, because the mistake becomes a pattern and the pattern becomes an inside joke and then it gets on a T-shirt.
(all laughing) >> ♪ That's what happens when, that's what happens... ♪ >> BOWEN: Chris mentioned it takes years to get the rhyming.
What does it take to get to that level?
>> Practice.
>> We're still learning.
>> Yeah, practice, for sure.
You know, I mean, it is pretty cool that your brain will build new synaptic pathways to putting rhymes together, to the point where we're, we're doing this enough, like last night for me, I could not go to bed.
I was just rhyming in my head.
I don't know why, the word... >> Just rhymed just now.
>> The word "caffeine" came up, and I tried to come up with all the different rhymes for caffeine.
And... >> Kathleen.
>> Yeah, Kathleen caffeine.
So, and it was keeping me up at night.
But those pathways have built over, over years and getting to do it.
And also, you know, if you listen, if you love hip-hop, or if you're into...
Some of the members of the group are more into musical theater.
You know, it's just like rhyme schemes.
We grew up with them, from Dr. Seuss to everything that we listen to in music now.
So it's out there.
>> BOWEN: It's funny that you mention the brain, because I was wondering, it must, can you... Not that you can feel what's happening in your brain, necessarily, but do you feel channels opening up?
Does the...
When you hit the stage, and you have the adrenaline and you know that you have to meet that moment, do you feel that happening?
>> Yeah.
(laughs) I mean, I think that we all have our different ways of doing it and different ways of approaching certain games, but for me, if I hear a word, I have, what, 0.2 seconds to remember or try to figure out every single word that rhymes with that word so I can kind of throw it in.
That's where my brain goes automatically.
But I know everyone else approaches it from a different way.
And you can start that way.
But at a certain point, you, you have to make up the rest of it.
And I think that's the muscle that we're, we're flexing all the time.
>> ♪ Young niece on my three ♪ ♪ A lot of queens and a bunch of nudes ♪ ♪ I hope that you don't go chucking on your food ♪ ♪ Don't be rude ♪ ♪ You see, I'm going to go in and I'm sick ♪ ♪ I'm going to have to give your brains a... ♪ >> BOWEN: The show is called Freestyle Love Supreme.
Where does love come into this show?
>> It's a great point.
We actually bring it up a couple of times.
Like, for, for us, we really, I think, do try to spread love wherever we go.
And we need that right now.
We're missing being with each other in a room, we're missing having people listen to us.
And like the love I have for the people I'm performing with... >> (chuckles) >> Appreciate it.
>> ...it is, it is very much a family, so... >> Yeah, we love each other so much.
And I think that a lot of comments we usually get from the audience is, "We can see that y'all are having so much fun on stage, and that joy is infectious."
And we just want to make people feel good.
I think that the world needs more of that and that's what we aim to do.
We're just sending that energy out, and we're receiving it back in real time.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> And then we're sending it out again and we're sending those people out into, into the world, having experienced this beautiful thing and hoping that they take that and put it out there.
>> BOWEN: Well, we all look forward to seeing it, and Chris, welcome home when you're here.
>> Can't wait.
I can't wait.
>> BOWEN: Well, thank you so much.
>> Thank you.
>> Thanks.
>> Bye-bye.
♪ ♪ >> BOWEN: Nature calls-- The Great Animal Orchestra is among the events topping our calendar in Arts This Week.
Hear the sounds of the planet's biodiversity with The Great Animal Orchestra at the Peabody Essex Museum.
Catch the audio-visual work by Bernie Krause Sunday.
Tuesday, artists of all experience levels come together for the Fuller Craft Museum's 2022 Craft Biennial.
Follow the story of three couples all grappling with Parkinson's disease, as ArtsEmerson presents the world-premiere play Everyday Life and Other Odds and Ends on Wednesday.
Thursday, acclaimed photographer Komatsu Hiroko's work Creative Destruction is on view at Wellesley College's Davis Museum, now open to the public for the first time in two years.
Book a tropical getaway with a trip to the joyous musical Once on This Island.
Catch the SpeakEasy Stage Company production Friday.
Next, we look at how a group of California artists found the beauty of plexiglass, the sculptural properties of light, and the luster of an auto body shop.
It's part of an exhibition at the Addison Gallery of American Art now in its final days.
So here again, a story we first brought you in January.
Art changed in the 1960s and '70s.
It took on a glimmer.
It rippled.
