Jewish Person of the Year Dinner and Dance

Save the date for the Jewish Person of the Year Dinner and Dance on June 26. This year’s winner remains a mystery. Sponsored by The Isadore Garsek Lodge #269 of B’nai B’rith, this year’s dinner will be held at Mira Vista Country Club, 6600 Mira Vista Boulevard. The evening will begin at 6 p.m. with cocktails and hor d’oeuvres. Dinner will follow at 7 p.m. The Texas Gypsies will provide musical entertainment and dancing will continue until 10 p.m. Kosher meals are available, but must be requested in advance. Cost for the evening is $25 in advance (before June 22nd or call for a reservation) and  $35 if purchased at the door.  For more information contact, Harry Kahn at 817-926-6566; Alex Nason at alexnason@charter.net or Marvin Beleck at 817-921-2438.

Mark Kreditor returns to ‘Daytimers’

“Daytimers” are eagerly awaiting the return appearance of Mark Kreditor with his “Jews of the American Songbook.”  His program at Beth-El, Wednesday, June 15, at noon, will include songs from Cabaret to Bye-Bye Birdie, all written by Jewish composers.
This will be Kreditor’s fifth appearance for “Daytimers,” but the first one since 2008, and the group is eagerly awaiting his unique blend of song and schtick from American Jewish composers.
Mark Kreditor moved to Texas nearly 30 years ago because his late uncle Lou, a Dallas resident since 1944, always told him how nice the people were in Texas. While a student in Boston, he took all of his elective classes in music and performed 5 nights a week at  Boston’s popular marketplace sing-a-long piano bar — Lilly’s. His love of music began as a fourth grader in public school where he learned to play the trumpet and proceeded to move through all the brass instruments, eventually finding his niche blowing the shofar in his local synagogue. His love of music led him to take many music theory classes in high school. His sister taught him chords on the piano and he began studying composition in the 10th grade with local New York composer, Bob Harris, composer of the “Theme from Spider Man” and the movie, “Lolita.”
Kreditor is the owner of Dallas-based property management company, Get There First Realty, which manages over 1000 residential rental properties.  Mark’s first love is music and he has always had a special passion for Jewish composers from the “Tin Pan Alley” age of the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s. His personal connections to these standards and the stories associated with the composers are fascinating and informative. Mark has taught his “Jews of Tin Pan Alley” classes at the Dallas JCC’s Joys of Jewish Learning and at Elderhostel classes for several years. He has given his lectures in New York, Atlanta, Houston and all over Texas.
Over the years, he has accompanied his two daughters and their classmates at The Ann & Nate Levine Academy, where he wrote original music for the school and served as their annual campaign chair for nearly 10 years.  Kreditor donates all the proceeds from his programs to the Levine Academy. Guests are asked to be generous, and bring their cash and checks made out to Levine Academy.  Last time Kreditor was in Fort Worth, the “Daytimers” raised well over $400 for the school.
Lunch will be catered by Jimmy John’s Sandwich Shop, and guests will have a choice of a turkey, tuna or a vegetarian sandwich.
For reservations, call Barbara Rubin at 817-927-2736, or Irv Robinson at 817-731-7447. Checks can be mailed to Daytimers, Beth-El Congregation, 4900 Briarhaven Rd., Fort Worth, TX 76109.
The Sylvia Wolens “Daytimers” is a program of Beth-El Congregation with financial support from the Jewish Federation.

Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment, 1910–1912

Visitors to the upcoming Kimbell Art Museum exhibition Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment, 1910–1912 will be able to use a specially created iPad application to delve more deeply into Cubism. “Advances in digital imaging and the convenience of an iPad provide new ways to look at and understand the processes, relationships, and stylistic developments of the revolutionary art form now known as Analytic Cubism,” said Eric M. Lee, director of the Kimbell Art Museum. “I’m thrilled that the Kimbell is able to provide this unique opportunity to museum visitors.”
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the Kimbell have been working with MegaVision, a digital-imaging company based in California, to capture spectral images of select pieces in the exhibition. The quality of spectral imaging surpasses that of normal professional photography, and it allows options for ultraviolet and infrared, which can reveal features invisible to the human eye.
Affectionately titled iCubist, the app was designed specifically for the Picasso and Braque exhibition. It will showcase the spectral images along with three other original activities and will be made available to exhibition visitors, free of charge, on 40 preloaded iPads.
The iCubist activities allow users to:
• View and study works with a level of detail and precision never before possible for museum audiences. Users will have the ability to manipulate a succession of digitized spectral images that show the artworks at different light frequencies (ultraviolet and infrared), revealing the most minute details.
• Deconstruct a Cubist composition and attempt to put it back together. By rebuilding these composite reproductions, visitors learn first-hand about the intellectual and creative processes employed by Picasso and Braque in their paintings. The physical act of moving visual elements emphasizes compositional choices made by the artists to create, for example, a sense of balance or movement. It also highlights recognizable elements and describes their significance.
• Compare digital reproductions of paintings by the featured artists, Picasso and Braque, by clicking on markers that pop up to explain key aspects of their individual styles. This interactive activity will help visitors exercise connoisseurship to distinguish between the artists’ hands, despite their close similarity during the Cubist years.
•  Explore the history of Cubism by means of an illustrated timeline that includes vintage photography of the artists and their friends and reproductions of key works of art.
The iCubist app was designed and produced by Reza Ali for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the Kimbell Art Museum. Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment, 1910–1912 is on view at the Kimbell Art Museum from May 29 through August 21, 2011. It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Kimbell Art Museum promotional support is provided by American Airlines, the Star-Telegram, and NBC 5.