Have you noticed that the Cincinnati Art Museum is becoming a pretty exciting — provocative, even — place lately, edgy and with a sense of experimentation, rather than stodgy and risk-adverse? The next bold move in shaking things up is The Way We Are Now: Selections from the 21c Collection, now on view in CAM’s Schiff Gallery through May 15.  

Have you noticed that the Cincinnati Art Museum is becoming a pretty exciting — provocative, even — place lately, edgy and with a sense of experimentation, rather than stodgy and risk-adverse? The next bold move in shaking things up is 'The Way We Are Now: Selections from the 21c Collection,' now on view in CAM's Schiff Gallery. The exhibition, of about 70 pieces primarily made in this century, shows ever more clearly that CAM wants to be a major player in presenting contemporary art in Cincinnati.  

Hopefully, you'll be able to find your way to the Contemporary Arts Center at 6 p.m. Monday to hear Davy Rothbart, founder of the strange and fascinating 'FOUND Magazine,' as he delivers a pre-Valentine's Day reading of favorite love-themed letters, punctuated by short films. 'FOUND' discovers and publishes all manner of lost, abandoned, scavenged and collected material — even notes left on auto windshields or scribbled on napkins — and has developed a huge following.  

This week through Sunday, Carl Solway Gallery is one of just 139 prestigious galleries from 30 countries (and the only local representative) involved in an international experiment to see if virtual, online-only art fairs can sell contemporary work. Based on technical problems early this week, that experiment has some room for improvement.  

Twenty four-year-old composer/performer Ólafur Arnalds has released two albums and three EPs since 2007 and toured with Sigur Ros. His music is infused with the kind of awe for nature one might expect of someone from a nation as beautiful, but cold, as Iceland.  

Ólafur Arnalds, the 24-year-old Icelandic pianist and composer of trance-inducing, classically informed New Music, is bringing his string quartet to Cincinnati on Thursday to perform from his quietly beatific album '…and they have escaped the weight of darkness.' You might assume, given the evident influences on Arnalds of composers like Eric Satie and Philip Glass, that he would be performing at Music Hall or Memorial Hall — or maybe at a CCM recital.  

David Mack, the internationally acclaimed Cincinnati-born graphic novelist and children's book creator whose 'Daredevil' is one of the nation's best-selling comics and whose Marvel Comics-published 'Kabuki' has attracted wide attention for its mixture of Japanese-influenced illustrations coupled with artfully designed blocks of text, is showing new and old work at East Walnut Hills' PAC Gallery now through Feb. 26.  

On June 19, 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a commencement address to Antioch College’s 296 graduates, plus some 1,200 others who crowded the outdoor gathering space by the school’s main building. He spoke of American civil-rights issues — he was only three months past the national crisis in Selma, Ala., where racist officials tried to stop a march. And there would be more struggles in the future.  

The first part of this year is going to be a dynamic one for museum exhibits — so dynamic that you have to wonder if there will be enough patrons for all the high-profile shows. The biggest show (probably) is primarily a history exhibit, but one with incredibly good timing. Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt, which comes to Cincinnati Museum Center on Feb. 17.  

Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor/musical director Gustavo Dudamel leads one of the nation's hottest, hippest and most respected symphony orchestras, which is setting up a temporary residence in Cincinnati. In a grand experiment for symphony orchestras, live performances of the L.A. Phil are being shown at four local movie theaters Jan. 9.