Marc Chagall Exhibit Showcases Lesser-Known Works, Now At The Dallas Museum Of Art Through May 26th As The Only U.S. Venue

Contributed by Jamie Stengle/AP

In this photo taken Feb. 13, 2013 Museum curator Olivier Meslay talks about a 1963 Marc Chagall piece titled "Final study for the ceiling of the opera Garnier," included in the "Chagall: Beyond Color," exhibit during a preview at the Dallas Museum of Art in Dallas. This will be the only U.S. venue to host the exhibit that opens to the public on Sunday. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

 An exhibit opening this weekend in Dallas showcases some of artist Marc Chagall's best-known paintings alongside his rarely seen, lesser-known works including sculptures, ceramics and ballet costumes.

"Chagall: Beyond Color" opens Sunday at the Dallas Museum of Art, the only U.S. venue for the exhibit of more than 140 works by the artist best-known for his paintings with vibrant colors and imagery that includes people and animals floating through space. The exhibit, organizers say, is a way to revisit Chagall's entire career.

"Chagall is so well-known for the painting, the color, that suddenly you realize that he was exploring all the different media," said Olivier Meslay, the Dallas museum's associate director of curatorial affairs and curator of the exhibit.

"He's a very playful artist. He's so inventive. When you are in front of each piece, there is sort of joy coming out," Meslay said, adding: "Even the goats are smiling."

The exhibit, arranged in chronological order, shows visitors that while Chagall continued to paint with oil on canvas throughout his career, he also worked on theatrical costumes, ceramics, sculpture and even collage. Some of his best-known paintings are shown alongside the other works, showing that similar themes can be found in all of the art forms.

"There is sort of incredible ability from Chagall to play with the same topics but to be endlessly creative," Meslay said.

For instance, a bronze often called "The Fantastic Beast" from 1952 depicting a pair of lovers who appear on the side of an animal is shown alongside a painting from 1953 called "The Bastille," which with striking blues and reds also depicts lovers embracing and an animal.

"It's very interesting to see that there are correspondences everywhere and you could look at objects as different as a collage and marble and they are working so well together. And it explains far more than we thought, what Chagall's work is," Meslay said.

Among the displays are ballet costumes painted on by Chagall that have not been seen in the U.S. for more than 70 years. The costumes Chagall designed in 1942 for a production of "Aleko" choreographed by Leonide Massine and set to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky are displayed along with sketches he made for the production and a film of one of the performances. The ballet premiered in Mexico City in September 1942, and it was performed a month later in New York City.

Chagall, born in 1887 in the then-Russian city of Vitebsk, which is now in Belarus, started his artistic training with Russian painter and costumer Leon Bakst in St. Petersburg. In the following years he moved to Paris and then back to Russia before returning again to Paris. As World War II broke out across Europe, he went to New York City. He then returned to France in the late 1940s, dying in 1985 at the age of 97 at his home in the French Riviera.

Also included in the exhibit are sketches he made in the early 1960s as he prepared to paint the ceiling of Paris Opera House and sketches he did for the costumes and set designs for Igor Stravinky's ballet "The Firebird."

Chagall's granddaughter, Bella Meyer, a floral designer in New York City, said that by showing his work in different areas, the exhibit displays her grandfather's desire to learn how to "conquer the material."

"His imagination was immense," she said. "His ability to take in whatever surrounded him was so strong. You sort of can follow his life path through his work because of the energy which comes out of it."

The exhibit runs through May 26. The Dallas Museum of Art co-organized with the Musee Piscine in Roubaix, France, where the exhibit ran through last month.

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Online:

The Dallas Museum of Art, http://www.dm-art.org

Mummies, Monet & Napoleon’s Toothbrush: Discover London’s Top Museums

• Contributed By Clifton Wilkinson
• Lonely Planet Author

London is home to the world’s greatest collection of museums and galleries, from blockbusters to tucked-away treasures. The result of private and royal collections, and years of imperial acquisitions and plunder, these museums are one of the main attractions of the British capital for locals and visitors alike. Here we shine a spotlight on our favourites, and introduce some of their lesser-known, yet equally intriguing, cousins.

British Museum

The mother (or should that be ‘mummy’?) of all museums, the British Museum (or BM, as it’s known by staff and regulars) is the world’s oldest national public museum and London’s top free attraction. Since opening in 1759 to ‘all curious and studious persons’, people have come to view the unrivalled collections of antiquities from Egypt, Greece, Rome and Britain, among others.

With over six million objects it’s impossible to see everything on one visit so either pick one or two civilisations and spend an hour or two exploring their cultures in depth, or head straight for the highlights – the Rosetta Stone (the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics), the Parthenon Sculptures (controversially brought to Britain from Athens in the early 19th century), the Sutton Hoo Anglo-Saxon burial hoard and, of course, the mummies. From March to September 2013, the exhibition Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum will showcase objects from the city famously buried by a volcano in 79AD.

If you like the British Museum check out Sir John Soane’s Museum in Holborn. London’s worst-kept secret, this eclectic collection of ancient artefacts and paintings is housed in the eponymous architect’s stylish 18th-century townhouse.

The British Museum. Image supplied by visitlondon.com.

National Gallery

For a who’s who of Western art, from Michelangelo to Van Gogh, head to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Sq. If it’s a chronological run-through you’re after then start in the Sainsbury Wing with the likes of Botticelli and his racy (for its day) Venus and Mars, then amble past Rubens, Velazquez and Turner until you reach one of the most popular galleries, the Impressionists, with masterpieces by Monet and his pals. Or plot and print out a personalised itinerary using the ArtStart multimedia system – ask at one of the information desks for details. The main exhibition this year, Barocci: Brilliance and Grace, is showing from February to May and will bring this relatively unknown 16th-century Italian painter’s work to the attention of the wider public.

If you like the National Gallery stroll along the Strand to the Courtauld Gallery, a small but exquisite collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings within Somerset House.

Science Museum

You don’t have to be a geek to enjoy London’s Science Museum – but if you are, you’ll be in heaven. Seven floors cover humanity’s scientific achievements, from the 1829 Rocket train that started the railway revolution, to a display on how astronauts go to the toilet in space. It’s a big and busy place so if time is short, or you just want to tick off the biggest wows in the collection, focus on the Making the Modern World gallery with its show-stealing selection of objects that have changed history over the last 250 years. A special exhibition on Alan Turing, computer pioneer and WWII codebreaker (he was part of the team that cracked the Enigma Code), is on until July 2013.

If you like the Science Museum especially its medical section, then the Wellcome Collection in Bloomsbury has fascinating displays on the history of medicine. Look out for Napoleon’s toothbrush and the story of the human genome.

Interior of the Science Museum. Image supplied by visitlondon.com.

National Maritime Museum

The best way to get to Greenwich’s National Maritime Museum and learn about when Britannia ruled the waves is, appropriately, by boat down the Thames from central London. With an hour or two you’ll be able to uncover highlights such as the bloodstained (and surprisingly small) coat that Admiral Nelson was wearing when he died at the Battle of Trafalgar, exhibits on the British love affair with the seaside, and a compelling display examining Britain’s role in the slave trade. Photography from the Mountains to the Sea, an exhibition of photographs by Ansel Adams, is on until the end of April 2013 and focusses on works by the famous American photographer that have a particular connection with water.

If you like the Maritime Museum then visit the Cutty Sark clipper, just a five-minute stroll away. Beautifully restored in 2012, its exhibits cover the ship’s history, especially its time as the fastest boat plying the tea trade between China and Britain.

Tower of London

Part medieval fortress, part museum, the Tower of London encapsulates over 900 years of London’s history. Famous for being a prison, its lesser-known roles include being a former royal mint, military garrison and even the capital’s first zoo (in the Middle Ages monarchs liked sending each other exotic animals). The execution site may be gore-free (just a small plaque listing seven names – most people were executed on nearby Tower Hill), but join a Beefeater tour (included in the admission price) and have the place brought to life with an hour of gruesome and historical tales. Then get your sparkle fix at the Crown Jewels – the queue is inevitable, but they’re worth the wait.

If you like the Tower and want more on London’s history, check out the Museum of London. Perched above a section of original Roman wall near St Paul’s Cathedral, the museum has enough prehistoric axe heads, medieval church paintings, plague-related objects and reconstructed Victorian streets to keep the most enthusiastic historian happy.

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After an amazing year, the magic continues in London. Come celebrate everything the capital has to offer and see for yourself just how special London is: www.visitlondon.com 

Caribbean Islands Selling Passports For Investments

A Dominica flag hangs near a women's clinic in Roseau, Dominica.Ken Bosma / Flickr.com

Contributed BY DAVID MCFADDEN , THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Hadi Mezawi has never set foot on the Caribbean island of Dominica, has never seen its rainforests or black-sand beaches. But he’s one of its newest citizens.

Without leaving his home in the United Arab Emirates, the Palestinian man recently received a brand new Dominican passport after sending a roughly $100,000 contribution to the tropical nation half a world away.

“At the start I was a little worried that it might be a fraud, but the process turned out to be quite smooth and simple. Now, I am a Dominican,” said Mezawi, who like many Palestinians had not been recognized as a citizen of any country. That passport will help with travel for his job with a Brazilian food processing company, he said by telephone from Dubai.

Turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa has led to a surge of interest in programs that let investors buy citizenship or residence in countries around the world in return for a healthy contribution or investment. Most are seeking a second passport for hassle-free travel or a ready escape hatch in case things get worse at home.

Nowhere is it easier or faster than in the minuscule Eastern Caribbean nations of Dominica and St. Kitts & Nevis.

It’s such a booming business that a Dubai-based company is building a 4-square-mile (10-square-kilometer) community in St. Kitts where investors can buy property and citizenship at the same time. In its first phase, some 375 shareholders will get citizenship by investing $400,000 each in the project, which is expected to include a 200-room hotel and a mega-yacht marina. Others will get passports for buying one of 50 condominium units.

“The more they fight over there, the more political problems there are, the more applications we get here,” said Victor Doche, managing director of another company that offers four condominium projects where approved buyers are granted citizenship in St. Kitts, which is less than twice the size of Washington D.C.

It’s impossible to say how many people have used the cash for citizenship programs. Officials in both countries declined to respond when asked by The Associated Press.

“Why do I have to speak on that?” said Levi Peter, Dominica’s attorney general. “I have no explanation to give to AP.”

But Bernard Wiltshire, a former Dominica attorney general, said there were already around 3,000 economic citizens when he left government about a decade ago. The country now has roughly 73,000 inhabitants in all.

“Investor visa” or citizenship programs are offered by many nations, including the United States, Canada, Britain and Austria. But the Caribbean countries offer a fast path to citizenship at a very low cost. The whole process, including background checks, can take as little as 90 days in St. Kitts. And there’s no need to ever live on the islands, or even visit.

A foreigner can qualify for citizenship in St. Kitts with a $250,000 donation to a fund for retired sugar workers or with a minimum real estate investment of $400,000. The minimum contribution in Dominica is $100,000.

By contrast, a U.S. program allows visas for a $1 million investment in a U.S. business employing at least 10 people or $500,000 in designated economically depressed areas. The investor can apply for permanent residence in two years, and seek citizenship after five more. Demand in Canada is so great that the country stopped accepting new applications in July.

A Dominica passport holder can travel without a visa to more than 50 countries, while a St. Kitts passport provides visa-free travel to 139 countries, including all of the European Union. That’s a big deal to people in countries from which travel is restricted or whose passports are treated with suspicion.

Critics say the programs undermine the integrity of national passports and have security risks. While there are no known cases of terrorists using the programs, experts say that’s a possibility with many visa arrangements anywhere.

“No level of scrutiny can completely guarantee that terrorists will not make use of these programs, just as background checks cannot eliminate the risk that dangerous individuals will not enter the country (the U.S.) on tourist visas, as students or as refugees,” said Madeleine Sumption, a senior policy analyst at the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute.

Canada imposed visa requirements on Dominica citizens a decade ago after complaining that suspected criminals had used island passports. And in 2010, Britain said it was considering visa requirements for Dominicans, prompting the island to review its 20-year-old economic citizenship program. Dominica never publicly released the results of its review and Britain took no action.

St. Kitts closed its program to Iranians in December 2011, shortly after Iranian students stormed the British Embassy in Tehran. Iranians had formerly been a major source of applicants, according to Doche.

Some locals worry the programs could get out of hand if conditions worsen abroad.

“There could be a flood of people with our passports relocating here,” said Dominica’s Wiltshire. “What are we going to do then? Really, this program must be halted. It’s dangerous to us and dangerous for our neighbors.”

St. Kitts opposition leader Mark Brantley said the citizenship program was bringing much needed revenue to the debt-swamped islands, but he said there should be better oversight and public accounting. “We do not see that sufficient controls are currently in place to ensure that bad people, for want of better language, do not get access to our citizenship,” he said.

It’s not just economic refugees who are interested in the programs.

American Neil Strauss wrote of securing citizenship in St. Kitts in his 2009 book on survivalist preparedness, “Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life.”

“The same way we have a backup drive for our computer in case the hard drive explodes, I just felt like I wanted a backup citizenship in case the same thing happened to my country,” Strauss said during a phone call from his home in Los Angeles. Like most economic citizens of St. Kitts, he rents out his island property.

Some other struggling Eastern Caribbean islands are looking at adopting the St. Kitts model.

Antigua & Barbuda is launching its own citizenship program to drum up money. And leaders of both main parties on the poor island of Grenada have hinted they may revive a program that was suspended after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, due to fears that local passports could be mistakenly sold to terrorists,

In Dubai, Mezawi said he keeps meeting fellow Dominica passport holders, mostly people of Iranian and Palestinian background.

“After the Arab Spring, it’s become more difficult for us to really travel around the world, even in the Arab region,” he said. “But being a citizen of Dominica, it is much, much better for us.”

