A small-town police chief of plainspoken decency in Fargo. A working-class mother driven to seek justice for her daughter in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. A modest, resilient woman finding dignity in life on the road in Nomadland .

The actor Frances McDormand’s three Oscar-winning performances display rare versatility but have empathy at their core. But qualities were on display last week when she joined the conceptual artist Suzanne Bocanegra at the opening of an exhibition featuring adult-sized cradles.

McDormand’s and Bocanegra’s were the hands that rocked the cradle of Nancy Buchanan, 79, and 94-year-old Barbara T Smith, two doyennes of the Los Angeles art scene before Shaker lemon pie was served at Cradled, an exhibition inspired by the Shakers, a Christian sect

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