The 2008 presidential race has been exciting and entertaining. Let's face it, though: Most of us are glad it's almost over. Given the surplus of negative advertisements and unprecedented forms of voter manipulation-from constantly broadcasted poll results to graphs denoting real-time reactions at the bottom of CNN's debate coverage-it's easy to lose sight of the joy and privilege of voting. Partly to reinstate the value and significance of visiting the ballot box, IN:SITE Chair Pegi Taylor and Haggerty Museum Registrar John Loscuito founded My Vote Performs...

Isabelle Kralj and Mark Anderson ask a timely and pertinent question with their new play, The Perfect Candidate: Is there such a thing? "The Perfect Candidate is political satire in which we examine the process through which a political candidate is transformed into a marketable commodity," Anderson explains. Kralj and Anderson are artistic director and associate director, respectively, of Theatre Gigante, a performing-arts organization dedicated to the creation and presentation of collaborative and original performance work that integrates theater, dance, text and music. The company, which is entering its 21st season in...

For artists studying their chosen medium at the university level, there is a certain sense of anxiety that seems to balloon the closer the student is to graduating. In a world with many good artists and a limited amount of opportunities, they're about to enter-cue foreboding music-the no-man's land between advanced training and working full-time as a professional. Like many artists, Bill Florescu had to work a stint as a waiter before launching into his professional career as an opera singer. Now general director of Milwaukee's Florentine Opera, Florescu developed the Florentine Opera Studio Program to offer a full season of artist-in-residence employment for singers who are just starting their professional journeys...

In an exchange both choral and cultural, the mostly white Milwaukee Choristers will partner with Detroit's predominantly African-American Brazeal Dennard Chorale to premiere choral settings of Harlem Renaissance poems by African-American composers Robert L. Morris, Northwestern University music professor Robert A. Harris and former Milwaukee resident Judith Baity. The concert, "Exploring Heritage Connections," will be performed Oct. 18 at the Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts.

Few stars hearkening back to Hollywood's Golden Age elicit the unequivocal reverence and regard afforded Bette Davis. She remains a unique figurehead of a bygone era in which the creation of larger-than-life screen personas defined cinematic art under the fabled studio system. Her steely ferocity remains a source of inspiration for younger actresses, along with a classic demeanor-or hauteur, if you will-reminiscent of the great stage performers of the past, as so elegantly demonstrated in roles like The Little Foxes and The Letter. Davis' work feels modern, timeless, urgent, unfettered by self-consciousness but flavored...

Glam, glitz and gold-bedazzled socialites: It's style, it's wearable art, it's Fashion Week in Milwaukee. Fashion Week is an international gala of white tents with crisp runways brimming with media, buyers, trade pundits, celebrities and designers. It brings to mind cities like New York, Milan, Paris and London. This fall, for the first time, Milwaukee is hosting its own Fashion Week, and, boy, is it a first. It's bringing fashion to Milwaukee and forcing the world to take notice.

To the kid's eyes, the place was just...so...unbelievably...big: the three-level grandstand, rising on a picket line of steel pillars; the imposing facade of the roof, recalling some ancient civilization with its ornate design. Most of all, the baseball field itself, stretching an amazing 461 feet from home plate to the centerfield wall and 457 to left-center. When they said "hit it a mile," the kid would think they really meant it at this place. This place called Yankee Stadium.

Before the curtain goes up on any performance, many decisions go into determining what patrons will see and hear. Audience wishes, performer's artistic growth and cost concerns are just a few of the considerations when planning a season. A few artistic leaders share their thoughts on programming for the arts.

As autumn approaches and daylight hours diminish, more and more of us will be inclined to spend our nights looking for something bright and clear- especially on the big screen. From Sept. 4-14, Milwaukeeans get another chance to brighten their eyes and enlighten their minds with the annual LGBT Film/Video Festival, presented by the film department of UW-Milwaukee's Peck School of the Arts.

Whether it's a line in the sand or the politicized plotting of an expanding empire, maps reveal the predominantly human need to sift through space: to weigh it, name it and own it. This primal urge to locate ourselves within a broader context underlies the "Great Lakes Future" exhibit at Discovery World.