Turnpike
On NJN's State of the Arts
Thursday, October 20 at 9:00 pm

STATEWIDE – Possibly the most famous road in America, the New Jersey Turnpike has made cameo appearances in Hollywood films, the beat poetry of Allen Ginsberg, the ballads of Bruce Springsteen, and popular television shows like The Sopranos. Turnpike, a State of the Arts hour-long special, focuses on art and artists inspired by the New Jersey Turnpike. Along the way, the program illustrates how a post-war, no-frills super highway became a cultural touchstone. Turnpike airs on Thursday, October 20 at 9:00 pm. This is a departure from the usual half-hour State of the Arts episodes that air on Wednesday and Friday evenings.

To many who travel the New Jersey Turnpike, it’s a road — a 122-mile major corridor to be sure, but nevertheless, a “road.” Turnpike affords the viewer a different way of looking at this highway. Like the many exits along the Turnpike that take the traveler to a myriad of destinations, the program offers vignettes that serve as guideposts on the cultural pathway that the Turnpike has inspired.

Turnpike is narrated by actor Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas, Bulworth, Romeo & Juliet) – who played a New Jersey Turnpike toll collector on the television series That’s Life. It features authors, artists, musicians and experts who allow the viewer to see this remarkable road through their eyes, including:
• Rutgers University professors Angus Kress Gillespie and Michael Aaron Rockland, co-authors of Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike,
• the late artist Tony Smith, from South Orange, NJ, and his famous anecdote about an epiphany he had when he snuck his car onto a then-unfinished Turnpike,
• Princeton print-maker Judith Brodsky and her mock-prophetic imagery of an apocalypse on the Turnpike called The Meadowlands Strike Back,
• Comedian Joe Piscopo, who reminds us of the notorious “Jersey jokes,” and
• architects Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi, authors of Learning from Las Vegas, the revolutionary book that redefined how we see our industrial and commercial landscape.

Produced by Leandra Little, Turnpike explores how and why this road has been adopted by artists of all kinds since before it was even open to the public.

State of the Arts, the award-winning, half-hour arts magazine airs every Friday at 8:30 pm, followed by an encore presentation each Wednesday at 11:30 pm.

The State of the Arts special program, Turnpike, can be viewed online at www.njn.net following its broadcast. The current episode of State of the Arts can also be viewed online at www.njn.net. Individual stories will be available to view following their broadcast by visiting the program online at State of the Arts.

Funding for State of the Arts is provided by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. The series producer is Susan Wallner and the executive producer is Nila Aronow.