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1071 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
February 15, 2008 Friday

Late Edition - Final

Rounding Up The Usual Suspects
BYLINE: By ROBERTA SMITH
SECTION: Section E; Column 0; Movies, Performing Arts/Weekend Desk; ART REVIEW BROAD CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM; Pg. 31
LENGTH: 1416 words
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
The inaugural exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's spanking new Broad Contemporary Art Museum has no title, because it isn't really an exhibition.

All but 30 of the nearly 180 works on view come from the private collection and art foundation of Eli Broad, the Los Angeles entrepreneur who gave $56 million toward the new museum's construction, and his wife, Edythe. The works are intended to reflect the Broads' penchant for collecting in depth. But the accumulation reads foremost as a display of pricey trophies, greatest hits of the present and recent past. It's a sign that you are deep in the land of known quantities when a room of paintings by an artist of the stature of Leon Golub feels like a surprise.

I don't mean to disparage the many impressive works of art here. They represent artists of some or much importance, among them Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Ellsworth Kelly, with a richness that will be both entertaining and informative to the general public. The problem is what they add up to.

The ensemble conveys very little in the way of curatorial shape or imagination, or historical perspective. And the museum should be ashamed of the dominance of white male artists here. (Of the 29 artists, only Jean-Michel Basquiat is not white; only 4 are women.) It should also be embarrassed by the dominance of New York artists (21 out of 30) at a point when Los Angeles has one of the liveliest art scenes on the planet. How many museum exhibitions and collections look like this? Too many to count.

With the new Broad building, the museum, traditionally encyclopedic, announces an increased emphasis on contemporary art. (Its role model, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has developed a similar fixation on the new.) In addition, it represents a healthy shift in the balance of power between Los Angeles and New York.

It was hoped that Mr. Broad might mark the completion of the new building with a gift of some art. (His total holdings number around 2,000 modern, postwar and contemporary works.) But that hasn't happened; much to the consternation of many in the art world, he and his wife, or their foundation, retain ownership of the work.

Excluding the ground floor, where two large works by Richard Serra are parked beneath ceilings that are a bit low for them, the largest spaces in this three-story building go to market-hardy perennials of the moment: Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman and Damien Hirst. Also extremely prominent is a three-story melange of words and pictures in red, white and black by Barbara Kruger: it lines the large glass-fronted elevator shaft.

The Koons display would make a nice miniretrospective spread out among several smaller galleries, but in one open space it looks chaotic, like a one-artist sculpture park crossed with a don't-touch playground. The assembled works span from an eerily sarcophaguslike stack of Hoover floor polishers (1981-87) to a hyperrealist painting dated 2008. In it four images of a stunningly beautiful, scantily clad blonde are set against a wallpaperlike expanse of the splintery images of H. C. Westermann -- an excellent artist who is not on many collectors' must-have lists these days. The standout here is Mr. Koons's taut, gleaming ''Balloon Dog (Blue),'' which seamlessly unites the erotic and innocent tendencies in his work.

The several postwar masters on view -- Warhol, Ed Ruscha and Roy Lichtenstein, for example -- are often represented by selections that are motley or unbalanced, even when they include wonderful things. Thankfully, John Baldessari's slyly ironic early paintings convey the show's main hint of the Conceptual Art revolution. But do we need four of them, and not much from recent years?

The Johns display includes ''Watchman,'' a haunting painting from 1964, but also a so-so 1967 flag painting from the Broads and a weaker double flag from 1973, lent by the writer Michael Crichton. It seems included here as backup, the flag of last resort.

Five paintings by Cy Twombly create a rare moment of cohesion and serenity. The Broads' great 1955 Rauschenberg -- mostly red with newspaper collage and a peach-colored line across it deeply fringed with drips -- keeps company with four other early paintings lent by the Sonnabend Collection. And five works by Ellsworth Kelly look at home as almost nothing else in the building does. In the natural light of the Broad building's third floor, their saturated colors and sharp shapes balance delicately between the physical and the visual. It is the show's one moment of perfection.

One floor down, Mr. Hirst takes up a lot of room with glittery cabinet sculptures, butterfly paintings and ''The Collector,'' a room-size glass vitrine. Inside a life-size animatronic scientist bends (repeatedly) over a microscope at a desk surrounded by plants and stacked with butterfly specimens, while live ones flutter overhead. A presentation of 49 works by Ms. Sherman forms another miniretrospective that, like the Koons display, could use several galleries. But a striking triple hanging of around 20 works, predominantly from Ms. Sherman's History Portraits series, gives it focus.

