It appears that the group show’s the thing this spring, and what a good thing that should be. " Influence, Anxiety and Gratitude, " at MIT’s List Visual Art Center (32 Ames Street in Cambridge; May 8 through July 6), features work by more than 20 artists whose art makes overt reference to other art, as they confront and consider their artistic forebears. Jennifer Bolande’s porcelain Milk Crown solidifies the famous photographic moment caught in Harold Edgerton’s strobelight as a drip of milk splashes in a saucer. Homage? Ironic dig? Well, this is just the tip of the influence iceberg. Art’s healing power is under the microscope in " Pulse: Art, Healing, and Transformation, " at the Institute of Contemporary Art (955 Boylston Street; May 14 through August 31), and it’s a timely topic. " Pulse " presents work by artists who deal with therapeutic aspects of the creative process, from Joseph Beuys (the ur-shaman) and Lygia Clark (if you missed her work at the Fogg last year, see it here) to Cai Guo-Qiang (walk on his interactive pebbled path, which incorporates principles from acupuncture and foot reflexology) and sisters Irene and Christine Hohenbüchler (they may cook something restorative).

A bit off the beaten track, " Release1: The McDonald’s Project " is brewing at the Berwick Research Institute (14 Palmer Street, in Dudley Square; opens April 11). Release1 is a group of Canadian and American designers who put out a call for proposals for utopian changes at McDonald’s. They received suggestions for things like re-engineered burgers and on-site voting stations; the press release for this show promises " a bittersweet vision of what our culture could become. " Interactive video is the topic of " Origins, " at Art Interactive (130 Bishop Allen Drive in Cambridge; April 26 through July 6). This new venue’s third hands-on exhibition focuses on video work by artists including TV-art pioneer Nam June Paik. Hypnotic work by another videomeister will be on view in Union, a long-term installation by Bill Viola opening at the Worcester Art Museum (55 Salisbury Street in Worcester) April 26. Two flat display monitors with images inspired by late mediæval and early Renaissance art hang side by side like framed paintings . . . except that both are very slowly moving.

Plug into more techno-happenings as the " 2003 Boston Cyberarts Festival " brings art, music, and more to town April 26 through May 11. For a list of cyber and actual locations, go to www.bostoncyberarts.org, since this biennial whirlwind continues to expand as I type. For fresh talent in a variety of (mostly tangible) media, there’s " The 2003 DeCordova Annual Exhibition, " at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park (51 Sandy Pond Road in Lincoln; June 7 through August 31), where 11 artists from four New England states have been invited to show new work, including Bruce Bemis’s dreamy film installations, David Cole’s conceptual objects, and Heather Hobler-Keene’s playful paintings, which seem at times to morph into sculpture. Also moving gracefully between two and three dimensions is " Christopher Wilmarth: Drawing into Sculpture, " at Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum (32 Quincy Street in Harvard Square; April 5 through June 29). Wilmarth is known for his poetic glass and steel sculptures from the ’70s and ’80s, but this show looks at his innovative drawings, which shed beautiful and unexpected light on sculpture. Then there’s the just plain graceful: " Thaddeus Beal, " at the New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk University (75 Arlington Street; May 15 through June 13), shows new abstractions by a fine Boston painter.

For current currents in figurative painting, John Currin’s your man and " John Currin Selects, " at the Museum of Fine Arts (465 Huntington Avenue; May 14 through January 4), is your show. Currin’s own portraits seem inspired by Northern Renaissance and early Mannerist painting, with a dash of Italian Vogue, but this exhibit affords a glimpse into the workings of his unusual mind and eye as Currin selects paintings from the MFA’s collection to hang side by side with his own fraught works. Art history also threatens to come to life before our eyes in " The Making of the Museum: Isabella Stewart Gardner As Collector, Architect and Designer, " at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2 Palace Road; April 23 through August 21). Mrs. Gardner was famously silent about why she placed what where in her museum, but this show takes a scholarly stab at understanding the visionary socialite’s æsthetic decisions. The Gardner also presents its first virtual exhibition, " Madam I’m Adam, " which coincides with the Cyberarts Festival and features work by conceptual embroiderer Elaine Reichek; it’ll be on-line at www.gardnermuseum.org April 26 through May 11.