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Some of the biggest celebrations of the bicentennial of Abe Lincoln\’s birthday kick off in Washington on his Feb. 12 birthdate. But you can also catch many Lincoln-related exhibits and events later this year and in other parts of the country.

The National Park Service celebrates Lincoln\’s birthday Feb. 12 with live music at the Lincoln Memorial. On April 12, Easter Sunday, the memorial will host a recreation of Marian Anderson\’s landmark concert. She sang at the memorial steps in 1939 after a nearby concert hall turned her away because she was black. And on Memorial Day, the Lincoln Memorial will be formally rededicated.

Ford\’s Theatre — where Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 — reopens Feb. 11 after an extensive renovation, and regular tours resume Feb. 17. The theater is also debuting a new play about Lincoln that will run through March 8.

Also in Washington, the original Emancipation Proclamation will be on display at the National Archives, Feb. 12-16, and the Library of Congress opens a major national Lincoln bicentennial exhibit called \”With Malice Toward None,\” on Feb. 12. The exhibit, at 10 First St. SE, will include items such as the Bible he used to take the oath of office (used by Barack Obama) and handwritten speeches and letters.

\”With Malice Toward None\” will travel to The California Museum in Sacramento this spring and summer; to the Newberry Library in Chicago this fall; to the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis in early 2010; to the Atlanta History Center in the fall of 2010); and to the Durham Western Heritage Museum in Omaha, Neb., in 2011.

Another destination for visitors to Washington interested in the bicentennial is President Lincoln\’s Cottage at the Soldiers\’ Home, a National Trust Historic site which opened a year ago after a $17 million restoration. Lincoln lived there when he drafted the Emancipation Proclamation and often spent time there with his family, commuting three miles daily to the White House by horseback or coach. A lifesize statue of Lincoln and his horse, recently installed in front of the cottage, will be formally dedicated Feb. 12. On the same day, the exhibition \”My Abraham Lincoln\” opens at the cottage, showcasing Lincoln-related memorabilia, such as a 1920s set of Lincoln Logs.

Elsewhere, many states have established Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commissions to celebrate Lincoln\’s 200th birthday.

(China Daily/Agencies February 3, 2009)

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Indian artist Om Soorya enjoyed a meteoric rise to become one of the hottest stars of India\’s booming contemporary art scene, but his beginnings were humble.

Soorya began drawing in a village in the southwestern Indian state of Kerala. He drew in the backyard using natural charcoal from the family\’s wood-burning oven.

\”As a child, I was not aware of being an artist, I just drew pictures like any other child,\” he says.

\”It was mostly influenced by the calendar pictures of gods, popular film stars and comic illustrations.\”

An exhibition of his works, \”Grass Hope,\” is underway at the Galleria dell\’Arco in M50 (50 Morganshan Road), an art hub.

The exhibition is part of an artist-in-residence program run by the Galleria dell\’Arco galleries in China and Italy. Each year two foreign artists study in Shanghai. In exchange, two Chinese artists will be hosted at the Italian gallery, each putting on an exhibition of works they completed during their stay.

Soorya spent one month in Shanghai and the exhibition features both works he completed in China and pieces he did while living in the Hyderabad, the capital of the central Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

Many works were inspired by the challenges of the rapid urbanization and development he witnessed during his six years in Hyderabad.

The exhibition\’s title, \”Grass Hope,\” reflects some of these issues.

\”Grass is a symbol of greenery or nature and hope stands for optimism,\” says Soorya. \”I chose the title because these are the two things we are missing today.\”

Sooyra has been active on the international art scene for the last two years and was recently honored as the emerging artist of the year by the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art.

In 2007, he presented a solo show \”Random Mirrors\” at New York\’s The Guild Art Gallery and took part in group exhibition, \”Recent Works\” in New Delhi. In 2008 he was part of Galleria dell\’Arco\’s group show \”Effetto Stalker\” at its Italian gallery.

Sooyra says the Indian contemporary art scene has gone through an unprecedented boom, on the back of strong international interest in Indian visual art.

While this has meant young artists can more easily gain financial support from galleries, it has also led to the commercialization of some aspects of the art scene, says Sooyra.

The Indian art market has been at its peak in the last few years and every artist could make a living, he says.

\”This has had a major impact in creative productivity and this has produced both positive and negative. Most of the art students get placements in good galleries, which can boost their careers, but we cannot look at the market and work toward that. Everywhere you find such market-focused people, not only in art.\” http://www.chinacourse.com

More than 120 Chinese exhibitors will take part in photokina 2008, the international photographic industry exhibition, up almost 10 percent from the 2006 event, David Feng, managing director of Koelnmesse China Co., Ltd., said on Wednesday.

Organized by Koelnmesse GmbH and the Photographic Industry Association, the fair will take place from Sep. 23 to 28 in Cologne, Germany.

About 1,600 companies from 50 countries were expected, with more than 100 new exhibitors, said Koelnmesse executive vice president Oliver Kuhrt.

