Performance set on O'Keeffe's life

SPRINGFIELD - "Artful Lives: A Living Portrait of Georgia O'Keeffe" will be presented at the Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts on Sunday.

The performance, which begins at 2 p.m., is funded in part by a grant from the Springfield Cultural Council and is free with museum admission.

This one-woman performance by actress Robin Lane dramatizes the life of O'Keeffe, who was born in Wisconsin and taught art in Texas for several years, perhaps leading to her affinity for the western landscape for which she is best known.

Beginning in 1929, she visited New Mexico nearly every year, moving there in 1946 after the death of her husband, the famous photographer Alfred Stieglitz.

"New Mexican Landscape," the museum's O'Keeffe, was probably painted in 1930 and is one of the Springfield museum's earliest acquisitions.

The program has been planned in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Michele & Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts.

Lane, an actress, author, director and producer, has been bringing history to life for more than a decade.

She has presented her original one-woman plays in theaters, schools, colleges and museums throughout the United States and has frequently been asked to return with each new production.

Lane's portrayals of notable women have won her critical acclaim for over a decade. She has dramatized the lives of women from history and the arts, in venues both large and small, throughout the United States and in Europe. In "Ladies First," Robin Lane portrays first ladies Abigail Adams, Rachel Jackson, Julia Tyler, Mary Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt and Jacqueline Kennedy.

Lane studied voice at New England Conservatory of Music and Berklee College of Music. Lane has starred in such musical productions as "Company," "Cabaret," "Follies," and "Man of La Mancha." For more information, call (413) 263-6800.