Weekend arts picks: Aug. 28-30

Art: If you haven’t seen the sculpture exhibit at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, you have a few more days to see it before it closes Sept. 6. Viewers of Off the Wall: The Human Form in Sculpture can follow the evolution of the human form in American and European sculpture from the mid-19th century to current work. From wood to marble, metal to ceramics, there is a wide gamut of work in the exhibition, and aside from the various techniques the sculptors used, it is interesting to see how the concept of the figure and ideal beauty has changed over the years. One of my favorite pieces is from the Norton collection: My Life as a Dog is a self-portrait in ceramics by the late Funk Art sculptor Robert Arneson (1930-1992). For more information, call (561) 832-5196. Hours are Tuesday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 to 5 p.m. Admission to the special exhibitions is free to members and children under 13; $12 for adults and $5 for ages 13-21. — K. Deits

And on Friday evening from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., the Northwood Village is presenting an Art and Wine Promenade in which more than 30 local artists will present their work, along with three boutique wine tastings and live entertainment. The shops and art galleries, such as EG2 and Northwood Glass Art, will be open also. The event is located on Northwood Road and 24thand 25th streets between Broadway and Dixie Highway. It is free and open to the public. For more information, call (561) 822-1551. — K. Deits

Film: It was 40 years ago this month that the sleepy Catskills town of Bethel, N.Y., was turned into a haven for peace, love, music and mud, when 500,000 free-love hippies — plus myself — made counterculture history with a concert known as Woodstock. Ang Lee, better known for such drama as Brokeback Mountain and The Ice Storm tries to bring the event back to life in Taking Woodstock, the story of the concert as seen through the eyes of Bethel Chamber of Commerce honcho Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin). The movie starts slow and doesn’t all work, but the recreation of the mass of humanity in the rain is impressive, as is the split screen style that echoes the Oscar-winning documentary, Woodstock. Opening today. — H. Erstein

Theater: The theater story of the summer is the resurgence of Boca Raton’s Caldwell Theatre, which had had two critical and audience hits under new artistic director Clive Cholerton. Its current show, Matthew Lopez’s post-Civil War drama, The Whipping Man, pit’s the son of a Richmond plantation owner against two former slaves that he grew up with. The script bristles with conflict, John Archie and Brandon Morris are terrific as the ex-slaves and the production has just been given a one-week reprieve, now playing through Sept. 6. Call (561) 241-7432 for tickets. — H. Erstein

Music: The work of Robert Schumann will be heard more frequently in the months to come, as the classical music world celebrates the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. You can get an early start on your Schumann-mania in a concert Saturday afternoon by the Lynn University academic and pianist Yang Shen (at right) . She’ll play two Schumann works: the Abegg Variations, Op. 1, using the name of a fellow student at Heidelberg to craft a theme built around those five notes (A, B-flat, E, G and G), and the Fantasy in C major, Op. 17, one of his finest, most Romantic works. Shen also will play a piece by a composer not known for his solo piano music when she performs the Dumka, Op. 59, of Tchaikovsky, a beautiful and difficult piece that deserves to be better-known. 5 p.m. Saturday at the Steinway Gallery, Boca Raton. Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Call 929-6633 for tickets or more information. –– G. Stepanich

And if you’re interested in seeing something really different this weekend, you could take a trip to Miami’s Trinity Cathedral on Sunday evening for a concert by the fine British organist Matthew Steynor (pictured at left), who will play a program of works inspired by extraterrestrial ideas.

Chief among them: A transcription of The Planets, the great orchestral suite by the underrated English composer Gustav Holst. Proceeds from the concert help pay for the work recently done to restore Trinity’s organ. Tickets: $15, $5 for students and children. For more information, visit www.trinitymiami.org. –– G. Stepanich