Alan Cumming Comes To Society Of Arts + Crafts

Boston's Society of Arts + Crafts announced today a special Gay Pride Month event featuring stage, television, and movie star Alan Cumming in conversation with Boston artist and designer Izzy Berdan. "Conversation and Q+A with Alan Cumming," a benefit for the Society, will be held Wed., June 26, 2019 at 7:30 pm, at the Society's headquarters and gallery space at 100 Pier Four Boulevard in Boston's Seaport. Tickets are $50-$125 (top-price tickets include a reception with the star). Tickets are available here.

In addition to his acting work - from a Tony-winning portrayal of the Emcee in "Cabaret" on Broadway to his seven-season portrayal of political spinmeister Eli Gold on TV's "The Good Wife" - Cumming is author of five books including a #1 New York Times best-selling memoir, a recording artist of spoken word and cabaret albums, an owner of New York City's nightclub/community space Club Cumming, and a social activist with more than 40 awards for his work advocating for the arts and LGBT equality. Cumming also takes craft seriously: he dabbles in decoupage as a hobby and his club hosts a weekly knitting night.

Cumming is no stranger to Boston: his personal papers were given to Boston University's Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center in 2014; he visited on a 2016 book tour for the memoir, You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams; and his cabaret shows "Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs" and "Legal Immigrant" were presented by Celebrity Series in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

At the Society of Arts + Crafts, Cumming will talk with Berdan about the business of queer art, including a discussion of the LGBT-focused aspects of his personal performances (he broke ground as the first gay leading character in a network TV drama in CBS' "Instinct"), and the success of Club Cumming, which presents a wide variety of queer performers and events in an inclusive environment.

Moderator Izzy Berdan is a Boston-based art and commercial photographer and creative director. Along with Boston LGBTQIA Artists Alliance Director Dave J. Bermingham, Berdan curated SA+C's current exhibition "PRIED," which features lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer-identifying craft artists from New England and across the country. Berdan met Cumming several years ago and the pair has been looking for a chance to work together since. He says the run of "PRIED" proved the perfect opportunity to discuss their mutual interests.

"I respect Alan for putting his money where his mouth is in promoting LGBTQ artists," Berdan says. "Through his own groundbreaking work and the example he sets every night at Club Cumming, Alan has proved that gay artists need not be sidelined or defined by their queerness, they can succeed because of it."