MUSEUM MILE DRAWS CULTURE SEEKERS (c) By Polly Guerin

Culture seekers’choices offer varied venues for a day’s outing. Take your pick; Contemporary Art from Asia, The Woolworth building at 100, Toile de Jouy inspiration, search for the Unicorn. Only in New York, my friends. The best of New York. Here’s the Scoop!!!

No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeastern Asia. This inaugural exhibition expands the Guggenheim’s Global dialogue and its holdings of art, rarely seen before, from the dynamic communities. The Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative presents the works of 22 artists from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam representing some of the most compelling and innovative voices in South and Southeast Asia today. On view in the Annex Level 2 and the New Media Theater are painting, sculpture, photography, video, works on paper, and installation, the majority of which are on view in the United States for the first time. Visit the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, at 89th St., 1071 Fifth Ave. March through May 22, 2013. 212.423.3500

Photographer: John Bartlestone (Woolworth Front Facade)

THE WOOLWORTH BUILDING at 100 The Skyscraper Museum celebrates the centennial year with an exhibition that honors its ambition and architectural artistry. On the night of April 24, 1913, the Woolworth building illuminated the New York night as 80,000 incandescent bulbs throughout the tower flashed on, activated when President Woodrow Wilson flipped a ceremonial switch in Washington, D.C. The brilliant spectacle was a career-crowning achievement of the tower’s owner, the five-and-dime store king Frank W. Woolworth who paid for the skyscraper with his personal fortune. Architect Cass Gilbert, who once defined the skyscraper simply as “a machine to make the land pay,” aspired to elevate his tower beyond the realm of real estate to the status of a civic monument. The Woolworth building was the world’s tallest from the time of its construction in 1913 until the Empire State Building was completed. Today office space in the Woolworth remains below and luxury residences are planned for the upper tower. The Skyscraper Museum, 30 Battery Place. Exhibition runs through July 13, 2012. Tel: 212.968.1961.

TOILE DE VIENNE The Neue Galerie Design Shop at the Neue Galerie Museum presents Toile de Vienne, a new textile for spring 2013, created in collaboration with the artist Sara Nesbitt, who was inspired by the architectural beauty of Vienna and the nineteenth-century beau monde that lived there. Toile de Vienne captures the loveliness of the city and carefree mood of Viennese life. On a historical note: Toile de Jouy (“cloth of Jouy”) was first produced in France during the eighteenth century and often feature rustic or bucolic scenes for both fashion and interior decorating. Playful and richly detailed, Toile de Vienne honors this tradition with a contemporary interpretation of the historic textile motif. At Neue Galerie, 1048 Fifth Ave. Tel: 212.628-6200.

SEARCH FOR THE UNICORN: The world-renowned Cloisters museum and gardens---a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to the art and architecture of the Middle Ages---will celebrate the 75th Anniversary of its founding with more than a full year of exhibitions. This is a heads up notice, more to follow next week.

Ta Ta Darlings!!! It is worth the trip uptown to see the “No Country” exhibit and then of course there is time to enjoy Central Park’s joy to the awakening of spring. Fan mail welcome at pollytalk@verizon.net. Polly’s Blogs are best accessed at her website pollytalk.com. Just click on the link in the left-hand column for visonarymen, womendeterminedtosucceed, poetry or fashion.

NEW YORK'S GIFT: FASHIONABLE VENUES (c) By Polly Guerin

A painting is worth a thousand words. In l881, Edouard Manet said, “The latest fashion…is absolutely necessary for painting. It’s what matters most!” Fashion and art capture the spotlight in breathtaking museum exhibitions. Here’s the scoop!!!

Claude Monet, Luncheon on the Grass

IMPRESSIONISM, FASHION, and MODERNITY With the rise of the department store, the advent of ready-made wear, and the proliferation o fashion magazines, those at the forefront of the avant- garde--- Manet, Monet, and Renoir to Baudelaire, Mallarme, and Zola---turned a fresh eye to contemporary dress, embracing la mode as the harbinger of modernity. The novelty, vibrancy, and fleeting allure of the latest trends in fashion proved seductive for a generation of artist and writers who sought to give expression the pulse of modern life in all it nuanced richness. The stunning survey, anchored by the most celebrated works of the Impressionist era illustrates the extent to which artists responded to the dictates of fashion between the 1860s, when admiring critics dubbed Monet’s portrait of his future wife “The Green Dress,” and the mid-1880s, when Degas capped off his famous series of milliners and Seurat pinpointed the vogue for the emphatic bustle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents a revealing look at the role of fashion in the works of the Impressionists and their contemporaries. Some 80 major figure paintings, seen in concert with period costumes, accessories, fashion plates, photographs, and popular prints, highlight the vital relationship between fashion and art when Paris emerged as the style capital of the world. A fashionista’s find on view through May 27, 2013.

