North America agenda: Seattle International Film Festival
With spring leading into summer, festivals include music, dance and the arts with Bonnaroo, Montreal Jazz Fest and Jacobs Pillow's 80th anniversary. Also, awards for Billboard's top music, the Tony's best theater and MTV fan's favorite movies. Also, trade expos include furniture and videogames.
Roy Lichtenstein
May 16–September 3
The Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
This exhibition of leading Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein shows more than 130 paintings and sculptures, plus 30 rarely seen drawings and collages covering all periods spanning the artist’s career. Beyond his iconic Pop art paintings, the show includes war cartoon paintings, late nudes, and Chinese landscapes, following his versions of Cubism, Surrealism and German Expressionism and use of alternative media.
http://www.artic.edu/
38th Seattle International Film Festival
May 17–June 10
Seattle, Washington
The largest and most highly attended film festival in the U.S., the event screens more than 400 films from over 60 countries for 150,000 attendees in venues across the city. The organizers present the Golden Space Needle Awards to films that are in the juried competition as well as the Audience Award for Best Film, Documentary, Director, Actor and Short Film. This year, the comedy Your Sister’s Sister starring Emily Blunt opens the three-week long festival.
http://www.siff.net/festival/
24th International Contemporary Furniture Fair
May 19-22
Jacob Javits Convention Center
New York City, New York
The latest trends in home design are on display at ICFF with 550 exhibitors from 27 countries showcasing seating, light fixtures, textiles, carpets and more with 25,000 designers, retailers, architects and manufacturers. Special events include designboom.com, Europe’s leading design e-zine, hosting a bazaar with participating designers’ products. Public Day is May 22. The largest design fair in North America is comparable to Frankfort’s Tendence and Singapore’s fair in Asia.
http://www.icff.com/
16th Webby Awards Gala
May 21
New York, New York
An international prize for the best of the internet for websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, mobile and apps. Each of the 100 categories gets a Webby, awarded by the 1000-member academy, including David Bowie and Richard Branson, and The People's Voice award. More than 10,000 entries come from over 60 countries with over 2 billion media impressions. Past winners have included Google, Twitter, Flickr and iTunes. Winners announced May 1 and the awards gala will be streamed live gala May 21 featuring the signature 5-word speeches and performances.
http://www.webbyawards.com
2012 Billboard Music Awards
May 22
Las Vegas, Nevada
All-star performances, presenters and appearances make the Billboard magazines awards in Las Vegas a big party. Winners in 46 categories will be honored based on Billboard's chart performance, long-considered the industry standard in the US, and including social media activity. In 2011 the show, airing on ABC-TV, returned to television after a hiatus since 2007. Other comparable music awards include the Grammys, Canada's Junos and the Brit Awards.
http://www.Billboard.com/BBMA
36th Spoleto Festival USA
May 25-June 10
Charleston, South Carolina
The official companion festival to Festival dei due Mondi (The Festival of Two Worlds) in Spoleto, Italy, this 17-day American counterpart is one of the top cultural events in the country. More than 120 performances showcase emerging artists and world-renowned talent in dance, theater, visual arts and music, from classical to jazz and genre-bending concerts. The festival produces its own opera annually and premieres ground-breaking performances.
http://spoletousa.org
5th World Science Festival
May 30 - June 3
New York City, New York
Intended to inspire the public’s interest and appreciation of science, this annual celebration explores science and its impact on the future. Attracting more than half a million visitors, with millions more watching programs in the online library, the events have featured such luminaries as Stephen Hawking, Richard Leakey and Oliver Sacks as well as artist Chuck Close and musician Yo-Yo Ma. Topics cover the Cosmos, the Mind, Life, Earth and the Arts with the latest on robots, DNA and more. http://worldsciencefestival.com
21st MTV Movie Awards
June 3
Universal City, California
MTV's Movie Awards recognize Best Film and best actors, as well as the cheeky salutes to Best Kiss and Best Fight. This year MTV adds Best Music, Best On-Screen Transformation, Best Gut-Wrenching Performance and Best Cast, voted on by fans.
The event at the Gibson Amphitheater will air live at 9 pm ET with a strong showing of nominated stars, such as Johnny Depp and Tom Cruise.
http://www.mtv.com/ontv/movieawards/2011/
18th E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo
June 5-7
Los Angeles, California
The largest US convention for the computer and video game industry gathers software developers, retailers and Hollywood representatives. Companies from Activision to Sega present upcoming games and showcase the latest in technology. After a record 70,000 attendees in 2005, it became an invite-only event for attendees from more than 80 countries at the L.A. Convention Center. A similar event is the International Conference on Computer Games Multimedia (CGAT) in Indonesia.
http://www.e3exp.com
111th BookExpo America
June 5-7
Javits Center, New York, NY
BookExpo America is the premier book fair in North America and the world’s largest English-language book event. More than 1,500 exhibitors, 500 authors and 30,000 visitors are expected attend. In 1902, Mark Twain was the featured author and this year digital books will be in the spotlight. Other major North American book fairs occur in Los Angeles, Miami, Washington DC, and Guadalajara, Mexico.
http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/
11th Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
June 7-10, 2012
Manchester, Tennessee
The four-day Bonnaroo Festival, now in its second decade, brings nearly 90,000 people to Great Stage Park, a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee. It is the top-grossing festival in North America, and Rolling Stone named it as one of the 50 moments that changed the history of rock and roll. The 2012 lineup features Radiohead, Bon Iver, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Shins, Foster the People, Feist, Ludracris, and The Beach Boys.
http://www.bonnaroo.com
66th Tony Awards
June 10
New York, NY
The Tony Awards ceremony recognizes outstanding Broadway theatrical productions with its annual ceremony presenting awards for categories divided into plays and musicals. Recognition for acting, direction, costumes, scenic design, choreography, and best revival plays are among the nominations. The equivalent to Britain's Laurence Olivier Award, the Tonys are telecast live from the Beacon Theater in New York City. Neil Patrick Harris (The Smurfs) hosts for the third year.
http://www.tonyawards.com
18th Los Angeles Film Festival
June 14-24
Los Angeles, California
The LA Film Fest, produced by Film Independent, screens over 200 feature films, shorts and music videos from more than 30 countries, primarily showcasing indie films as well as the high-profile, similar to the Gotham Awards in New York City. The program also includes ‘conversations' with actors James Franco (127 Hours) and director Julie Taymor, who launched the Spider-Man musical on Broadway.
http://www.lafilmfest.com
80th Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival
June 16-August 26
Beckett, Massachusetts
America's longest-running dance festival celebrates its 80th anniversary with more than 160 debut and premiere performances from Australia, China, France, Finland, and Brazil, from modern dance to ballet. The event also features more than 300 talks over the six weeks, dance classes and exhibits. Jacobs Pillow received the National Medal of Arts from the US President in 2012.
www.jacobspillow.org/
38th Saturn Awards
June 20
Burbank, California
Often overlooked, genre films that score big at the box office are snubbed by critics and awards, but the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films honors these categories in film and television, as well as action/adventure with the Saturn Awards. With the fan popularity of films from Harry Potter to Mission: Impossible, the recognition also extends to independent films.
http://www.saturnawards.org/
33rd Montreal International Jazz Festival
June 28-July 7
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Also known simply as ‘Jazz Fest,' this vies with Montreux as the largest jazz festival in the world, attracting more than two million attendees over 10 days. Artists include performances by jazz veterans and up-and-comers on the summer circuit as well a healthy line-up of world music acts, folk, blues and R&B/Funk, a strong showing of Canadian acts as well as tributes to jazz greats.
http://www.montrealjazzfest.com
RC
