Arts

It’s been quite a year for Sarah Koenig. The Sagaponack native and Sag Harbor summer resident has gone from being known among a small, quirky subset of brainy public radio listeners for “This American Life” to what might be called an international sensation among a larger, quirky set of brainy podcast listeners. All for “Serial,” which has set iTunes records for being the fastest podcast to reach more than 5 million downloads and streams.

The popular series “Fireside Sessions with Nancy Atlas” will return to Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor on Friday, Jan. 2, at 8 p.m. and continue on Friday evenings throughout January and March. Each concert will feature a special musical guest, with Chad Smith, the drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, scheduled for the Jan. 2 show.

For Bryan Downey, a photographer, singer-songwriter, and restoration contractor who lives in Sag Harbor, musicians, artists, photographers, and poets on the South Fork were missing something important. That, he said, was a central hub that could serve as a cultural center for performers and audiences alike.

The ground beneath the Hamptons art fairs is shifting this summer. For the past three years, Art Southampton held its fair at the Elks Lodge on County Road 39 in Southampton and opened two weeks after ArtHamptons and Art Market Hamptons. Nick Korniloff, director of Art Southampton, said last year he liked being on the highway and opening later. Yet he announced recently that his fair will be moving to Nova’s Ark on Millstone Road in Bridgehampton in 2015 and will run from July 9 through 13, two weeks earlier than last year.

On Friday, Jan. 2, at 6 p.m., the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill will offer a guided writing workshop inspired by the works of Alan Shields now on view in the exhibition “Alan Shields: In Motion.” Participants may create short pieces in any form, including stories, poetry, and descriptive writing. The format will be similar to a life drawing class, but with words as the medium.

The cost is $10, free for members, students, and children.

Center Stage at Southampton Cultural Center will hold open auditions for “A Chorus Line” on Jan. 3 and 4, beginning promptly at 5 p.m. both days. Rehearsals will begin immediately following the auditions, and the musical will run from Feb. 26 through March 21. Michael Disher, director of Center Stage, will direct the production. Amanda Borsack Jones will be musical director.

Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor has announced that the musical “Grey Gardens” will be part of its 2015 Mainstage season, with a run from July 28 through Aug. 30. Based on the 1975 documentary film by Albert and David Maysles about Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, the show has a book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel, and lyrics by Michael Korrie. Casting and the creative team will be announced at a later date, as will next summer’s other productions.

It is the time of year when galleries often scale their offerings down, not to include less, but to show more, albeit smaller, works at friendlier price points for gift giving. As much as the art world plays by different rules, size does matter, at least when determining value.

Boatbuilders, Ho!

Coming to you from a northern land of rocky coasts and extreme tides, Paul Garstide is out with a book for both boatbuilders and fans of watercraft as floating pieces of art. “Plans & Dreams: 23 Ready-to-Build Boat Designs” contains 217 pages of color photos, black-and-white construction plans, and essays that the naval architect and custom boatbuilder living in Nova Scotia has had published in Water Craft, a British magazine.

A free screening of Handel’s “Messiah” will take place tomorrow at 8 p.m. at Guild Hall. Christopher Hogwood, a noted English conductor and musicologist, conducts the performance by the Academy of Ancient Music and the Choir of Westminster Abbey of Handel’s most well-known and beloved oratorio. The recording takes advantage of Westminster Abbey’s fine acoustics and architectural splendor.

The Hamptons International Film Festival is offering discounted Founders Passes to the 2015 festival, which will take place Oct. 8-12, 2015, through Dec. 31. The passes include express ticketless access to all screenings, opening and closing night films, V.I.P. events, all spotlight and centerpiece films, all general films, all panels and “conversations with,” and other special presentations.

It has been almost 20 years since the Danish filmmakers Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg issued the “vow of chastity” that launched Dogme95 into the cinematic firmament. That vow took the form of 10 rules intended to “counter the film of illusion.” Among the prohibitions: no special effects, no artificial lighting or props, no constructed sets, no superficial action, and no credit for the director. The camera had to be hand-held — tripods, dollies, and cranes were forbidden — and “the sound must never be produced apart from the image or vice versa.”

The future looks bright for Peter Landi and his band, the Glazzies. The band, whose other member is Dave Horn on drums, recently signed to Old Flame Records and expects a summer 2015 release of its second album, “Kill Me Kindly.” Touring in and outside of the U.S. will follow, along with the release of an EP that features Emmett Murphy (better known as Murph) of the alternative rock ’n’ roll band Dinosaur Jr.

The John Drew Theater Lab will present a free staged reading by John Shuman of “Underneath the Lintel,” a 2001 play written by Glen Berger, on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. The one-character play follows a librarian who discovers a returned book that is more than 100 years overdue and embarks on an around-the-world hunt for the borrower’s identity.

During what is now known innocuously as the holiday season, many people set aside time for at least one live music performance. Those looking for Advent music found a perfect opportunity on Sunday to hear two musical settings of the Canticle of Mary, otherwise known as the Magnificat. The Choral Society of the Hamptons once more joined forces with the South Fork Chamber Orchestra and a quartet of fine soloists to present an uplifting concert featuring interpretations from Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47).

