Weekly Entertainment Guide

WHYY's Arts Calendar curator Robin Bloom sorts through hundreds of listings each week to find out what's happening in the Delaware Valley. Here are her picks and listings.

We had a brief taste of spring this week, but just in case winter's wrath pays a call, two area museums are offering exhibits to help see us through the cold by letting nature lead the way.

The Delaware Art Museum examines the use of plants as symbols across cultures and throughout history with a new exhibit opening this weekend, Beyond Words: The Symbolic Language of Plants. Approximately 60 works are displayed in various media including watercolor, oil, tempera, and colored pencil, and feature a variety of symbolic natural subjects such as flowers, trees, fruits, vegetables, herbs and vines, through April 8 at 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, DE. Admission $12 adults, $10 seniors 60+, $6 students & youth (7-18), children 6 and under free. Free admission on Sundays.

The National Museum of American Jewish History celebrates the Jewish New Year for Trees, Tu B’Shevat, with an inaugural exhibit at their new location. “In Praise of a Dream,” by Israeli artist Tal Shochat, features seven large format photographs of real fruit trees, pruned and photographed against a black backdrop, standing in “dream-like perfection,” with the intent to invoke questions of roots and the relationship of the Jewish people to their homeland, on display through April 22, 101 South Independence Mall East, Philadelphia. Museum admission $12, adults, $11 seniors 65+, $11 youth ages 13-21, children 12 and under free, military free.

Promoting Peace at the Philadelphia Foundation

A new exhibit opens this weekend at The Philadelphia Foundation Community Art Gallery that reflects on the impact ArtWell has had in schools and communities throughout Philadelphia over the past ten years. ArtWell is a West Philadelphia nonprofit which inspires creativity in young people who face poverty, violence, and the everyday challenges of growing up, and the Philadelphia Foundation provided one of the first grants the organization received. “Artwell: Ten Years of Poetry, Art and Possibility,” features more than 50 works, including photographs of early community mural projects, coming-of-age masks and recent youth-made documentary films and can be seen through April 25 at 1234 Market Street, Suite 1800. Free and open to the pubic, Monday through Friday, 9am-5pm.

Human Towers at the Annenberg Center

Green Chair Dance Group steps into to the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts to perform the newest full-length work “Tandem Biking and Other Dangerous Pastimes for Two,” including wrestling, building human towers, interweaving the past and present with both movement and language, Friday, February 3, 7:30pm and Saturday, February 4, 7:30pm, Harold Prince Theatre, 3680 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Tickets $20-30, $10 students

Step back into medieval times

Glencairn Museum hosts a Medieval Festival this Sunday, February 5, 1-5pm with demonstrations of stained glass painting, manuscript illumination, working replica Gutenberg-style press, interactive pilgrimage tours, audio tours of the castle, crafts and more, 1001 Cathedral Road, Bryn Athyn, PA. $8, $6 seniors and students with ID, free for children under 4, $20 family cap on admission for up to four individuals per household, with half price charged for additional guests. Those in medieval costumes receive a prize.

Other events and listings throughout the Delaware Valley:

The best in African American Children’s literature is offered at the 20^th Annual African American Children’s Book Fair, this Saturday, February 4, 1-3pm, Community College of Philadelphia Gymnasium, 17^th & Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, featuring a wide selection of books, visiting authors, illustrators, games, prizes. Free and open to the public.

Market Street Music Festival presents the Serafin String Quartet performing a program of chamber music including works by Mozart, Ravel and Mendelssohn, Saturday, February 4, 7:30pm, First & Central Presbyterian Church, 11^th & Market Streets, Wilmington, DE. Tickets $15 in advance, $20 at the door

Center City Opera Theater performs Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, in English, accompanied by chamber orchestra, Saturday, February 4, 8pm, Sunday, February 5, 2pm, Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Tickets $39 general admission, $59 VIP seating, $15 students.

The PRISM Quartet and the ensemble Music from China perform world premiere music for saxophones, traditional Chinese instruments, and percussion by Bright Sheng, Fang Man, Huang Ruo, and Lei Liang, this Saturday, February 4, 6:15pm composer discussion, 7pm concert, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Tickets at door only, $20 general admission, $15 students/seniors

Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra Tempesta di Mare presents “Italians in Vienna,” featuring countertenor Michael Maniaci, this Saturday, February 4, 8pm, Arch Street Meeting House, and Sunday, February 5, 4pm, Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. Pre-concert talk one hour prior to concert. Tickets $25-40

The Five Minute Follies hosts The Marriage Equality Cabaret, a variety extravaganza featuring the Bearded Ladies to benefit Freedom to Marry, this Saturday, February 4, 8pm, at the Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia.

Opening this weekend at Mainstage Center for the Arts is “To Kill A Mockingbird,” based on the Harper Lee novel, directed by Chris Melohn, through February 11 at the Dennis Flyer Theatre, Camden County College, Blackwood, NJ. Tickets $15-21

Fleisher Art Memorial’s 12^th annual “Print Love In” returns with an opportunity to learn about the printmaking process while creating your own Valentine’s Day cards from designs by Philadelphia artists, this Sunday, February 5, with 3 sessions, 10am-7pm, at 719 Catharine Street, Philadelphia. $20 per person

Opening Wednesday, February 8 is the Philadelphia Premiere of Pudd’nhead Wilson, by Charles Smith, Randall Theater, Temple University, 13^th & Norris Street (inside Annenberg Hall), Philadelphia through February 19.

Sellersville Theater 1894 hosts February concerts: Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys, Friday, February 10, 8pm, Terrance Simien Creole for Kidz Dance Party, Sunday, February 12, 2pm, Terrance Simien & The Zydeco Experience, 7:30pm, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Monday, February 13, 8pm, David Johansen, Thursday, February 16, 8pm, Stringfever, Friday, February 17, 8pm, Red Molly w/Beaucoup Blue, Saturday, February 18, 8pm, Terri Clark “Roots & Wings Unplugged,” Saturday, February 25, 8pm, 24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, PA.