STATEWIDE – State of the Arts explores how the myths and realities of childhood fuel the artistic imagination. From a dancer who spent his youth on the streets to a photographer who has a fascination with dolls, Childhood is the key to understanding the work of these artists. This encore presentation airs on Wednesday, August 8 at 11:30 pm. State of the Arts marks twenty-five years on NJN this season. The series has earned 26 Regional Emmy Awards, including New York Emmy Awards in 2007 and 2005, and a 2006 Mid-Atlantic Emmy.
• Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash grew up in the spotlight of her father, the legendary singer Johnny Cash. She was exposed to great talent in her childhood, but also to drugs, alcohol, and endless travel, and early on decided that a career in music was not for her. State of the Arts producer Eric Schultz talks with Rosanne about her upbringing, her artistic development, and her eventual return to music and subsequent emergence as one of America's best known singer/songwriters. She talks about her own approach to motherhood (she has four children) and her children's book, “Penelope Jane,” which she wrote for her own daughter. Viewers see Rosanne Cash in performance with her husband and producer John Leventhal in Montclair, New Jersey at the Outpost in the Burbs. They perform songs from Rosanne’s CD, “Rules of Travel,” including the only song she ever recorded with her late father. Recorded just a few months before his death, it deals poignantly with loss and mortality.
• Afterlife of Dolls
Montclair photographer and noted psychoanalyst Donna Bassin considers childhood overrated: idealized as an innocent idyll but more often a realm of fear and loss. The very act of thinking about one's childhood involves remembering — and mourning — something that has been lost in adulthood. It's no accident then, that Dr. Bassin — who was asked by the Giuliani administration to advise New York City on how to help the families of September 11th victims cope with their trauma — makes art about memory and loss, using the accessories of childhood. State of the Arts producer Amber Edwards talks to Bassin about her series "The Afterlife of Dolls," where she set up miniature worlds inside a 1950s dollhouse in her consulting room, placed a pinhole camera inside, and opened the shutter for 45 minutes (the length of a psychoanalytic session).
• Dancing With D’Amboise
“How do you prove that children learn something from being involved in the arts?" asks Jacques d'Amboise, world-renowned veteran dancer and founder of the National Dance Institute. D’Amboise himself was once the leader of a street gang in New York. It was a chance exposure to dance in his sister’s ballet class — where the teacher instantly recognized his innate ability — that put him on a different track. State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa explores the impact of dance on three lives, each at a different stage, yet each with a similar beginning: a precarious, inner-city childhood interrupted by an opportunity to learn how to dance. From the inspiring life story of d'Amboise, to the young artistic director of the Trenton Education Dance Institute (TEDI), to a Trenton elementary school student who is being introduced to dance for the very first time through TEDI, an affiliate of d’Amboise’s National Dance Institute.
• Amelia Bedelia
Books can teach children, books can make children laugh, and sometimes they can do both. In 1963, the first “Amelia Bedelia” book by Peggy Parish was published. The story of a wacky maid who took even the simplest instructions literally (when asked to draw the curtains, she got out paper and pencil, when asked to dress the turkey, she found doll clothes that would fit), it was an instant hit with children. The word play makes the books a favorite of librarians and teachers, who often incorporate them into their lesson plans. More than 40 years later, the Amelia Bedelia series continues its popularity. State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa talks with its current author, Princeton resident Herman Parish, the nephew of the original author.
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 current episode of State of the Arts can 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.
NJN is available on all New Jersey cable systems, satellite systems, and Time Warner Cable channel 750 in NYC.
State of the Arts is also available via video streaming at njn.net after the original broadcast.
Additionally, the program is repeated on NJN’s JerseyVision available on Comcast Digital Cable in New Jersey.
(Check http://www.njn.net/digital/schedule.html for detailed listings.)
NJN – Uniquely New Jersey
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