Elizabeth Blair

How To Introduce Kids To Tough Topics? Art And TV Can Help

Elizabeth Blair — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:27:00 +0000

Parents steer their kids to media for all kinds of things: as a distraction so they can make dinner, to teach letters and numbers, and for pure entertainment. There are also times when parents rely on books, TV, museums and other media when they aren't quite sure how to approach a difficult topic by themselves.

Linda Ellerbee is the queen of hard subjects. Domestic abuse, Sept.

Plans For Smithsonian Museum 'Bubble' May Have Burst

Elizabeth Blair — Tue, 28 May 2013 07:39:00 +0000

Call it the Smithsonian's bubble problem. One of the Smithsonian museums — the Hirshhorn museum for contemporary art — came up with an ambitious new design to add more space: Why not build a giant, inflatable structure that would be big enough for people to walk around in?

But some of the Smithsonian's trustees in Washington, D.C., haven't been blown away by the bubble.

Some say the windowless Hirshhorn museum on the National Mall looks like a concrete bunker.

Georges Moustaki, Who Wrote Songs For Edith Piaf, Dies

Elizabeth Blair — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:15:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfdRaVPQnH8

'Venus And Serena': An Extraordinary Story, Told On Film

Elizabeth Blair — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:58:00 +0000

It's Cinderella plus Jackie Robinson times two. When Venus and Serena Williams burst onto the lily-white world of tennis, they changed the game and made history: They were sisters. From a poor neighborhood. Who brought unprecedented power to the game. And both reached No. 1.

Their journey is the subject of a new documentary called Venus and Serena, showing in select theaters around the country.

"It's not just about sports," says co-director Maiken Baird. "I think of it as the great American story. It's rich with family, sisterhood, race, hard work and tenaciousness."

In D.C., Art Program Turns Boys' Lives Into 'Masterpieces'

Elizabeth Blair — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 18:41:00 +0000

This is the third in a three-part series about the intersection of education and the arts.

Life Pieces to Masterpieces is an arts program that's not entirely about the art. It's an after-school program based in a struggling neighborhood in Washington, D.C., that teaches black boys and young men what they call "the four C's": "Connect, create, contribute, celebrate." From ages 3-25, they learn to express themselves by conceiving their paintings together. And those paintings will often reflect what's going on in their lives.

Maurice Kie, 26, is a mentor with Life Pieces.