From here galleries devoted to installation works by Robert Therrien, Christopher Wool, Jenny Holzer and Chris Burden pass in a lackluster blur. They emphasize the absence of Los Angeles artists like Paul McCarthy and Jason Rhoades, whom the Broads don't collect, but whose works, if borrowed from elsewhere, would have added strength. Then comes the only departure from the one artist-one space pattern.

Several once-big names who emerged in the 1980s, and whose reputations may have peaked, are clustered in a single gallery, represented by one work each: Julian Schnabel, David Salle, Ross Bleckner, Susan Rothenberg, Jack Goldstein, Mark Tansey and Robert Longo. They form a useful if inadvertent cautionary tale. But well-chosen groups of paintings by Mr. Salle or Mr. Schnabel would have looked fresher and nervier. The Golub gallery follows, and then a room of fierce paintings by Basquiat.

The inaugural installation, like the new building itself, seems to have suffered from too many cooks. Joanne Heyler, the curator of Mr. Broad's foundation, was involved in its formation, which was overseen by Lynn Zelevansky, a curator of the Los Angeles museum, and undoubtedly Michael Govan, its charismatic director, who has galvanized and reshaped the museum virtually since his arrival barely two years ago from the Dia Center for the Arts in New York.

Happily, there are other signs of new life to celebrate at the museum. Mr. Burden's new permanent sculpture, ''Urban Light,'' in front of the new entry pavilion, may be an instant landmark and museum mascot. It consists of a dozen rows of vintage streetlights so tightly regimented that they can look like a total hall-of-mirrors illusion.

Beyond the new entry pavilion, the main museum looks wonderful. Tony Smith's ''Smoke'' sits imperiously, like a giant architectonic spider in a box, in the atrium of the Ahmanson Building, which has been rehabilitated with new, broad stairs. Up these stairs, 85 works of European modernism -- selected from the promised gift of Janice and Henri Lazarof -- offer all kinds of riches, including a raft of Giacometti sculptures and 19 Picassos. And nearby two large galleries have been stunningly upgraded with beautiful dark wood floors; they form a velvety unbroken plain that makes the postwar paintings and sculptures on view look like a mirage.

There is also more hope for the nascent Broad Museum. At the over-the-top Hollywood-style opening celebration on Saturday, Mr. Govan publicly praised Mr. Broad's generosity and finished by thanking him for the gift of $10 million that made possible the purchase of one of the Serras. ''Eli has given us a great work of art,'' he concluded, ''and he'll give more.''

Perhaps he will. The show with no name exemplifies an especially dismaying dance that museums must perform with their biggest donors. But as dances go, the evening is still young . In the end the Los Angeles museum doesn't need to own all of Mr. Broad's art; better that its curators have a chance to choose a few really great works. Public and private collecting has the best results when approached, like making art, as an act of individual imagination spurred by the desire to be different. The goal should be to do something that no one else is doing, not the thing that everyone has already done.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: ARTISTS & PERFORMERS (91%); ART & ARTISTS (90%); MUSEUMS & GALLERIES (90%); EXHIBITIONS (90%); VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS (90%); HISTORY (78%); PAINTING (78%); MEN (65%)
PERSON: ELI BROAD (73%)
GEOGRAPHIC: LOS ANGELES, CA, USA (95%); NEW YORK, NY, USA (54%) CALIFORNIA, USA (95%); NEW YORK, USA (54%) UNITED STATES (95%)
LOAD-DATE: February 15, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: A three-story melange of words and pictures by Barbara Kruger lines the museum's elevator shaft. Five works by Ellsworth Kelly are on display at the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum in Los Angeles. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY MONICA ALMEIDA/THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg. E39)
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Review
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

1072 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
February 15, 2008 Friday

Late Edition - Final

Paid Notice: Deaths MODELL, WILLIAM D
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Classified; Pg. 21
LENGTH: 670 words
MODELL--William D. It is with profound sorrow that we mourn the passing of our beloved Chairman of the Board. Bill Modell was more than a brilliant businessman; he was an enlightened leader who not only created the largest, privately owned sporting goods chain in America, but created a business environment that respected and cared for all its associates. Bill's word was his bond and his integrity was legend. He encouraged the best in each of us and mentored the careers of many.