Feng said that Chinese photographic and imaging companies were increasingly enthusiastic to participate in the world market, but most of Chinese products focused on imaging accessories and photo framing products.

Deng Wei, vice chairman of the China Photographers Association, said most Chinese companies were still in the downstream end of the industrial chain, adding that the gap between Chinese enterprises and Japanese and European industry leaders was difficult to bridge in a short time.

Deng said Chinese companies needed to enhance collaboration with and learn from those market leaders to increase their competitiveness.

Photographic Industry Association and GfK Marketing Services figures showed about 776 million picture capturing devices were sold worldwide in 2007, including 629 million camera phones, 21 million camcorders, and 126 million digital cameras. Sales of digital reflex cameras rose to almost 10 million in 2007, up 17 percent year on year.

(Xinhua News Agency April 24, 2008)

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The two-month 2008 Shanghai Biennale closed on Sunday, having attracted around 270,000 visitors.

The exhibition was themed \”Translocalmotion.\” Fifty-eight artists or art groups from 21 countries and regions displayed their ideas about human life in dynamic urban environments, including the socioeconomic conditions, the logics of migration and its subsequent cultural implications.

\”I will miss those long lines queuing outside the entrance gate at the Shanghai Art Museum,\” said Zhang Qing, one of the curators and the vice director of the Shanghai Art Museum. \”The fever of the public toward the Shanghai Biennale and the contemporary art scene really excited our curating team. We are glad to see that many ordinary Chinese people have started to accept the new forms of contemporary art.\”

Daisy Dai, a 30-something white-collar worker was one of them. \”I didn\’t have time to go to the biennale before. But today is the last day, and I couldn\’t miss it, otherwise I would have another two years to wait.\”

However, there is still some controversy about this year\’s show within the art community, as some thought it functioned more as a \”carnival\” or as \”entertainment\” than a serious art exhibition.

\”I don\’t think this is the right direction for the Shanghai Biennale,\” said an insider who didn\’t want to be identified. \”We do not show those visually striking works just to please the public. The curating team needs to guarantee the quality of the pieces they choose. Art is not something to entertain but to inspire.\”

Zhang disagreed. \”I also heard the negative remarks,\” he said. \”All of them were about the long train, the gigantic dinosaur and the huge plane. True, these pieces were visually striking, yet they were not shallow.\”

Zhang added that, unlike the other 200 biennales that go on around the world, \”the Shanghai Biennale is fused with a special trait. Due to the special conditions in our country, modern or contemporary art has come rather late to the public. It will take time and patience for ordinary people to approach it. I am already anticipating our next biennale, which coincides with the World Expo 2010.\”

Established in 2000, the Shanghai Biennale is one of the most influential in the Asian area. \”Hyper Design,\” the 2006 Biennale, drew around 230,000 visitors.

(Shanghai Daily November 17, 2008)

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A total of 1,288 traditional Thangka paintings, which follow the epic tale of Tibetan hero \”Gesar\”, will be shown here from July 30 to August 20 as a key program for the Olympic Culture Festival.

The artwork series, which depicts the Life of King Gesar, a Tibetan heroic tale and the world\’s longest epic that has been transmitted orally by ballad singers or lyricists for centuries, took more than 100 Tibetan folk painters five years to finish.

With more than 32 million yuan (4.57 million U.S. dollars) investment from Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and other civilian funds, the paintings are said to be the biggest Thangka art project in the world in terms of scale and technique.

Each painting is two-meter long and 1.4-meter wide, and underwent eight hand-made processes, including gold outlining and brocade mounting.

\”Ganzi is King Gesar\’s hometown. The artwork reflects our traditional ethnic culture and contributes its own beauty for the Olympics,\” said Li Changping, head of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

Li said following the exhibition in Beijing, the paintings will begin a global tour in Asia, Europe, North America and other places.

Academic research organizations in Tibet have visited 57 local ballad singers who were able to sing the epic and made 5,000 hours of recording. It is said that more new artists are able to sing the epic.

With the help of the Tibet Academy of Social Sciences, 86-year-old Samzhub, one of China\’s 150-odd surviving King Gesar ballad singers, has completed verbatim recording of 45 episodes of the epic and 30 publications in the country\’s three-decade campaign to preserve the 1-million-line, 1,000-year-old Tibetan epic.

\”Samzhub\’s version, including opening, ending and many important stories, is comparatively intact. It\’s a historic record for an artist to sing \’Gesar\’ from stem to stem all by himself,\” said Cering Puncog, vice director of the Ethnic Institute under the academy.

In addition, the country\’s local academy organizations are stepping up their recording and publication work for \”Gesar\” in Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2008)

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Even after nearly two decades, Xiao Lu can recall vividly the New Year\’s Eve of 1989, when she drew worldwide attention.

Although she does not remember whether she was nervous or excited that morning, she is sure that the night before she was sleepless, \”thinking hard whether I should do it or not\”.