Metropolitan Museum

Joan Vass is not your typical designer. In past lives she's been an art historian, a columnist for Art in America, an editor at art book publisher Harry Abrams and an assistant curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Something she's always been, though, is a humanitarian. In fact, it was the knitting concern she set up as a charitable cottage industry in 1973 that led to her success today. In 1976 a friend suggested she bring some of the unusual, one-of-a-kind hats and mufflers created by her and her band of homemaker-student knitters to Henri Bendel, the toniest of tony New York department stores.

After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans last year, floodwaters swirled through the city's breached levees, shearing off the branches of hundreds of ancient oak trees and leaving them stranded on porches and lawns or atop the roofs of collapsed buildings. WILLIE BIRCH: EXODUS, REVELATION AND REALITY; CELEBRATING FREEDOM: THE ART OF WILLIE BIRCH / / Thursday through Dec. 17, Decker and Meyerhoff galleries of the Fox Building, Maryland Institute College of Art, 1303 Mount Royal Ave. / / 410-225-2300 or www.mica.

Bernard Ozer, a merchandiser at Associated Merchandising Corp. who turned low-budget clothing into fashion trends, died Sunday in New York of heart disease at age 60. Mr. Ozer was credited with discovering plastic sandals that became "jellies" on beaches in Yugoslavia and with popularizing the bicycle shorts of New York City bicycle messengers.Harry Slochower, who lost his teaching job in German and comparative literature at Brooklyn College in 1952 after refusing to tell a congressional committee whether he had been a Communist Party member, died Saturday at age 90. In 1956 he was reinstated when the Supreme Court ruled he had been denied due process.

A diet of fiberFrom the tapestry to the rug to the quilt to the basket to the saddle bag, the art of fiber spans civilizations around the world, from the earliest times to the present. "Fiber Artists Invitational," now at the Academy of the Arts in Easton, brings together 15 distinguished contemporary practitioners working in a variety of styles.Among them are tapestry weavers Archie Brennan and Helena Hernmarck; Norma Minkowitz, who creates crocheted sculptures; Betty Vera, whose impressionistic landscapes are rooted in her background in painting; Ruth Manning, whose work features scenes of the city; and Sandra Brownlee, who calls her weavings "tactile drawings."

Sunday Morning is turning 30, and the CBS mainstay is celebrating this weekend. If you have never seen the program - and sometimes it is the best thing on TV all weekend - think of it as an upbeat newsmagazine with a feel for humor and culture. Sunday, they will be looking at the way the world - including technology, popular culture and religion - has changed since the show made its debut three decades ago with Charles Kuralt as host. These days, it's the forever-in-bow ties Charles Osgood at the helm.

* Paolo Bortoluzzi, 55, an Italian dancer and choreographer, died of a stroke following viral pneumonia Oct. 16 in a hospital in Brussels.* John Ashworth, 83, an author of short stories, died of complications from cancer Oct. 15 at Northern Westchester Hospital Center in Mount Kisco, N.Y.* Dror Sadeh, 60, a renowned astrophysicist who helped prove Albert Einstein's relativity theory, died Oct. 15 of cancer in Jerusalem.* Eda Helen Brooks, 94, an actress and voice teacher, died Oct. 15 at her home in Manhattan.

Abraham Katsh, a scholar of Judaica and Hebrew studies who introduced modern Hebrew to American university classrooms, died Tuesday at DeWitt Nursing Home in New York. Mr. Katsh was a relentless researcher who persuaded Soviet authorities to allow him to reproduce thousands of Jewish documents in their custody at the height of the Cold War. His family said he was 92.Edith Appleton Standen, 93, a renowned tapestry expert and a longtime curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, died earlier this month in New York.

'Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty' exhibit in New York What: An exhibition celebrating Alexander McQueen's contributions to fashion and culture. The British designer, known for dressing the likes of Lady Gaga and Madonna with an edge, committed suicide last year at the age of 40. The display will feature about 100 examples of the designer's work from his 19-year career. Pieces will include signature designs such as the bumster trouser, the kimono jacket and the origami frock coat.

Maud Cabot Morgan, 96, an artist who exhibited with Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman and was a mentor to Frank Stella and Carl Andre, died Sunday in Cambridge, Mass. Ms. Morgan worked in abstract and representational styles. She drew and painted in watercolors, oils, and gouache, created collages, made prints and worked with handmade paper. In New York, her work was bought by the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum.Stefan Schnabel, 87, an actor known for his portrayal of Middle European characters onstage, in films and on television, died March 11 in Rogaro, Italy.

THUMBS UP Opening of Grimaldis Sculpture Space and BAUhouse. Announcement of plans for Museum for Contemporary Arts here.Cincinnati jury acquits city's Contemporary Arts Center and its director, Dennis Barrie, of pandering obscenity by showing certain images in exhibit "Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment.""Islamic Art and Patronage: Selections from Kuwait" at the Walters Art Gallery (through Feb. 17). Refined luxury, beautifully presented."Joel Shapiro: Tracing the Figure" at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Minimalism as a humanism.