What’s Up, Doc? The Animation Art of Chuck Jones

“The name Chuck Jones, according to my uncle, limited my choice of profession to second baseman or cartoonist.”  —Chuck Jones

Making popular art shouldn’t exclude one from being considered an artistic genius. Case in point: cartoonist Chuck Jones. The new EMP exhibit What’s Up, Doc? The Animation Art of Chuck Jones details his process and creation of Looney Tunes legends like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Wile E. Coyote.    

Opens June 13  Experience Music Project, empmuseum.org

Grace, Personified

Carla Körbes isn’t merely Pacific Northwest Ballet’s premier dancer, she’s a transcendent talent; the best performer in Seattle in any medium. She employs her weightless fluidity of movement to command the stage in the way a superstar athlete dominates a game, which makes her impending retirement at the age of 33 that much tougher to swallow. After Körbes’s final bow at PNB’s Season Encore performance, the company should raise her pointe shoes to the rafters.   

June 7  McCaw Hall, pnb.org
 

Living in a Gamer’s Paradise

The Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show offers an oasis of flashing lights, whirling sound, and blissful nostalgia. While the pinball machines may be the showpiece, don’t sleep on the arcade lineup. With the free-play setup, the event offers players a chance to conquer those quarter-sucking cabinets that were economically impossible to beat as a child (I’m coming for you, The Simpsons Arcade Game).

June 5–7  Tacoma Convention Center, nwpinballshow.com

Are You There Judy Blume? It’s Us, Seattle.

We know everyone has a rough time growing up, but you made it easier for coming-of-age girls everywhere with books like Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Tiger Eyes. Even if we haven’t read In the Unlikely Event, your new book about a family dealing with a rash of plane crashes in the 1950s, we’ll still show up at your Seattle Arts and Lectures event to honor one of the patron saints of female-driven young adult novels.

June 11  Town Hall, lectures.org 

Fantasia

For generations of children, Disney’s Fantasia served as a subconscious introduction to the music of Beethoven, Bach, and Stravinsky. The Seattle Symphony rekindles the timeless pairing of orchestration and animation by playing selections live along with high-definition clips. It’s always enchanting to make a return visit to Fantasia, even if we’re still scarred by the nightmare-inducing horrors of the demonic imagery of Chernabog, ghosts, and ghouls accompanying Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain. 

June 26 & 27  Benaroya Hall, seattlesymphony.org

Hiding in Plain Sight 

We all conceal parts of ourselves from the outside world. Be it for self-preservation or as a tool for deceit, manipulating our facades is human nature. Disguise: Masks and Global African Art takes a look at the ideas and psychological impacts of distorting our identities though contemporary sculpture, video, drawings, and site-specific performances. 

June 18–Sept 7  Seattle Art Museum, seattleartmuseum.org