By example, he taught us to care for our city, our country and our fellow citizens. With unquenchable optimism and humor, he worked tirelessly to heal the suffering of others through philanthropic work. He was deeply committed to Gilda's Club New York and Worldwide, which he helped to found, and raised millions of dollars for research, especially for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America. When our co-president and his son, Michael, died, he took up the reins and led us with unassuming courage. Throughout his own painful battle with cancer, he continued to work for Modell's and for the many research foundations that he co-founded. With kindness, dedication and goodwill, Bill made our world a better place in which to live. Our friend and colleague has been taken from us, but the inspiring legacy of his life will remain with us forever. The Officers and Associates of Modell's Sporting Goods

MODELL--William D. The love of my life is gone. We began our journey together with laughter. Now it has ended in tears. My precious, beloved husband devoted his life to me, our children and grandchildren, and his sister and brother-in-law and gave us the most precious gift of all, his love. He became a legend in his own time, building Modell's Sporting Goods into the largest, privately owned sporting goods chain in the country. His brilliant business acumen earned him many honors and awards. Yet, his greatest pleasure was seeing all those he mentored succeed in their careers. During World War II, he proudly served in the Army's Ninth Air Corps and continued to serve his country and New York City throughout his life, as a member of the negotiating committee for the Panama Canal Treaty under President Jimmy Carter, as New York City's Commissioner of Public Affairs for Mayor Abe Beame, and as a founding patron of the Metropolitan Opera House and Lincoln Center for Performing Arts. Though he met world leaders, celebrities and many of America's greatest athletes, he was at heart a down-toearth man, who cared deeply about his family, friends, and . Associates. A humble and gentle man, he helped countless individuals in their time of need. He was the founder of American Digestive Disease Society, a co-founder of the Jeffrey Modell Foundation for Immunological Research and the Hewlett House for breast cancer survivors, and was especially dedicated to Gilda's Club of New York and Worldwide which he helped found. No cause meant more to Bill than finding a cure for Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. In 1967, when our son Michael was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, he co-founded the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America and raised many millions of dollars for research. Bill never realized his dream to find a cure, and we lost our darling Michael to complications caused by Crohn's disease six years ago. Yet, despite his unspeakable sorrow, Bill never gave up hope. He continued to raise millions to save others from the suffering that our son endured. For me, his children and grandchildren, his friends, and all those who knew him, Bill was a man who filled the world with his vibrant presence, his compassion and love, his sense of humor, his wisdom and integrity, his quiet courage, and his abundant goodwill. The services will be held on Sunday, February 17, 2008, 11am, Temple Emanu-El, 5th Ave at 65th St., New York. I have lost my best friend and partner in life and I am shattered with sorrow. Billy, you were and always will be my soul mate. I will love you and miss you forever. Your Shelby
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: DEATHS & OBITUARIES (90%); PRIVATELY HELD COMPANIES (89%); SPORTING GOODS STORES (89%); CELEBRITIES (78%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (77%); PHILANTHROPY (74%); CHARITIES (74%); MEDICAL CHARITIES (74%); FOUNDATIONS (74%); DISEASES & DISORDERS (73%); GASTROINTESTINAL DISORDERS (68%); IMMUNOLOGY (68%); ARMIES (68%); COLON DISEASE (68%); CANCER (68%); US PRESIDENTS (67%); PERFORMING ARTS CENTERS (67%); ARMED FORCES (60%); VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS (60%); AWARDS & PRIZES (50%); WORLD WAR II (67%)
ORGANIZATION: CROHN'S & COLITIS FOUNDATION OF AMERICA (56%)
PERSON: JIMMY CARTER (51%)
GEOGRAPHIC: NEW YORK, NY, USA (90%) NEW YORK, USA (93%) UNITED STATES (94%); PANAMA (79%)
LOAD-DATE: February 15, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Paid Death Notice
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

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The New York Times
February 15, 2008 Friday

The New York Times on the Web

Spare Times: For Children
BYLINE: By LAUREL GRAEBER
SECTION: Section ; Column 0; Movies, Performing Arts/Weekend Desk; Pg.
LENGTH: 3195 words
FOR CHILDREN

'READY FOR ACTION!' For a parent Sesame Street Live doesn't have quite the charm of ''Sesame Street'' on television. You lose the intimacy of the close-ups with the cheery characters, and the noise -- including the loud bangs of containers of confetti bursting over the audience's heads -- may make you long for a remote control. But enough Oscar-like grouchiness. None of this seems to bother the energetic toddlers who throng Madison Square Garden every year for the 90-minute live extravaganza.

