Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Visual Art Thank You, Hillary!
Posted by Jen Graves on Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 11:59 AM
For several years now, the National Endowment for the Arts has run what it calls "institutes" for arts journalists. There has been an institute for theater writers (held in LA; Brendan Kiley went); classical music and opera writers (held in NY; I used to cover these disciplines for another paper and I went); and dance (in North Carolina).
But there has never been a program for visual art writers—until now. I'm excited to say that I've been accepted to be part of the first International Arts Journalism Institute in Visual Arts from June 11-26. With 12 journalists from within the United States and 12 from around the world, I'll be based in Washington, D.C., during that time, with side trips to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. We'll be seeing art, talking to leaders in the field and each other, and doing plenty of writing homework, which then gets criticized by the group. If my experience at the classical music version of the institute was any indication, it will be an exhausting and rich experience, and I'll end up doing a better job back home.
In this economic crunch, how did the NEA add another program? The state department kicked in to co-sponsor—which also means that this institute, unlike the others, brings together not just journalists who work under similar Freedom-of-Information laws and write for similar American audiences, but who are based in the Phillipines, Egypt, Colombia, Bosnia, Venezuela, India, Indonesia, and South Africa. I cannot wait.
The institute hasn't put out an official announcement yet, but the terrific Kriston Capps (see here), who I also can't wait to meet, broke the news and listed the names of the participating writers.
I'll try to blog as often as I can while I'm away, and no—the Stranger does not have to foot the bill for any of this. Travel, lodging, and food are covered.
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and I'm sure my grandchildren will cheerfully sacrifice a chunk of their quality of life to pay for your trip, as well.
Looking forward to see what writing comes out of this!
[a little off-topic, here, but...] I love your podcast, and hope you continue with it. One small suggestion though: could you consider attaching a visual to each episode that would represent (roughly) the art being discussed? It would be a nice touch. I think it's even possible to include a succession of visuals in a regular audio podcast by designating "chapters" to the episode, each with a separate clip. Just an idea.
Enjoy Philly, there was a great scene there when I left four years ago.
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