Every Friday, our local newspaper features an entire section devoted to dining, the arts and entertainment. In addition to current-release movie and book reviews and a full-length restaurant review, one can scan listings of art gallery shows, local theatrical productions and live musical performances. Depending on the season and the weekend, you might find information about growers and crafters markets, garden and history tours and holiday bazaars.

I should qualify this description of the “Tempo” section by stating it describes what a reader would find prior to March of 2020. As you can imagine (it probably happened to your local newspaper’s arts and culture section, too), what had been a half-page supplement of at least 20 pages each week shrunk considerably during the height of COVID. Movie reviews focused on selections on streaming services, food reviews reported on curbside service and food trucks, and theater listings narrowed down to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival‘s online offerings of past seasons’ filmed performances and some newly produced content without live audiences. Space for book reviews expanded, and pages devoted to seminars, tours and lectures offered virtually far outnumbered those which identified live musical acts performing in (relatively safe) outdoor spaces.

Of course, over the past year or so there has been a gradual expansion of entertainment options as movie theaters reopened, restaurants adapted their dining spaces, and visual and performance artists found new ways to reach their patrons. It seems so appropriate that, leading into this weekend’s Passover and Easter celebrations, I opened up Friday’s “Tempo” and felt as though our whole valley had burst into a cultural rebirth. It started with a page devoted to a host of Easter egg hunts

Photo 4668696 © Barbara Delgado | Dreamstime.com

offered throughout the Rogue Valley, most cancelled for the past two years, and went on from there.

There were five full pages listing live events for the coming week, including book, crafting and language clubs; musicians performing at wineries and lounges; kids’ science and craft classes; cribbage and bingo tournaments; and Earth Day celebrations. Upcoming productions from seven different local theater companies took up another page, while OSF begins its first full season in two years this week with three plays.   Nearly a dozen art galleries touted their showings, and our region’s premiere music festival, the Britt, presented an impressive list of musical acts coming to the hill in Jacksonville this summer. I’ve missed the chance to sit under the stars and listen to great music on a warm summer’s night, but this year I can choose among acts such as Chicago, Gipsy Kings, Bonnie Raitt, Jason Mraz and Sarah MacLachlan.

I know I’m not the only member of the FXExpress Publications team who is reveling in this springtime awakening as life and travel rebound to pre-pandemic “normal.” Look at our staff blogs over the past few weeks and you’ll read about travel to Aruba and Mexico; returning to in-person business meetings in Chicago and New York; spring training in Sarasota, Florida; and water sports in Long Beach, California.

I hope wherever you find yourself, whether in your own hometown or traveling within the United States or abroad, you also can enjoy this season’s rebirth of the arts, activities and travel.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor