Daily Pampering: Orient-Express launches “Art of Travel” tours through Europe

Luxury train operator Orient Express is taking guests on an art journey through Europe, starting in April 2011.

“The Art of Travel” is a series of art tours to Venice, Paris and within England, in conjunction with London’s renowned National Gallery. Guests will learn about the lives of artists such as Canaletto, Bellini, Titian, Veronese, Monet, Rubens, Turner and Constable, all while seeing the places that inspired their work and notable places that house their work today, accompanied by a National Gallery expert.

All tours include at least one night at London’s Goring Hotel and begin at The National Gallery, where a specialist gives a guided introduction to selected masterpieces before the journeys begin. The tours include:
Venice of Canaletto: This seven-day tour gives travelers the opportunity to view Venice through Canaletto’s eyes. Travel from London aboard the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express through France, the snow-capped Alps and northern Italy. In Venice, guests stay at the Hotel Cipriani and trace the footsteps of Canaletto – the artist forever associated with magnificent Venetian views. Trips start at £4,985 (US$8,000) per person.

Venetian Painters: A six-day tour that introduces great masters from Giovanni Bellini and Titian to Veronese. The morning after a tour and dinner at the National Gallery, guests will fly to Venice where they will step back into the Italian Renaissance and explore great sights such as the Doge’s Palace, the Accademia and Ca’ Rezzonica with an expert from the National Gallery close at hand to add depth to all that is viewed. The price of these trips start at £4,320 (US$6,940) per person.

Impressions of Paris: This series of five-day tours focuses on French Impressionism. Guests will trace Claude Monet’s life and will learn about the drama of the birth of a new movement of art – when painters first began painting out in the open air to capture the effects of light. Prices start at £2,990 (US$4,880) per person.

British Pullman: Combining the thrill of a steam-hauled luxury train, complemented by gourmet dining – brunch on the outbound journey and a three-course supper on the return – and delightful scenery, these exclusive tours include Bath’s finest art collections:

  • Collectors and Collecting: This trip is timed to coincide with the reopening of the Holburne Museum in May 2011 following a major project of restoration and extension. Priced at £1,130 (US$1,815) per person.
  • Thomas Gainsborough: This journey focuses on landscape paintings by notable British and European artists including Rubens, Turner and Constable. Priced at £940 (US$1,510) per person.

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Mikhail Baryshnikov to headline Sarasota’s Ringling International Arts Festival

When Mikhail Baryshnikov graces a stage, the whole world stops to stare. This year, all eyes will be on Sarasota, Florida, when Baryshnikov and others headling the Ringling International Arts Festival.

The five-day showcase of music, theater and dance presents 45 performances of 11 stage productions, which run from October 13-17 at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Fla. In addition to the premieres by Philip Glass and the Forman Brothers, the Festival boasts the debut of Hurricane, a new play written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Nilo Cruz and Solos with Mikhail Baryshnikov & David Neumann featuring a world premiere by choreographer Susan Marshall. Those productions all debut at the Festival’s Night of Premieres on Wednesday, October 13. They then join the roster of seven additional productions of dance, theater, and music all presented in repertoire on three stages through Sunday, October 14.

Art lovers can make a trip out of this, thanks to the InterContinental’s Hotel Indigo, which just launched a package for the festival. The “Sarasota Arts Package” at Hotel Indigo includes:

  • Overnight accommodations
  • Two cocktails at the hotel’s H20 Bistro
  • In-room gift: Sarasota Architecture Book, chronicling the city’s history as Florida’s “Cultural Coast”
  • Two member-for-a-day passes to RIAF, which include access to the award-winning Ringling Art Museum as well as all RIAF 360 events (e.g., jazz sunsets, private gallery tours, Family FunFest, etc.).

Rates start at $153/night. Package valid October 13 – 17, 2010.

North Korean art show focuses on the familiar

A new fine art exhibition kicked off in Pyongyang last week, and according to the Korea Central News Agency, it’s a must-see. If you’re down with the “anti-Japanese struggle,” I suspect you’ll be right at home at the Pyongyang International Cultural Center.

There are “at least 60 fine art works” on display, among them pieces created by Pyongyang-area artists during the “period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle.” At the top of the list are paintings with the catchy titles “Return Blood for Blood and Oppose Arms with Arms” and “Arirang on Jiansanfeng,” They highlight the efforts of the Great Leader, Kim Il-sung, and his first wife, the Dear Leader’s mother, Kim Jong Suk. Both, according to the country’s official view of the past.

And, you won’t want to miss “You Should Conduct Combat Training under the Simulated Condition of Real Battle,” which addresses “the commanding trait of General Secretary Kim Jong Il who has strengthened the Korean People’s Army into the invincible revolutionary armed forces.” No exhibition, of course, would be complete without a Kim Jong-il painting!

The KCNA continues:

Among the works on display are Korean painting “Grievance on the Shore of Lake Pujon”, oil painting “Echo in Ulsa Year (1905)”, woodcut “Sea of Blood in Northern Jiandao” and poster “Brigandish Japanese Imperialists Who Forced Koreans to Change Their Names to Japanese Ones!”, which expose the hair-raising atrocities committed by the Japanese imperialists.

Was the Thursday opening well-attended? This is the best we’ll get: “Officials concerned, artists and working people in the city went round the fine art works on display.”

[photo by yeowatzup via Flickr]

Hidden Treasures: Chicago’s Annoyance Theater

Years ago, you could walk into Chicago’s Annoyance Theater with a six-pack of beer and a pack of cigarettes, sit on one of the many battered couches in the one-room theater and enjoy an outrageously silly, sometimes raunchy and totally hilarious stage performance.

The group gained fame with their show entitled “Brady Bunch Live,” during which the actors and actresses did a blow-by-blow reenactment of a Brady Bunch episode, except with an attitude that had you rolling on the floor. Since then, the performance company has gotten a bit more sophisticated with a new location and the addition of a cocktail lounge.

The shows remain ridiculously creative with long-running performances (from back in the BYOB days) such as Co-Ed Prison Sluts and newer shows like Swear Jar. If you are into pushing the limits on comedy, the Annoyance Theater on 4830 N. Broadway is required entertainment.

M. Fuchslock is a Seed.com contributor.