FASHION CULTURE SPRING PROGRAMS Organized by The Museum at FIT (MFIT) presents PLUS ONE: AN OUTSIDER’S PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD OF FASHION with Sharon Socol, an intuitive, spontaneous photographer---and a fashion outsider. She attended hundreds of fashion events as her husband’s “plus one” during the year years that he was CEO of Barneys New York. Her book, Plus One, is Ms. Socol’s photographic record of that unique experience on Thursday, February 28 at 6pm. A book signing will follow her presentation. At 27th Street & Seventh Avenue. To register call 212.217.4385.

NO LIMITS, NEW YORK SKYLINE RE-INVENTED features Cuban-born artist, Alexandre Arrechea’s first large-scale public art exhibition in new York city which opens along Manhattan’s park Avenue malls on Friday. The extraordinary exhibit will feature ten recognizable bur re-imagined new York City buildings , in a series of steel and aluminum sculptures that depict the buildings as you have never seen them before, some amusing and some that will rotate when visitors push them. This unusual display of architecture re-invented will be up through June 9, 2013.

Ta Darlings!!! Impressionism and Fashion reveal more than meets the eye about fashion and how it reflects how artists interpret the spirit of their age. Fan mail welcome at pollytalk@verizon.net. Polly’s Blogs are best accessed at her website pollytalk.com. Just click on the link in the left-hand column for visonarymen, womendeterminedtosucceed, poetry or fashion.

CIRCUS THEMES, DECO NEWS DEFINE NEW YORK VENUES (c) By Polly Guerin

Come out of the cold and warm up your imagination at the circus, watch a cheesy sculptor of Mount Rushmore and go to an auction of Deco history all in one week’s time to engage your senses and titillate your cultural yearnings. Only in New York, the Best of New York my friends. Here’s the scoop!!!

DEGAS, MISS LA LA and the Cirque Fernando: Will wonders never cease? The Morgan Library & Museum’s enchanting new show features Degas and the making of his masterpiece, “Miss La La at Paris’s Cirque Fernando,” which immortalizes a mixed race Prussian, Olga’s breathtaking act—she was hoisted to the circus’s seventy-foot ceiling by a rope clenched between her teeth. The painting was first shown at the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition in Paris in 1879 was immediately championed for its unusual subject matter and boldness of composition. In another image Miss La La holds a 155-pound cannon between her strong teeth, and never did she flinch when it went off. The exhibition brings together a rich array of related material, including preparatory drawings, pastels an oil sketch and a print of the artists, as well as books, photographs and circus programs that provide a more complete picture of Miss La la and her troupe. Madison Ave. at 37th St., through May 12, 2013.

DECO PIANO Sotheby’s is pleased to announce the sale of an exceedingly rare, long-lost grand piano by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann from the Ladies’ Drawing Room and Music Room of one of the greatest ocean liners ever built, the Normandie, on 6 March 2013 at the 20th Century Design sale (est. $400/600,000). It has remained in the collection of the Butler family in Buffalo since it was purchased at one of the New York auctions in the early 1940s that disposed of the contents of the ship. This piano, made of ébène de macassar and American walnut with gilt bronze and ivory accents, is one of only six pianos whose whereabouts are presently accounted for, and one of three which are in his iconic, modern shape. He first displayed a piano in this shape at the 1925 Paris art deco exposition, Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, the significant and defining moment of French art deco. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see the piano, which will be on view in New York beginning on 2 March 2013 in advance of the sale.

