Also this issue:

Cloaking Devices
Susan Fenton and Anne Seidman create revealing work that plays hard to get.
-Robin Rice

Paradise Redefined
-Susan Hagen

First Friday Focus

Politics Unusual
-A.D. Amorosi

Becoming: Shakespeare
-Debra Auspitz

The Outside In
-Sam Adams

Anatomy Lessons
-Meredith Broussard

The (Un)Beat(en) Generation
-Paul Burress

October 3- 9, 2002

artsbeat

compiled by Debra Auspitz

October, like most months, has been designated an awareness period for a slew of social issues, diseases and increasingly specific interest groups. This month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but it’s also Auto Battery Safety Month, not to mention Healthy Lung Month, Dental Hygiene Month, National Physical Therapy Month and National Family Sexuality Education Month, plus too many others to mention. But here in Philadelphia, October is best known as Mural Arts Month. In recent weeks there has been some controversy surrounding local murals -- Philly’s most famous muralist, Isaiah Zagar, had a portion of his work at the corner of Ninth and South covered over when the building changed ownership, an act which Zagar and other artists fear could bode ill for future murals. A much-contested mural at 15th and Waverly has been saved -- at least for the next four years (see “Dual Murality” on p. 11). It’s not all bad news for murals in Philly, though. A new book has been published by Temple University Press, Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell, by Mural Arts Program executive director Jane Golden, The Inquirer’s Monica Yant Kinney and CP art critic Robin Rice, with photography by David Graham and Jack Ramsdale. The book features the history of MAP along with 100 color illustrations of murals around the city. Should be only second to taking MAP’s mural tour and seeing them all for yourself. Events for Mural Arts Month this week include a kick-off and mural dedication at the Arden Theater on Friday at 5 p.m., a mural tour and a meal at the White Dog Café on Saturday and a lecture by Jon Pounds, executive director of the Chicago Public Art Group, at the Art Alliance on Tue., Oct. 8. CP will keep you posted of happenings throughout the month, and check

www.muralarts.org for a full schedule.

Tonight, go hang out with PA Ballet dancers and eat free food at L'Hexagone from 7-9 p.m. in celebration of the second year of the ballet's Thursday Night Jumps subscription series. The program offers major discounts to subscribers between the ages of 19 and 32, with designated Thursday night performances including drinks with the dancers out on the town. When the program launched at the beginning of last year's season, 11 people responded. That number is now up to 68, and still growing. For information call 215-551-7000.

And the Barrymore goes to.· Check citypaper.net on Tuesday for a full account of the 2002 Barrymore Awards, which take place Monday night at the Annenberg Center.