And it lured the eye and the mind with a seductive, mystifying glow.
On its surface, art had a fresh polish thanks to a host of repurposed materials.
>> Plastic, polyester resin, lacquer, some of these were new, coming from the burgeoning aerospace industry, and some were developed by the artists themselves.
>> BOWEN: The exhibition Light, Space, Surface at the Addison Gallery of American Art presents the art created in Southern California by a group of artists mad about unconventional materials.
They were described as having a "finish fetish."
Allison Kemmerer is the Addison's director.
>> That the artists who were ascribed to that didn't necessarily like, but it stuck, because to them, "finish fetish" sort of implied that the finish itself was the most important part of the work.
And, really, for these artists, finish is a means to an end.
It's a way to explore light, whether it's light that's reflected, or refracted, whether it's light that you can see through.
>> BOWEN: Or that we can't even distinguish, something artist Robert Irwin toyed with in his disc paintings.
So Alli, how am I seeing... What am I seeing here?
>> What are you seeing?
Exactly.
So this piece by Robert Irwin is a painting.
It's an aluminum disc that's painted with acrylic, and is attached to the wall by a metal armature that's extending about 20 inches out.
It's convex in shape, and simply lit in four different directions.
The light animates this object, and completely blurs the object.
It's confounding our perception.
>> BOWEN: Light had a new dawn in the 1960s.
It's when James Turrell, son of an aeronautical engineer, cornered the market on light in the first of a series of sculptures and installations that would define his career.
While Doug Wheeler, a one-time pilot, began navigating in neon.
>> So you walk into the Doug Wheeler room, and you're not really sure what you are seeing.
You can't define, is it a form?
Is it a mist?
It comes in through various senses, and it's a total perceptual experience.
>> BOWEN: Carol Eliel is the senior modern art curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which curated this traveling exhibition from its permanent collection.
Most of these works surfaced when New York was the epicenter of the art world, and still adhering to painting traditions.
But fitting for California, says Eliel, the West Coast artists assumed a frontier mentality.
>> These materials were never conceived of as art materials, so they totally made them their own.
The works don't look like other works.
Other artists simply weren't using these materials elsewhere, so it wasn't as if, you know, there were templates for them to follow.
They each developed their own vocabularies.
>> BOWEN: So they became pioneers.
Peter Alexander dipped into the wonders of liquid resin after realizing it could do more than repair his surfboard.
Billy Al Bengston was a motorcycle racer who took a shine to sheen.
>> He repaired a lot of motorcycles, and was at the same time a painter.
And then he became sort of enraptured by the metallic surfaces and spray-painted acrylic, and started making art that way.
>> BOWEN: As a way to rev up her career, in 1964, artist Judy Chicago enrolled in an auto body course, the only woman among 250 men.
>> She started spray-painting not on metal, which is the traditional, of course, automotive surface, but on sheet acrylic.
The acrylics chemically fused, and she said it felt like skin to her.
She made a series of these tabletops with the three half-dome, molded, spray-painted, spherical forms, which of course one can read as breasts or as bellies.
She sort of came out of car culture, but in this very feminist way.
>> BOWEN: The foray into finishes has made much of the work tops, including this fiberglass one, for being irresistible.
So much so that the Addison has added "Don't Touch" signs to the galleries.
They could equally translate to the greatest measure of success for these artists.
>> The viewer is having an experiential conversation and a back-and-forth with those objects.
And I think that's a really important part of those surfaces.
♪ ♪ >> BOWEN: And that is all for this edition of Open Studio.
Next week, we noticed this year's list of jazz Grammy nominees is dominated by male musicians.
But Grammy-winning musician Terri Lyne Carrington is working to change that.
>> When young people are emerging artists, they really need those onstage experiences to take them to the heights of their abilities.
>> BOWEN: Plus, in her latest book, author Gish Jen takes on decades of U.S.-China relations with humor.
>> The potential for something to be funny is always there.
Right?
Right?
It's always, it's always there.
We take ourselves way too seriously.
>> BOWEN: Remember, you can always visit us online at GBH.org/OpenStudio.
And you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter, @OpenStudioGBH.
I'm @TheJaredBowen.
We leave you now with a look at the exhibition Turning the Tide at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
Ceramicist and sculptor Courtney Mattison, who has a background in environmental studies, crafts a look at our ailing ocean.
I'm Jared Bowen, we'll see you back here next week.
Thanks for watching.
♪ ♪