LENOX LOUNGE STRIPPED BARE Deco aficionados mourn the loss of the Lenox Lounge the famed social spot in Harlem. Longtime Harlem resident Alvin Reed ran the jazz joint, which hosted guests like Billie Holiday and Miles Davis for 30 years, was forced out in January when he couldn’t pay the rent, which had skyrocketed from $3000 a month in 1996 to $l0,000 in 2012. Under the cloak of darkness men posing as cops allegedly gutted Lenox Lounge of its original artifacts. The lounge has been featured in films from the 2000 remake of Shaft to the 2007’s American Gangster. According to court papers the once proud Lenox Lounge, since its founding in 1939 was stripped bare of its Zebra wallpaper and other Deco items were torn from their fixtures. This episode, right out of a gangster movie, is a sad ending for a treasured New York icon..

THE CHEDDAR PRESIDENTS Can you imagine our presidents sculpted in cheddar cheese? For its President’s day celebration today and tomorrow, Ripley’s Believe It or Not Times Square presents a tasty bit of history. Wisconsin-born sculptor Sarah Kaufmann will carve an awesome replica of Mount Rushmore out of 160 pounds of cheddar. As an added bonus visitors will receive free samples of Cabot cheese she is using. At 234 W 42 St. Admission Charge. 212.398.3133.

Ta Ta Darlings!! Miss La La and the Cirque Fernando is an acrobat of remarkable skill, don’t miss it. Check out the Cheddar Presidents. Fan mail welcome at pollytalk@verizon.net. Polly’s Blogs are best accessed at her website pollytalk.com. Just click on the link in the left-hand column for visonarymen, womendeterminedtosucceed, poetry or fashion.

RUNWAY READY, FASHION IN NEW YORK (c) By Polly Guerin

Fashion culture highlights Fashion Week in New York where the gallery in The Museum at The Fashion Institute of Technology is a rich depository of three exhibitions that present fashion and style and an ongoing display of accessories. Only in New York my friends, the best of New York, here is the scoop!!!

BOOTS; THE HEIGHT OF FASHION is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on women’s boots. The show by graduate students in FIT’s Fashion and Textile Studies program highlights holdings from the Museum at FIT’s extensive collection of footwear and features 20 pairs of women’s boots by the most innovative modern designers. The exhibition explores what makes boots the perfect accessory for the fashionable modern woman. With a flair for display boots by Paul Poiret, Martin Margiela, Christian Louboutin and Prada get the Picasso treatment in stylish displays spearheaded by the director and chief curator, Valerie Steele. The exhibition begins with a walking boot by Jack Jacobus, circa 1900. Considered progressive yet sensible, the walking boot became a wardrobe staple for the on-the-go woman at the turn of the century. In a section titled “Sex” a highlight is Christian Louboutin’s high-heeled scarlet satin boot, from his fall 1994-95 collection, which conveys sex appeal and powerful femininity with its signature red sole, gold hardware and passementerie details. A special section provides visitors with a behind-the-scenes look at the conservation of boots. Seventh Avenue at 27th Street, through April 6. Open to the public Tuesday-Friday: noon-8 pm, Saturday: 10am-5pm. Admission FREE and open to the public. Lectures begin March 18 at 6pm, call 212.217. 4285 to register.

TOURS at THE MUSEUM at FIT: Current exhibitions at the Museum at FIT include “Fashion and Technology,” a survey devoted to materials and manufacturing from the past 250 years. The History Gallery exhibition explores fashion’s long engagement with technology, Aniline dyes, the sewing machine, synthetic fibers and the zipper---all technological advances that sent fashion in new directions. Lectures begin Feb. 25, 6pm. The “Shoe Obsession,” exhibition is an in-depth look at more than 150 examples of the extreme, lavish and imaginative styles that have made contemporary footwear central to fashion. Lectures begin Monday, March 11, 6pm. All programs are FREE but registration is required call, 212.217.4585 Scheduled for selected Monday evenings and weekday morning tours of the exhibitions begin in the museum lobby. Reservations are required. 212.217.4550. Mark your calendar: FASHION SYMPOSIUM, Cross0PLollination: Fashion and Technology will feature both scientist and designers, who will discuss new directions in fashion and technology, Tuesday, April 25, 9am-12noon.

