There are hundreds of things to see, the result of a special trip abroad to gather research material and historic photos. Such abundance might prompt you to plan two visits - just to look closely without rushing.

Tel Aviv is the first Jewish city, founded on sand dunes in 1909. For most Israelis, it's the heart of their nation, very big, the ultramodern embodiment of Zionism's urban vision of a new Jewish city on the sea.

Presentations of various facets of life in this thriving metropolis engage in a kind of interplay in this show, giving our understanding of Tel Aviv a new dimension. To take but one example: This up-to-date place is showing new respect for its own brief history, as restoration projects under way aim to recapture the sparkling beauty of the White City, a collection of Tel Aviv's Bauhaus treasures of the 1930s. Its thousands of buildings in that international style, put up mostly by German refugees, prompted UNESCO to declare Tel Aviv a World Heritage Site in 2003.

Chinese festivals

An American historical pageant craze was born a century ago in the northeast corridor between Philadelphia and Boston, spreading out from there in its 1910-17 peak period.

Fortunately for Philadelphia, such pageantry was closely identified with social and political reform during the Progressive Era administration of Mayor Rudolph Blankenburg. At the time, not only did artist Violet Oakley lead Philadelphia pageants, but also big suburban pageants acting out dramatic episodes from their towns' history took place in Norristown and Narberth.

So, Colette Fu's exhibit, "We Are Tiger Dragon People," featuring her photos and pop-up books at the Asian Arts Initiative has found the right venue. And this display celebrating deep-rooted festival traditions in southwest China's especially culturally rich Yunnan Province is a vivid reminder of our own festive grassroots traditions.

Fu is a young local Chinese-American who traveled to Yunnan to teach English for three years where her mother was born. She won a Fulbright scholarship to create a photographic pop-up book of 25 ethnic minorities linked with that province.

In the ancient Chinese culture of Yunnan, ethnic celebrations tend to focus on myths, such as one honoring a man who brought fire to the village, or a myth telling of the Stone Forest's magical creation millennia ago. Fu tackles this creatively with her camera.

Landscapes at Travis

Fiore appears to be an artist endowed with a lyrical, decorative talent who often makes works creating a pleasurable contrast between a focused brightness and bordering shadow. An example is his January Awakening.

Several other works also burgeon into something genuinely dramatic. And instead of just putting down an image with paint, Fiore makes it grow out of the handling of paint in Pale Moon, Winter, Morning Fog, and January at Twilight.

In less interesting oils, there's a feeling for indulgence and not much invention.