The latest, ''Ready for Action!,'' begins with a topic dear to small children: superheroes. Grover, whose self-description as Super Grover is treated tongue-in-cheek on TV, has lost his ''superness''; when he tries to fly, he collapses in a heap (hilarious if you're under 6). Some of his fellow Muppets -- Telly, Zoe (and her pet rock), Elmo and Rosita -- step in as the Fabulous Five (above, flanking Grover), accepting assignments from the Big Cheese (a talking cheese wedge, of course) until Grover recovers.

Happily, Sesame Street Live is as clever as the television series in reinterpreting pop music. The source material in ''Ready for Action!'' ranges from ''A Chorus Line'' (''I really need this call,'' the Muppets sing, as they await the Big Cheese) to James Brown's ''I Feel Good,'' turned into an ode to robust health. And even familiar nursery tunes get an imaginative spin. At the end of a new version of ''Old MacDonald Had a Farm'' Muppet sheep in kilts do a highland fling (hilarious no matter what your age).

The problems the Fabulous Five confront include an overtired Big Bird (he needs a nap), an overeating Cookie Monster (he needs nutritious food) and an Elmo's World so soiled that it has become Oscar's World (it needs hygiene). Yes, there's a theme here. And when Grover sleeps, eats right, bathes and exercises, he regains his superness. This may seem like a terribly simple formula, but consider the audience. For preschoolers, taking naps, eating broccoli and submitting to baths may very well be heroic. (Friday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and 2 and 5:30 p.m.; Monday at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden, 212-465-6741, sesamestreetlive.com; $19.50 to $54.)

LAUREL GRAEBER

'ARCHAEOLOGY ZONE: DISCOVERING TREASURES FROM PLAYGROUNDS TO PALACES' (Saturday through Thursday) Children will step into the shoes of an explorer like Indiana Jones in this exhibition at the Jewish Museum, but the adventures will be purely scholarly. Still, there is plenty of excitement in analyzing artifacts like a jar handle, a clay jug and a bangle, and figuring out the purpose behind ancient pieces like a Greek helmet and a bull-shaped vessel. This interactive show also includes a recreated home from the Ottoman period (about 1900), where young archaeologists can dress in costume. (Through June 15, 2009.) Saturday through Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., and Thursday to 8 p.m., 1109 Fifth Avenue, at 92nd Street, (212) 423-3200, thejewishmuseum.org. Free with admission: $12; $10 for 65+; $7.50 for students; free for under 12, members and for all on Saturdays.

'BRAIN TEASERS' (Saturday through Thursday) Intellects need exercise too, and this exhibition is intended to be push-ups for gray matter. Devised by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, it consists of 20 challenges, including number games, visual puzzles and, in one case, handcuffs made of rope. It even includes an enigma, called the Five-Room House, that has never been solved. (Through May 4.) At the Staten Island Children's Museum, 1000 Richmond Terrace, Livingston, (718) 273-2060, statenislandkids.org. Hours: Monday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free with admission: $5; free for members.

'CENICIENTA' ('CINDERELLA') (Saturday) The heroine could easily lose her glass slipper dancing the tango in this Latin-flavored musical from Teatro SEA, presented in an easily understood combination of English and Spanish. The production also features a surprise: an unexpected character who fills in for the ill fairy godmother. At 3 p.m., Los Kabayitos Puppet and Children's Theater, 107 Suffolk Street, at Rivington Street, second floor, Lower East Side, (212) 529-1545, sea-online.info; $15; $12.50 for 2 to 12; free for under 2.

CHILDREN'S CHOIR FESTIVAL OF SONG AND WORD (Sunday) The talents of young and old will combine in this performance, which celebrates the 90th birthday of the choir director Helen Kemp, as she practices her specialty: leading children's voices. The young members of nine choirs will take part in the festival, at 4 p.m., Trinity Church, Broadway at Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, (212) 602-9633, trinitywallstreet.org; free, but contributions are accepted.