THE PLEASURE OF PLEATS Fortuny y Madrazo: An Artistic Legacy continues at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute on Park Avenue between 68 and 69th Streets. Fortuny is not just the name of a company it is also the name of a man. Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (1871-1949) was Spanish and is forever remembered for the Pelphos gown and his secret formula for pleats. This pleating was born of Fortuny’s admiration for classical Greece. In 1907, inspired by an ancient statue, Fortuny fashioned this gown of fluted folds after this iconic dress. Columnar in shape, falling from shoulders to the ground, sometimes accented with a silk cord at the waist or under the bust, it is made of China silks that has been hand-worked into thousands of vertical pleats. Because those pleated garments skimmed over an uncorseted figure, they were considered shockingly modern at the time, but even today only the thin and firm-figured person can wear such a gown. Through March 10th.

HERMES UNVEILS ‘COMME DES CARRES’ This time the French luxury brand Hermes has a new collaboration with Rei Kawakubo, the Comme des Garcons designer who has created two limited-edition collections of Hermes’ mythical silk carre scarves. The first collection called Noir et Blanc, features five scares with abstract black-and-white designs. The second collection, Couleur, is a line of six colorful scarves also including geometric elements like giant patchwork, gingham and shirt stripes. Both collections hit the stores in February including the Hermes boutique on Madison Avenue in New York City. These scarves are pricey but have collectible status.

Ta Ta Darlings!!! Best investment of your time would be to see the three fashion exhibitions at The Museum at FIT. Fan mail welcome at pollytalk@verizon.net. Polly’s Blogs are best accessed at her website pollytalk.com. Just click on the link in the left-hand column for visonarymen, womendeterminedtosucceed, poetry or fashion.

MUSEUMS OFFER RICH CULTURAL RETREAT (c) By Polly Guerin

Nothing to do this weekend? The Morgan Library & Museum offers a myriad of reasons to get out and explore the rich cultural heritage that only New York City can offer. Exhibits showcase historical and modern data. Only in New York my friends, the best of New York. Here’s the Scoop!!!

DRAWING SURREALISM: Few artistic movements of the twentieth century are as celebrated and studied as surrealism. For those involved in the movement, drawing was a vital means of expressionism and innovation resulting in a rich array of graphic techniques that radically pushed conventional art historical boundaries. Yet the medium has been largely overlooked, but The Morgan Library and Museum is correcting that assumption. Drawing Surrealism is the first New York exhibition to explore the central role drawing played in surrealistic art. The show features more than 160 works on paper by 70 artists from 15 countries, offering an important new understanding of surrealism’s emergency, evolution the worldwide influence. The Morgan Museum at 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, through April 21, 2013.

SWANN’S WAY CENTENARY-Marcel Proust and Swann’s Way 100th Anniversary celebrates the 1913 publication of the first volume of A La recherché due temps perdu, ‘Remembrance of Things Past’ or, in more recent translations, In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust is indisputably one of the seminal works of the 20th century literature. Through a display of the author’s notebooks, preliminary drafts and other documents from the collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, the Morgan Library & Museum marks the centennial with an exhibition exploring Proust’s approach to writing and the personal experiences and relationships in his prose. Rounding out the show are several letters between Proust and his mother, and an assortment of period postcards beginning with images of Paris and Lillers, the inspiration of the fictional town of Combray. Opens February 15-April 28, 2013.

TREASURES FROM THE VAULT A new exhibition series at the Morgan,  home to some of world’s greatest collections of medieval manuscripts, printed books, literary manuscripts, private letters and correspondence, showcases highlights from its rare and vast historical collections. Works on view in the J. P. Morgan’s historic 1906 McKim Building include a J.R.R. Tolkien letter discussing The Hobbit, a ninth-century Coptic manuscript, and the earliest surviving complete opera—Jacopo Peri’s Euridice composed for the celebration of the marriage of Maria de’ Medici and King IV of Frances, dates to 1600. When Morgan was alerted to book dealer Leo Oischki’s acquisition of Beethoven’s long-lost tenth, and last, violin and piano sonata manuscript, he seized the opportunity and purchased the score. Through May 5, 2013.

BILL BRANDT: Shadow and Light MoMa, The Museum of Modern Art presents a critical reevaluation of the heralded career of Bill Brandt (British, b. Germany 1904-83), a founding figure in photograph’s modernist traditions. Brandt ranks among the visionaries, who, in the diversity of their approach, established the creative potential of photography based on observation of the world around them. Brandt’s distinctive vision---his ability to present the mundane world as fresh and strange---emerged in London in the 1930s, and drew from his time in the Paris studio of Man Ray. The impressive breadth of Brandt’s career suggests his restless experimental impulse, and the dramatic transformations of his printing style. Through August 12, 2013, at 11 W. 53 Street.

