reOrder: An Architectural Environment by Situ Studio
Whimsical yet elegant shapes are part of a site-specific installation at the Brooklyn Museum called “reOrder: An Architectural Environment by Situ Studio.” Through this installation, the Brooklyn-based creative practice “Situ Studio” reconfigured the Great Hall – a classically structured 10,000-square-foot space – to serve as a hub where visitors can relax, view exhibitions, and participate in live events. You can see this unique environment through January 15th of 2012.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: The Latino List
Beautiful portraits of some of today’s most influential Latino Americans are also on display at the Brooklyn Museum. The subjects of the exhibition “Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: The Latino List” come from many walks of life. The show features large-format photographs, as well as a selection of monologues from a documentary film (also directed by Greenfield-Sanders). It captures the essence of 25 very different personalities and explores what “Latino” means today. As you walk along the walls of this exhibition you will see actors and musicians, politicians and sports stars. Some of the more famous faces you might recognize are: Gloria Estefan, “The Queen of Latin Pop,” model, entrepreneur, and activist Christy Turlington Burns, and José Moreno Hernández, the mission specialist on the Discovery Shuttle and the first person in space to tweet in the Spanish language. This exhibition is on view through December 11th.

BAM 150th Anniversary Season
The Brooklyn Academy of Music – also known as BAM – is the country’s oldest performing arts center. Its 150th anniversary season launches this fall with 16 months of exciting programming. Here’s a quick look at two of the performing arts shows offered in October at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. “The Three Penny Opera” is a masterwork of German dramatist Bertold Brecht and composer Kurt Weill. This production is directed by theater visionary Robert Wilson and performed by the Berliner Ensemble, one of the most famous theaters in Germany. Wilson gives new life to this satire of capitalism through a combination of striking visual inventiveness and show tunes performed by a live orchestra. The hypnotic work “Water Stains on the Wall” features the impressive dancers of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. The title of the piece references a metaphorical description of the highest artistic state in Chinese calligraphy.

de Kooning: A Retrospective
The first major museum exhibition that covers the entire career of Willem de Kooning is on view at the Museum of Modern Art through January 9th, 2012. “de Kooning: A Retrospective” gives you the opportunity to see the development — over a span of nearly seven decades — of one of the most prolific artists of the 20th century. Paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints – a total of more than 200 works — fill the museum’s entire 6th floor gallery space. On view are some of de Kooning’s best known paintings, such as “Pink Angels,” “Excavation,” and the third “Woman” series.

Carnegie Hall Begins Its New Season
Carnegie Hall will launch its new season on October 5 with an Opening Night Gala concert featuring the Mariinsky Orchestra led by Music Director Valery Gergiev. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma will join the orchestra for a program that includes Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture,” Tchaikovsky’s “Variations on a Rococo Theme,” and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade.” Maestro Gergiev and the orchestra will present four additional concerts in October, performing a complete Tchaikovsky symphony cycle, as well as music by some of Tchaikovsky’s successors. The program pays tribute to the legendary Russian composer who made his American debut conducting at Carnegie Hall’s inaugural Opening Night on May 5, 1891… That’s 120 years ago!

New York Film Festival
This year’s New York Film Festival aims to highlight the best in world cinema by presenting the works of celebrated filmmakers as well as those of talented newcomers. “Le Havre” is a gentle yet profound comedy of friendship, directed by Aki Kaurismäki. Marcel Marx (played by André Wilms) is a noted Parisian author who lives in self-imposed exile in Le Havre, the second port of France. When he comes to the aid of a young African on the run from immigration police, Marcel finds himself alive with a new sense of purpose. “The 99 – Unbound” is an animated feature film with comic heroes based on Islamic archetypes: the 99 attributes of Allah. Alexander Payne’s film “The Descendants” was selected for the Closing Night Gala. A sophisticated comedy drama, it stars George Clooney as Matt King, the heir to a prominent Hawaiian land-owning family. Humor and tragedy are wrapped in a warm human glow, as this perceptive portrait of marriage, family and community unfolds.