Peabody Essex Museum

Salem is about to become a far more fashionable city thanks to a 90-year-old fashion icon who says she will bequeath a significant slice of her couture collection to the Peabody Essex Museum. Iris Apfel, the celebrated New York fashion doyenne best known for her saucer-sized glasses and chunky jewelry, will give the Peabody Essex more than 600 pieces of clothing and accessories by world-famous designers, a trove that she has amassed over more than five decades. The gift will substantially expand and modernize the museum's fashion and textiles department.

Salem is about to become a far more fashionable city thanks to a 90-year-old fashion icon who says she will bequeath a significant slice of her couture collection to the Peabody Essex Museum. Iris Apfel, the celebrated New York fashion doyenne best known for her saucer-sized glasses and chunky jewelry, will give the Peabody Essex more than 600 pieces of clothing and accessories by world-famous designers, a trove that she has amassed over more than five decades. The gift will substantially expand and modernize the museum's fashion and textiles department.

ART AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE AMERICAN SCENE, 1929-1945 Exploring the role of African-Americans in the visual and performing arts during the Great Depression and World War II, the show includes work by Thomas Hart Benton, Walker Evans, Samuel Brown, and Jacob Lawrence, among many others. Through April 22. Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown. 413-597-2429, wcma.williams.edu SHAPESHIFTING: TRANSFORMATIONS IN NATIVE AMERICAN ART A survey of Native American art, from historical objects to ambitious contemporary works.

PICK OF THE DAY Younger than springtime The classic Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, "South Pacific," is based on James Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific. " The story won Pulitzers for Rodgers & Hammerstein and Michener, and this production is based on the 2008 Tony-winning Lincoln Center Theater version. 8 p.m. (through May 13). $39-$74. The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts, 2 Southbridge St., Worcester. 877-571-7469. www.thehanovertheatre.org FRIDAY Cherish the two ladies The Irish band Cherish...

EVENTS Peabody: The 3rd annual Taste of the North Shore features samples from several of the finest North Shore restaurants, entertainment, and auctions to benefit the 2012 North Shore Cancer walk/run. TV news veteran Kim Carrigan will serve as auctioneer. Wednesday, 6-9 p.m. Acura of Peabody, 233 Andover St. $50. 888-825-7965, www.eventbrite.com. Salem: The Peabody Essex Museum celebrates a 200-year legacy of cultural exchange with India with its annual Sensational India!

Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo The following was submitted by the Peabody Essex Museum: The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) announces the endowment of its executive director position by Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, long-time PEM supporters and world-renowned collectors of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish art. Dan L. Monroe and his successors will be known as The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum, effective immediately.

SALEM - "The chair from the Museum of Fine Arts is here," someone said softly. Four pairs of purple-gloved hands moved to place a wood-framed side chair gently atop a pedestal in the gallery of the Peabody Essex Museum, each chair leg landing on a protective square of plastic. The piece on loan from the MFA was not a treasure from Versailles. It was an Algonkian/Mi'kmaq chair from the mid-1800s, delivered to the Peabody Essex last month, with designs on the upholstery rendered in porcupine quills.

Money continues to flow into the Peabody Essex Museum. This time, it's coming from collectors Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, who are giving at least $10 million – they won't say exactly how much – to endow the executive director post at the museum. The gift comes only days after the Institute of Contemporary Art announced that the directorship of its museum would be endowed. It's the latest act of generosity from the van Otterloos, whose stunning collection of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish art was featured at the PEM last year.

The Institute of Contemporary Art, just five years after opening its first permanent home, is flexing its newfound financial muscle. The ICA will announce today that it has raised $25 million toward a $50 million campaign, the bulk of which will dramatically boost its endowment. That is an important step in stabilizing the museum's future. The ICA opened an attention-getting building on Fan Pier in 2006, and it has since used innovative programming to spearhead a boom in regional attention to contemporary art. But it is working with an endowment of just $9.9 million,...