THE CHILDREN'S THEATER COMPANY (Saturday and Sunday) In New York you're never too little for the stage, and this company welcomes actors as young as 4 or 5, as well as those much older. Its latest showcase features the premieres of three short musicals: ''The Ugly Duckling,'' an updated version of the Andersen tale; ''The Lorax & Money Bags,'' an adaptation of Dr. Seuss's story ''The Lorax''; and ''Wayward Knight,'' whose title character ends up serving the public rather than the king. (Through March 2.) At 4:30 p.m., Bahai Unity Center, 53 East 11th Street, Greenwich Village, childrenstheatercompany.org. Reservations required: (212) 633-6629. $12.

'A DOLPHIN UP A TREE!' (Saturday and Sunday) The only dolphins around New York can be found in the water, typically in the aquarium on Coney Island. But these days at least one member of the species occupies a far more unusual position: up a tree in Manhattan. The title character in this show by Kimberly Foster (book and lyrics) and John Fleming (music and lyrics) is actually a little girl named Tina, and she has far more to worry about than just being beached in some branches. For ages 2 to 8, the musical is in an open-ended run. At 10:30 a.m. and noon, the DR2 Theater, 103 East 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-6200; $20.

'DREAM' (Friday through Sunday) As in ''A Midsummer Night's ...'' Granted, it's midwinter, but there is sure to be plenty of warmth in Ryan Gilliam's adaptation of this Shakespearean comedy, which stars the adolescent members of her troupe, Downtown Art, as the confused and confusing young lovers. Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., Downtown Art, 59 East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 479-0885, downtownart.org; $10; $5 for 18 and under.

FAMILY WEEK AT THE MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE -- A LIVING MEMORIAL TO THE HOLOCAUST (Monday through Thursday) The Dominican Republic is probably not a place that usually comes to mind when children think of Jewish history, but the workshop ''Exploring Identity, Immigration and Memory Through Art and Culture of the Dominican Republic'' will demonstrate how this nation provided a safe haven for Jews fleeing the Nazis. To be held in conjunction with the museum's new bilingual exhibition, ''Sosua: A Refuge for Jews in the Dominican Republic,'' about the town that was built by Jewish refugees who were welcomed there for resettlement in 1938, the workshop will also feature educators from El Museo del Barrio. Each family will make a ''memory box'' using writing, portraits and collage. From 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (drop-in sessions), 36 Battery Place, Lower Manhattan, (646) 437-4202, mjhnyc.org; free. Reservations are advised.

'THE FESTIVAL OF THE VEGETABLES' (Saturday and Sunday) Children don't always welcome vegetables, but they should make an exception for these: they're members of the Truly Fooly Children's Troupe in a theater-dance-music piece about the dreams of a toddler who falls asleep in a grocery store. Written by Michael Kosch, the production has stars like a strutting zucchini and a giant flying tomato. At 11 a.m., Metropolitan Playhouse, 220 East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 995-5302, metropolitanplayhouse.org; $10; $8 for 12 and under.

FUNKEY MONKEYS (Saturday and Sunday) These aren't zoo residents but a band formed by Joshua Sitron, composer and musical director for the Nickelodeon show ''Dora the Explorer.'' The members make up stories and do comic bits along with their music, which is funky of course. And their intended audience -- those 2 to 8 -- can participate in their show, playing in an open-ended run. At 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., Daryl Roth Theater, 101 East 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-6200, funkeymonkeys.com; $20.

'HANSEL & GRETEL' (Saturday and Sunday) It's easy to imagine the title characters of this fairy tale as lost in the Black Forest, but in this musical version from Manhattan Children's Theater they're surrounded by Kentucky bluegrass. Kristin and Michael Walter, the show's writers, have set the story in Appalachia, with a score to match, and the brother and sister have become Hank and Gerti. But the witch is still a witch. (Through March 30). At noon and 2 p.m., 52 White Street, near Church Street, TriBeCa, (212) 352-3101; manhattanchildrenstheater.org; $20; $15 for 2 through 17 and 65+.

HARLEM SCHOOL OF THE ARTS (Friday through Sunday) ''A Rose Among Thorns,'' a one-woman show by Ella Joyce, presents the life of a historical figure whose influence was embodied in a quiet but revolutionary act of defiance: Rosa Parks. To be presented at the school by the New Federal Theater in honor of Black History Month, the production encourages young people to engage with politics today. The school will also be the host for the Negro Ensemble Company's ''Edna the Otter,'' a show for elementary school children about a helpful young otter who matches wits with other animals. ''Rose,'' Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.; ''Edna,'' Saturday at noon; 645 St. Nicholas Avenue, at 145th Street, Hamilton Heights, www.harlemschoolofthearts.org. ''Rose,'' $18; ''Edna,'' $5.