“The 50 Year Argument” by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi, screened at the Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival, offers proof not just of the vitality of the documentary medium, but of the growing importance of the festival itself.

This year’s program included a gala honoring Barbara Kopple, the award-winning director of films such as “Harlan County USA,” a film by Michael Apted, as well as “The 50 Year Argument,” an examination of The New York Review of Books. The screening was followed by a discussion with Jason Epstein, one of the publication’s founders.

In 1950, Connie Fox embarked on a 1,000-mile bicycle trip through Europe with two friends. On Nov. 1, she was in St. Peter’s Square in Rome when Pope Pius XII declared the Assumption of Mary as dogma. Bill King happened to be in the same place at the same time. They first met briefly during the 1960s at an art opening in Berkeley, Calif., but it was not until 1980, after Ms. Fox moved to East Hampton, that they found themselves together again, this time as fiddlers in Audrey Flack’s bluegrass band.

The Southampton Arts Center in Southampton Village will have an open house for the holidays on Saturday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

In honor of the center’s current show, “Awkward Family Photos,” guests will be encouraged to take their own pictures at a holiday-themed photo booth with a seasonally appropriate backdrop and props. Those with ugly holiday sweaters or similarly themed attire have been invited to don them for the event.

The Perlman Music Program has been awarded an Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The $50,000 grant will support the Summer Music School on Shelter Island, the organization’s signature program.

The Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum in Southampton will hold its 13th annual winter festival Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The free event will feature live dance and musical performances, food, children’s activities, and the Art Market, which offers authentic Native American-made jewelry, art, and other handcrafted traditional and contemporary pieces.

“Winter Salon”

The Drawing Room in East Hampton will open its “Winter Salon” tomorrow morning at 10. The exhibition includes work by 37 contemporary artists as well as a selection of historical works on paper. Participating artists include Polly Apfelbaum, Carol Gove, Robert Harms, Sue Heatley, Robert Jakob, Vincent Longo, Diane Mayo, Raja Ram Sharma, and Jane Wilson.

The gallery’s winter hours are Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 11 to 4. 

Parrish’s New Installation

The Southampton Cultural Center has announced a new program, Local Talent @ SCC, which will make the Levitas Center available without charge to East End artists of all disciplines for recital and performance.

The Choral Society of the Hamptons will present its annual Christmas program on Sunday, with two performances of “Celebrate With Bach and Mendelssohn” at 3 and 5:30 p.m. at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church. The concerts will feature Bach’s Magnificat and Mendelssohn’s Magnificat and “Behold a Star From Jacob Shining.”

Last summer, Sophie Chahinian successfully launched a Kickstarter campaign, ultimately raising $25,000 to help fund the Artist Profile Archive. It’s a website that houses short-form videos of contemporary artists discussing their own work.

Three of Ms. Chahinian’s videos are now on display at Guild Hall as part of its current exhibition of new additions to the permanent collection. A gallery talk and guided tour, led by with Christina Strassfield, Guild Hall’s chief curator, will take place on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill will screen “Four American Composers: John Cage” tomorrow at 6 p.m. An excerpt from Peter Greenaway’s 1983 documentary “Four American Composers,” it profiles the avant-garde composer, writer, and artist whose influence has been felt in the visual arts and dance, as well as by composers and musicians ranging from Stockhausen to Morton Feldman to Philip Glass to Frank Zappa.

The group called Our Fabulous Variety Show will return to Guild Hall this weekend with four performances of “A Spectacular Christmas Carol,” its retelling of Dickens’ classic story. The show will present the tale of Scrooge, played by Tony D’Alessio, and the three ghosts through song and dance.

Five Young Contemporaries

The Parrish Art Museum has developed the Parrish Contemporaries Circle, for younger patrons of the museum ages 21 to 45. The group will offer access to six art-related events and experiences each year on the East End and the New York metropolitan area. These will include private collection and artist’s studio tours and networking events.

On Tuesday, the first such event will take place at the FLAG Art Foundation in Manhattan, where Eric Fischl will be there to discuss the exhibition “Disturbing Innocence.”

The East Hampton Library will screen “Stuart Sutcliffe: The Lost Beatle” Saturday at 1 p.m. The 60-minute BBC documentary, directed in 2005 by Steve Cole, tells the story of Sutcliffe, who became friends with John Lennon in 1957 when both were students at the Liverpool School of Art, and joined the rock group, then known at the Quarrymen, in 1959.

 Cherish the Ladies, an ensemble that has grown over the past 29 years into the most successful Irish-American group devoted to Celtic music, will perform “A Celtic Christmas” on Saturday at 8 p.m. at Guild Hall.

Named after a traditional Irish jig, the group of five women blends vocals, step dancing, and a variety of instruments, including the fiddle, mandolin, flute, whistle, and piano, into a lively package of traditional Irish culture.

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill will present the Long Island premiere of “Making Space: 5 Women Changing the Face of Architecture,” tomorrow at 6 p.m.

Selected for the 2014 Architecture and Design Film Festival in New York City, the 50-minute documentary profiles the lives and work of Annabelle Selldorf of New York, Marianne McKenna of Toronto, Kathryn Gustafson of Seattle and London, Farshid Moussavi of London, and Odile Decq of Paris.