SEBASTIAN SMEE'S PICKS ■BEST SHOW "Degas and the Nude," Museum of Fine Arts ■BEST CONTEMPORARY SHOW "Dance/Draw," Institute of Contemporary Art ■BEST OLD MASTERS SHOW "Golden: Dutch and Flemish Masterworks From the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection," Peabody Essex Museum, Salem ■TRIPPIEST SHOW Otto Piene's "Lichtballet," List Visual Arts Center ■HOTTEST ARTIST HEREABOUTS El Anatsui. The Nigerian artist's work was displayed everywhere from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute to the Davis Museum at Wellesley College and the Museum of...

The following was submitted by the Peabody Essex Museum: MAY Lecture: Cultivating the Beauty of the Netherlands with Hendrik Willem van O Tuesday, May 1 | 7:30 pm | For Adults | FREE Artists often reveal sources of beauty in our everyday surroundings. Discovering unique locations and moments in time, they create images from the landscape that renew our love for the natural world. Join Hendrik Willem van Os, former director of the Rijksmuseum, as he discusses how artists have cultivated The...

EVENTS Peabody: The 3rd annual Taste of the North Shore features samples from several of the finest North Shore restaurants, entertainment, and auctions to benefit the 2012 North Shore Cancer walk/run. TV news veteran Kim Carrigan will serve as auctioneer. Wednesday, 6-9 p.m. Acura of Peabody, 233 Andover St. $50. 888-825-7965, www.eventbrite.com. Salem: The Peabody Essex Museum celebrates a 200-year legacy of cultural exchange with India with its annual Sensational India!

Kids ODDANIMALS More than 100 fictional species, including a Zebraeagle and Cheeseasaurus, fill the Hall of OddAnimals, an imaginary natural history museum created by artist Jef Czekaj and Boston Children's Hospital patients. Daily from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (Fridays until 9 p.m.; exhibit runs through June 3). $12, $1 on Fridays from 5-9 p.m., free under 1. Boston Children's Museum, 308 Congress St., Boston. 617-426-6500. www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org DORCHESTER SPRING EGG HUNT Folks at the Phillips Candy House have their work cut out for them.

If you've seen Salem only in full-on Haunted Happenings mode, you haven't seen Salem. Minus the Halloween hoopla, and the nearly 300,000 revelers who descend on this North Shore seaport each October, Salem's true charms are revealed. You'll quickly discover that the witch trials of 1692 are just a blip in the city's history. Step back in time to the Age of Sail, when Salem was one of America's richest cities, as you tour historic wharves, climb aboard a recreated tall ship, and wander streets lined with architectural gems.

SANFORD BIGGERS: THE CARTOGRAPHER'S CONUNDRUM The Los Angeles-based artist has an impressive installation taking up much of the museum's largest gallery. Made in part from used musical instruments, the work riffs on that of his predecessor (and possibly cousin), the late Sanford Biggers. Through April 1, 2013. Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams. 413-662-2111, www.massmoca.org RADCLIFFE BAILEY: MEMORY AS MEDICINE A survey of this impressive young African-American artist based in Atlantic City.

The museum will host a Bollywood dance party Saturday night with D.J. Rekha. By Susie Blair, Globe Correspondent Salem's Peabody Essex Museum will once again celebrate Indian art, music, and dance with its annual "Sensational India!" festival at the end of this month, this time with the theme of spritiual and artistic devotion. "'Sensational India' has been growing by leaps and bounds every year and we are bracing for a great turnout this time around," said Whitney Van Dyke, public relations associate for the museum, in an email.

By Justin A. Rice, Town Correspondent The fourth Massachusetts Poetry Festival will be held in Salem April  20—22. The three-day event will bring 1,500 poets and poetry lovers to the city, according to Mayor Kim Driscoll's newsletter, and will showcase a variety of extraordinary local and regional poets. The event will feature poetry readings, interactive workshops, panel discussions,music, film and visual arts, and performances geared toward a diverse statewide audience.

To search for homes in the area, go to  www.boston.com/realestate Copyrighted material previously published in Banker & Tradesman, a weekly trade newspaper. It is reprinted with permission from the publisher, The Warren Group,  www.thewarrengroup.com/bg . 173 Essex St.  — 173 Essex St T. and Sharon L. Doliber to Peabody Essex Museum Inc, $1,275,000 2 Fairfield St.  — Saint Peters Church Salem to Zachary J. Antczak and Mary D. Antczak, $346,000 17 Brittania Circle #17  — Phlip...