New MagicBand Changes Disney Park Entry, More

Contributed by GENEVIEVE SHAW BROWN (@gsbrownabc)

Months of speculation surrounding a wrist band replacing paper tickets at Disney parks is over. An official announcement confirming the band was made Monday on the Disney Parks blog.

A Disney spokesperson told ABC News the bands would be rolling out this year over the next several months.

Worn on the wrist, the "MagicBand" will serve as a guest's room key, theme park ticket, access to FastPass+ selections, PhotoPass card and optional payment account all rolled into one.

"At Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, we continually push the boundaries of creativity and innovation to deliver the best possible experience for our guests," Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts wrote. "We're always looking for ways to take what we do and do it even better. Over the past few years, we've devoted considerable time and resources to create a more immersive, more seamless and more personal experience for each and every guest who spends time with us."

The introduction of the band is part of a larger effort named MyMagic+ and includes a new My Disney Experience website and mobile app.

Guests can plan dining and reserve times for their favorite attractions, shows and more in advance through an enhanced FastPass system called FastPass+. Once they arrive, they can use their smart phones to change their plans.

Of course, the gathering of data on guests makes sense from a business standpoint for Disney. The more it knows about guest preferences, the more it can tailor the guest experience. But some skeptics worry about just how much information might be stored on those MagicBands.

"Ensuring the security of our guest's information is obviously very important to us, and no one is more focused on this than we are," a Disney spokesperson told ABC News. "Everything is opt in and guests will have the opportunity to choose what information they share with us. Nothing is more important to us than protecting that information. Guests should also know that the band does not store personal information."

The FCC filing on the MagicBand reads: "The radio of the device, Model MB-R1G1, is a wrist worn arm band that transmits a 2.4 GHz signal to an indoor wireless infrastructure. The PCB assembly is potted in plastic and completely overmolded with thermal plastic polyurethane. The band has no on off switch and is powered with a nonreplaceable coin cell."

Mexico: Cancun-Riviera Maya Host Wine And Food Festival From March 14 To 17th

Contributed By Rosemary McClure

Poolside lunch at Esencia Estate, Riviera Maya. (Riviera Maya Destination Marketing Office)

Foodies can taste their way through Mexico's Riviera Maya from March 14 to 17 when 30 culinary events take place as part of the annual Cancun-Riviera Maya Wine and Food Festival.

The festival, set at several Riviera Maya resorts, will feature taste-offs, chef competitions and tastings of mescal and wine. 

Why hold the event in Riviera Maya, a slice of the Mexican coastline that stretches south from Cancun along the Caribbean? 

“The region is becoming a mecca for culinary enthusiasts,” said Darío Flota, director of the region’s marketing office. Local chefs have developed a fusion of traditional and contemporary, indigenous and international cuisine, he said.

“The festival is a great way for us to showcase Riviera Maya’s diverse dining scene as well as the immense talent and anthology of international tastes that come together in the region,” Flota said.

Among the events:

• Mescal tasting with master sommelier Doug Frost
• A taste of Europe: Tribute to Massimo Bottura
• Cancun-Riviera Maya dine around
•  Cooking demos with celebrity chefs 

Area hotels and resorts are offering specials connected to the event. Among them are Hotel Grand Velas, El Dorado Royaleand Paradissus Playa del Carmen.

Proceeds from the festival will benefit Ciudad de la Alegria, a nonprofit dedicated to disadvantaged children, victims of violence and elder care.

Airline Fees: Dozens Of New Charges Added For 2013

Contributed by the Huffington Post.

Airlines have added more than 50 new fees over the past year, new data from the website TravelNerd show.

The finance-oriented site found dozens of "direct fee increases" on already existing charges, as well as 28 new baggage-related fees levied in January 2013 compared to January 2012.

The fees add an estimated $36.1 billion annually to airlines' bottom lines, according to TravelNerd.

Increasing fees for the same service are a big part of the uptick. For example, Spirit Airlines' premium seat fee, which was $25-$75, is now as much as $199 depending on the flight.

The only good news, TravelNerd reports, is that the increases are generally modest. "The majority of fee increases were within $5-$10," the site writes.

While some fees are nearly unavoidable, travelers can prepare for them. A newly released Airfarewatchdog super-survey of U.S. airlines' charges is a good place to start. 

Kissimmee Florida Invites You To Enter Their Decade Of Memories Contest

Our friends at Kissimmee Florida invite you to enter their Decade of Memories Contest with a grand prize of
10 years of vacations for the winner and five guests inclusive of air, car rental, and 6 nights accommodations; along with $25,000 in cash. To enter submit an essay describing "What would you do with a decade of
Kissimmee vacations" by midnight February 28th. For details about the contest please visit www.decadeofmemories.com  and for information about traveling to the region visit www.kissimmee.org