Ta Ta Darlings!!! Wishing you good Luck!!!It’s the year of the Snake, Chinese New Year February 10th. Fan mail welcome at pollytalk@verizon.net. Polly’s Blogs are best accessed at her website pollytalk.com. Just click on the link in the left-hand column for visonarymen, womendeterminedtosucceed, poetry or fashion.

FASHIONABLE VENUES BRIGHTEN JANUARY'S CHILL (c) By Polly Guerin

By Hermann Max Pechstein

The winter chill may tempt you to stay indoors but nothing cheers up the doldrums than fashion and art, and there are exhibits and events to attend worth bracing the cold to warm up your cultural pursuits. Here’s the scoop!!!

GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM 1900-1930: Masterpieces from the Neue Galerie Collection. Prized works in this exhibition examines themes of primitivism and modernity, two poles of expressionism that artists employed to free themselves from the academic conventions of the nineteenth century. The engagement of these artists with the zeitgeist of the early 20th century in Germany led them to paint emotionally charged, often contrasting scenes. On display are cabaret and circus culture, as well as cityscapes of lonely, alienating Berlin Streets by artists including Max Beckmann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Franz Marc and many others. Pictured here: Young Woman with Red fan by Hermann Max Pechstein, ca. 1910. Also on view are over 100 works of German and Austrian decorative arts from Los Angeles-base attorney and collector Harry C. Sigman representing the work of a wide range of German pioneers. Neue Galerie, Museum for German and Austrian Art, 1048 Fifth Ave, at 86th St. Feb. 7-April 22, 2013.

59th WINTER ANTIQUE SHOW Celebrates the Preservation Society of Newport County. Newport: The Glamour of Ornament showcases fine and decorative art from eight of the historic Newport Mansions: The Breakers, Marble House, The Elms, Rosecliff, Chateau-sur-Mer, Kingscote, Hunter House and Chepstow. The swell of Newport’s “cottages” had the desire and means to commission grand houses with ornate interiors—deliberate stage sets for their glamorous social lives. The Glamour of Ornament features more than 60 exquisite objects including a stunning silk brocade evening gown (circa 1890) with an 18-inch waist by “the father of haute couture,” Charles Frederick Worth. Furniture by historic cabinet makers includes John Goddard and sculptures by Gaston Lachaise. Stunning is a full length painting of Elizabeth Drexel Lehr by Giovanni Boldini, which usually hangs in The Elm’s ballroom. At the Park Avenue Armory, 67th Street and Park Avenue through February 3rd. Daily admission to the show is $20, which includes the Show’s award-winning catalogue. Hours 12pm-8pm, except Sundays and Thursday, 12pm-6pm.

CINEMATUESDAYS: The French Institute Alliance Francaise, Cinema Tuesdays turns to fashion THE MAN MAKES THE CLOTHES: PIERRE CARDIN IN FILM, celebrates Italian- born French designer Pierre Cardin, a fashion pioneer known for futuristic designs, bright colors, and an entrepreneur’s spirit. Over his prolific seven-decade career, the superstar revolutionized women’s fashion, brought fashion to postwar Japan, and pioneered fashion in China. Cardin also applied his talent and space-age aesthetic to costume design for more than a dozen film and television productions. Now FIAF presents a collection of his greatest costumes captured on film including Beauty and the Beast (1946) and Louis Malle’s Viva Maria! (1965), starring Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau. At Florence Gould Hall and Tinker Auditorium, 55 East 59th Street, between Madison and Park Avenue. Free for FIAF members, non-members $10.

FASHION AND TECHNOLOGY at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology investigates the impact of emerging technologies on the nature of fashion design and production with an array of more than 100 garments, accessories and textiles spanning 250 years. The exhibit considers how technological advancements from sewing machines to synthetic dyes to online shopping have influenced clothing design and productions. Highlights include a seamless Pierre Cardin dress from 29768 made with moldable “Cardine” fabric and a Balenciaga dress designed by Nicolas Ghesquiere that combines cutting-edge materials and traditional couture techniques. AT The Museum at FIT, 27TH Street and Seventh Avenue, through May 8. FREE Hours Tues.-Fri., noon-8pm, Sat., 10am-5pm.

