While it would be pushing it to call Brighton a true art district yet, it has several of the city's best and most serious-minded alternative galleries. Because their hours are so limited, it's not often easy to see work at them in one night — or at all. Thus, the fact three galleries there are sharing an opening night from 7-10 p.m. this Saturday serves as a golden opportunity to get down there.  

Without much fanfare — well, actually, with fanfare — the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) has played a key role in the shaping of American popular culture as we know it. That’s the contention made — a bit indirectly — by Sean Wilentz, a Princeton University professor, in his recent book Bob Dylan in America.  

I run into people who don’t like museums because they say they prefer nature’s beauty to art. That comment is wrong-headed and shortsighted on so many levels — and I say that as someone who likes nature. First of all, nature can operate so mysteriously that it needs an artist to express to us the poetic depths of both its complexity and simplicity. But art isn’t an alternative to nature. They’re not separate.  

Without much fanfare — well, actually, with fanfare — the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has played a key role in the shaping of American popular culture as we know it. That's the contention made — a bit indirectly — by Sean Wilentz, a Princeton University professor, in his recent book 'Bob Dylan in America.' Wilentz's claims are based on the fact that the CSO commissioned American composer Aaron Copland's “Fanfare for the Common Man” during World War II.  

We tend to forget now that Hollywood’s 9/11 guilt — the Onion famously compared the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon to a “bad Jerry Bruckheimer movie” — produced a cease-fire on using CGI to churn out $100 million-plus films depicting mass urban destruction. Even Bruckheimer, the chief culprit of such films, decided to turn to more benign movie fantasies like Pirates of the Caribbean (and crime series for TV). Alas, while hardly a flop, Master and Commander didn’t earn the kind of money domestically ($94 million) to make Hollywood clamor for more. And, slowly but steadily, with time we’ve been seeing a return to the pre-9/11 urban-destruction extravaganzas. The new Battle: Los Angeles is a prime example.  

When does something become art? One answer is when a museum shows it. Thus, the current show at the Cincinnati Art Museum through July 20, The Amazing American Circus Poster: The Strobridge Lithographing Company, qualifies as art. And I doubt few of the visitors to this exhibit will quarrel with this claim.  

In recent weeks, there have been some thought-provoking guests at our art museums. I’ve attended talks by the French superstar street artist/photographer JR at Contemporary Arts Center and renowned architect Billie Tsien, who is designing the new Barnes Collection building in Philadelphia, at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Both offered ideas and comments worthy of further discussion.  

The current show at the Cincinnati Art Museum, 'The Amazing American Circus Poster: The Strobridge Lithographing Company,' is appealing on a number of levels. The work is spectacularly colorful with finely rendered and detailed imagery and features excellent examples of the labor-intensive lithography process. The exhibit tells fascinating stories and — since they date from 1879-1939 — it also sheds light on the way we once lived and entertained ourselves.  

'Paper With A Past' features Sara Pearce's imaginative, colorful, witty and delightful collage work on paper and antique book boards; its overall themes are to revisit and redefine Victorian Era imagery, as well as to look at the role of women in popular pictorial work. The show draws on three of her series: "The Grand Tour," "Reinterpreting the Victorian Illustration" and "Mad Women."  

The open-house Art Walks inside the vast Essex Studios (2511 Essex Ave., Walnut Hills) are always popular events. Not only do the artists who maintain studios in the old factory open their doors to the public but there's also a museum that can be toured — the American Sign Museum. The first Art Walk of 2011 occurs this Friday and Saturday, beginning at 6 p.m. each night.