KIDSCREATE (Saturday) There are precocious children, and then there are really precocious children. Those featured in this new monthly workshop series for ages 5 and older at the Children's Museum of Manhattan definitely fall into the ''really'' category: they are authors, inventors, entrepreneurs, scientists. The first installment features Toni Valentini, 11, whose book ''When I Grow Up'' began as a third-grade assignment. She will read, and participants will create their own books. At 4 p.m., the Tisch Building, 212 West 83rd Street, (212) 721-1223, cmom.org. Free with museum admission: $9; $6 for 65+; free for members.

LIVING HISTORY DAYS (Saturday) Meeting the founding fathers in history class can sometimes be a little dry. But children can meet early American heroes in person (well, reasonable facsimiles thereof) at the New-York Historical Society in conjunction with its exhibition ''French Founding Father: Lafayette's Return to Washington's America.'' In honor of Black History Month, on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., re-enactors will portray the First Rhode Island Regiment, the first all-black regiment in the Revolutionary War. At 11 a.m. the museum will also offer the '' 'Don't Know Much About History' Quiz Show,'' presented by the historian Kenneth C. Davis. Taking the format of a television series like ''Jeopardy!,'' the show will invite families to test their knowledge of American presidents. At 170 Central Park West, at 77th Street, (212) 873-3400, nyhistory.org. Free with admission: $10; $7 for educators and 65+; $6 for students; free for 12 and under and members.

MIDWINTER RECESS KIDS' TOUR OF THE JEWISH LOWER EAST SIDE (Sunday) From 10:45 a.m. to 1 p.m., children ages 7 to 15 will taste the full flavor -- cultural and culinary -- of this historic neighborhood in a walk sponsored by Timeline Touring. The stops are to include a landmark synagogue, immigrants' former homes, the building that housed The Forward and plenty of places to nosh. Reservations and meeting place: (212) 209-3370, timelinetouring.com; $23; $16 for children.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (Monday through Thursday) Why not spend the winter break from school with the Loch Ness monster? That's on the agenda at this museum, which will have screenings of the film ''The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep'' daily at 1:30 p.m. The movie, recently in theaters, is the tale of a Scottish boy who finds an egg that hatches to be, yes, Nessie. At 1 and 3:30 p.m. daily the museum will also offer a motion workshop for ages 6 and older that includes the principles of moviemaking and the opportunity to make digital cartoons and old-fashioned optical toys. At 35th Avenue at 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, (718) 784-0077, movingimage.us. Free with admission: $10; $7.50 for 65+ and students; $5 for 5 through 18; free for under 5.

NEW YORK HALL OF SCIENCE (Saturday through Thursday) This week the museum will celebrate both work and play. The work is engineering, the focus of Eweek 2008, a series of programs from Monday through Thursday highlighting the field and the diversity of its practitioners. The programs will include American Society of Civil Engineers activity stations (Monday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.); a visit from the author Elizabeth Mann (for ages 7 and older, Monday at 2 and 4 p.m.); science sessions, using computer simulations (Tuesday through Thursday, at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.); and ''Ship Shape: From Specs to Decks,'' a program on ship and plane design, co-sponsored by the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum (Wednesday and Thursday at 11:30 a.m. and 1 and 2:30 p.m.). As for play, on Saturday the museum is opening an entire exhibition devoted to it. ''Invention at Play,'' through May 11, explores the relationship between children's toys and play and adult creativity and technology. At 47-01 111th Street, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, (718) 699-0005, nyscience.org. All events free with museum admission: $11; $8 for 2 through 17, students and 62+; free for under 2. Free to all on Fridays from 2 to 5 p.m. and on Sundays from 10 to 11 a.m.

'THE PERFECT MONSTER' (Friday through Monday) Dr. Frankenstein had the best intentions. So did the founders of Jurassic Park. And so does Sybil, an insecure teenager who makes friends the hard way: by creating them in her basement lab. In this musical by Janine Nina Trevens and Deirdre Broderick, presented by Tada!, the youth theater company, Sybil learns some of the same lessons as her literary predecessors, but with a happier ending. Friday at 7 p.m. (sold out); Saturday and Sunday at 2 and 4 p.m.; Monday at noon and 2 p.m. (both sold out). Tada! Theater, 15 West 28th Street, Chelsea, (212) 252-1619, www.tadatheater.com; $18; $8 for 15 and under.

