Art Works Blog

May 13, 2015

2015 Poetry Out Loud National Champion Maeva Ordaz of Alaska shares her POL story.

May 12, 2015

Montana Arts Council Executive Director Arlynn Fishbaugh discusses Montana's program for helping artists become better entrepreneurs.

May 11, 2015

How will living to 100 years of age affect the way you look at life? Babies born today will most likely live that long or longer, as life expectancy has jumped from 45 in 1900 to 80 in 2007, with estimates that say our life span may reach 100 by the year 2100. As a result, the population of older...

May 8, 2015

Last fall, Deborah Jiang-Stein found herself wondering if she’d ever been read to in prison. Born to an incarcerated, heroin-addicted mother, Jiang-Stein spent her first year of life in the Federal Women’s Prison in Alderson, West Virginia. She soon entered foster care and was later adopted,...

May 7, 2015

Last month, at the invitation of the U.S. Embassy in Dublin, I took part in a conference titled "Creative Minds: The Importance of the Creative Economy in the U.S.-Irish Relationship." The brainchild of Ambassador Kevin O'Malley and his staff, the April 23 event in Dublin was one of a series being...

May 6, 2015

"We are trying to expand our audiences’ horizons and help them understand that dance is a bigger tent than they probably think it is." -- Dan Hurlin, American Dance Institute In the category of “rare as hen’s teeth,” you can include newly founded, contemporary dance presenters, institutions whose...

May 5, 2015

I currently teach an undergraduate class on aging. Most of the students are not interested in aging per se, but take the course to fulfill a university requirement. Most, like many people in the larger community, have also not been asked to think deeply about aging or growing old. Recently, we read...

May 4, 2015

The City of Baltimore was on fire last week, in ways real and surreal. Peaceful protests that started in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray have escalated into police and resident violence. My first real tour of the neighborhoods of Baltimore was in the early years of my Rose Fellowship...

May 1, 2015

Why are we so fascinated by the habits of famous writers? Perhaps it’s simple voyeurism, or maybe it’s a way to feel closer to our favorite books and literary heroes. For aspiring authors, it can encourage the belief that if we adopt similar mannerisms, we too can become successful, well-known,...

April 30, 2015

Did you know that three of the finalists recited John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" during the finals round of #POL15? Here's Maeva Ordaz's winning recitation of the Keats' classic. Stay tuned for more from Maeva, coming to the blog in mid-May.