Arts

A recent symposium in Manhattan brought together scholars from around the country and across the Atlantic to study “Abstract Expressionism: Works on Paper.” One of the more interesting and revealing presentations came from Helen Harrison, the director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs, which was a co-presenter of the program with the Clyfford Still Museum and Stony Brook University.

Libraries used to be repositories of books and collections that were held close, in some cases available only to preapproved researchers by appointment. The East Hampton Library is embracing a more contemporary model, wherein its collection is accessible to researchers in their homes and offices.

The Hamptons International Film Festival has announced that films presented during the 2016 festival have received 45 Oscar nominations.

Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor will hold tribute concerts at 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday to mark the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album.

A number of South Fork cultural and arts organizations are among 1,230 recipients of some $41 million in state support for visual, performing, literary, and media arts, according to an announcement from Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. of Sag Harbor.

Two decades ago, Neil LaBute emerged on the scene with “In the Company of Men,” a movie taken from his earlier play, with a plot featuring the callous seduction of a deaf woman. The film received a number of awards and distinctions, and it launched him as an enfant terrible who went out of his way to say the heretofore unsayable.

The 2017 LongHouse Winter Benefit will take place Feb. 15 in the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center. The architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, who designed the atrium, will be the evening’s honorees.

“Madoo in Manhattan: The Fourth Annual Robert Dash Garden Design Lecture” will take place Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Cosmopolitan Club in Manhattan. The guest speaker will be Jinny Blom, an award-winning British garden designer, whose subject will be “Changing Nature: Towards a New Landscape.”

The Montauk Library will present “Salty Songs and Sailor Slang,” a program of authentic sea chanteys and nautical ballads performed by Scuttlebutt Stu and Blood Red Robin, on Sunday at 5:30 p.m.

The Art Gallery at the Quogue Library is presenting “50 Shades of White,” a juried photography show that celebrates the beauty of white in all its permutations. On view through Feb. 26, the photographs, by 23 East End photographers, will be judged by Neil Watson, director of the Long Island Museum and formerly director of the Katonah Museum of Art in Westchester County. “Supernature,” an exhibition of paintings by Jeff Muhs, will open today at the Lyons Wier Gallery in Chelsea and continue through Feb. 25. A reception will be held tonight from 6 to 8.

The Met: Live in HD will present an encore screening of Verdi’s “Nabucco,” with Placido Domingo in the title role, at Guild Hall on Saturday at 1 p.m.

“Steel Magnolias,” Robert Harling’s 1987 comedy-drama that became widely known thanks to the star-studded 1989 film, has over the years been met by critics with praise, derision, and everything in between. While one critic said, “The writing is filled with clever, country-fried witticisms and hilarious one-liners,” another wrote, “The script is formulaic and not as funny as it ought to be.”

Tomorrow at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, Joseph Vecsey will return as host for an All Star Comedy show at 8 p.m. His guests will be Harris Stanton (Comedy Central’s “Premium Blend” and “Comics Unleashed”), Max May (winner of the 2016 Winter Laugh’s Comedy Competition), and Mike Cannon (Comedy Central’s “The Nightly Show” and MTV). Tickets are $30.

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill is holding a 2017 People’s State of the Union Story Circle tomorrow at 6 p.m. The free event, one of hundreds taking place nationwide, will bring together members of the East End community age 15 and older to share their experiences and thoughts on the condition of the nation.

The Choral Society of the Hamptons will hold auditions for its spring concert at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church on Jan. 30, by appointment only. Those interested have been asked to visit choralsocietyofthehamptons.org or to call 631-204-9402.

The United States Consulate in Hong Kong is currently exhibiting two paintings by Eric Dever, who has a house in Bridgehampton. “NSIBTW-40” is an oil on canvas measuring 72 inches square; “NSIBTW-22” is an oil on linen of the same dimensions.

Guild Hall has announced the recipients of the 32nd Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards, which will be presented at a benefit dinner on March 13 from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Rainbow Room in Manhattan. Eric Fischl, the academy’s president, will host the event with Marty Cohen, chairman of the Guild Hall board, and Andrea Grover, executive director.

What Sotheby’s called “the Schellinger-Hendrickson Very Fine and Rare Clock,” a tall-case beauty made by the East Hampton craftsman Nathaniel Dominy IV in 1780, was sold Saturday afternoon at the auction house’s Manhattan headquarters for $24,000 to an unknown buyer bidding by telephone.

“Milestone Negro Spirituals: When Folk Songs Bring Freedom,” a free program of words and music by the bassist Hilliard Greene, will be presented at the Montauk Library on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. Mr. Greene, who is known for composing and performing solo contrabass music, has toured North and South America, Europe, and Asia during his 35-year professional career.

Karyn Mannix Contemporary and the White Room Gallery in Bridgehampton have put out a call for submissions to the 12th annual “Love and Passion” exhibition, which will be on view at the White Room from Feb. 10 through Feb. 12, with a reception set for Feb. 11 from 5 to 8 p.m. “Deconstructing Borders: The Flux of Dissent,” a solo exhibition of work by Elektra KB, will open at Roman Fine Art in East Hampton with a reception tomorrow evening from 6 to 8, and remain on view through Feb. 19.

The company’s latest play, “4000 Miles,” matches Amy Herzog’s Pulitzer-nominated and Obie-winning text with the versatile acting chops of some of the company’s regulars and with Samantha Herrera’s first HTC appearance.

A shot of rhythm and blues — and rock ’n’ roll, and maybe some folk and jazz to boot — may be the cure for cabin fever as South Fork residents settle into winter. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., the first of three “Legends of Rock” films, assembled by Joe Lauro of Historic Films Archive, will be screened at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor.

The sculptor Paul Pavia grew up surrounded by art. His father, Philip Pavia, was a sculptor, and his mother, Natalie Edgar, is a painter.

The Springs Community Theater will present four performances of the play “Steel Magnolias” at the Springs Presbyterian Church tomorrow and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Friday, Jan. 27, and Jan. 28, also at 7.

The East Hampton Library has launched Story Salon East, a weekly program based on Story Salon in Los Angeles, a live storytelling venue.

The Met: Live in HD will present “Roméo et Juliette,” Charles Gounod’s 1867 opera, on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Guild Hall. The new production, directed by Bartlett Sher, his seventh for the Met, stars Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo as the doomed lovers.

The Hampton Theatre Company in Quogue will hold open auditions for Bernard Slade’s mystery “An Act of the Imagination” on Sunday and Monday from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Quogue Community Hall. There are roles for three men and four women.

For those whose taste in films includes the offbeat and independent, the East Hampton Library will present free screenings of six foreign films in its annual Winter International Film Festival, which will open on Sunday at 2 p.m. with “Antonia’s Line,” a Dutch production that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1996. The festival continues on consecutive Sunday afternoons with the exception of Feb. 5. All films have English subtitles.

From the National Theatre Live series, Guild Hall will present an encore screening of the London revival of Harold Pinter’s 1975 play “No Man’s Land” on Saturday at 7 p.m. The production, which was broadcast live from Wyndham’s Theatre on Dec. 15, stars two of the pillars of English theater, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart.

January is a surprising month on the South Fork. While the crowds die down and the only bluster is the wind (and snow), there are often quiet but significant efforts to draw full-time residents and weekenders away from their hearths and out onto the scene again.