'PINKALICIOUS, THE MUSICAL' (Saturday and Sunday) It's time to think pink again. This show from Vital Children's Theater has been revived, so if you missed it last year, you can now catch it at New World Stages. Elizabeth and Victoria Kann adapted their children's book, in which the pink-obsessed title character finds out that sometimes being in the pink can be too much of a good thing. (John Gregor wrote the score and some of the lyrics.) (Through May 25.) Saturday at 2 p.m.; Sunday at noon and 3 p.m.; 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200, vitaltheatre.org; $28.

'REPRESENT!: A CELEBRATION OF YOUNG TALENT AT THE APOLLO' (Sunday) The Apollo Theater is taking an old-fashioned idea -- the variety show -- to highlight something new: a generation of young performers. This family series, having its debut in honor of Black History Month, will open with acts including the singer Keke Palmer (star of the film ''Akeelah and the Bee''); the children's African dance troupe Batoto Yetu; the Harbor Latin Youth Ensemble, a salsa band; and JoSunJari, a trio of siblings and string musicians. The young urban laureates known as the Mayhem Poets will be hosts. At 5 p.m., the Apollo, 253 West 125th Street, Harlem, (212) 531-5305, apollotheater.org; $12; $10 for groups of five or more.

'A (TOOTH) FAIRY TALE' (Saturday and Sunday) In the film ''Bruce Almighty'' Bruce changed places with God; in this new musical from Vital Children's Theater, written by Rick Hip-Flores and Ben H. Winter, the exchange is a bit more humble but equally complicated. Oliver, tired of being a kid, trades positions with the Tooth Fairy, who's sick of retrieving teeth and delivering change under pillows. (Through Feb. 24.) Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., McGinn Cazale Theater, 2162 Broadway, at 76th Street, fourth floor, (212) 352-3101, vitaltheatre.org; $18.

'THE VELVETEEN RABBIT' (Saturday and Sunday) Literally Alive Children's Theater, which dramatizes literary works, offers a musical ''Velveteen Rabbit'' that manages no easy feat: it is both upbeat and faithful to its source, Margery Williams's poignant 1922 children's classic. Before the show, which has a book and lyrics by Brenda Bell and music by Mark McGee, young audience members can join a workshop to help decorate the stage and make themselves rabbit ears. (Through May 11.) Workshop ($5) at 11 a.m., show at noon, the Players Theater, 115 Macdougal Street, near West Third Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 866-5170, literallyalive.com; $25; $20 for children.

WINTER FESTIVAL (Saturday through Thursday) You can see lots of birds in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, but this is a rare occasion when multicolored parrots will be among them. They are the stars of ''The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill,'' a feature-length documentary about a homeless man in San Francisco who has devoted himself to those birds. It will be shown on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday as part of the Children's Film Festival at the Audubon Center, which will screen another documentary, ''Swim for the River,'' about the Hudson, on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Both features will be accompanied by short films about nature. The Lefferts Historic House in the park will also be open daily for ''Coming In From the Cold,'' a program in which visitors can step into the 19th century with old-fashioned games and activities like spinning and weaving. The Audubon Center, near the Lincoln Road and Ocean Avenue entrance, (718) 287-3400, Ext. 114; Lefferts Historic House, Children's Corner of the park, near the Willink entrance, Flatbush Avenue and Empire Boulevard, (718) 789-2822. All events run noon to 4 p.m. and are free; prospectpark.org.

WINTER KIDS WEEK (Saturday through Thursday) Dinosaur footprints, a mastadon tooth, a meterorite and a four-legged chicken are among the unusual sights in this series of explorations at the Staten Island Museum. The fun will begin on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon with ''Racecars: Rubber Bands and Balloon Propulsion,'' in which children ages 8 to 13 will build racecars from CDs and cardboard boxes as part of the Junior Science Club; $8; $5 for members. Other highlights include a tour through the Hall of Natural Science (Monday at 2 p.m.) and a program on how the ancient Indians lived on Staten Island (Wednesday at 2 p.m.). Both free with museum admission: $2; $1 for students and 65+; free for children under 12 and members. At 75 Stuyvesant Place, St. George, (718) 727-1135, statenislandmuseum.org. LAUREL GRAEBER

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