Ta Ta Darlings!!! German Expressionism is worth the trip uptown and then of course there is the Café Sabarsky for afternoon tea. Fan mail welcome at pollytalk@verizon.net. Polly’s Blogs are best accessed at her website pollytalk.com. Just click on the link in the left-hand column for visonarymen, womendeterminedtosucceed, poetry or fashion.

FASHIONABLE NEW YORK, GLAMOROUS OPENINGS (c) By Polly Guerin

Roger Vivier (Bruno Frisoni) Eyelash Heel Pump 

Fashion’s glamour and glitz is on the agenda this week. From the art of perfume, to shows and fashionable females it’s all about style and function in venues and museum openings. Here’s the scoop!!!.

SHOE OBSESSION, an exhibition that examines our fascination with extravagant and fashionable shoes, features approximately 150 examples of contemporary footwear by established and up-and-coming designers alike, highlights the extreme, lavish, and imaginative styles that made shoes the most coveted fashion accessory today.. The show at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, examines how such high-end labels as Manolo Blahnik, Christian Louboutin, Pierre Hardy and Roger Vivier went from cladding the feet of wealthy fashion insiders to being fetishized by the masses. Credit or blame, some say, goes to “Sex and the City” for ushering in this change, which had led to many women to revise their notion of what’s too high—with regard to both price and heels. Photo by Stephane Garrigues. Opens February 8 through April 12, 2013. At Seventh Avenue at 27th Street. FREE.

IMPRESSIONISM, FASHION AND MODERNITY Opens in New York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, after a successful run at Paris’s Musee d’Orsay, explores the dynamic between art and la mode from the 1860s to the 1890s, when Paris became the style capital of the world. The show includes period accessories, fashion plates, photographs, popular prints and clothing. Albert Bartholome’s exquisite traditional wedding portraiture, “In the Greenhouse” (c. 1881) depicting the artist’s wife, Perie, combines the studied pose and styling of a traditional portrait with the vibrant palette and painterly brushstrokes of impressionism. When she died six years later her husband kept her purple and white dress and took of sculpture, the medium for which he is now best know. Through May 27th.

THE ART OF THE SCENT 1889-2012 Surveys the art of perfume since the introduction of synthetic molecules expanded the possibilities of the medium through twelve renowned fragrances including Chanel No.5 and L’Eau d'Issey. While it is said the scent of a woman is as significant as the fashion she wears, each work of “olfactory art” is presented here individually, dispersed with special machines to preserve its essence and stripped of its commercial trappings. To illustrate the complex process of creating a perfume, the show traces the development of Lancôme’s Tresor from written brief to final product. At the Museum of Arts and Design at Columbus Circle through Feb. 24.

FEMALE, FASHIONABLE, NEW YORK at MOCA Style brings together three women in the fashion industry from different perspectives to explore the behind-the-scenes of their worlds and how they intersect. It features Mary Ping from Slow and Steady Wins the Race and Jade Lai from Creatures of Comfort. Moderated by Christina Moon the show reveals how being an Asian American woman in the fashion industry in New York can at times be one of the most glamorous roles one can embody. What is less seen is the daily struggle to survive one of the most competitive cut-throat fields in the world. At the Museum of Chinese in America, 125 Centre Street. The program, January 24 at 7pm is FREE and open to the public, courtesy of Target.

THE METRO SHOW at the Metropolitan Pavilion. Not only will fair-goers enjoy casting their eyes on a diverse arrange of fine and decorative arts, from primitive through contemporary, they will also have the opportunity to get even more up-close-and-intime with those subjects through METRO Dialogues---the educational series, consisting of lectures, panel discussions and conversations with curators, collectors, artists, gallerists, and other cultural contributors; guided tours of the fair conducted by art and design world professionals; and lively ART talks with exhibitors and artists on the show floor. Through Jan 27 in Chelsea.

Ta Ta Darlings!!! My favorite venue is The Art of the Scent!!! Fan mail welcome at pollytalk@verizon.net. Polly’s Blogs are best accessed at her website pollytalk.com. Just click on the link in the left-hand column for visonarymen, womendeterminedtosucceed, poetry or fashion.